A New Commandment

Readings
Acts 14:21-27
Revelation 21:1-5
John 13:31-35

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

This is the Fifth Sunday of Easter and today I’m going to focus on the Gospel message. This is Jesus’ last discourse with His disciples. It’s right before His passion and death. Jesus gives them a new commandment – to love each other as He has loved them. That’s a new commandment. It’s a new commandment for all of them. It’s a new commandment for us. So first of all, what is it? “Love one another as I have loved you.” I want to talk more about the nature of Christian love as we go along. How does Jesus demonstrate it? Jesus demonstrates it by what follows after the last discourse. His obedience to God, even unto death. His sacrifice of Himself for all of us. This is how Jesus shows us, demonstrates to us, the nature of love. Jesus always does this, He doesn’t just tell us something, He shows us, too. He shows us how to follow His example. This is why God became one of us, so that he could show us what we are to do. And that’s the message for today – to love each other as Jesus loved us.

In the Gospel passage for today, Judas leaves and everything is being set into motion, all the things that will unfold to Jesus’ passion, His death,  and ultimately His resurrection. All that’s now going forward, and Jesus tells the disciples that God will glorify the Son of Man. He says, He will “glorify the Son of Man at once”. This is something that’s about to happen now. So what does this mean? Glorification, here, lies in Christ’s perfect obedience to the Father. He knows what’s going to happen. He accepts what’s going to happen to Him. Remember, he was God, but he was also a human being. He suffered. And He knew he was going to suffer intense agony. He knew what was coming. He knew more than anybody could have known. This reference to the Son of Man is something that harkens back to the Old Testament. Jesus does this all the time. He refers to the Old Testament to show us how His life is the fulfillment of prophecy. And in Daniel, chapter 7, the prophet there writes: “Behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming, and He came up to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him.” This is what Jesus is talking about when He refers to the glorification of the Son of Man. Jesus is Christ and He’s going to be presented to the Father because of His perfect obedience to God. This glorification at once, that’s about to happen, means His passion and death. His glory lies in His obedience to God. Jesus is perfectly obedient to the Father, and God glorifies Jesus as the Son of God.

The prophecy that’s in Revelation, 21st chapter, that was our second reading for today, also illustrates the glory of God. I’ll read part of it: “Then, I, John, saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.” But then comes a new thing, new things, the “new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” There’s a new heaven, there’s a new earth, all things are made new. To read on from Revelation, John writes: “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, for the old order has passed away.” The One who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And, of course, the One who sat on the throne, is Christ. Christ has made all things new. The world will be a new place. This particular part of Revelation is really special, because all scholars agree this is, in fact, a prophetic passage, it’s forward-looking. It’s telling us something that will happen, on the second coming of Christ. The world will be made new. Everything will be made new. The new Jerusalem is a reference to the new community governed directly by Jesus Christ on His second coming. The old order has passed away, all the tears, all the pain, all the sorrow, all that is gone. We are now all together governed directly by Christ, who loves us with perfect love.

Now, I want to turn again to this question about the new commandment, to love one another as Jesus loved us, because it relates directly to that whole idea about what Jesus means, and what He’s done, and what He’s going to do.

In the Gospel passage for today, the disciples are there with Jesus. In the part that precedes what we read today, Peter and others want to argue with Jesus and question what’s going on. They did this on occasion. Jesus gives them a simple instruction: “Love one another, as I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” Jesus is giving them a new commandment. Again I have made all things new, right? Jesus is telling us something new. This is a new commandment to you. Love each other. Love each other in the same way that I have loved you.

Let’s talk about this for a minute, because this goes to a very core concept in the Christian faith, which is love. The Greek word, which you see on occasion, Agape, means love. And this refers to the kind of love that Christians are supposed to have for one another and to have for everyone.

So what does it mean? It doesn’t just mean a warm feeling. It doesn’t just mean a warm and fuzzy feeling or a good intention, but it means an actual willingness to serve other people. Remember, Jesus said love one another as I have loved you. Jesus gave everything for us. As Paul writes, He emptied Himself for us. He gave everything He had for us. That’s true love. That is the love he wants us to have for one another. A willingness to serve one another. A willingness to help. Not just to feel something, but to do something. That’s what Christian love means. So His command to us, love one another as I have loved you, reflects the love of the Father and of the Son for all of us. And it reflects the love that we are to have for one another, among the church and in the world, for other people, because, again, people can see the love of God through us. This is a reason we’re here, as the church, as all the Christian faithful around the world, to demonstrate for all humanity the love of God for us. That can shine through when we follow this new commandment, to love one another as Jesus loved us. Jesus tells them, “all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” That’s what He’s saying. The people can see God through us. We can serve God by loving each other as Jesus loved us. That’s His new commandment that he gives just before the end of His earthly ministry.

Now, I talked a few minutes ago about glorification, Christ’s glorification. Remember, Jesus said the Son of Man will be glorified at once. And, again, this is because of His obedience to the Father, His willingness to undergo the passion, and the death, and all the suffering that He experienced. This is glorification is His obedience to the Father. His perfect obedience to God is what glorifies Him. Now, we are commanded to love one another. This is a commandment. This is an order. This is something we are to do. If we do that, we glorify God. We glorify God through following His commandment in obedience to Him, to love one another. We glorify God by loving one another.

The prophecy from Revelation shows us the glory that awaits all of us in the future with God. This is something that will happen. It’s not just a picture or an image, it’s something that will become real. We can do our part, in the meantime, to bring His kingdom into the world now by loving each other. In obedience to Him, love one another as Jesus loved us.

Amen.