In the Gospel according to John Jesus reveals his glory through a succession of miracles. The first of Jesus’ ‘signs’ was turning water into wine at the wedding at Cana—pretty good wine at that—the best wine…and his disciples believed in him. Afterwards, Jesus cured a paralytic, fed a crowd of at least 5,000 with five small barley loaves and two small fish. He walked across the Sea of Galilee as if crossing a footbridge. He gave sight to a man born blind, and raised Lazarus from the dead, simply by speaking, calling Lazarus out of the tomb.
These signs pointed to Jesus’ divinity; the Son of God with all authority and power outside the laws of nature. Then we arrive at John 13, where Jesus does something arguably more astonishing. It’s not another miracle, but an ordinary mundane task none of us would choose to do. The Son of God with all power and authority humbles himself by taking the position of a household servant, kneeling down to the dirty, smelly feet of the disciples, and washes them.
The so-called wise sayings from the world’s pulpit include: “You’ve gotta look after number 1” (meaning putting ourselves above others) and “I’m here for a good time not a long time” (meaning pursuing self-gratification and self-benefit at every opportunity). Society says that to love others one must first learn to love oneself. This formulation–love thyself, then thy neighbour–is a license for self-indulgence, because the quest for self-love is endless.
Jesus flips the world’s idea of love on its head. His serving of his disciples by washing their dirty feet was on the night that he was betrayed. Jesus’ self-humbling, self-sacrificial serving of his disciples would point ahead to his humbling himself in obedience to his Heavenly Father, all the way to death. He would take the uncleanness of the world’s sin upon himself, and wash away that sin by the sprinkling of his precious blood from the Cross.
He washed the feet of Judas, who betrayed Jesus and handed him over to be unjustly sentenced and killed for 30 measly coins. He washed the feet of Peter, who would deny knowing Jesus not just once by three times. He washed the feet of doubting, disbelieving Thomas. Knowing all this was to come, the Son of God still washed each of their feet as their servant. When he had finished, he asked them: “Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. (John 13:12-15).
That’s the context behind today’s text, and the new command that Jesus gives: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you, that also you should love one another.”
God is love, we hear in 1 John 4:8, and from ancient times God has always wanted his people to love others. He created humankind in his image, to represent him in reflecting his love to others. After God rescued his people from slavery to Egypt, he gave them the Ten Commandments, to teach them how to love their neighbour. They were to honour their parents, they were not to harm their neighbour in anyway, they were to be faithful to their spouse and protect the marriages of their neighbours. Rather than steal they were to help their neighbour preserve and even increase what was theirs. They were to not deceive or speak falsely about their neighbour, but explain their actions so as to defend their reputation. They were to be content with what God had given them, and not be jealous of what their neighbour had, and desire and scheme to get it. Living this way would be radically different from the nations around them, and lead the peoples to see Israel’s God was real and true…and the God who loves.
To keep the commandments is to love God and neighbour before self. To love God and neighbour before ourselves will mean living by God’s commandments. It’s just that we have trouble doing that! So God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him (1 John 4:9). From the moment of conception, Jesus humbled himself, leaving heaven to dwell in his mother Mary’s womb, before being born in the squalor of a feed box in a stable. He made himself the least, humbling himself all the way to the Cross.
In our text, the time for this is imminent. The mention of Judas leaving in the very first sentence sets his betrayal of Jesus in motion. Judas’ love of money—his self-love—has led him to do this. And so Jesus explains that it is only ‘a little while longer’ he will be with them, and where he is going, they cannot come. He must continue to serve and be the least. He must suffer injustice, ridicule and physical abuse, and be lifted up on a cross to die; the most brutal way one could be executed. To onlookers, this is shame and dishonour, disaster and failure. But Jesus says this is how he will be glorified, and God will be glorified in him, because this will be the way he will save people from their sins, from their proud hearts and stubborn wills that have turned from God to worship the cult of the self. This is how God will gather a people for himself from all corners of the world to show to the world the way of true love.
Jesus’ followers are to put each other before themselves, just as Jesus did. This is what Jesus means when he says: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you.”
The commandment to love is not new. The greatest commandment in the Old Testament was: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). In Leviticus 19:18 God had commanded: “love your neighbour as yourself.” So what is new about Jesus’ new commandment? This command is more particular than loving our neighbour; everyone we meet and interact with each day. It is Jesus’ command to his disciples; his church, to love one another as Jesus loves them: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another as I have loved you….
We need Jesus to show us what true love is. He does that by stooping down—even though he is the Son of God—to wash smelly feet. He would not insist on his own rights but make himself least and give up his own life to redeem the world and gather his brothers and sisters into the communion of saints. That’s what love looks like—making ourselves least, not first. Considering others more important than our self-importance. Dying to self by crucifying our pride and self-love, and instead loving with a reciprocal, selfless serving of one another.
At first it might seem unusual that a text we heard on Maundy Thursday before Jesus was crucified, we hear again some merely five weeks later, in the afterglow of Jesus’ resurrection. Why might this be? Because Jesus’ command for his disciples to love one another was not just restricted to the disciples in the upper room. It is for us today.
Jesus’ words to us today are law. Even though it is a new commandment, it is nonetheless a commandment, and in a way, summarises and fulfils commandments 4-10 which God first gave his people at Mt Sinai. How can mere human beings love the way Jesus commands? Since the time that Adam and Eve loved themselves before God, that same sinful desire to love ourselves first is passed on from our parents and we pass it on to our children, as flesh gives birth to flesh.
We need a new heart. A new birth—by water and the Spirit—in which we are made new creations in Christ. In baptism we have been immersed into Jesus and united with his own death and resurrection. Our selfish sinful nature has been crucified with him on the Cross. In baptism we have already died to sin, Paul says in Romans 6, so how can we willingly live in it any longer? For a new self has risen out of the tomb with him. In the waters of baptism he has washed us and presented us to himself as his spotless church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:26-27). We are under new management. Now we are no longer sinners only but saints who struggle against the works of darkness and of the flesh, for in baptism “the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-control.” (2 Timothy. 1:7). The Holy Spirit grows the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22–23).
It was in this mighty power that the early church demonstrated the love of Christ to each other: “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer…All the believers were together and had everything in common. They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people.” (Acts 2:42-47).
Their love was evident to all who saw them and was a great testimony to those outside the Church. That is the purpose of Jesus’ new command: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you, that also you should love one another. In this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” The early Latin writer, Tertullian of Carthage, declared that the one thing that converted him to Christianity was not the arguments they presented, because he could find a counterpoint for each one. “But they demonstrated something I didn’t have. The thing that converted me to Christianity was the way they loved each other.”[1].
In the famous chapter on love (1 Corinthians 13) the Apostle Paul says: “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:1-3).
Jesus’ death has brought us life and through the Holy Spirit his life is alive within us, his heart of love beating in our own, that we might love one another, as he has loved us.
The Gospel for us is also in those words of Christ: “as I have loved you.” Jesus did not love his disciples because they were lovely or loveable. He loved them despite all their faults and failures. It’s these words of Jesus that are the good news for us: “as I have loved you”. The tense of the word in the Greek is something that’s taken place in the past, but with ongoing consequences: “as I have loved, and continue to love you.”
Our risen Good Shepherd is with his church, still leading us, still shepherding us to love his way. That is why I think that today’s text—these words of Jesus he first spoke to his disciples on the night he was betrayed—are repeated in the lectionary after Jesus’ resurrection, a week after we focus on Jesus as our Good Shepherd.
Wherever two or three are gathered in his name, our Good Shepherd is there with them, and what they agree upon on earth will be done in heaven: the overlooking of an offense, the forgiveness extended to an erring brother or sister, the peace of Christ shared between children of God. Jesus is with us that we might give him our hurt, our anxiety and longings for peace, and in his strength forgo our right to get even and instead forgive as God has forgiven us, by his grace. It is this kind of love given and received in Christ—no longer water into wine—that is a new sign for the world. For the love Christ calls us to and shares with us is so different to the way the world lives, placing selfish conditions and limits on who is worthy of love, that when people see forgiveness and grace in action, they will really know we are Jesus’ disciples.
And you are Jesus’ disciples. Look to the Cross and see Jesus’ ultimate act of love for you. Look to the empty tomb and see that your Saviour is no longer there. Hear him speak of his faithful love for you: “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Jesus loves you and shepherds you in his love—a love that never fails. Hear Jesus say to you: Love one another, as I have loved-and continually love-you. Amen.
[1] G. Curtis Jones, 1000 Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1986), 220.
