John 13:31-35
Love – As I have
Loved You
For those of you who don’t know, my
sister is in the firm grip of pancreatic cancer. This was a week for chemo, so right now she
is feeling a bit puny. But all-in-all
she is doing quite well. There is no way
to reverse the invasion of cancerous cells; the best we can hope for is that smacking
a few of them up side the head might slow their further advancement. She is okay; and so are the rest of us. There are greater fears in her life (and in
mine) than death. And one of those fears
is that we might waste time – precious time.
Carolyn is once more reminding me that the only good use of time is doing
that which is helpful or pleasing or consistent with the hope and the promise
which sustains us. Sustains us in the
midst of battles with cancer; sustains us in each and every day of our
lives. You either walk in the way of Jesus,
in Jesus’ words, and in his call to discipleship, or you are wasting time. You are falling away from the hope and the
promise which has the ability to sustain.
My sister is second only to my
grandfather in providing the roots and foundation of my faith and my faith
practice.
In the case of my grandfather, it
wasn’t “saintly living” that impressed me – far from it. But from him I gained an appreciation for
what it means to be “called,” to be asked by a community to do a task which
needs to be done.
From my sister I have learned and
continue to learn that the prime expression of Christian faith is to do what
Jesus said to do. This does not mean
that she lacks a firm grasp on the teachings and the truths and the confessions
of the faith. But as a self-described
“Martha” (i.e. the one who fixes the meals and fusses that Mary sits on her
behinds while there is all this work to be done); as a self-described “Martha”,
Carolyn has instilled in me that it isn’t what we say about Jesus that matters. What matters is our listening to his voice
and following where he says we are to go.
Last Sunday’s gospel encouraged us
to think of Jesus as the Good Shepherd. We
were encouraged to learn to recognize his voice and follow it. This Sunday that voice tells us tells us what
it is that he would have us to do.
“I give you a new commandment,
that you love one another. Just as I have
loved you, you also should love one another.”
I invite you to open your bibles and
check to make sure that the claims I am about to make are indeed true. I want you to look for instances in the
Gospels in which Jesus gives his followers instructions. Search for the word “command” or for “commandment.”
You will find the word twice in
John - and only in John. There is no
commandment from Jesus in Matthew, or Mark or Luke. Twice in John we have Jesus’ clear instructions
on what he wants his followers to do. I just
re-read John 13:34 for you. The other
follows closely, actually in the same overall section. John 15:12 reads: “This is my commandment, that you love one
another as I have loved you.”
You can say all you what about what
you think persons have to “believe” in order to be considered followers of
Jesus, but when Jesus says what he “commands” there is only this one thing.
It is not easy to love as Jesus
loves. It is no simple matter to love
one another in the way that Jesus loved those with whom he spent every waking
moment for the previous three years of his ministry. It is difficult; some would even say next to
impossible.
If you still have your bibles out,
look at the surrounding paragraphs to today’s Gospel lesson. What comes before? Starting with the opening verses of the 13th
chapter, you have the washing of the disciples’ feet. This is the context for Jesus saying, “Love
as I have loved.” These verses were read
in our midst a mere five weeks ago. They
are the Maundy Thursday text. When Jesus
says “Love as I have loved you,” it is in the immediate aftermath of his having
washed the feet of those whom he has invited to be his disciples.
After today I am going to be gone
for a few weeks, so I am going to be a bit bold in issuing a challenge. I think it would be a great idea if we were
to start our next round of committee meetings by washing each other’s
feet.
In fact, I might ask the students
going on the beach trip to try this. We have had a year in which sub-sets of
the group have stood in the way of us from being the unified whole that we all
desire. We (and by that I guess I really
mean “I”) have had to make some strong comments to persons and while offered as
a way of building trust and honesty they have not had the desired effect.
My suggestion to the congregational
committees is that you consider doing the same.
We have had far too many raised voices at recent meetings. I would suggest that foot-washing be the
first order of business at the next Congregational Council meeting. These congregational leaders could set an
example for the remaining committees. And
I do wonder how the discussions would be different if we were to include foot-washing
at the next meeting of the Committee appointed to discuss possible additions to
this worship space.
After the foot-washing in John 13,
something else happens before you get to Jesus’ issuing his commandment. There is this discussion of Judas and what
Judas is about to do. That is the event
referred to in the opening of John 13:31, “When he had gone out….” Judas, the one who would betray Jesus, has
had his feet washed by Jesus, but he doesn’t stick around to hear Jesus’
commandment to love one another as he has loved us. Betrayal stand between Jesus’ act of humility
and Jesus instructions as to what this ought to mean.
But this is only the first in an
emerging pattern. What to make a guess
as to what comes immediately after Jesus gives his command? Starting in verse 36 we read the exchange between
Peter and Jesus in which Peter insists he will follow Jesus wherever it is that
he will go. Peter says, “Lord… I will
lay down my life for you!” To which
Jesus responds, “Peter you won’t make it through the next twelve hours.” “Before the cock crows, you will deny me
three times.”
Jesus simple commandment – Love one
another as I have loved you; Jesus’ only
commandment – love one another; is
surrounded by two acts of betrayal by two of the most prominent characters in all
of Christian scripture.
Maybe John is going ahead and
telling us – you won’t be able to do it.
Maybe the Gospel writer already understood that this was too much to
ask. Maybe the whole glorious experiment
in which God sets aside the heavens in order to come and dwell with us crashes
around the seemingly undeniable reality that we had rather be convinced or our
own “right thinking” than be able to take off our fancy clothes, discard our
impressive titles, forget the assurance of our logical arguments and get down
on the floor to wash a few feet.
In John 13 there are two stories of
how impossible it will be to follow Jesus.
Judas and Peter both make it clear that obeying Jesus’ command is going
to be a real challenge.
In John 13 there is only one instance
in which the command of Jesus is followed.
If we leave it up to popular vote –
we see which will be chosen.
If we like playing the odds – there
is no doubt which is more probable.
But if we want to follow Jesus ….
Amen.
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