Love One Another

April 24, 2016 Easter 5C


GOSPEL LESSON: John 13:31-35 [A new command]
Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”


FIRST LESSON: Acts 11:1–18 [Peter's Vision. All food can be eaten]
9“The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’”

In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus says, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” One more commandment. Not just Ten. Not just all the other laws and rules of the Old Testament. Not just the summary “Love God and Love your Neighbor” or the Golden Rule. Jesus adds one more, “Love one another.” And as we will see in moment, this New Commandment is the strictest one of all!

In the Old Testament there are about 613 laws that cover nearly everything in the life of a Jew, from what to eat and what to wear to how to live and how to worship. One of the reasons for some of the laws is to make the Jews a special people. They have a special lifestyle that is different than others, and so people can see them and know they are Jews. Even today, Jews have regulations about what to eat: they do not eat pork, so people know they are a Jew. In some places, orthodox Jews wear black clothes and black hats and wear their hair in a special way. They look like Jews. To paraphrase the words of Jesus, “By this all men will know that you are Jews, if you dress and eat this way.” Not only the Jews, but other cultures have certain habits and dress and behaviors so that we can see who or what they are: Muslim women wearing a burka is just one easy example. And when you are traveling, you can always tell who is a tourist.

What does a Christian look like? We do not have a special dress code. In today’s First Lesson, St. Peter sees a vision in which God declares that we can eat anything we that God has created. “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’” How can you tell if someone is a Christian Disciple of Jesus or not? Some people wear a cross. We can see them going to church on Sunday or carrying a Bible. Some Christians talk religiously. Some Christians do not smoke or drink or dance. And because Christians are sinners and do not live perfectly holy lives, often they are hard to recognize. But Jesus said that Christians can be recognized by their behavior. It is because they love one another.

This sounds very nice. The church is just one big love festival! There is happiness and friendliness and kindness and helpfulness and acceptance and forgiveness and tolerance and perfect agape-love. Happy, loving families and friends. Well, we try, or at least we hope, or we always pray for it.

But Jesus did not say, “Be nice to one another as I have been nice to you.” “Nice” and “love” are two different things. Nice is behavior, love is a relationship. Because we are connected with someone else, we might be nice or strict or angry. That is because we care about that other person. That other person is important to us. And that is why God is sometimes nice or strict or angry with us. He cares about us. We are important to him. It is because he loves us. We are precious to him. And that is why the people whom we love are precious to us, also.

Jesus did say “Love your neighbor as yourself,” but he did not say, “love one another as you love your self.” Later at the Last Supper, Jesus repeats the New Commandment in these words, John 15:12:13, “12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Do you see the measure of this love? It is not just being nice. It is a special kind of friendliness. How did Jesus love us? Even though he was Eternal God Almighty, he came down to this world and was born a baby in Bethlehem. He showed his love in words and deeds and healings. He took upon himself the sin of the world that he loves, and for that world, he died and rose again. He calls the people he loves friends, because there is a special bond between them. And for those friends he suffered and died to help them, to save them. And that is the greatest love of all, to lay down your life for your friend. And Jesus says, that is how we are to measure our love for one another. And when we love one another in that way, the world will see us. Then they know that we the disciples of Jesus.

I think this sort of love puts an obligation on us, too – it is called a commandment. If we are loved we must return that love. It cannot be selfish. People have to learn what love is and have to learn how to love. The church is a place to learn about love and the family is a place for training. And people grow in love. That is the work of the Holy Spirit who works in our church and families and friends. We have received the mercy and grace and forgiveness and love of God. And this gives us the power to love to love one another in the same way.

Finally, have you ever played Frisbee or catch-ball? You throw the Frisbee or ball to your friend who catches it and throws it back to you so that you can catch it and throw it back to them. The longer you do with without missing, the more fun it becomes. That is the way love is, too. But sometimes you miss the catch. You have to run after the ball into the bushes, find it, pick it up and then throw it back. Love is the same. Sometimes we make mistakes. But we must not give up, because Jesus does not give up.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


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