Sermon 4/5/07
New Commandment - John 13:1-17, 31b-35
(view lectionary notes for this text)
Tonight is the night that we remember Jesus’ celebrating the Passover for the last time with his disciples. It is the night we remember that for us, Jesus forever changed the meaning of the Passover meal by telling his disciples that it was his body, his blood, that he shared with them. He called us to remember, remember, when we share this meal together, and so we will, when we gather later at the table together. But in the gospel lesson we share tonight, we don’t read about the last supper. John is the only gospel writer who doesn’t mention the supper, and he’s the only writer who gives us instead this scene of footwashing. We find the disciples sharing a meal together before Passover, and after supper, Jesus gets up to prepare to wash their feet. After some protests from Peter and words from Jesus, the disciples’ feet are washed, and they return to the table, where Jesus speaks to them. He talks about being their Teacher, and setting an example. And he talks about a new commandment of loving one another.
I think this is the strangest thing Jesus says, when he tells them he is giving them a new commandment. But in fact, this is the whole focus of Maundy Thursday. Maundy is from the Latin word for commandment, and the phrase for this day in Latin is mandatum novum. You can hear the English word “mandate” in there - Jesus says essentially that he is giving a new mandate, a new command that we are to love one another. But looking at this passage I find myself wondering, is this really a new commandment? Doesn’t the Bible say throughout that we are to love one another? What’s so new about what Jesus is saying?
But then it struck me – does the Bible really say throughout that we are to love one another? I know that once Jesus starts talking about loving our neighbors that the writers of the epistles do catch on and begin to talk about love – Paul and John in particular fill their letters with talk about how we are to love. But before Jesus comes, before he begins teaching and preaching, before he says that loving our neighbors is the greatest commandment second only to loving God, before he says that we are to love others as we love ourselves, before all this, does the Bible ever tell us to love one another?
Sometimes we think of the Old Testament as a violent book, a violent history in the Bible that we’d rather not focus on too much. There are certainly many violent episodes. And sometimes we think the Old Testament is only about “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” rather than the “love one another” of the New Testament. Certainly, there is some truth to this – grace abounds in Jesus’ teaching in a way the rest of the scriptures lack. But there is a surprising emphasis on justice and care of the neighbor in the Old Testament. All throughout the giving of the law, there are provisions that pay special attention to the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner. Provisions are made for forgiving debt – all debt – at regular intervals, and for feeding the hungry. Farmers are specifically directed not to harvest all their crops so that those who are without can have food that is leftover. Those who are strangers to the community are to be welcomed, because Israel is always meant to remember that they were once strangers in strange lands too. The law of the Old Testament, these ‘old commandments’ are surprisingly full of compassion. Maybe the word “love” isn’t used a lot, but isn’t the message clear?
Maybe, apparently, not clear enough. The Old Testament talks about love rarely. The clearest words about love are in the command, which Jesus calls the greatest, to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength. But the rest of the commandments – those commandments about the widows and orphans and strangers and poor ones – none of these commandments actually ever talk about loving these people through the acts of mercy done for them. Are we intended to feel love through these commandments? I think so. I think of course we are. But can we technically be following all these commandments without loving one another? Absolutely.
In fact, being obedient to the law without experiencing or sharing God’s love with others is exactly the problem Jesus confronts in his ministry. He is most critical of those who appear to be the best followers of the law. Faithful Jews in Jesus’ day prided themselves on being obedient to the commandments – and they were – extremely obedient, to the very detail. And yet, rarely in Jesus’ interactions with the religious folk of his day do we see loving behavior from them.
But if the end result is the same, with or without the expression of love, does it make a difference? If people can follow the commandments and ensure that the hungry are fed and that the children are cared for and the widows are protected and the poor are clothed and sheltered, does it matter how it is done? After all, we hardly do these things well today! I would love if we could care for these matters and follow those commandments as diligently as they were followed two thousand years ago. We don’t do even that. So is saying that it is done out of love so important?
“Yes, yes, yes!” is Jesus’ answer to that question. Love is the reason. The reason. Love is the foundation, the basis, the motivation for what we are called to do as people of faith, God’s creation, just as it is God’s basis and motivation for relationship with us. It is about love, because God is love. If we serve because we think we’re supposed to, and if we help because we think we have to, we’re like that “noisy gong or clanging symbol” that Paul talks about when he’s talking love in 1 Corinthians. Maybe no one realized that it need to be said before. Perhaps Moses thought the people would understand the reasons behind God’s commandments for justice without them being written in stone. But Jesus sees that this isn’t the case. People, even his disciples, they’re missing the point. How will you know people of faith when you see them? After all, many people volunteer, do community service, give to charity. How will you know someone is a disciple of Jesus Christ? He says it is by love that you will know them and know yourself.
I think that’s what Jesus is trying to tell Peter in this footwashing scene that we share tonight. At first Peter is appalled that Jesus wants to wash his feet, something, as I mentioned a couple weeks ago, that you would only do for yourself, or that a slave would do for you. When Peter protests, Jesus tells him that he must wash his feet for Peter to have part in him. Ever zealous, Peter responds then that Jesus should wash his hands and head too. Jesus says the feet are enough. Peter clearly doesn’t understand what Jesus is doing – Jesus says he won’t understand until later. But Peter hears that it is something he “should do” and so he wants to do it, get it done, check it off his list, and get an A+ for extra effort by getting washed even more thoroughly than is required of him. He wants to do all this even though he doesn’t understand why Jesus wants to was his feet.
So Peter gets the details right – he goes through the right motions – but he misses the point. Jesus washes their feet as an extreme act of love. He loves his disciples so much that he is willing to serve them like a slave would serve them, humbling himself, even though he is their teacher. He does this to set an example for them, he says, that they might love in the same deep, extreme way he loves them. This footwashing isn’t about an act that is required for discipleship. It is about love that is outpoured because the heart is overflowing with it.
There are so many things that we could do to be better followers of Christ. So much more we could give of ourselves. But Jesus wants us to know, to remember, that the foundation for everything we do is love for God and love for one another. You can see the difference. If you watch people, you can see people who are working with others out of obligation, or guilt, or even just a sense of right and wrong, and you can see people who work with others out love, nothing less than love. This is the new commandment, that we already know, but that we really should try – to love one another – love one another – and act because of this love.
In these days before Easter, we think of Jesus and watch as he dines with the disciples in this Last Supper, and we watch as he is arrested, and put on trial, and abandoned, and beaten, and executed. Some Christians would say that this was a requirement – something that had to happen in order for sinful humanity to be reconciled to a Holy God. I don’t see it that way – if it was a requirement, an obligation, how would Jesus’ action be different than the actions of those who were diligently following the law? I think, as always, it’s all about love, a most extreme gift of love from Jesus to us.
“I give you a new commandment,” says Jesus, “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.” Amen.