John 13: 31-38

 John 13: 31-38

This is the beginning of Jesus's final discourse in teaching with His disciples. In this passage we find a constitution for the community of Jesus's disciples. In verses 34-35 Jesus gives the foundational, commandment for the church's life and the power of its witness. To love one another even as the Lord has loved His disciples. That kind of life and love is an undeniable witness to a world of brutal selfishness.

Jesus says love is a commandment. We often think of love as a spontaneous emotion that cannot be resisted, planned or predicted. The use of the word commandment reminds us of the Ten commandments of Mount Sinai. Jesus has just instituted the Lord's Supper and the New Covenant. As the Ten Commandments began the old covenant love begins the new one. This love is expressed in willing self-sacrifice for our fellow disciples. Jesus has just referred to his death as an expression of His love for His disciples. When the world witnesses that kind of love the witness of Christ in the world is present.  But when the world sees hostility among disciples there can be no witness.  Love without serving sacrifice is banal sentimentality and is useless. It leads faith communities to become self-serving self-seeking religion clubs but never to be the church. 

This love has less to do with Anglicans and Episcopalians getting along than love  among those personally known to each other. This is not about Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox church leaders respecting each other. The selfish aggrandizing by individuals in local churches does more damage than the arguments over sub-points of doctrine.  Love of our brothers is more important than the style of worship within the worship service.  If we do not love our fellow disciples we are not part of the covenant community known as the church we are not disciples.

“Lord, grant me the will to obey Your command to love Your people.  AMEN”

John 13: 21-30

 John 13: 21-30

In this passage we see a man passed the tipping point, the point of no return. Judas had begun moving against Jesus. In verse two we see Judas had begun to plan to betray Jesus. Judas for reasons of his own made a deal with the devil but even at this late moment grace is a possibility. Jesus has washed his feet and Judas appears to be resting at Jesus's left side, the place of honor at a Jewish dinner. Jesus gives Judas a morsel of bread, a customary way to honor a person at a Jewish meal. The word morsel that is used to describe the bread Jesus gave Judas is the same word that was often used to describe the bread of communion.

In response to Judas’ betrayal Jesus offers grace, honor, kindness, and love. Judas’ response to grace goes deeper into the darkness. It is in receiving the bread that Satan entered into Judas. In John 13:2 Satan made a suggestion, in John 13:27 Judas surrendered himself to Satan, the dark lord moved in.

There is a test for our heart that we see here. How do you respond to the grace when we are wrong? When we have behaved badly and those who love us extend kindness towards us do we respond in pride and anger, do we react with coldness? If that is the case we have a hardening heart, it is a heart marked by unbelief. We are then in the greatest of dangers. How do we respond to the loving conviction and Judgment of the Holy Spirit? If Jesus’ love for us causes in us a reaction of rejection we are in danger of Satan's entrance into our heart

“Lord, grant that my heart will always respond in love to Your calling. AMEN”

John 13:12-20

 John 13:12-20

After washing the disciples' feet Jesus calls his followers to a life of service. The foot washing by Jesus has been seen by some Christian teachers as a symbolic look forward to the cross. The most humble service that is possible is offered by the One in the highest position. No matter how high our position may be nor how high we might believe it maybe, there is no position of service that is beneath us.

Jesus says that a good theology of service by itself is not going to be fulfilling. Here is where as disciples we end up frustrated. Verse 17 does not say that we are blessed in the “knowing” but rather in the “doing”. It has been said that Sunday School is the only educational system in which a person can attend their whole life and never graduate, never enter the workforce and it is still considered normal.  We are not trained to know but to do.

A profound and accurate theology of service will not bring blessing in our lives. This coming of blessing happens as we live service out. “Blessed” or sometimes translated “happy” has two possible applications here. We might say there is ambiguousness about the direction of the blessing. It might be that in the service the blessing flows from inside of us out, this carries the implication more of the experience of happiness. The other possibility is that it might be that in service God pours into us from the outside the good thing that we call blessing. This is almost the idea that the opportunity to serve is a kind of good fortune, or blessing. The vagueness may be intentional so the meaning is both. Simple service even giving a cup of water in Jesus’s name blesses both the giver and the recipient. The service need not be a huge event rather it is in the doing that meaning is found.

“Lord, bless me with the opportunity to serve sacrificially. AMEN”

John 13:1–11

 John 13:1–11

From this point on Jesus will have no public ministry. It is time for His glorification, to be lifted up on the cross and then to be lifted up to the Father. John says very little about the Lord’s Supper in terms of the bread and wine and what they mean. John addresses that subject in his sixth chapter with the “Sermon on the Bread of Life”. On this occasion John points out the priority of humble service in the washing of the disciples’ feet. The meaning of this action will be addressed in the next passage. Here John paints a vivid picture of the action of Jesus, “having loved His own”. “He loved them to the end”. That might be translated as “He loved them to the uttermost”. The call to love, to hold nothing back, the complete and perfect love of Jesus is expressed in service. It is not possible for that kind of love to not be expressed. Service is a natural result of love. Service is not consuming, it is giving, it is not taking, it is sharing. If we love as Jesus did we can’t help but serve

But there is another thing that John mentions about Jesus‘s service. In verse three we find Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands. Jesus was not about to be swept away in a stream of events like a helpless man and a raging river. Judas was not overwhelming Jesus by his scheme. Everything was in and under the control of the Son by the will of the Father. If there is ever a time when we ought to serve it is when we have the power not to. When the Father gave the Son control Jesus used that occasion to serve.

“Lord, help me live with the attitude of the towel and basin. AMEN”