Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. 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. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:31-35)
The word “Maundy” comes from the Latin word for commandment (mandatum), which Jesus talked about when he told his disciples that he was leaving them “a new commandment,” that they “love one another.” There were probably so many things going on in the disciples’ minds in that upper room where they had their last supper together, including fear and bewilderment from Jesus telling them that someone in that very room would betray him.
Jesus handed the betrayer a piece of bread, just as he had been feeding all his disciples all along. Always giving, always gracing. Jesus fed thousands of people with fish and loaves, and every word that came out of his mouth was spiritual food for those who listened and understood. But on this night he fed them differently. Passing the bread, and then the wine, he spoke ominous, comforting words: “this is my body… this is my blood.” This was not an ordinary supper, not even an ordinary Passover. His words connected with what he had said on the shores of far-away Galilee “I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty…. whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day” (Jn. 6:35, 54).
Jesus told them to repeat this unique meal in the future, and then it was time to go out into the chilly night. In a quiet garden among olive trees, quiet but for the deep night sounds of dogs barking in the distance and the crickets chirping, Jesus prayed. In agony he prayed. The specter of shameful execution and of bearing the curse of sin tore into the human consciousness of Jesus. And in the end it was sheer obedience to the divine plan that carried Jesus into the hands of the conspirators waiting for him. Did the disciples remember “the new command”?
Ponder This: How might you respond, today, to Jesus’ new command: “so must you love one another.”
What do you think?
[New: The Influence Project]
My goal in life is to as Jesus loved. Gal 5:4-6 says,
I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far more interior: faith expressed in love.
I now realize that the evidence of my faith is how my love is expressed. I believe we the body of Christ can change our world if we are beckons of Christ’s transcendent love first our brother and sisters in Christ and on to the whole world.
Like Paul in Philippians I acknowledge I am not there yet but I am encouraged by the progress I see God through Christ working in me.
Thanks, Mel, for this reminder. It does seem incongruous that during this Holy Week there is such an emotional public dialog regarding marriage and the debate seems devoid of love for one another.
By the very nature of God who is Love in its highest & infinite order must operate in our Being
through His Spirit so that we can do all things according to His will, by His power & might!
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for going to the cross on my behalf so that I can have Life and Light in you otherwise, I would have found it hard to love those who cause violence everyday on Christians in Northern Nigeria. Help me and other Christians in the country to still love in our context of suffering even when the we are isolated. Thank you Mel!
What a great God we serve and what a great opportunity to know HIM. I believe in the finish work of Jesus in Calvary without this I could have perish in my misery but Thanks be to OUR FATHER who LOVES us so much that HE nullify all the works of devil and disgraced his kingdom. Let us love one another as Christ loves us.To GOD be the glory.We have been redeemed and on the way to meet our heavenly Father and to say thank you to Jesus. Let adore the HOLY SPIRIT who has been strenghening us all along. SHALOM.
It is hard to love one another when there are so many evil people in the world. Teenagers not even grown to adulthood shooting chldren in schools & babbies in their strollers. I know God will punish them, but I have a hard time loving! If they want to kill someone, why don’t they target evil people?
He paid it all
Jesus Christ suffered so terrible a death to save all souls that know this and will submit to his will. Never before or since has the world experienced love like his, without his life and death on the cross no one could be saved I can’t imagine the cruelty he endured to save us.
As his decibels found the world hated Jesus Christ he told them this could happen to them if they followed him. Many of them suffered martyr deaths.
Let us pray for all sinners ourselves included to deny our sins is to call God a liar, and this cannot be.
One of the things that helps me to strive to love those who do evil is to realize that there for the grace of God go I. The Word of God says that nothing good lives in our sinful natures, and that it is hostile to God , and can not submit to Him-and this is all an unsaved person has. All of our sinful natures are evil.whether working itself out in horrible deeds or in more “acceptable” ways such as gossip, disinterest in the things of God and lack of concern for others.
Our duty as Christians is to proclaim the true Gospel of forgiveness of sins through Christ’s death on our behalf , and to live a life of love that shows lost people Jesus – so that those that have only the sinful nature have a chance to see -and then reject or accept Christ – and His gracious offer of new life in Him through the forgiveness of sins. And, in this passage , and in John 17, Jesus says love for fellow Christians show the world that you belong to Him. Do we spend proper time and resources building up Christ’s church?