We Are Commanded to Love

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” –John 13:34-35 (ESV).

These words were spoken by Jesus on the night of His farewell discourse to His disciples.  They were gathered in an upper room in Jerusalem.  He had washed his disciples’ feet as an act of kindness and to teach them an important lesson about humility and service.  “Truly, truly I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.  If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:16-17).  He then gave a prophetic message about those who would go out in Jesus’ name to take His message:  “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me”  (John 13:20). But then in the sequence of events of that night, Jesus was “troubled in spirit” and predicted that one of them in the room would betray him.  He said it would be the one to whom he handed the morsel of bread, for they were eating the Passover Meal together.  After giving bread to Judas Iscariot, we are told “Satan entered into him” (13:27) and “he immediately went out.  And it was night.”  How ominous are the words “it was night.”  The powers of darkness were at work to betray Jesus.  He would refer to night again later when He was arrested: “But this is your hour, and the power of darkness” (Luke 22:53).  After Judas left the upper room, Jesus gave what he called ‘a new commandment,’ and that was that they love each other as He loved them.  What a commandment!  Do we love each other enough to lay down our lives for another?  This is what Jesus did for us.  He lay down His life; we are to live ours obediently.

I am reminded of the example the French novelist Victor Hugo gives in his novel, Les Miserables.  He tells the story of Jean Valjean who stole a loaf of bread because that seemed the only way he could help his sister feed her starving childen.  Jean was arrested and served for nineteen years in prison for this minor crime.  At the end of his prison term he was turned out on the streets, much older, penniless and unable to find work because of his prison record.  In deapair he finally made his way to the home of a good old bishop who took him in, fed him a nourishing meal and gave him a clean bed on which to sleep.  Valjean recalled that the bishop had served him on silver platters and the candles had been mounted on beautiful silver candlesticks.  The ex-prisoner got up and stole the platters, thinking he could sell them and make some money to live on for awhile.  But he was soon apprehended by the police with the stolen goods in his possession and they brought the thief with his loot back to the bishop’s house.  The bishop, whose heart was overflowing with love, told the police, “I gave them to him.”  And turning to Valjean, he said, “And Jean, you forgot to take the candlesticks.”  Valjean was shocked by the bishop’s kind treatment of him, which prevented his being incarcerated again.  He accepted the candlesticks, but later on reflection, Valjean knew it was out of love for him that the bishop had acted with such compassion.  The bishop’s act of love brought about Jean Valjean’s true repentance and a redemption of his life.  He had observed love in word and in deed, and it made a difference in his life. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  Who needs the love of Jesus today?  And how can we be the instrument of delivering that love?

Holy Week Day by Day – Thursday–The Lord’s Supper and Agony in the Garden

“Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, ‘Take, eat, this is my body.’ And he took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them saying, “Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.” –Matthew 26:26-29 (ESV). “And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Yours be done.’ And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him.” -Luke 22:41-43 (ESV).

We call the Thursday before Easter Sunday “Maundy Thursday.” The term actually derives from the Latin, “mndatum novum do vobis,” “ A new (mandate) commandment I give to you,” In Luke’s account of the Lord’s Supper (that of the bread and wine following the Passover Meal), Jesus said: “This do in remembrance of me.” (Luke 22:19b, ESV). Paul, in instructing about the observance of the Lord’s Supper, wrote: “This is my body which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, sayingk, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until He comes.” (I Corinthians 11:24b-25, ESV). The ordinance of the Lord’s Supper is a very solemn and serious time of self-examination and deep reflection to see if the believer understands the atoning sacrifice of Jesus’ death for others. “This do in remembrance of me” takes into account the sacrificial death of Jesus, the breaking of His body and the shedding of His blood for the remission of my sins. In remembrance of Him I think of His incarnation, His life, the new covenant He established, and a means of koinonia—fellowship—sharing in the hope, through faith, that we have in the new covenant and new way Jesus established. I also remember His teachings and how He showed me a new and better Way. I remember that He said, “”If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23, ESV). In that Upper Room, they sang a hymn (probably a selection from the “Hallel’ hymns contained in Psalm 113-118 and 136). Then they went out, walked across the Kidron valley and went to the Garden of Gethsemane.

In the Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives, Jesus went apart to pray, leaving the disciples at a distance from him to watch. But each time He returned from prayer he found them sleeping. A reprimand was in order: “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation” (Luke 22:46, ESV). This is not to excuse the disciples, but it had been a long day, and they were physically and emotionally exhausted. Their inability to be alert at a very crucial time to Jesus and to themselves is a lesson to us. His warning to His disciples applies to all of us: “Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41, ESV). When he returned to His disciples the third time, Jesus had won the victory through prayer. It was not that He had not known His mission all along. He had already told His disciples that he would die and rise again the third day. He knew why He had come to earth. Jesus is facing the most severe trial of His life. “This cup” signifies that He is to accomplish His mission—to bear the sins of the world. In Luke’s account, His agony was accompanied with drops of sweat like blood that fell down upon the ground (Luke 22:44). Luke’s account also has an angel coming to minister to Jesus in His agony. Jesus rises from his knees, returns to His disciples, and straightaway, Judas comes to betray Jesus with a kiss and He is arrested and taken away to Annas first for a series of trials.

As we read and study the events of Thursday—Maundy Thursday—may we spend time praying and considering the ordinance Jesus instituted as a remembrance. May we take courage at His example of prayer under great duress. The humanity of Jesus and the immediacy of His mission and suffering were very real, cogent and near at hand in the Garden of Gethsemane. James Montgomery’s hymn well expresses Jesus’ condition as described in the scripture: My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matthew 16:38, NIV): “Go to dark Gethsemane, You who feel the tempter’s power; Your Redeemer’s conflict see; Watch with Him one bitter hour; Turn not from His griefs away; Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.”