I’m thinking about plenty of Scripture during Holy Week, but is there any text more important than Jesus” command to love one another?
Here’s a transcript:
It’s Holy Week, so I’m thinking about a lot of Scripture. For Easter, I’m thinking about the twentieth chapter of John (John 20:1-18); for Good Friday, I’m thinking about the texts that we call “The Seven Last Words of Jesus;” and for Maundy Thursday, I’m thinking about the thirteenth chapter of John (John 13:1-17, 31b-35).
That particular reading comes in two parts. The first part concerns Jesus washing his disciples’ feet before they actually began the meal of the Last Supper. Washing feet was not an unusual thing to do in the first century, but it was unusual for a teacher, a leader, to wash the feet of his students and followers. Simon Peter thought it was so wrong that he protested and declared that Jesus would never wash his feet. Jesus insisted, and Simon Peter gave in.
Jesus then told his disciples to remember that he, their teacher, had done this humble and powerful thing for them.
Later he gave them a new commandment: To love one another. “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.” He said those words after washing their feet.
In human relationships, it is easy to stand upon dignity and upon some sense of self-worth which is not self-worth, it’s just simply pride. Self-worth is a good thing. The awareness that we are valued by God, that we are valuable living beings: this is a good thing. But to believe that our self-worth disconnects us from the grime of the world, that it somehow or other separates us from cleaning up around the world, that it keeps us somehow secure from taking care of one another: that’s no longer self-worth. That’s hubris. That’s pride.
On that night, Jesus told his followers to lay aside their pride, to maintain their self-worth but to lay aside their pride. Once that is out of the way, then it is indeed possible for human beings to love one another, to meet one another’s needs, to value one another’s souls, to stand with and walk with and move with and support with one another in the course of our lives through the world.
“A new commandment I give you: that you should love one another. As I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear what you’re thinking. Leave me your thoughts in the comment section below. I’d love to hear from you.
