Easter 5

Preparation

    Please begin by reading John 13:31-35 in your Bible. If you do not have one at hand, we have provided that text for you at the end of this reflection.

Reflection--What Does Success Look Like?  

   In one way, this text is an odd choice for the season after Easter, because Jesus spoke them at the conclusion of “the last supper,” the Passover meal that he shared with his disciples just before his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. But this passage is timeless, not time-bound.

  The passage includes many subjects worth pursuing—including the paradox of the cross as the hour of Jesus’ glory and the mystical title for Jesus, “Son of Man," as a biblical code phrase for the Christ, the one who is God in human form who will come again as judge.  (The title has nothing to do with gender, by the way.)  It is the last part of the passage, though, that has the deepest implications for our day-in, day-out Christian walk, because it is here that Jesus adds an eleventh commandment:
 

    I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

   I have a dear friend who asks, about every proposed project, “what will success look like?” It is an invaluable question. By asking it he reminds us that we must be specific about what is expected of people who buy into our idea or project. If "what success looks like" can not be laid out with crystal clarity, it is time to go back to the drawing board before we go any further. Half-baked ideas get half-baked results!

  Jesus tells us what success as a Christian looks like. This “eleventh commandment” tells us not only about how to walk our walk with Jesus, but also reminds us that outsiders looking in will judge Jesus and the Christian life by how our walk reflects Jesus. What an awesome responsibility!

   This is not a sugar-coated commandment! Notice that there are no qualifiers. Jesus does not say to love our fellow Christians with whom we feel comfortable, or who look like us, or who are attractive, or who belong to our race or social class, or who are “well adjusted,” or who have never failed or wronged us, or even who are particularly likable. The command is absolute! Our standard is the Jesus standard. It is that irritating “what would Jesus do” question again. Sometimes love is “tough love” (think of Jesus and the Pharisees), but the command is nevertheless to love.

  I will freely admit that my biggest failures are here. Love MUST be at the heart of our very existence. Jesus accepts no excuses. When we interact with, or talk to or about (especially “about”!), our fellow Christians, a question ought always to be there. Does what I am saying/doing reflect Jesus’ love for this person? Does what I am saying/doing reflect well on my responsibility to model Christ?

   Put Jesus’ “eleventh commandment” words some place where you will see them every day. Memorize them! Burn them into your soul! They are words that will change this community and the world!

revclay

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John 13:31-35

    When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’

    "I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  [NRSV]