The One Commandment

We had kind of a different week because our three children were spread all over the place. On Monday, Jack went back down to college; she's our oldest. Then Luke, our sophomore, was up in Tahoe all week skiing with friends, and my baby, 14-year-old Anna, is on a mission trip in Japan without her mommy and daddy. She's doing great, and it gave us a chance for Laura and me to have a little preview for what's just around the corner: the empty nest years, like dun dun dun. I found myself getting kind of wistful, like how in the world did this happen so fast? Have we even prepared them for what comes next? I mean, not just their late teens but early adulthood. I'm thinking way down the road, going, you know, are they prepared for life after us? What is going to stick with them? What have we successfully passed on to them that will stick after we're gone?

I was thinking about all that kind of stuff, and at the same time, last weekend we were rummaging through some boxes trying to declutter our lives a little bit. I came across an old picture of Jack and Luke. Jack had just turned four here, and he just caught a gopher snake that was longer than he was tall. He's having a great time, while Luke is not so much into the nature experience at the moment. But Jack was always catching snakes and lizards. One time I came home from church, and he was holding a dead gopher in his hand, couldn't wait to show me that. He was just all about critters. I told him, I said, you know, Jack, these are wild animals, and so when you catch them, they think the next thing you're going to do is eat them. It's a frightening experience for them, so you need to be very gentle with them and then let them go before they get too stressed out. It's not good for them. He really picked up on that, and years later, I would hear him lecturing Luke and Anna and one of his friends, like, oh, time to let it go, it's getting too stressed, let it go. I thought, okay, well that's stuck, you know, that's something.

Then another example from this week: any of you noticed that kids tend to be very picky eaters when they're younger? They want to eat white bread and potato chips. In response to that, we would encourage our children to be adventurous eaters. Just try it; you never know. We tried to introduce foods to them that were a little bit adventurous. In fact, one time I took this way too far because they were still quite young, and I made this dish called Kokalvan, chicken braised in wine. The kids called it wine chicken, and it was not only that, but it was the Julia Child's version, which is kind of complicated as wine chicken goes. Long story short, the kids hated it, absolutely hated it. I've never made it again because they won't let me; that's how much they enjoyed that. But something, you know, got through because just this week I got this picture from Tokyo, Japan. Here's Anna about to eat what can only be called alien on a stick. I mean, look at it; that is nasty right there, and she's just going to dig into that. I think they just take a whole squid and throw it on the barbecue, and then it's good eats after that. My point is some of these little influences that we've tried to have have actually transferred to them. Of course, the hope, the prayer, is that the big things, the significant things, will also stick with them for the rest of their lives.

You know, you don't have to be a parent to have that kind of impact on another person. Ever since our kids were very little, in fact, from the time they were born, our dear friend and neighbor Lisa, she would just do it on them. She was like their aunt; she became a member of our household. At the beginning of every summer, she had her tradition. She would knock on the door, which was just the signal she was about to come through, and that's the way we rolled. We would do the same thing with her. She would come through into the house, and she would have swimsuits for our kids. She'd always go to O'Neill's, and she always had great taste. She'd always pick out the coolest little trunks for the boys and a cute little bathing suit for Anna. That was part of, you know, the beginning of summer. We knew that that's when it began officially. Then at the end of the summer, she'd do the same thing with new shoes for them for school. She did this every single year, and that took on much more poignancy beginning this last summer when it was obvious to all of us that she wasn't going to win her battle with cancer.

I think that was harder for her to do something that we would take for granted, to go shopping. She did it, and there was even a deeper joy because she knew that her time was short. That's the way it works: every gesture, every conversation, every moment takes on such greater freight when you know that it may be your very last time to communicate something meaningful to the people that you love. We had some of those moments with her that were very, very precious. Along these lines, in this series we're calling 777, as we follow Jesus up into Easter and a little bit further than that, we arrive at a place in his journey where Jesus is very much aware that his time is short. The religious leaders, especially those who control the temple and that whole system, are actively seeking his arrest.

In the scene we're going to see today, what is clear is that there are some things that are very close to the heart of Jesus that he wants to impress upon his disciples because his time is short. The question is whether or not they will live these things out. What is the glue? What is the thing that's going to make all of the things he has taught them stick? What will endure? Before we get too much into the outline, I just want to set the stage by going to the beginning of John 13, where it says this: it was just before the Passover festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father, and having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The next day, Jesus would be tortured and crucified. This is what we call the Last Supper; this is his last gathering the night before.

During the meal, with no introduction, he gets up, takes off his outer garment, wraps a towel around his waist, and begins to wash the feet of his twelve disciples. Every single one of them, including Judas, even though both Judas and Jesus know that in that moment, Judas is conspiring to betray him. He's thinking about it in that moment, and yet Jesus washes his feet right along with all the others, shares the meal with him along with all the others. During the foot washing, that's when Peter famously blurts out, says you can't wash my feet, and Jesus has to kind of talk him down and say, don't worry about it, Peter; someday you're going to get this. After washing twelve pairs of dirty feet, he gets back up, puts his garments back on, takes his place at the table, and then, picking up in verse 12, he says, do you understand what I have done for you? You call me teacher and Lord, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet.

In other words, guys, what you've seen me do for you, how I have served you, I want you to serve each other. This is a big thing that Jesus wants to stick with them. Now, did it stick? Not at first, not even close. Because in Luke's account of this very same evening, Luke's going to give us additional detail. Luke's going to talk about how Jesus instituted the very first Lord's Supper, as we call it, the communion, which we're going to observe later this morning. In Luke 22:19–20, it says this: and he took bread, that's Jesus, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, this is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me. In the same way, after the supper, he took the cup, saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. Now, this is as sacred a moment as they can come because, as most of you know, this was the Passover meal; this was the Seder. They're thinking about when Moses was part of God's great deliverance, and one of the things that God told Moses to instruct the Israelites to do was, on a very epic night, to put the blood of lambs over the frames of the doors, and the Lord would pass over them.

So their history, the covenant that God forms with them, that's all in their minds. Yet Jesus reframes it, and he says it's not so much about the blood of some lamb way back when or about even that deliverance. I'm about to perform a greater deliverance for the whole world as I give up my body and my blood. Again, sacred moment. And you know what happens next? Well, Luke tells us, verse 24, a dispute also arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. You're like, wait, what? Are you serious? Right on the heels of communion, it's like I am the greatest! I am so much better than you! No, you're not; you're a loser! You're like, are you kidding me? By the way, if you're a parent and your kids fight in church or they fight in the car on the way home from church, I just want you to be reminded, if nothing else today, they aren't the first, okay? This happens with these guys. In fact, it really helps you appreciate Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of the Last Supper. You really get it when you look; you think about what was going on there because Jesus is like, boy, I mean seriously, look at this. There's chaos on his left and chaos on his right.

Now, da Vinci has in mind a different argument when he paints this. They're arguing over which one will betray him. So there's not one argument but two arguments that break out on this most sacred of evenings. My point is the very first communion service did not get off to a smashing success, okay? A bit of a train wreck. Bear in mind, Jesus wasn't just establishing a new covenant, as amazing as that is, but he also, as a result, creates a new community where all the things that divide people, that separate people, like rank and status, rich and poor, Jew and Gentile, male and female, racial division, all of that kind of stuff that were huge in that day, he just flattens it. He just knocks down one wall after the other as he goes after their cultural org chart, how they see other people. As Paul says in Galatians 3, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. This was such a radical vision for humanity 2,000 years ago, and it's still a radical vision today. In fact, we haven't exactly arrived when it comes to this vision of humankind, would you agree? There's still ways to go.

So my point is this: if we're going to live the grace of the new covenant, if we're going to live in humility and gratitude as a community for what Jesus has done for us on the cross, not vying for position or power but truly one in Christ, if that's going to happen, it's going to hang, in fact, on what Jesus gives us next: this third thing he's given us, which is a new commandment. That's our focus today: the new commandment. Because if this doesn't stick, nothing else really matters. I mean, this is the kicker when it comes to the Christian faith. I can bear in mind at that moment he's washed their feet; he's equated the bread and the cup with his body and his blood while they're arguing, they're fighting. I imagine Jesus just saying, okay, okay, time out, time out. In fact, he calls them children here, which I read into that as much as you want. But he says, children, I will only be with you a little while longer, and I've got hours. By the way, Judas didn't leave just to buy more groceries, okay? So we can let one argument go by the wayside. He's the one, but for all of you who remain, I want you to listen to me. I want you to get this.

In John 13:34, he says, a new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must also love one another. Now, you may know that there are over 600 commandments in the Old Testament, 613 to be exact. These guys would have been well aware of that, but they're founded on the ten. Jesus previously has already reduced that down to two when he says it really comes down to loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and loving your neighbor as yourself. But now he's going to press it down to one single commandment: love one another. Then he defines that because we have our own notions about what love is. He says, as I've loved you, as I've loved you, so you must also love one another. It's like that's it; that's the bottom line. That's the crux of the issue, guys.

He could have gone around the room and kind of applied it. He could have said, you're like Peter, for instance. You remember when I called Matthew to be, you know, one of the co-disciples, and he was a tax collector? Not just any old tax collector, but a tax collector that lived in your hometown, and so he collected taxes from you, and you are still fuming over it. So yeah, you're polite; you tolerate him. But from now on, I want you to love him as I have loved you. James, John, this is kind of funny, but do you remember when you came to me and you actually asked that one of you could sit on my left and the other one on my right as I sit on my throne in heaven? Do you remember that, guys? How ridiculous that kind of was? The rest of you were thinking, what a bunch of jerks, but you were really mad because they thought of it first. Love each other as I have loved you, and if you get this right, everything else will follow. The same is true for you and for me today.

So I just want to give us three things to think about today. Three things that I hope will cause this new commandment to stick in our hearts and lives to greater and greater measure as we go forward. The first thing to understand is this: that loving others like Jesus loves me, well, you could say it's less complicated but more demanding. You might want to write that down. It's less complicated, but it's more demanding because have you ever noticed you can live a squeaky clean life? A person can be really good at keeping rules but still lack love. Have you found this to be true? In fact, in the time of Jesus, they had a name for people like this. They called them the Pharisees, right? The scribes. They were great at keeping rules; they were black belts but not so great at things like justice, mercy, compassion—the things that are close to God's heart.

After Jesus says, you know, I've washed your feet, he says, verse 15, John 13:15, he says, I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. In other words, not just something I want you to admire; it's this humility, this service. I actually want you to live it out. I read a story recently about a little college in the Midwest, a private school, and during freshman orientation one year, the senior guys kidnapped the freshman boys, like the whole freshman class of males. They kidnapped them, blindfolded them, and were taking them off to some unknown place. They were laughing and having a good time; the freshmen were nervously just doing what they were told. It has all the appearances of some kind of college hazing ritual, which you read about from time to time.

They finally arrive at their destination, and when the seniors take the blindfolds off of the freshman boys, they notice they're seated on a bench next to a lake, and there's the whole senior class of guys with a towel and a bucket that they use to wash the feet of the freshman boys. Not just that, but then they give every single one of them a hug and say, welcome, welcome to our community. Now, it turns out this isn't the only time this has happened at the school; it's Taylor University in Indiana. It happens quite often, not because they have a rule but because they take very seriously the Lord's command to love one another. It's central to their identity. In fact, someone told me just after the last service, she said years ago, I broke down in Indiana, and a state trooper said, we'll take care of your car, but I know where I can take you. He took her to Taylor University; she stayed in the girls' dorms, and she said, I didn't want to leave because of the love that they demonstrate.

The Apostle Paul touches on the same thing in Philippians 2 when he says, in your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. Paul's really just taking us back to this one commandment, isn't he? I mean, how do we treat others? Well, what's the mindset of Jesus? Love, sacrifice, service, humility. This is so clarifying. Over the years, I've had people come to me, and they'll say, hey, Mark, what does the Bible say about this? Most of the time, it's very sincere; they just want to know. They're like, you know, we kind of helped you pay for seminary, so you owe us, you know? I'm happy to oblige. Yet sometimes that question comes with an agenda, with a little bit of an ulterior motive because what's behind it is really how much can I get away with? You know, what does the Bible really say?

Well, when Paul wrote this in Philippians, he didn't have a Bible like we do. The New Testament was still being written; the Old Testament lived on scrolls in the synagogue; only the priests could read them. So Paul would say, Bible? Why do you just have the same mindset as Christ Jesus? In other words, what does it look like to serve that person? What does it look like to sacrifice? What does it look like to seek God's absolute best for that person? To do that, in other words, loving others like Jesus loves me. The second point means asking, what does love require? What does love require? And here's the thing: would you agree most of the time we know the answer? Most of the time, if we take a moment to think of what does love require in this moment, we know. And not love again on my terms, like, you know, hey baby, you know, I'm all about love, but love as Jesus has loved us.

Here's Paul again, this time in Ephesians, we're at the end of chapter 4 into 5. He says this: be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as in Christ God forgave you. Paul loves that phrase, just as. He uses it over and over again, and I wonder where he got that. Sounds a lot like what Jesus said when he says we're to love just as he has loved us. Well, in this case, Paul's applying that to forgiveness: forgive just as God in Christ forgave you. We think at times, well, I don't want to forgive; it's too hard, or you know, they haven't said sorry yet. Whatever the case, we all want to be forgiven, don't we? It seems kind of ridiculous at times, so we become okay with the idea that we will deny someone else what we have been so freely given, what we so desperately need.

So Paul continues, be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children, and live a life of love. Just as there it is again, Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Now, to be clear, God's not going to ask you to die on a cross because Jesus already did that for you. But to offer yourself on behalf of someone else in a way that might cost you, to make a sacrifice? Yeah, absolutely. Love always comes at a cost, and love involves doing it. There's a famous slogan right now: love does. Love denies itself, takes up its cross, and follows Jesus, especially in the way of love. As John writes later in his first epistle, he says this in 1 John 3:18: dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. In fact, this entire letter of 1 John is basically a commentary, an exposition on what Jesus commanded in that upper room. It's all on this very same theme, and clearly, this stuck with John so much. This lodged itself so deeply in his heart that when he sets out to write his gospel, the longest continuous passage is about this upper room with Jesus. Four chapters he devotes to this theme of what Jesus would serve and sacrifice and love his disciples and ask them to do the same.

The reason for that is that there is so much riding on this. It's all riding on this, and that brings us to this final point because loving others like Jesus loves me comes down to it is the key sign my faith is real. It is the distinguishing mark of every Christian. Immediately after giving this command to love, Jesus says this: don't miss this. I want you to love one another because, in verse 35, by this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love one another. By this, not by how well you know the Bible, not by how upright and moral you are, as good as those things are, not even by how good your theology is. Because you've seen this, you can be right and still be ugly and mean. By this, everyone will know you're my disciples. That's why John writes, anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. They said they don't get it.

So again, it comes down to whether or not these words stick: love one another as I have loved you. You know what? Don't miss this. When the world, excuse me, when the church gets this right, the world sits up and takes notice. When we get this right, our co-workers, our neighbors, they sit up and take notice because this is powerful; it's undeniable. Think about it: you show me a person who is a high achiever, I will admire that person. You show me a person who excels in this kind of love, and I will want to be that person. I will be drawn to that person. Incredibly, this first group of disciples, as unruly and unlikely as they were, despite all of that, these words stuck. They stuck so much that after Jesus rose from the grave and he ascended from heaven, this new community not only started to attract more and more and more people, but eventually this community changed the world because this is what the human heart longs for: to know the love of Jesus. The only way they're going to know it is when they see it and experience it in us. That's our calling; that's our calling.

Now, if you find yourself a little bit overwhelmed by that, it means you get it. It means you realize that in and of yourself, you don't have that kind of love; you don't have that kind of heart. I know I don't. I'm not kidding. Last night, I'm driving to church, and I'm confessing to Jesus, I don't have the love I should have for a particular person. I don't feel it, Lord Jesus. I don't even want to like this person, so you got to help me out. You got to give me what I don't like, what I don't have, please. Well, that's where these guys started; they didn't have it either. But you know what they had? They had the Holy Spirit, just like we do. When the Holy Spirit indwells and empowers our lives, our hearts will begin to be more and more and more filled with the love of Jesus, as it says in Galatians 5:22, but the fruit of the Spirit is what? Love. Supernatural love. Loving one another like Jesus loved us, kind of love.

You know what? Once you find yourself being the instrument of God's love, once you find that God is loving other people through you, you will not be satisfied living any other way. If you don't experience that, you will have missed out on the reason God put you on this planet. That's how monumental this is because this is what you were made for. I'll leave you with a great example of this. The front page of the San Francisco Chronicle about two years ago ran an article about a Metro Transit Opera bus driver in the city named Linda Wilson Allen. This is Linda here with her bus, and Linda loves the people that ride on her bus. She quickly learns their names, and they become her friends. In fact, one of her passengers, one of her regulars, is a woman there that you see; her name is Ivy. Ivy met Linda one day because she was at the bus stop with far too many grocery bags that she could carry. When Linda pulls up, she holds up traffic by getting off the bus and helping bring the groceries onto the bus and getting Ivy settled before she heads off to her next stop.

Ever since that time, Ivy will let other buses pass her by just so she can ride on Linda's bus. That's how much she loves Linda. Another time, a woman named Tanya was sitting in the little bus shelter under the roof, and Linda could tell that she was lost, that she was alone. She was a stranger to the city, and so Linda says this to her: you know, you're out here all by yourself, and you don't know anybody, so you know Thanksgiving's in just a couple of days. Why don't you come to my place and just kick it with me and the kids? That's when she and Tanya became friends. Ever since, the reporter who wrote this article for the Chronicle rides the bus regularly, and so this is not like, you know, some missionary magazine; this is the San Francisco Chronicle. Yet he says Linda has built such a loving community on that bus that passengers will offer Linda use of their vacation homes. They bring her gifts like potted plants and flowers. She says when people found out she likes to wear scarves, she started using them to accessorize her uniforms, and she just has more scarves than she knows what to do with. In fact, one passenger upgraded; scarves weren't good enough, so they gave her a rabbit fur collar to wear. Not a passenger that works for PETA, I don't think. But they all do this just because they love her.

Now, I want you to think about this. Think about how thankless a job of a bus driver could be in our world, in a city like San Francisco, with cranky passengers and engine breakdowns and traffic jams and gum on the seats. How does anyone like Linda have this kind of attitude? Well, the reporter tells us because he says every morning she gets up early and she gets down on her knees and asks God to fill her heart with love for her passengers. Every day when she gets to the end of her line, she says the same thing: that's all I love you. Take care. Now, have you ever had a bus driver tell you that they love you? You will if you ride on Linda's bus. In fact, people wonder, you know, where can I find the kingdom of God in this world? Where would you experience the kingdom of God? I'll tell you where you can find it: you can find it on Linda's bus, the number 45 Metro in San Francisco, and you will find it anywhere you go when you love people as Jesus has loved you.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this opportunity to open ourselves to your word, to the ministry of your Spirit. Lord, thank you, first of all, that you love us. We can only love because you loved us first. Lord, I pray for myself and for Twin Lakes Church and for the venue and Facebook Live, for people watching this in the future. I'm going to invite you right now; I'm going to invite you to think of at least one person in your life that you know Jesus is calling you to love, and that person is not easy to love because they have needs. They can be a drain on you; they can be difficult. They don't think like you do; they don't act like you do, and so they're unlovable, and you're struggling to love them. Lord Jesus, I pray on all of our behalfs that you would give us your heart in those situations, that by the power of your Spirit, you would produce the fruit of love as we abide in you, as we remain attached to the vine, because that is when those things will happen, and you will bear much fruit in us, including the fruit of love—love that our world desperately needs to see and experience. So, Lord, we ask that you would make this happen in the days and weeks and years to come. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, and the great lover of our soul. And all God's people said, amen.