So, here we are the fifth Sunday of Easter and our gospel reading for today takes us back to the days just before the crucifixion. Jesus is preparing his disciples for the time when he will no longer be with them in person. What we heard today is an excerpt of a much longer teaching session which has come to be known as Jesus’ “Farewell Discourse.” He’s trying to help the disciples understand how to continue to live as his disciples, even after his death, when he is no longer there in person to guide them.
The gospel reading for today starts with “When Judas had gone out…” which leaves you to wonder, so what happened before Judas left? Well, that’s the day we now call Maundy Thursday. Jesus and the twelve were at supper together. Jesus had washed his disciples’ feet, and told them that one in their midst would betray him. By this time the devil had already put it in Judas’ heart to betray Jesus. And of course Jesus knew that, as well as he knew that his own time had come. So, Jesus tells Judas to go and do what he must do.
After Judas leaves, Jesus takes this time to give what amounts to his parting words, final words of loving wisdom. Jesus knows he is soon to die. And he speaks lovingly and tenderly to the eleven who are in the room with him: “Little children, I am with you only a little longer…. Where I am going you cannot come.” As one of the commentators[1] I read suggested, these are the words of one who is, in effect, on his death bed. These are words that must be listened too, respected and adhered to, death bed words are sacred words, they are to be revered and remembered. What does Jesus tell them? First he tells them that “the Son of man has been glorified and that God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.” That’s 5 glorified/glories in 2 sentences. What’s John trying to tell us with all that glory-ing? It’s another of John’s favourite words— 42 versions of glory/glorify are used in his gospel alone, more than the other 3 gospellers combined. [2] The glory of God and of Jesus is in his death—on a cross, assassinated as a state criminal. You need to think about that for a minute— it’s really quite a shocking idea; that death on a cross is how God is glorified. I wonder if it confused the disciples when they first heard it. They had a lot to process after the crucifixion and resurrection before they could understand that this was glorification! By giving himself willingly to death on a cross, Jesus is glorified, and in his resurrection God is glorified. Amazing what Christ, what God has done—out of love for us! So very worthy of our worshipping and thanking God for—which is what glorification is, and John wants us all to know it! I do suppose this is why the lectionary has us going back to Maundy Thursday after Easter Sunday!
Next Jesus tells them: “I give you a new commandment, that you are to love another, just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” We hear these words each Maundy Thursday, this is the maundatam novum—the new commandment: “that you are to love another, just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” But the command to love one another is a really old, it doesn’t sound so new. “Love your neighbour as yourself” is from the time of the writings of the book of Leviticus, the third book of the Torah, written some 1400 years or so before Jesus’ life. And Jesus reiterates this law in his time too; remember the story of the religious lawyer who asks Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus turns the question right back at his and says, ‘What do the law and scriptures say?’ And the lawyer says “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and love your neighbour as yourself.” Jesus tells him he’s right on, and to go and do it!
So how then, is “You are to love one another” a new commandment? It’s the qualifiers Jesus adds to it: SLIDE “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples. (vv 34-35)
This is more than loving your neighbour as yourself; this is loving the other like Jesus loved all those “others”, this is loving Jesus-style. This takes the “love your neighbour as yourself” commandment, up a notch doesn’t it? Instead of loving others as you want to be loved, it’s loving them as God loves them, as we would want God to love us. And what’s different about that? What would this mean for his disciples; what does this mean for us, we who call ourselves followers of Christ? Well, what had he just done with the disciples? Washed their feet—a task generally left to the most menial of household servants. Jesus had shown them what it meant to love one another. Serve one another, be the servant, the helper, no pulling rank, class or financial status. Loving others unconditionally, no matter who or what they are. Give from your heart, give of yourself, and give sacrificially. And so, ‘By this everyone will know that you are my disciples…” (v 35)
Jesus had chosen this group of disciples to teach them, to mold them, to show them how to once again live as the people of God, to help them really understand how the Lord God loved them—and their job after his death was to teach them that God loved them, and to show others how that is done -- by loving and serving God themselves, just as Jesus had done. This is how they too could glorify God—by giving selflessly! And you know, those twelve guys were far from perfect themselves—a bit like we are, I dare say—trying hard but not always getting it right. They messed up, they missed the point, did not always understand Jesus’ teachings fully, or live completely by them; they too failed over and over again. And Jesus would call them out on it when they were off the mark, but was exceedingly understanding, loving, compassionate, patient and always, forgiving. He had put himself in service to them, and to others -- men, women, children, even Romans and non-Jews. This is what he was teaching them. Jesus had chosen these disciples especially to love them, to show them God’s love, and now he was giving them a new twist on the old commandment, love others in the same way that I have loved you. It was what Jesus himself did—to the extreme, you could say, he sacrificed his own life, for the glory of God. To give of yourself, of all that you have--to give of your gifts and resources sacrificially for the needs of the others. And why? Yes to glorify God, to be sure, but also because, as Jesus said: this is how others will know that you are my followers.
So, how then do we love like Jesus? How and who do we choose to love? How do we give of ourselves? Now, I’m not suggesting we all become foot care nurses or soap box evangelists, so how do we live like Jesus loved? We put actions to our mission.
Putting mission into action has a cost and we cannot do our ministries without your financial support. What you give allows this church to continue to be the hands and feet of Christ in this community. You are the Church and your financial givings support who we are—as we live out our mission as Christ’s disciples in this community. We show love for others by giving and caring of others sacrificially. Jesus said it clearly: by this they will know you are my disciples. Along with all the other ways you give of your time and your talents, your financial givings also reflect who you are as a Christian. Individually and collectively, as members of this church, the ministries you support show who you are as Christians, in the various ways you support them, with your gifts of time, your talents and of course your money. This may be a new thought for some, but giving money for ministry in Christ’s name really is a spiritual deed. It truly is as spiritual as giving of your time and your talents. Now some people get a bit touchy when preachers talk about money. But Jesus talked about money, what to do with it and not do with it quite regularly. Because money and how we handle it impacts us, and our lives in so many aspects. The thing Jesus preached most about was the Kingdom of God. The second most frequent teaching was about money. And one of the things that I have personally come to understand and experience is that when you give, you really do receive—not so you can get just get richer, but so you can continue to give more, to do more of Christ’s work in the community. Truly, the more you give, the more you get. So you can keep on giving.
And this allows us to not only continue to do our ministries, but expand and adapt them, as the world around us changes. Financial giving is also how we show love for God, and for one another. And it is by all these thing, everyone will know that we are Christ’s disciples. Amen.
[1] Gary D. Jones in Pastoral Perspective for John 13: 31-35 in Feasting on the Word, Year C Vol. 2 p. 468
[2] Brian Peterson in Commentary for John 13. 31-35 in https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/fifth-sunday-of-easter-3/commentary-on-john-1331-35-6 accessed May 13.25