In our gospel reading for today, Jesus has a new commandment for his disciples. And unlike the commandments that Moses brought down from Mount Sinai, commandments four through ten that set the MINIMUM requirements for living together in peace, Jesus gives a next-level commandment. Jesus commands his disciples to LOVE ONE ANOTHER. And if he had stopped there, it would be a very difficult challenge to fulfil that commandment. But then Jesus added, “Just as I HAVE LOVED YOU, you also should love one another.” That commandment is ONLY fulfilled by those who are filled with the love of Jesus, and ONLY that commandment can make all things new....
Love for your spouse....love for your children....love for your parents....love for your grandchildren...for most people, these are a given almost at the level of genetics – love, hardwired into us via biology. Love for your community ....love for your province....love for your country....love for your planet...for most people, these have been portrayed as virtuous as we were growing up – love, drummed into us via indoctrination.
But there's something about COMMANDING LOVE that just doesn't sound right. Doesn't love still have to be a CHOICE, to be meaningful? Isn't that the whole point of the story of Adam and Eve, that they were given the CHOICE to love God, and chose not to? And yet, Jesus in our gospel reading says this, “I give you a new commandment...Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” The TIMING of this commandment is critical. Jesus, immediately before this gospel reading, has declared Judas Iscariot to be his future betrayer, and Judas has just left the supper table to carry out the plans for Jesus' death. Jesus is aware that Judas is no longer on the team, and yet Jesus loves Judas and shares food with him right to the end. The love Jesus wants his disciples to emulate is the love Jesus has for Judas, a love that loves enemies.
And just before that in the gospel of John, Jesus was busy washing his disciples' feet, a task that usually fell to the lowest servant in the household. Peter, as you recall from the story, freaked out at the thought of the LORD OF THE UNIVERSE kneeling at his feet to wash them. But the love Jesus wants his disciples to emulate is the love Jesus has for Peter, a love that repudiates power.
And although Jesus gave plenty of examples while he was alive, like when he interacted with the Samaritan woman at the well, Peter didn't get the next point about Jesus' love until his vision in our first reading today. Peter had been trained from birth by his rabbi not to associate with or eat with uncircumcised men – in other words, non-Jews. But the love Jesus wants his disciples to emulate is the love Jesus has for Gentiles, a love that does not make distinctions. Jesus gives the COMMANDMENT to love one another, to reinforce that he is talking about not the ORDINARY love of family and nation shown by the world, but the NEXT-LEVEL love that Jesus showed to them. And Jesus gives the COMMANDMENT to love one another, so that any PREVIOUS commandments are superseded, like the commandment to segregate. The NEW commandment is now in force – love for one another, regardless of distinctions, oblivious to power, and even for one's enemies.
No wonder Jesus told his disciples, “by this everyone will know that you are my disciples” - this kind of love is NOT normal! Especially these days, we are supposed to FOCUS on the distinctions, not love people in SPITE of them. Especially these days, we are supposed to IDOLIZE the powerful, not love the POWERLESS just as much. Especially these days, we are supposed to love only OUR team, OUR tribe, OUR kind – the people who agree with US, and NOT love those who DISAGREE. Loving just as Jesus has loved us – that is an incredible challenge in these days of terrorism, social media, and political correctness. It WAS an incredible challenge in the day Jesus issued it – a day of oppression and racism and religious elitism. In fact, it has been an impossible challenge each and every day in between...
So Jesus does more than just COMMAND his disciples to love one another. Jesus LOVES the world with this next-level love, forgiving his enemies who hate him, refusing to use the power at his command to rescue himself, and giving his life for foreigners on the cross, so that all may receive forgiveness from God without distinction. The next-level love that Jesus calls forth from and expects from his disciples, he has already placed in their hearts himself – it is not up to disciples to create it from scratch on their own. Love is a gift from Jesus for the world, and its a gift that keeps on giving, through the actions and attitudes of each one of his disciples.
And as we grow into this commandment to love and let it change us, we feel the wonderful results of Jesus' next-level love, making things new. We feel the freedom that comes with the forgiveness Jesus paid for on the cross, the freedom from guilt and shame in God's presence, and the freedom to leave behind the sins that held us back. We feel the freedom that comes with love of enemies, the freedom to release soul-destroying grudges and obsessions of revenge. In earlier days, slaves across the Western world felt the freedom of repudiating power, as influential Christians chose to change the system and win for the slaves their freedom. And in the future, we look forward to the first things passing away, and God making ALL things new, through his next-level love. What a feeling of awe...that the Lord of the universe would CHOOSE to love us, and then TRUST us to love one another with the love he has given us!
Gracious God, we thank you for your next-level love for us. Help us to reflect this love to all with whom we have contact, making all things new, in Jesus' name, amen.