A NEW COMMANDMENT
Meditations on the Cross, 13
"A
new commandment I'm giving you - that
you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you love one another. By this all will know that you are my
disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34, 35)
These
words of Jesus, spoken to his 11 disciples in the upper room on the eve of his
crucifixion, are often quoted and have been paraphrased, even put to
music. (We sang them often during the
70s.) But what was Jesus referring to
when he said, " ... as I have loved you"? Our thoughts usually go to the cross when we
think of the greatness of his love - but these words were spoken before he went
to the cross!
Jesus
had previously often quoted Leviticus 19:18 which he referred to as the Second
Great Commandment: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." By "neighbor" of course, he was
alluding to anyone who might have need of love, i.e. our fellow human beings,
but in this "New Commandment" he was narrowing the field to "one
another," by which he means his hearers' fellow disciples. And he has raised the standard of love
from one's normal self-love to the love he
had shown them..
I
believe that John (who refers to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus
loved"), the author of this story and an eyewitness to the events, gives
us some clues in the preceding narrative.
John
tells us that at this point in time, at what is usually referred to as "the
Last Supper," Jesus had full knowledge of what was going to happen to him
within a few short hours. He knew
"that his hour had come that he would depart from this world to the Father
... the devil already having put into the heart of Judas the son of Simon
Iscariot that he would betray him ... that the Father had given all things into
his hand, and that he had come from God and was going to God ..." (13:1-3) And yet, though all these matters, good and
bad, were occupying his mind, "... having loved his own who were in the
world, he loved them to the end!" (13:1)
And
then Jesus performed a strange act. He
"... got up from supper and laid
aside his garments, and taking a towel, tied it around himself. Then he put water into the wash basin and began
to wash the feet of the disciples and to wipe them off with the towel which was
wrapped around him."
I'd
suppose that every eye was fixed on Jesus, as he went from one reclining man to
the next, speaking strange things to one of them, Simon Peter, but otherwise
silent. Washing the feet of the dinner
guests was an act usually performed by a servant, or (I'm told) if no servant
were available, by each dinner guest on the next guest to arrive. But no one had done so. Perhaps as they entered they had been engaged
in deep conversation; perhaps they had been at this time even involved in the
dispute mentioned by Luke in his account (Luke 22:24ff) "as to which one
of them was the greatest."
I
would imagine some consternation and confusion among these twelve men. After all they were disciples of the man who
recently had ridden into Jerusalem and was hailed by the crowds as "The
King of Israel." He was the Rabbi
they had followed for three years, the one they referred to as Lord. And here he was - naked on his knees on the
floor, performing the act of a common
slave!
John
continues his narrative, telling of Jesus confrontation with Peter, the brief
discourse on washing one anothers' feet, the prediction of Judas' betrayal. And then the chapter comes to a climax in the
words quoted at the beginning of this post.
Jesus'
words and actions are loaded with symbolism.
Everything he does has significance.
Leaving aside his discourse on foot washing (a later post?) we see him
in a sense, acting out a parable of his incarnation.
The
Apostle Paul, in his letter to the Philippians (2:6-8) tells his readers in a
beautiful piece of poetry of the preincarnate Christ:
"Who being God in form
did not consider equality with God
something to be clung tobut emptied himself, taking the form of a slave,
becoming in the likeness of humans
and being found in outward form as a man,
he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death
- even death on a cross."
This
I believe, is what Jesus was illustrating for them - and for us - by his
actions. He had laid aside his garments at the table, as he had done at his
incarnation. He had taken the role of a
slave, there in the upper room, as he had in Bethlehem. And as he would do on the cross the next day.
And
though some may disagree, I believe that there on the floor in the upper room
Jesus was totally naked. Nakedness in
the Bible in some sense symbolizes shame Genesis 3 tells us that it was when
Adam and Eve sinned that they first realized their own nakedness. Was Jesus in his nakedness identifying
himself with that pair in their nakedness and shame?
And
the next day in Golgotha he would hang naked as the soldiers gambled over his
clothing. This was the final stage in
his obedience, his shame, his humiliation.
And
yes, he took on himself not only the shame, but also the guilt of those men in
the upper room; and he took on our shame and guilt as well.
And
he makes a demand of us, of all who have taken advantage of his grace by placing
our faith in him. We are to love one
another as he has loved us. That's quite
a demand. Are we willing to "empty" ourselves, to face humiliation,
to bare ourselves to one another (though not literally), for the sake of our
brothers and sisters in Christ?
[Of
course this isn't the end of the story.
See: What's in a Name]
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