Introduction
Each year during the season of Easter (which is the 50 days between Easter morning and Pentecost) around week 5 or 6, our Gospel text hurls us back in time a bit.
Even though we know that Christ has been resurrected, and we know the tomb is empty. Even though we know Jesus has come back to see Mary Magdalene, Thomas, and Peter. Even though we are long past those events, the lectionary, hurls us backward to Maundy Thursday.
The night when Jesus ate the Last Supper with his disciples. The night when he would be betrayed. The night when he said his departing words to those he loved.
The New Commandment
This year, our text comes from chapter 13, the very beginning of what is known as the Farewell Discourse. Jesus says to them disciples after Judas leaves the room, “34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
It is a famous verse. I touched on it a couple weeks ago in my commentary as well. It is John’s version of the greatest commandment. “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” And it is also where we get one of our great Christian camp songs: “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our love, yes they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
On this night, with some of his last words before he is arrested, Jesus tells his disciples things that they need to hear, right before their world is about to be completely flipped upside down.
You all have seen me write about on this verse before and you will see me write about it again, because this is the root of our faith. Because of Jesus’ love (God’s love for us) we love one another.
But today, I’d like to focus on why we, the modern Church, are hearing these words today.
Why are We Hearing This Again?
Five weeks after Easter (even though we’ve already walked through the whole passion story) we hear these words again. We heard it all, from the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, to the foot washing, to the last supper, to the cross, to the empty tomb.
And it’s because we need to remember like the disciples remember.
The disciples gather together in the upper room after the crucifixion. While they hide in fear, I can’t help but think that they are also trying to make sense of it all. Trying to remember all the words he told them. Trying to make sense of all that he had said and all that had happened. And as he begins to appear to them after the resurrection it begins to click.
In John chapter 12, right after Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, the Gospel author writes, “16His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.”
It’s hindsight.
Because of all that’s happened, it is so important for us too to come back to the words from before and remember what Jesus told us. Just before the entire Passion narrative Jesus washes the disciples’ feet, forgives them, and then tells them to Love one another.
Even though Jesus will be arrested. Even though Peter will deny him. Even though others will run away. Even though they won’t believe Mary. Even though Thomas will question. Even though they will hide. Right before all of that, Jesus washes their feet, forgives them, and tell them to love one another.
Do we think these words were for that night? Or was Jesus telling them what they would need to do to move on and begin the ministry of Christ in this world once he was gone? I’m inclined to believe the latter.
And that is the hindsight and the prophecy for us today.
31When Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to others so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ 34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Biblical Professor Karoline Lewis writes,
“When we return to the narrative, reminded that Judas has just gone out [to betray Jesus], imagine what the disciples need to hear. What does Jesus need to say to them? Jesus’ first words after Judas’ departure have to do with his glory, and perhaps that is exactly what the disciples yearn for in this instant. Not a pep talk, but to know that there is something bigger, something beyond, this moment of disorder and dismay. Here really begins the Farewell Discourse and not at 14:1. John 13:31 is the true start to Jesus’ words for farewell, and they refer back to how chapter 13 began, the recognition that that hour is here. While it appears that Judas’ departure set in motion the events of the hour, Jesus has. ‘Little children’ is a touching address on the part of Jesus, especially in view of the words that follow. Verse 33 is the Farewell Discourse in summary: “I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the others so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’” Into the midst of these difficult words Jesus inserts the commandment of love. It is critical for the interpretation of this commandment to recognize that it follows Jesus’ very direct statement about his departure. As a result, this is not a generic claim to love one another; it is, rather, an essential injunction for the disciples to know and feel Jesus’ presence when he is gone. To love one another is for the sake of remembering the feeling of how Jesus loved them. Love is a mark of discipleship, for the outside world to see, but it is necessary for them to show each other. To be sustained in their believing, they need to practice the love toward one another that they themselves experienced from Jesus.”[1]
Even though we are 2,000 years from the resurrection event, we too have to prepare ourselves each and every year to hear these words.
We still somehow think that the resurrection means that Jesus is going to take over and fix it all for us. We somehow think that if we just turn our love toward Jesus and lean into the resurrection, that Good Friday will be erased. We somehow think that we no longer are called to do anything. And in doing these mental gymnastics, we forget why Jesus is saying farewell here. As Karoline Lewis helps to show it is not just because of the crucifixion, it is because of his ascension.
When Jesus ascends to heaven, we become the Church. When Jesus ascends to heaven we truly become accountable to each other. When Jesus ascends to heaven, we once again have to realize that we are Christ’s body in the world. We are the ones called to witness to Christ’s love in this world. We are the ones called to love as Christ loves us.
And that is why we return to this moment. This tender, complicated, urgent moment in the story year after year. Not because we’ve forgotten it entirely, but because living it out is difficult. Because we, too, are disciples who fumble and forget, who sometimes betray or deny, who hide in fear or get caught up in our own self-preservation.
But Jesus’ words cut through the noise then, and they still do now: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” This commandment is not abstract or sentimental. It’s not a slogan or a campaign. It is a deeply embodied call to action, rooted in the example of Christ himself. His service, his humility, his sacrifice, his steadfast care.
In the strange order of the church calendar, we are asked to dwell with this commandment after Easter joy, perhaps because that’s when we are most tempted to move on. But resurrection is not the end of the story; it’s the beginning of our part in it.
Jesus’ farewell is not a conclusion, but a handing over. A commissioning of sorts. His glorification isn’t only revealed on the cross or in the empty tomb, but in the love that his disciples live out afterward. That includes us. It is in our love—the real, costly, courageous love—that the world will still catch glimpses of Jesus.
It is a love that fiercely protects and advocates for those who are unseen or forgotten, that invites and cherishes those on the margins. It is a love that weeps at the loss of a friend and grieves alongside our neighbors. It is a love that offers abundant grace and forgiveness to those who betray and falter in their humanity. It is a love that opens its arms wide to welcome everyone.
Beloved, when we, as Christians, say that love is the answer, this is the love that we mean. The love of Jesus.
So we remember these words today not only because they were once spoken, but because they are still speaking. This commandment is not past tense. It’s present. Ongoing. A call renewed with every breath of the Church.
And they will know we are Christians, still, even now, by our love.
[1] Karoline Lewis, John, 184.
Micah Krey 
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