A Strong Mandate to Love.

The hymn “We Are Called” (by David Haas) is a favorite of mine.
The chorus goes like this…

We are called to act with justice.

We are called to love tenderly.

We are called to serve one another, to walk humbly with God.

It’s a favorite hymn, but today this line bristles…
“We are called to love tenderly.” 
Though it is surely true that we are called to love tenderly, that sweet lyric doesn’t seem to do justice to the breadth and depth of the invitation and challenge we receive by way of the “new mandate” Jesus charges us with in John 13.

There are at least two ways in which we are tempted to misunderstand today’s Gospel reading:  On the one hand, we might sentimentalize Jesus’ command to “Love one another!”  making it out to mean that we ought to be nice to everyone in a way that makes us feel good while demanding very little of anyone – this approach is high on syrupy, greeting-card affirmations but woefully low on substance.  Then again, we might succumb to the temptation to seek to justify ourselves to God through works of well-meaning, but misdirected love: of ourselves, and our neighbours-as ourselves.

In order to avoid these pit-falls, it is important for us to begin, not with Jesus’ command to “love one another!”, but with his statement to the disciples on the eve of his execution.

“Where I am going you cannot come.”

What does Jesus mean by this?  The setting is an Upper-Room in Jerusalem where the disciples and their teacher have gathered to partake of the Passover meal.  Jesus has just finished washing his disciples’ feet and predicting his own betrayal at the hands of Judas.  Immediately after the passage we read today follows the prediction of Peter’s denial of Jesus. 

Today we encounter Jesus, poised at the decisive moment of John’s Gospel.  Until now, Jesus has often remarked that his “appointed time” has not yet arrived.  As Judas leaves the intimate and warmly lit upper-room, fleeing into darkness, the pivotal moment has arrived.  His path to the cross is now assured, and yet he declares this to be his moment of Glory.  As Jesus is “lifted up” on the cross, His Father will be “lifted up”, magnified, glorified, exalted, honored.  For The Son and The Father are one.  A few verses later in John 14:10, 11 Jesus will make this explicit:  “I Am in the Father and the Father is in Me.”

Jesus and the Father are one.  But from long ago, they have been separated from their beloved human creatures by a gulf of sinful hard-heartedness and willful disobedience.  Now, as “the appointed time” arrives for Jesus, the Son of Man, He rejoices in the pending completion of what Father and Son have so longed for…the re-establishment of right-relations with their creatures.

[Reading John 13:31-32 … standing at altar, elevate bread, indicating two sides, one loaf… slight pause, then read verse 33.]

³¹When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. ³²If God is glorified in him,^[a] God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.

 ³³"My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.

It is clear in Jesus’ mind where he is going, even if it is a mystery to us and the other disciples.  The Son is going to the cross … to an encounter with death.  Jesus is on the road that is descending into Hell…hell being absolute “apartness” from the Father.

[Rip bread in two]

This one body is broken into two, and separated as in two hands spread wide on a cross…So that You, and I, and all others who would trust in and follow Christ might be joined once more to the Creator who longs to be known by us.  Jesus said, “Where I am going you cannot come.”  The Son went into absolute “apartness” from the Father, AND returned so that we all could become absolutely and permanently connected.  So that we might all have a place at the Lord’s Table.


And now that we have been accepted into this wonderful community, this glorious communion, we have been invited to respond by sharing that which we have first received…by loving one another as Jesus has loved us.  For God desires that our active, suffering, servant love for one another be our witness to the world regarding what God is doing.  As we love one another with the love we have so freely received all those who long to experience such life-giving love will be drawn in.

Lawrence O. Richards put it this way:

“Within the Upper Room, the vision of a new community was being shaped. In the last few hours of His life on earth, Jesus sketched for His friends a picture of a future that they—and we—are to experience. It’s important to realize that this revelation is for us. Here is a picture of your life and mine as Christians, a picture of our experience in Christ. The key to this experience is relationship: relationship with each other as members of a new community, and relationship with Jesus, the Enabler of the new community. … The foundation of Jesus’ new community is a unique relationship. Here is how Christ explained it: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. All men will know that you are My disciples if you love one another.”
         These are familiar words, yet strange ones. Love is nothing new; the Old Testament speaks often of love and reminds us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” (LEV 19:18)…

     [But] there is a new standard by which to measure love. Love of neighbor was to be “as you love yourself.” But here we are told to love each other “as I have loved you.” Love as Jesus did? Love with a love that gives self? Yes, this is new. My [community] becomes more important to me than I am!”^[1]

Family, this Love of Jesus which we have been immersed in cannot be summed-up by such a timid word as “tender”.  Rather, to adequately describe the depth and breadth of this Love defies dictionaries full of adjectives.  This Love is Glorious in its largess, magnificent in its nuanced richness.

Jesus’ Love Is:

Incarnate, Embodied, Flesh and Blood, Material.  It is experienced through the real smiles of greeters and the physical sharing of the peace with one another.  Jesus’ love is tangible when we visit the sick, care for an aging parent or spouse, and when we provide counsel and encouragement to those who are hurting.

Jesus’ Love Is:

Expensive, Costly, Lavish, Precious, Rich.  It is experienced through the pain that being in meaningful relationships brings when those among us are called away in life or death.  Jesus’ love is expressed through the sacrificial putting to death of our sinful impulses to “look out for number 1.”  It is made known among us by those who offer their time, talents and money to build up the community at Our Savior. 

Jesus’ Love Is:

Obedient, Dutiful, Humble, Intentional, Deliberate, Intricate.  At OSLC it is expressed in the ongoing production of sandwhiches by the ICPM volunteers and by the behind-the-scenes work of those who labour at the unglamorous work of maintaining and cleaning the building. 

Jesus’ Love Is:

Courageous, Powerful, Challenging, Agitational, Transformational, Reconciling.  Where this love shines, darkness abates and lives are changed.  We see it at work in our joint efforts with PALN churches to Sponsor a Refugee family and the Kids On Track After School Program at Ormsby School.  It is perhaps most visible in our midst among those who have experienced conflict with one another and yet have found a way to share in the life of Our Savior.

Jesus’ Love Is:

Unconditional, Preferential, All Inclusive, Invitational, Indiscriminant.  This love accepts all who desire to come to it.  It is embodied in the physical accessibility of OSLC’s building and the warmth of her people.  Jesus’ demonstrated preference to dwell among those who were shunned or held to be worthless is born out in the welcome shown to the Ormsby food share group, and The Tuesday Night AA group.

We have been loved substantially, lavishly, dutifully, transformationally, unconditionally.

And so we are invited and empowered to Love one another - and the world - generously.

May our love for one another be sufficiently Glorious that all might be drawn to its light.  Amen.

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^[1]Richards, Larry ; Richards, Lawrence O.: The Teacher's Commentary. Wheaton, Ill. : Victor Books, 1987, S. 740