Call to love as Jesus loved
The Gospel for this Sunday goes back (Jn 13,1 31-35) to the night that Jesus was betrayed. We do this to think again about Jesus’ teaching on love. Because his teaching on love is worth re-thinking about after the events of Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Washing a person’s feet in that culture was the appointed task of a servant. Jesus was humbling himself, and doing the work of a servant here. But stop to think about what that means now, looking back. Jesus washed Judas’s feet, knowing he would betray him. He washed Peter’s feet, knowing he would deny knowing him. He washed Thomas’s feet, knowing he would doubt him. Jesus knew all this would happen. He predicted it. But he still got on his knees and washed their feet.
If you want a picture of love, picture Jesus on his knees, washing the feet of his betrayer, Judas.
Love according to Jesus:
“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you.”
But we might wonder, what’s new about it? Jesus’ commandment is new, not like that of the world. What’s new about it? Not love. But loving just as Jesus loved.
The new part of this is that we are commanded to love one another just as Jesus has loved us. And that means loving those who doubt us, and deny knowing us, and even those who betray us. Because that’s what Jesus did for us.
Loving as Jesus loved is not easy. Jesus never said it would be. And looking back at his life, in the light of his death and resurrection, we can see that it was not easy for him either. It is never going to be easy to love unconditionally, without agenda or expectation. It is never going to be easy to love in a way that makes us vulnerable, that opens us up to being hurt. It is never going to be easy to love people who aren’t like us.
Jesus didn’t say it would be easy. But it is certainly possible, or he wouldn’t have commanded it.
But here’s the good news: When we fail – and we will – Jesus will still love us. When we doubt him, deny him, and even betray him, he will still love us. Because that is what true love looks like. It looks like Jesus. Kneeling at our feet. Loving us. And asking us to do the same.
“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”