Farewell: The way of a new commandment
Please read John 13: 31-35 and Philippians 2: 1-11 and then pray; from Psalm 19: 7-8, “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.” Let it be so in our hearts and lives, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
The words, thoughts, and convictions which people share with their loved ones and with the world in the final days and hours of their lives often contain the most significant and poignant beliefs of the person whose life will soon end. This is why for example, people with only days to live want to communicate their deepest gratitude and love to their closest family members and friends. Crucially there may also be some final instructions, solemn requests, and words of wise advice from the person who is about to die.
From John 13: 31 to 17: 26 – over 4 chapters of this gospel, we have the final “farewell discourse” shared by Jesus with his beloved disciples. The 4 gospels are unusual in the way they spend so much of their pages focused on the final week and then the final 24 hours of Jesus’s life. John’s gospel is unique among the 4 for the way in which John devotes over four chapters to the words Jesus spoke to his disciples on the final evening of his life. This was the evening when Jesus washed their feet and spoke to them about the significance of his humble example, (13: 1-17) the evening bread and wine were broken and shared, and the evening when Judas left to betray Jesus because Satan had “entered him.” (13:27) By the time we come to Jesus’s farewell discourse, Judas has left, and the critical teaching which Jesus will share with the remaining 11 will form some of the key foundations for the life of the future Church and its daring mission to a lost and needy world.
Between now and our very special Church anniversary weekend and service on Sunday June 8th, we are going to be considering the key elements of Jesus’s final words and encouragements to his disciples. I hope you will see and comprehend that what is shared over the next few weeks has such great relevance for the Church in every age as we fully embrace the biggest priorities laid out by our Head and Lord, who died and rose again for us.
Here is what we will be considering:
- The way of a new commandment.
- The way to the Father and everlasting life.
- The way forward with Holy Spirit.
- The way of mutual abiding (the Vine and the branches).
- The way to face a hostile world.
- The way of unity in and with the Father, Son, and Spirit. (Anniversary Sunday/Pentecost)
Today we are to start with the great commandment that Jesus left with his disciples on that fateful final night of his life. “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” (34)
This is a new command but it will not be the last one. We know that before Jesus ascends back to the Father after his resurrection, there was another great command or commission for the disciples to take to heart – the one recorded at the end of Matthew’s gospel: “Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” This came with the reassuring promise; “And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
However, there is something super special about this command given on the night before his death, a death John describes with these words in his first letter. “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” (1 John 3:16)
A couple of hours before entering Gethsemane and His time of agonising prayer, Jesus gives his disciples “a new commandment.” And the question is this. In what way is this new? We already know that Jesus has taught previously, and the OT proclaims loudly and clearly that the greatest commandment was that we love God and our neighbour. (Matthew 22: 34-40, Leviticus 19:18) So when Jesus states that this is a new command – how is it new? Has not love for others been the priority all along?
It is new in two ways. It is new in the way that Jesus exemplifies this love, first through the careful feet washing exercise done at the beginning of their evening together, and then through the way Jesus will lay down his life for them as he is lifted-up on to the cross in the following 24 hours. This command to love is “new” because Jesus is introducing a new standard and emphasis on loving others sacrificially, a love which demonstrates humility and self-sacrificial service. (John 15:13)
The second way it is new is that as well as the “pattern” of love being new, there is also a new “power” to enable the practise of this love. It is one thing for Jesus to give a superb and clear example through his humble service and sacrificial death, but is quite another to provide a power and an ability to obey the command. Jesus is going to do this and he will explain how his beloved disciples can live out this new command.
Let us think about both these things in a little more detail and with some practical application.
Firstly, the pattern of the new command to love one another. Jesus gives the command only after demonstrating what it involves. The first thing that happens at the outset of their time of gathering and sharing is something that would have utterly astonished and even embarrassed the disciples. As they enter the place of gathering in an upper room, Jesus is the one who deliberately takes bowl and towel and washes dirty, smelly, grimy feet. John says that Jesus was about to show his disciples “the full extent of his love.” (13:1) This was to be done through very humble service and then through sacrificial death on a cross. (Read John 13: 3-5)
What Jesus did that night was the job not just of a servant, but the job of the lowliest servant. Foot washing was seen as the most menial of tasks, even though it was essential. One by one, the disciples have their feet washed by their Master, their teacher. They are no doubt flabbergasted by his actions. Has a Rabbi ever done this for his followers? Jesus does it, and through his interaction with Simon Peter, he insists on doing it. Jesus does this willingly and purposefully. Later he will down his life willingly, now he willingly washes and dries tired feet. Astonishing words are shared with Peter: “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.” You cannot be a part of Jesus’s new community of love unless you are prepared to receive and give practical humble service. For the moment Peter must be on the receiving end. Likewise, we cannot be part of his community unless we have been totally washed by his sacrificial blood. Jesus had taught them weeks earlier through an amazing summary statement of his mission and work; “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)
The new command involves following this pattern set out by Jesus with the bowl and towel. The Church to come will be unique in that its community, including its leaders, its Bishops and Minister’s will all give and receive humble service. This is about copying the ultimate Master. This is what Philippians 2: 1-8 highlights. (Read)
Status is not important in the kingdom of God according to the Master. Let go of status as Jesus did. Pride cannot be in the kingdom where the poor are to be blessed. Let go of pride. There can be no self-importance or self-serving attitudes or selfish ambition in the kingdom of God. The community of the Jesus’s kingdom is to be marked by consideration for others and by humble service and care. Our Master’s life was marked by humility from the time of his birth in a stable to his humbling and humiliating death – even death on a cross. This is our God – the Servant King. After washing the feet of each disciple, including those of Judas Iscariot, Jesus teaches and explains;
“Do you understand what I have done for you? he asked them. 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. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is the messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”
Can you believe that this is the way of blessing – for you, for the Church, for the world? If everyone followed this example and practised Philippians 2: 1-8, the world would be utterly transformed by love. There are lessons for us all here – especially leaders, especially the rich and powerful – but lessons regarding humble service for each one of us. This is how we are to build a true Church under the leadership of Jesus. We have people who clean in this Church. Thank you for your humble service. There are people who make warm drinks and wash up in this fellowship. Thank you for your humble service. There are people who fix things and move furniture. Thank you for your Christ-like service. There are people that tidy things away and that perform dull administrative tasks for the benefit of us all. Thank you for being like Jesus. There are those who give lifts to the elderly, who make pastoral visits and phone calls, who pray simple prayers of love and healing for a struggler. Yours is the way of the Master. And throughout the history of Christchurch, people have got on with humble tasks of caring and sharing and welcoming and listening. This must continue to be our way in the future. This was Jesus’s last command – love and serve like me. Are you up for it? Am I up for it?
I remember when Julia and I arrived here in July 2019. We had only been in the Manse about 2 hours and there was a knock on the door. It was Val Doll. “Can I help in any way?” she asked – “and I mean in any way.” She kindly took away about 6 towels and promptly washed them for us and brought them back the following day. They were all fluffy and had a fragrant smell. Other knocks on the door saw caring visits from Howard and Ian Dettmer, both performing humble service for their new Minister and his family. What was true for us has been true for many who have been part of this fellowship, and this is what we must do – we must fulfil Jesus’s last “new” commandment. Love one another as I have love you. I want to stress again 3 words of Jesus – as I have. There it is in John 13:34. The 3 words were there earlier in John 13:15, and crucially they are repeated for a third time later in John 15:10-13. (Read) As I have….
This now enables me to move on to that second point. We have a pattern (John 13), but do we have a power to put this into practise (John 15)? Do we really have the grace and the strength and the power to be obedient? Yes, we do. Because Jesus here, in John 15, speaks to his disciples about how it is possible to love in this type of way, with this type of devotion and humility. He tells his disciples to abide in him and in his love, just as he abides in the Father’s love. I am the vine – you are the branches. Remain in me. Stay connected – deeply connected and rooted in me, through a living, vibrant, life-giving relationship. Live in me and allow me to live in you. Then you feel and know and experience continually my love (and the Father’s), my risen life and power, my powerful word, flowing from me to you – to give you the strength and the energy and the grace to love and to obey.
My life-giving, life-enabling sap of the Holy Spirit will be your continual source of strength and power. Without me, you can do nothing (5) With me, all things are possible. With me, all service can be practised. With me, all prayers can be answered. (John 15:7, 16) As Paul was to write in Philippians (4:13). “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.”
The commandment is new, but through the new covenant relationship with Jesus, and through the power of the Spirit promised in that new covenant, who Jesus and Father send to live in us, we can do all things. We can obey the one we love – our Lord Jesus. The complete joy that Jesus speaks about in John 15:11, the joy of Christian life and service comes through our precious and deep relationship/connection with Jesus through His Spirit. This is why there is so much Holy Spirit teaching in this farewell discourse.
So, we have a new commandment – to love one another deeply with humility and grace. I urge you all to follow the Jesus pattern and example. Live in the power of an abiding relationship with the Master. As a branch, stay connected to the vine. Be prepared to be pruned of any lingering pride or unwillingness to serve and to give to others. Allow Jesus’s love to melt any remaining hardness of heart. And remember that to fulfil this command at Christchurch, you must play an active part in our Jesus community. You must be present not absent! You must be in our community practising love, not on the edges of our community. You cannot love and serve from a distance. Our small groups are important; bible studies, home groups, warm welcome and fellowship meetings, and social gatherings. The Flower festival is about our community life and love – is it not? As we read the book of Acts and see the historical activity of the early Church and how they put into practise the teaching Jesus gave them in his farewell speech – you can see what is possible not just in terms of Church life and love, but in terms of Church growth. Let me read Acts 2: 42-47.
It was the new commandment community life that propelled them into growth in numbers and influence. As Jesus had stated – It is by this (this type of love in the power of my Spirit) that the world will know and recognise that you are my disciples. (13:35) This is what distinguishes the Church. Love. Love for one another. Loving as Jesus loved. A world that is currently plagued by loneliness, despair, relationship breakdown and hopelessness, needs to see real Christ-like love and service in action within living, breathing, active and compassionate local Church communities like ours. As the first Minister of this Church Deaconess Sharon Swain said in the first service at the Abbeydale Community Centre in March 1985:
It is only when the Kingdom of God can be demonstrated in our relationships of love with one another, when we have put our own house in order, that we have anything to say with any credibility to an unbelieving and broken world.
A farewell speech of some historical magnitude from the Son of God began with a new command – to love one another as he loved others. May God enable us to do this with willingness, joy, humble and caring devotion, with and through the Spirit’s life and power.
Amen
(Revd Peter J Clarkson 4.5.25)