.png)
What else is new?
- Gethsemane Lutheran Church
- May 18
- 7 min read
I give you a new commandment, Jesus says: love one another. We’ve heard this before, right? It isn’t even new. “Love your neighbor as yourself” was written down in Leviticus[1], that ancient book of the Torah. What is Jesus talking about?
Here, we’ve got to review a little bit. The Gospel reading that’s printed in the bulletin only gives us a bare snippet of speech from Jesus’s long address to his disciples. Biblical scholars call this the Farewell Discourse. This is in John 13:21-30.
To set the scene, Jesus has just finished washing the feet of the disciples. So Jesus says this:
21After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, "Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me." 22The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. 23One of his disciples — the one whom Jesus loved — was reclining next to him; 24Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?" 26Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. 27After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "Do quickly what you are going to do." 28Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. 29Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, "Buy what we need for the festival"; or, that he should give something to the poor. 30So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.
So that solves the mystery of that first part of the Scripture we read earlier: “When he had gone out”—when WHO had gone out? JUDAS.
Now we all know what Judas did, but the rest of the disciples didn’t know the whole story yet. You’d expect that when Judas left, Jesus would say something like, “Now the Son of Humanity is betrayed into the hands of sinners.” But instead Jesus says the opposite: “Now the Son of Humanity has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.”
What does this even mean to be glorified? When I think of Jesus saying that through his actions, he is glorifying God, I think of it like saying you are honoring someone to the extent that you begin to resemble them. In the way people might recognize who your parents are by studying your facial features or your expressions: “You look just like your mom.” “Your mannerisms are just like your dad.” “Her facial expressions are just like her grandfather.” “They are the spitting image of their grandmother.” Jesus resembles God in the way he loves his disciples, unconditionally.
And what Jesus tells them is “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” Now this commandment isn’t exactly new, as we pointed out, so what IS new? “Love one another…just as I have loved you.” Remember this is the speech to the disciples before Jesus is arrested and crucified—so how has Jesus shown love to these disciples?
Let’s back the story up again and read the beginning of chapter 13:
1Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.
The example of love that Jesus has just given his disciples is by washing their feet. I cannot stress this enough: this was not normal behavior—this is very specifically a task that only a servant would do. Jesus is specifically up-ending social convention, upsetting the roles of master and servant.
Did you ever take a class where the teacher did something other than speak from behind a lectern? Like, sit on the edge of their desk while lecturing or even stand somewhere else? Did it work as a method to get your attention?
It would be like if I sat down in a pew and preached while sitting next to you—would you feel like maybe some attention is being drawn to you? Or what if I preach from sitting on the quilt with the children on the floor—it’s not because I feel like sitting down, it’s purposeful! To draw attention to the little ones on the floor. Usually the kids do a pretty good job of drawing attention all by themselves, but I like to join them sometimes, in solidarity with their work.
But besides his posture, Jesus engages in this embarrassingly intimate act. Besides the fact that foot-washing shouldn’t be in a teacher’s job description, there’s the element of “unclean-ness” afoot (pun intended?) since feet are…in the dirt and stuff. When the leader touches the feet of his disciples, he’s upsetting the system of ritual purity and impurity.
And before you start thinking, oh, I would be honored for Jesus to wash my feet, let me just share some data. Whenever we worship leaders try to offer foot-washing as part of the liturgy of Maundy Thursday, every year during Holy Week, and it only happens once a year: no one is really excited about it and then hardly anyone is willing to even participate in it! Touching someone’s feet is so foreign and so intimate. Everyone has excuses. No one wants their feet touched!
Peter doesn’t, either. Now let’s read John 13:6-11:
6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" 7Jesus answered, "You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand." 8Peter said to him, "You will never wash my feet." Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no share with me." 9Simon Peter said to him, "Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!" 10Jesus said to him, "One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you." 11For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, "Not all of you are clean."
Peter cannot handle this intimacy. Is he questioning Jesus because he wants a bigger share of Jesus’s power? Not exactly—Jesus zeroes in on the real issue: Peter has a mistaken belief that he requires purification.
This week I read a commentary from The Salt Project that explains this well, summarizing what Jesus is essentially saying to Peter:
“Don’t doubt your worth or propriety — I’m not washing you because you’re unclean, but rather in order to demonstrate the kind of dignifying love I have in mind[2]. You aren’t greater than me, mind you[3], but neither are you lesser; I will call you not “servants,” but “friends”[4]. I kneel and wash your feet to drive this point home, to set an example for you, so you might go and do likewise for one another. Listen: I’m leaving, and I’m entrusting my love to you. Take up my mantle! Love as I have loved you, making friends, not servants, bridging divides between allegedly “higher” and “lower,” “insider” and “outsider,” “clean” and “unclean.””[5]
This becomes important for Peter later on, since the Acts reading tells us more of Peter’s story—he’s still wrestling with the concept of what is clean and unclean, and who is clean or unclean. A vision comes to him to illuminate this truth: “What God has made clean, you must not call profane.” And finally for Peter, he receives this truth in humility: “Who was I that I could hinder God?” He isn’t trying to get in the way or stop God from acting, right?
So what’s the takeaway for us? Who are we calling unclean? Who are we separating ourselves from because we just don’t want to love them? Or are we still trying to convince ourselves that Jesus wasn’t talking about loving THAT person because C’MON, JESUS, YOU JUST DON’T KNOW HOW BAD THEY ARE.
I don’t think you’re ever going to convince Jesus that your enemy is worse than his enemies or any other enemy. Because let’s not forget whose feet Jesus washed: all the disciples. And Peter, who denied him. And WHO ELSE? Judas, who betrayed him. Everyone else didn’t understand the significance, but John’s Gospel tells us that Jesus knew what was going on the whole time.
If Jesus can wash the feet of Judas, I don’t think we can sit here and pretend like Jesus is naïve. The same Jesus saying “Love one another” is the same Jesus who has just washed the feet of his betrayer. “Love one another as I have loved you” hits different when you put that whole context together.
“Love one another” is so much more than nice feelings and politeness. Loving one another will mean sacrifice, it will mean humility, it will mean letting go of grudges and slights, and it will also mean doing the hard work of holding people accountable—that is also love. Loving one another will mean speaking up for justice or doing the right thing even if it’s the unpopular thing.
That’s how everyone will know you’re my disciples, Jesus says, by the way you love one another. By the way you foolishly wash the feet of even your enemies.
Amen.
Pastor Cheryl
[1] Leviticus 19:18
[2] Reference John 13:6-10
[3] Reference John 13:16
[4] Reference John 15:12-15
Comments