John 13:31-35
Transformed by Love
James Sledge April
24, 2016
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one
another.” But
exactly how new is this commandment? Love your neighbor as yourself is in
the Old Testament book of Leviticus. And haven’t parents been trying to get
siblings to love one another since the beginning of time? Isn’t a mom yelling,
“Why can’t you two just get along?” an exasperated version of “Love one another!”?
At
first glance, this command to love one another also seems a lot less noble, a
lot less impressive than some of Jesus’ other commands such as, “Love
your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Now that’s an
extraordinary accomplishment, surely something much more difficult than loving
those around you, than loving one another.
Then
again, “one another” presumably refers to those we spend a lot of time with,
those who have ample opportunities to annoy us, hurt us, disagree with us, get
under out skin, and disappoint us. And if our enemy is nameless and faceless,
some group way over there, they may not stir our emotions nearly so much as
that family member we can’t abide, or that member of the congregation who seems
to go out of his or her way to be difficult and cause trouble
There’s
an old Peanuts cartoon that I think captures this well. (I’ve updated the
language a bit.) Lucy has told Linus that he can’t be a doctor because he
doesn’t love humankind. Linus yells back, “I love humankind… It’s people I
can’t stand!!”
Humanity…
nameless, faceless others in general, even some who are enemies, perhaps we can
love them on principle. But those people that we encounter on a regular basis,
who irritate and annoy and cause us all manner of problems… that’s another
matter entirely. “Love one another,” may not sound all that noble or
impressive, but doing it isn’t very easy.
That
doesn’t really make it a new commandment though. What is new about love
one another?
Prior
to giving his “new commandment,” Jesus goes on and on about being glorified. He
has been glorified, and God’s been glorified in him. Five times Jesus says
“glorify” or “glorified” in the space of two sentences. It’s a bit much and
maybe a bit confusing.
The
dictionary says that glorify means “to bestow honor, praise, or admiration.” In
our day this sometimes gets used in a negative sense, as when an executive
assistant says, “I’m a glorified errand boy.” But Jesus clearly doesn’t mean it
that way. He’s talking about real glory, real honor and praise. But Jesus seems
to understand glory in a very different way.
Glory
gets used a lot in sports. “No guts, no glory,” goes the saying. Middle aged
athletes sometimes remember those days when the crowds cheered them, when they
were stars and heroes back in their “glory days.” Sports heroes are some of the
biggest stars in our culture. Sports fans glorify Bryce Harper or LeBron or
Steph Curry or Tom Brady in a way the Roman culture of Jesus’ day glorified
Roman generals and, especially, Caesar.
Think
of Caesar and his generals riding into town in decked out chariots with their
glistening armor, colorful plumes on their helmets. Women and girls screamed
and men wished they could be like them. And Jesus looked nothing at all like
that.
When
Jesus says, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified,” Judas has just gone
out to betray him. Jesus, who knew he would be betrayed, had just moments
earlier broken bread with Judas. And prior to that Jesus had washed the
disciples’ feet, but Peter had refused saying, “You will never wash my feet.”
Peter
did not understand glory the way Jesus did. Peter understood the glory of
Caesar and Roman generals, the glory of sports heroes and movie stars and the
rich and famous. But this sort of glory had nothing to do with acting like a
servant or slave. It did not mean sharing bread with a friend who was about to
turn on you. It did not mean loving a friend who would soon deny you.
Most
of all, glory as Peter understood it certainly didn’t look like getting
arrested, beaten, and executed. Yet repeatedly John’s gospel speaks of Jesus
being glorified on the cross, of the cross as a throne on which Jesus is
exalted. In a similar way, the apostle Paul says that he proclaims Christ
crucified, the power… and wisdom of God. But very often, we understand
glory more like Peter. We connect it with worldly images of power and fame and
stardom, with Roman Empire or pop culture notions of glory.
That
is where the newness of Jesus’ commandment comes in, in this new picture of
glory. The idea of loving one another is not new, but doing it in the manner Jesus
does is.
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There
are a couple of ways to translate what Jesus says when he explains this
newness. Immediately after saying, “I give you a new commandment, that you love
one another,” he adds, “Just as I have loved you, you also should
love one another.” Understood as our NRSV translation reads, the way in
which Jesus has loved is the model we should emulate. Loving one another
becomes a new thing when we love in this way that breaks bread with one who
would hurt us, acts as a servant to others, and is willing to give ourselves
for others.
However,
Jesus’ words can also be translated to say, “I have loved you in this way in
order that you might also love one another.” Understood this way, the
manner in which Jesus loves, his strange ways that are glorious in God’s eyes,
is more than an example for us. It actually enables us to love. The way Jesus loves
us, the way he gives himself to us and for us, transforms us and our loving in
ways that show Christ to the world.
I
actually think this second understanding is closer to what Jesus means,
although we in the church sometimes forget the transforming power of Jesus’
love. We tell people repeatedly, “You need to love your neighbor, you need to
love your enemy, you need to love one another. You need to try harder to love.”
But it all starts with being loved by
Jesus. It starts with realizing that Jesus loves you deeply regardless of who
you are, regardless of anything about you. After all, Jesus washed Judas’ feet
and shared his bread with him, even though he knew Judas would soon betray him.
He washed Peter’s feet and shared a meal with Peter even though he knew Peter
would deny even knowing him. And he never stopped loving, not even from a
cross.
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I
saw a story the other day about a dog at the shelter with a warning on his cage
saying the dog bit. The staff would move or handle the dog only while using a
snare. But one volunteer instead put on some protective gloves and used a towel
to grab the dog and cradle it in his arms. As he held and patted him, the dog
began to change. He calmed down. He relaxed. He even began to show affection.
Realizing that someone loved him, a remarkable transformation occurred.
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There is no one who is vicious enough,
or frightened enough, or angry enough, or different enough, or messed up enough
that Jesus will not embrace them in love. And when we really feel that embrace…
when we find ourselves cradled in the arms of divine grace, everything changes.
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