“…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)
Church tradition marks this day (the Thursday of Passion Week) as the date of the Last Supper–where Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment: that they love one another.
I don’t know about the tradition part of it–if this week as tradition has established it is really the appropriate way to honor Jesus washing his disciples feet, telling them of the Kingdom and making this new commandment. In my tradition, we tend to distrust church traditions of a certain age. Whether we should or not, I leave to you. Your miles may vary, and your answer for most of you will be defined by the way you were raised, regardless of if you’re a person of faith or not.
But there’s something I do know: it has never been easy for us to love one another. It is difficult for us to love even the parts of people we can see–and that’s before we get into the variety of things we all hide and are ashamed of in ourselves that we fear to show any other person, or you take into account how utterly unhinged some of us are on the internet or watching our favorite sporting event. Loving people means knowing what is true about each of us: that we can be difficult, petty, selfish, self-centered, egocentric, self-righteous, self-important, etc., and choosing instead to see the part God values–the part he was willing to leave heaven for and then come here and die for.
Jesus knew he was being betrayed. He told the room full of his closest friends that it was about to go down. He even knew who was going to do it. But there’s no evidence that Jesus stopped loving even the one who betrayed him. In fact, there is evidence that he pleaded for mercy for those who would mock and beat him very soon after this–“Forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.”
This has been a disheartening week for me on a variety of levels. I am returning from a sabbatical that nearly broke me and pressed every sensitive place in me to return to the job that made the sabbatical necessary with without any answers about how to make it better. I have watched people I love struggle in the midst of difficult decisions brought on them by the sins of others. I have watched misunderstandings mushroom into utter nonsense. I have watched internet arguments about a burning cathedral set people against one another in a sadly predictable way. The political division continues. My honest confession in this moment is that there are people I love today that I wish I didn’t–it would make my life simpler. There is a part of me that wishes I could dispense with them or tell them off, and that would be the end of it. There are plenty of cultural voices who would applaud me for “removing toxic people from my life.” But there’s that pesky and difficult new command of Jesus that I am forced to call to mind. And immediately after I do that, I am reminded of the reality that there are (too many) times where I am also hard to love. You probably are too. (And if you think you’re easy to love, the chances are excellent that the opposite is really the truth.) In the end, the most unlovable and toxic person I know is me. And yet, I’m loved.
I don’t know where this will find you, but whether you believe in Jesus or not, I know this: in our fractured times, you struggle loving at least some people. Wherever this finds you, I hope you can see the beauty in this command of Jesus, and see how much he really did give to us in loving us the way he does. We can find meaning, freedom from shame, and eternal purpose in it. The love of God in Jesus Christ can rekindle the fire of life in us.
This yearly celebration can be a time when you commit (or recommit) your life to serving the God who demonstrated his love for us in this: that while we were still sinners–He died for us. He didn’t wait for us to become lovable–he took the step to love us so that we had hope that we could become lovable.
Prayers for your weekend, whether you believe in my Lord or not. May you encounter Him and be reminded of both the depth of your unloveableness and the depth of love poured out for you anyways in Jesus Christ. Grace and peace.
Listening to: “Is He Worthy?” by Andrew Peterson.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIahc83Kvp4&w=448&h=252]
