John 13:33-35
Text Introduction: Addressing his disciples as “little children,” Jesus began what would be his final teaching session with them before the betrayal and crucifixion. He reminded them he was going away and instructed them on how they were to live.
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Years ago I heard a man talk about his experiences as a teacher at a small, very conservative Christian college in the upper Midwest. The school’s leaders felt they had a vested interest in micro-managing students’ lives. Every aspect of their lives was subject to strict rules. Each dorm had only one TV and it could be watched only during certain times of the day. Radios had to be set to Christian stations and turned off at the 11:00 pm “lights out.” This college had a rule, found on many such campuses, against what was referred to as “public displays of affection.” According to this rule, young men and young women had to remain a respectable distance from one another. This was sometimes interpreted to mean a couple had to have at least six-inches of daylight between them. Holding hands was not allowed.
The former teacher tried not to be dictatorial on the matter but felt obliged to occasionally remind students of the rule, if only to spare them embarrassment by other faculty members.
On one occasion he saw a young couple walking along, holding hands. He cleared his throat had gently said, “Young lady, the Bible says, ‘lay hands on no man suddenly.’”
To this she quickly responded—also using the King James Version—“Yes, but it also says, ‘Hold fast to that which is good.’”
The sad truth is, in the minds of many outsiders we Christians don’t need anyone patrolling to make sure we don’t engage in public displays of affection.
Many people, especially young people, believe we are more likely to engage in public displays of dislike. While I don’t think it’s fair to tar us all with the same brush, I have to admit we occasionally give our critics ammunition. I don’t have to remind you it’s an election year and, recently, politics seems to be bringing out the worst of Christian vitriol. Listen to some of the talk shows or read some columns. You’ll discover it’s not limited to one political persuasion or the other. Christians on the left and on the right cannot simply say a candidate is wrong, they must say that candidate is evil. We don’t allow for deviation from political orthodoxy. Let a candidate say, “We need to make changes to our health care system but I don’t want to pay for a hair weave for some guy who doesn’t like getting older,” and suddenly she’s guilty of favoring either death panels or keeping antibiotics from feverish children.
The uncertain economy, the unrest in the world, and even the presidential campaign seems to be making people bad-tempered. Consider this. A few years ago a study revealed that churches are more likely to fire pastors or force their resignations during an election year than at any other time.
Believe me; I’m not planning on telling anyone who I’m voting for. And I may not tell anyone what team I’m rooting for in the Olympics this summer. Everyone is so tense and irritable, even in churches.
But, Jesus called his disciples to maintain public displays of affection.
Listen to his words: “I am giving you a new command--love one another.” Jesus made it clear that obedience to this command was important, not only because loving one another would transform the community of believers, but because loving one another would be, in itself, a witness to outsiders of Christ’s powerful work. He put it this way, “You must have love for one another. This is how everyone will know that you are my followers.''
Obeying Jesus’ command to love one another confirms we are his people.
Perhaps that’s why Jesus gave this new command the crucial place it had in his farewell message to his disciples.
But How Was It A “New” Command?
Obviously, the simple command to love wasn’t new. Several times in the Old Testament Jewish believers were told to love their fellow Jews. In Leviticus, the code which defined the day to day character the Jewish people were to exhibit said, “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” This expectation was repeated in a variety of ways throughout the Old Testament. Jesus must have meant something other than that the command was unprecedented. So, how was this command new?
It was new in its standard. Jesus told the disciples they were to love one another “as I have loved you.” Jesus’ own love is the standard by which his followers are to love one another.
This is not love in the abstract. Jesus embodied this love. That love motivated his ministry. As one writer put it, Jesus was “the Man for others.” The most dramatic and undeniable illustration of that love would be displayed within a few hours of his giving them the command. He would give his life on the cross.
Love like Jesus’ love is the goal which is set before us.
It was new in its spirit. As the Messiah, Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of God
In the same way, the spirit of this command to love one another was different. The love Jesus sought was not the product of the law, with its raw demands for obedience; it was a love which was the product of the life of the new age.
As our lives are transformed by Jesus’ love, we are enabled to love as we never would have been able to love before. Because Jesus has given us the life of the new age his ministry initiated, our relationships will never be the mundane or common.
It was new in its scope. Jews loving Jews was expected. Of course, in any culture it is always easiest to love those who are most like us. Jesus’ command looked to the day when the community of believers would escape the narrow boundaries of Judaism. One day, there would be Jews and Greeks, rich and poor, educated and uneducated, slaves and free, within the churches founded following the spread of the Gospel. There would be an unprecedented love among those believers.
Alexander Maclaren spoke of this love and the new thing it accomplished.
“Barbarian, Scythian, bond and free, male and female, Jew and Greek, learned and ignorant, clasped hands and sat down at one table, and felt themselves all one in Christ Jesus. They were ready to break all other bonds, and to yield to the uniting forces that streamed out from His Cross. There never had been anything like it. No wonder that the world began to babble about sorcery, and conspiracies in unnamable vices. It was only that the disciples were obeying the new commandment, and a new thing had come into the world--a community held together by love and not by geographical accidents or linguistic affinities, or the iron fetters of a conqueror…. The new commandment made a new thing….”
What did obedience to this new command mean the Christians as they moved among the non-believers?
Loving One Another Declares the Identity of the Church
The love the Christians had for one another was crucial for the survival of the church. As the church grew, more and more of the people coming to faith in Christ faced ostracism and rejection by their own families and friends. Some would be disowned, some would lose their livelihood, some women would be deserted, some young men and women would be treated by their families as if they were dead. They all needed a place where they could find support, warmth, comfort, and love. That place was the church. But as those new believers, regardless of the social, economic, or ethnic origins, found acceptance among their fellow believers something else was happening.
Jesus said his followers loving one another would declare to the world that they were his followers. If they loved like Jesus, they must be followers of Jesus.
Without this characteristic their identity was in question.
There would be other identifying marks of the Christian church, but none were so important to those outsiders observing the church.
Only those within the community of faith would understand why it was important to maintain the doctrinal elements of a Christian world-view. Those on the outside of the community would be more impressed by the love the Christians for one another.
Failure to maintain that mutual love placed the church in spiritual jeopardy.
In the Book of Revelation, John would write of a church where orthodoxy was intact, a church where moral integrity was the order of the day, a church which patiently endured suffering; but a church which was, nevertheless, deficient because it had abandoned its “first” love. In his message to that band of Ephesian Christians the Risen Lord of the Church said, “I have this complaint against you: You don't love me or each other as you did at first!” (Revelation 2:4)
Unless that situation changed the church was warned that its “candlestick” would be removed—a figure of speech which meant that its identity as a Christian community would be negated. Without love it could not be a church.
Even though some congregations struggled to maintain the rule of love, the Christians were universally known by their love for one another. One pagan writer actually complained that the Christians loved fellow Christians before they had even met them.
Loving One Another Determines the Impact Of The Church
Jesus’ words imply an important principle. The effectiveness of our witness outside the community of faith is directly related to the integrity of our life within the community.
In the second chapter of Acts Luke tells of the early days of the church’s life. He writes of their worship, their commitment to study, their generosity toward the needy among them, the depth of their faith. This is how he put it:
“These [new believers] remained faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers. And everyone was filled with awe; the apostles worked many signs and miracles. And all who shared the faith owned everything in common; they sold their goods and possessions and distributed the proceeds among themselves according to what each one needed. Each day, with one heart, they regularly went to the Temple but met in their houses for the breaking of bread; they shared their food gladly and generously; they continually praised God…”
Then, Luke adds a final observation about the people of Jerusalem
What’s the key to evangelism, to reaching the unreached in our communities? It’s not one more program, as useful as some programs can be. It’s not a colorful leader, though some churches have temporarily grown through the ministry of charismatic leaders. Throughout history the church has made its greatest impact when ordinary Christians have lived like Christians, like men and women determined to imitate Christ.
Ray Ortland writes about the church’s impact.
“It was as brothers and sisters that the church conquered the world. We must keep this ever before us. It was a glorious band of brothers and sisters that sailed the oceans and marched through the continents to both dungeon and throne with the Good News. One of the reasons they succeeded is that mankind, severed from one another and longing to come together, witnessed real love among the followers of Christ…. Wherever the church succeeds today, it is in large measure due to the love that exists between brothers and sisters in Christ.”
Conclusion
This morning we celebrated the Lord’s Supper. It’s known by a number of names within Christianity. One of the best known is “Communion.” That’s a name recalling the fellowship or communion we have with Christ and with each other. One writer says, “In Christianity, the basic meaning of the term communion is an especially close relationship of Christians, as individuals or as a Church, with God and with other Christians.”
As a student of church history, I can’t help but notice the irony that the Lord’s Supper—this rite celebrating our fellowship—is a topic we have fought over for centuries. We have a hard time getting right Jesus’ words about the public display of affection.
But sometimes we do.
The other day I was in a conversation with some friends when, out of the blue, one of them mentioned the Moody Memorial Church. It seems some elderly neighbors of his used to attend there when the couple lived in Chicago. As he talked about his neighbors I recalled a story I heard years ago.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century there was a little boy who faithfully attended the Moody church each Sunday morning. But he was always there by himself. Finally, one snowy morning an usher asked him where he lived. When the little boy told him, the usher realized the boy had to walk many blocks to attend the church.
He said, “Son, you have to walk past several churches to get here. Why do you come here?”
The youngster answered, “Because, they love a fella here.”
I could be wrong but I get the sense that Jesus is less concerned with our politics than he is our love for one another—and for the world.
