Reflection on John 13:31-35

 

John 13:31-35

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Reflection

Love is not easy. 

Sure, it seems pretty easy when you rip Jesus’ instruction to love right out of John and paste it on a wall hanging.  “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”  So, you read the words as they hang on the wall of the waiting room and you think, “Gee, that nice.  We should all go out and love each other.  Wouldn’t that make for a great world?  How hard can that be?”

Well, the truth is that it is actually really hard.  Loving others has never been a piece of cake and, seemingly, it was not necessarily easy for Jesus either.

If you take this sentiment of love off of the wall and put it back into its place in the Bible, you will see that this command to love others comes right between Judas’ betrayal of Jesus and the prediction of Peter’s denial of following Jesus.  This demand to love falls right in the middle of hurt and abandonment by two of Jesus’ closest friends. 

I cannot image that it was easy for Jesus to bend down to the ground and wash these two betrayer’s feet, like a lowly servant, knowing that they are both just going to kick him in the face.  These two are not deserving of such an act of love.  These two are in no way worthy of such sacrificial treatment.  Judas and Peter will soon be the ones who will cause pain and heartache for Jesus.  And, Jesus knows it.  He knows what is about to happen.  Yet, Jesus bends down and serves them anyway.  Jesus loves them anyway.

You see what I mean?  Love is not easy.

At least it was not easy for an acquaintance of mine.  For years the woman’s sister was nothing but trouble.  She rebelled against her parents and refused to heed her own sister’s suggestions.  The woman tried to help her sister get on the right path in life, over and over and over again she tried.  It was no good.  Her sister spiraled downward anyway, destroying her own life and slicing the woman’s life on her way down.  The stolen car was the last straw.  The woman needed her car to get to work, and her sister stole it.  She sold it in exchange for a measly amount of intoxicants, and the woman finally said, “Enough is enough.”  She said “goodbye” to her sister for what she thought would be the last time. 

But, two years later, her sister showed up on her front step wearing hole-ridden clothes, tears streaming down her dark, dying eyes, as she said, “Please don’t shut the door.  I am so, so alone.  I just need someone to love me.  Forgive me, sister.  I just need someone to love me.”

You see what I mean?  It is not easy to love. 

Love is not some fairytale lifted out from the reality of life.  Love is always in the trenches.  Love is always dirty.  It is not easy to love. 

Yet, Jesus still loved and served the one who betrayed him, Judas, and loved and served the one who would deny following him, Peter, and Jesus demands that we, his followers, do the same.

“I give you a new commandment,” Jesus says, “that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

It is almost as if love is this sort of glue that holds the world together.  In the least, it is the glue that holds his people together in him.

Another acquaintance loved dearly their teenage girl’s boyfriend.  She loved seeing the two together.  She loved how happy they were when they went to the amusement park.  She loved how in love they were as they snuggled on the porch swing at night.  She loved how the boy made her daughter feel happy about herself.

She got to know the boyfriend very well, and would pack him some food before he went back home because home life was rough and there were no guarantees that he would be fed.  She invested in the boy, hoping that he could rise above the loveless, cracked nature of his family.  She dearly loved the boy.

Then came the night that her daughter broke up with the boy.  That was the same night that he took out his pocketknife and murdered her.

Love is not easy.  Two years after the trial and conviction, she received a letter from the prison.  It was the boyfriend.  He wanted to talk to her.

She stayed up countless nights, stressing over the potential of going to the prison.  She stressed about going to see the one who took her little girl away from her.  She could not imagine looking into his eyes once again and listening to anything that this betrayer of her family had to say.

It is not easy to love.  Love is not some fairytale lifted out from the reality of life.  Love is always in the trenches.  Love is always dirty. 

It is not easy to love.  Yet, Jesus still loved and served the one who betrayed him and the one who denied following him, and he demands that his followers to do the same.

Both of the stories you just heard are absolutely true, and they are absolutely heavy and heart breaking.  So, why not take just a little breather to take a closer look at the Bible.  I want to show you something. 

In the Greek language, the language in which the New Testament was written, the order of the words can convey meaning to the reader…not just what the words say.  And in this passage about love, you can see how that works right in the English.  In Jesus’ teaching we read, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”  Notice how that part about loving one another is actually written twice.  The command to love one another are like two pieces of bread that sandwich the phrase, “Just as I have loved you.” 

The love that Jesus has given us is the meat of the sandwich.  It is the part that gives flavor to the bread.  Jesus’ love, gives our love for others its flavor.

Or, you can look at it another way.  Jesus’ love for us is the sun just coming up from behind the horizon, and once it is up, it spills light on everything is on either side of it.  Jesus’ love rises, spills in all directions, and because we have all been touched by it, we go out and love in the exact same way.

You heard me right; we love in the exact same way.  If Jesus serves those who would betray and deny, then we also serve those who would betray and deny.  If Jesus would go to the cross for a sinner, then we too go to the cross for a sinner. 

As Jesus is trying to teach us, love is not easy.  Love is not limited to the heartwarming moments spent snuggled by summer fires under a canvas of stars.  It is not just the first glances at the precious face of the newborn child.  It is not just the first kiss of two young ones in love.  Love is all of those things, but love is also so much more.

Love is not easy.  Jesus’ love looks a lot like going to the prison, facing your child’s murderer, listening to his tear-filled plea of forgiveness, and then over the course of a few agonizing months choosing to visit him and advocate for him in the years to come.  After-all, if you recall, his own family gave him no love, even before things went terribly wrong.  Who else in this world can possibly give him any ounce of love?  Love is not easy, but it is life-changing.

Love is not easy.  Jesus’ love looks a lot like stepping out the door, giving your broken and wretched sister an embrace, and leading her to the bathroom to start the long process of cleaning her up. 

If you recall, Jesus loved and served the one who betrayed him, Judas, and loved and served the one who denied following him, Peter.  Jesus loved both of them anyway.  To be a follower of Jesus is to do the same.  Following the one who went to the cross out of love for the world, means that we do the same.

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

Love is not easy, but Jesus never promised that loving others would be easy.  There is nothing life-changing about an easy sort of love that says the words but does not take action.  Jesus’ love costs something.  It cost Jesus his life.  Love costs something.  It costs our pride.  It costs our hurt feelings.  It costs our time.  

But, it is worth the cost because lives are changed with that messy sort of divine love.  There are lives to be changed when we share Jesus’ love with those God has placed in our lives. 

There are lives to be changed when love shows up even in the messiest and toughest of situations.

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34).

It was once said that “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”  Have courage.  Love deeply, just as you are deeply loved by Jesus Christ, your Lord.