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"Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you cannot come,' so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."
Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered him, "Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward." Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake." Jesus answered him, "Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times."
- John 13:36-38
On Tuesday, we read that Jesus said, "Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name." Then a voice came from heaven, saying, "I have both glorified it and will glorify it again." Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, "An angel has spoken to Him." Jesus answered and said, "This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself." This He said signifying by what death He would die. The people answered Him, "We have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever; and how can You say, 'The Son of Man must be lifted up'? Who is this Son of Man?" Then Jesus said to them, "A little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light." These things Jesus spoke, and departed, and was hidden from them.
"Little children, I shall be with you a little while longer. You will seek Me; and as I said to the Jews, 'Where I am going, you cannot come,' so now I say to you. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." As it is Holy Week (in the Western Churches and the Armenian Apostolic Church; Eastern Orthodox and Coptic Orthodox celebrate Easter 2015 on April 12th), the lectionary varies in the passages we read. As I enjoy blogging the Gospels in the same order as the verses appear in the text, I have chosen the reading that fits between chapter 12 (Tuesday) and chapter 14 which will will begin this Monday. It is just two verses (John 13:36-38), but I have added these verses before them to include an essential teaching of Christ. My study bible makes the point that many religions and philosophies teach people to love one another. But what makes this particular commandment new, it says, is the measure required of our love: we must love as Christ has loved us, laying down His life not only for His friends, but even for His enemies. It is a significant sign of this mission that a great part of it is just that, to teach us what love is, does, looks like. God manifest in human form can do that as no other teaching form can do. Ultimately, with Christ, everything goes back to the Father and the relationship He has with the Father; from this we learn, too, what love is, means, looks like -- and that we participate in this source of love ourselves.
Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, where are You going?" Jesus answered him, "Where I am going you cannot follow Me now, but you shall follow Me afterward." Peter said to Him, "Lord, why can I not follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your sake." Jesus answered him, "Will you lay down your life for My sake? Most assuredly, I say to you, the rooster shall not crow till you have denied Me three times." My study bible tells us that Jesus gives a prophecy here of the martyrdom of Simon Peter, which he wold suffer for the sake of Christ by being crucified upside down in Rome in about AD 67 ("you shall follow Me afterward").
In today's reading we're given not only Jesus' prophecy of the future death of Peter as martyr, but also, of course, the prophesy of Peter's denials which will follow more immediately. We know our human weakness. It's as if today's reading is juxtaposing for us the great standard of Christ, as well as our very human tendencies. And really, maybe that is in some sense what Holy Week is all about. It invites us to think about the standards (of love, for example, in loving one another as He has loved us) set for us. Christ knows the eventual work of Peter as a great apostle and leader of apostles, a pillar of the Church. He knows Peter's eventual martyrdom for the love of Christ and for His sheep. And yet, He knows Peter as the one who will deny Him three times that very night, despite Peter's plea to follow and lay down his life for Christ's sake. Part of loving us means that Christ knows our natures and our weaknesses, but He sees things we can't necessarily see -- or, if we do, we see by God's grace: who are the sheep who also hold His kind of love (John 10:14). As we've observed most particularly through the chapters we've read in John's Gospel, Jesus always goes back to the Father. If you want to understand anything, you must go to the First Source, the Father. Christ showing, living, and being love in the world is a reflection of the Father to us; where He is, there the Father is also. Everything is teaching in this mission. But maybe most importantly, we are to love one another as Christ has loved us, and we have to think about what that really means. Has He ceased to tell about the Father and the love for the Father that is not only in Himself but must also be in us? This is one key to understanding what Christ's love is all about, that it's not a philosophy and it's not a theory. It's about relationship between persons/Persons. Ultimately, love is a personal reality, because it is a living part of what it means to be a person, to have personhood. Love is the expression of ourselves as persons, just as it is given for us to know from a Person. Our faith is not in mere intellectual concepts, it's not only in philosophies, although all things that convey truth are a part of that faith. In this Monday's reading, we will read Jesus' statement that He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). Thereby for us as followers of Christ, truth takes on many powerful meanings and great significance. It's not only that we need and respect truth in all things, but that we understand that our faith is in the Person who is Truth, and perhaps the deepest part of that truth is the love that He teaches in this great commandment He adds and leaves with all of His disciples. He teaches us truth that sets us free, that which liberates us from a slavery of sin. He teaches us to reach for that standard of love which belongs to us, too, and which He has brought by example into the world. He teaches us to share His light. All of this, in the end, is about the kind of love He teaches by example; it is a love that takes us further, that gives us new standards, that helps us to truly see and to illuminate the world for others as well. Despite Peter's weakness and denials, Peter will go on to be a martyr for this particular love. And so, it's important that we remember today that Christ teaches us who we are, and most especially that means what we're capable of being and doing. We can love like He loves, too. We can love His truth, we can bring it to others, we can be set free from a kind of slavery to lies, and false truth, and demagoguery that says that life can't get any better than a flawed system of willful blindness to love. Christ gives us a measuring stick, Himself, but most of all He gives us His love and grace, which is always "on call" for us when we have doubts about how to proceed, how to decide, and what love is in any particular situation. Oh, we're not expected to be perfect in the sense that we don't have a long ways to go. Look at Peter, the denial we start from today, and the martyrdom that will come later on as the powerful apostle meets his death at Rome. But we are on a road. And we are on a road with Him, the Good Shepherd, the Teacher, the One who loves us, lays down His life for us as His friends, and teaches us how to be like Him. And that's the important thing -- that we are on that road, and we start today, with His love which He shares with us and teaches us to share with others. It is love inside of us that teaches us to follow Him.
