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His ultimate sacrifice for those He loves represents the
pinnacle of the measurement of love in the kingdom of Heaven. And so Jesus begins by stating this to His
disciples, to teach them where true glory lies, not in the battlefield against
other men, but in the battlefield against self.
In verse 31 John records … “Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said,
Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. [verse 32] If God
be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall
straightway glorify him.” Judas had just
left the communion into the darkness.
Jesus then tells his faithful few, that it will be His own death and sacrifice
for those He loves that will glorify Him before the universe. The glory of love will be seen within Him as
He pays for our crimes, and provides for our restoration. This glory is shared by the Father who sent
Him in to this world and shares His mission in every act of love and
sacrifice. Both Father and Son will
share in the glory, for the glory they measure is defined in the actions of
love to their creations.
Jesus continues in verse 33 … “Little children, yet a little
while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I
go, ye cannot come; …” How appropriate
that despite all the time they had spent with Him, they were barely toddlers in
the faith. How appropriate the reference
to little children who do nothing for themselves and gladly rely upon their
parents for everything they need. So it
is with us. Our salvation is not a work
we perform upon ourselves. It is a work
our Father performs for us, within us, and sometimes in spite of us. We need only look to Him, like a loving
toddler looks to His parents. Our Father
longs to provide for us, carry our worries, give us rest and peace and comfort
and provide for our needs. But so many
of us struggle to take those burdens upon ourselves, and then fail so miserably
at them. How much better to be free not
to worry, to be free to love, to be free to play with our Father who longs to
just play and be with us. That close
communion and fellowship with His disciples was about to come to a close. He was going to miss them. They were going to miss Him. Jesus tenderly tells them it is now time for
their physical companionship and communion to come to its close. But this is not all bad news.
Jesus continues in verse 33 “…so now I say to you. [verse 34]
A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved
you, that ye also love one another. [verse 35] By this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” The MOST important thing in all of existence
is love. Here is Jesus about to die on a
cross and the ONE thing He commands of His disciples is that they LOVE one
another as HE has loved them. Christ
loved in actions. He healed the sick,
thus meeting every physical need He could, without demanding payment, or
service, or even faith. He was careful
never to condemn the guilty but instead to focus on their redemption. Only moments before He could have out-ed
Judas as the traitor in their midst but He would not. Mary Magdeline had been guilty. But He refused to condemn her. His constant focus on all He encountered was
only to show them love, and effectively love them back to redemption, without
judgment or condemnation. Christ served
those He loved in absolute humility.
Christ took ownership of nothing, but gave everything. To love each other as Christ loved us is to
abandon caution and restraint and apprehension and love with the fullness of
our lives. He would die for us. We should be willing to go that far for each
other. But Christ did more than die for us;
He had the courage to live for us. He
lived a life of exemplary love and it is to this kind of life we should aspire.
Next Christ tells us, that by this kind of love for each
other – to be a family by choice and not by blood – the world will know we are
His. This is HOW Christians were
supposed to be known, for our unabashed love and acceptance. Those men in that room were NOT perfect
yet. They were ALL still sinners, not
just Judas who left into the night.
Their understanding of doctrines related to the mission of the Messiah
Himself was STILL incorrect at that moment.
They were STILL greedy and seeking position in the anti-Roman kingdom
they hoped He would rule. They STILL
valued their own safety above the loyalty they felt for their Lord. In short, nothing about them was in the
condition to deserve love, and avoid judgment or condemnation that would be
well earned. This should a model for
us. We do not need to expect perfection
from the pathetic sinners we encounter before we decide we are “able” to love
them. For in truth, we are just like
them. One does not need to be
doctrinally perfect to be loved. One
does not need to be completely transformed to be loved. The character of these men would STILL lead
them to do wrong. BUT that did NOTHING
to deter Christ from loving them in spite of their condition. For only through the power of His
transformational love would they ever be free from the pain of sin they
embraced. The same is true of us. The same is true of those whose behavior and
beliefs we do not agree with. Only love
can bring us, and them, to a reformation.
Condemnation does nothing to reform anyone, it only deepens the sadness. But love can lift a person from the depths of
depravity to the heights of selfless service, and give them a motive to never
want to live another way.
This was His last commandment to us. He did not say … be sure to teach the world
the proper doctrines in order that they might be saved. For in truth, none of them were even aware what
those doctrines might be; whereas the doctrine of love is the ONLY one that
leads to the freedom from ALL sins, and the road to His perfection, in His
time, in His methods for each of us, suited to each of us. He did not offer this idea that we should love
each other with conditions or as an optional idea. This was a commandment, of the same variety
written on tables of stone by the finger of God. It is a reflection of how like Him we have
become. When we love without
reservation, we reflect the character of Christ. When we love like this, we do not even
consider taking what is not ours, lieing, cheating, lusting, and putting our
own desires ahead of others. To love
like Christ loved is to do exactly the opposite. Instead of taking, we think of nothing but
giving, for in giving we find our own joy.
It is in the making of another’s happiness that we finally find our
own. This was the model with which He
was establishing the Christian church.
It was after all a “new” commandment, as we had not properly discerned
it from the last ten He had written. How
different our world will be, when we finally submit ourselves to Him, and begin
to see this commandment fulfilled in our characters from the inside out.
But like all great truths, we sometimes miss them entirely
because we focus on the things that are important to us, instead of things that
are important to God. Christ was keenly
interested in focusing His disciples on continuing to love each other. That was what was most important in His
words. But Simon Peter was still hung up
on the words that preceded them. He was
still pondering the ominous ideas of Christ leaving and him being unable to
follow. To this idea Peter responds in
verse 36 … “Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered
him, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me
afterwards. [verse 37] Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now?
I will lay down my life for thy sake.”
For Peter, even the grave was not something he would allow to separate him
from Christ. But unfortunately, this
boast was based in the strength of his humanity, not in the humility of his
submission. Therefore it was subject to
error, and a revelation of pride, even if the pride was of a spiritual nature.
Christ responded in verse 38 … “Jesus answered him, Wilt
thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock
shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.” Christ reveals the future to Peter here and
predicts where his human strength will lead him. We can do nothing without Christ. We can do nothing, even of a spiritual nature. We will achieve no conversions in our
missions, nor transformations in the mirror, without Christ. Peter made his boast believing it to be
true. But it was not true, for it was
founded in his own ideas, thinking, and will.
None of these would prove adequate when the testing time began. Only through the power of Christ can we
withstand the testing that will surely find us all. In those times we must throw ourselves upon Christ
and seek for Him to fight our battles.
Or we will find ourselves like Peter and Judas, defeated by our own
ideas, and faith in ourselves, our own wisdom, our own strength.
But the focus of the communion was not intended to depress
Peter or the others with the reality of their human weaknesses. It was to focus them on the beauty of what He
would accomplish on their behalf. While
chapter 13 ends with these prophetic words to Peter, chapter 14 immediately
refocuses their minds back to the truth of the rewards of His mission. Jesus continues in verse 1 of chapter 14 … “Let
not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.” Perhaps one of the most quoted scriptures in
all the Bible. Do not be worried or
dismayed at your own human weakness. You
believe in God. You can believe that
Christ can overcome the weakness inherent in you. This is the most precious text in scripture
and perhaps so often quoted not for what follows but for what has already been
said. It is not the mansions we
need. It is the redemption we need. It is the recreation from the sin-sick-slaves
to the freedom to love without restraint or limit. We do not need a license to continue in our
depravity, but instead a surety that He will free us from it. We believe in God. We can also believe in the salvation Christ
offers us, in His promises to change us, to redeem us, to forgive us, and to
re-create us so that even forgiveness will become a thing of the past.
Jesus continues in verse 2 … “In my Father's house are many
mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for
you. [verse 3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and
receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. [verse 4] And
whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.”
Heaven is NOT about the beauty of architecture and precious gems. It is about COMMUNION. It is about fellowship. It is about being WITH God full time forever
and ever, never to be parted again. The
mission of Christ was not to be accomplished only to keep us distant from Himself
on some remote planet at the far end of the universe. We are going home. To our real home. To the place where we belong. To the side of our God. We will know where He goes, because we will
be able to see it with our own eyes. We
will live with Him where He lives. To
accomplish this, He leaves this world to prepare homes for us in His. He is making His city ready for humans to
live in. We need things like water, air,
food, gravity. But our greater need is
to be loved, and to love. We get that
from Him. And He intends to share that
with us for all eternity by building us a home right where He lives. Heaven, where gold is nothing more than
concrete, and companionship is worth more than all of it combined. This is the beauty of the reward of His
mission. It is not about making us
wealthy in His eternal city. It is about
bringing us home to be with Him forever.
We could live in mud huts if we were close to Him. But love is not satisfied with providing us
with such meager accommodations; instead He finds His joy in making our homes
special for each of us.
And communion was not over yet …
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