Sermon Text: John 13:31–35
Date: May 18, 2025
Event: The Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C
John 13:31–35 (EHV)
After Judas left, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. 32If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify the Son in himself and will glorify him at once.”
33“Dear children, I am going to be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
34“A new commandment I give you: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you are to love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Love!
What is the mark of a Christian? You could point to something like a cross on a chain around someone’s neck as a possible sign, but that’s not always going to be clear-cut—surely anyone can wear that if they wanted to, whether they believed that Jesus was their Savior or not. A piece of jewelry could as easily be a sentimental piece (perhaps it belonged to a loved one now passed away) as it is an expression of what is in someone’s heart. Perhaps the mark of being a Christian is attending church regularly. While that might be a better indication than jewelry choices, it’s still not a slam-dunk because what if someone is going because they're curious or feel it’s an obligation, not because they believe? Certainly, not everyone sitting in a church for a worship service could be called, or would want to be called, a Christian.
Jesus gives us a mark of a Christian in our Gospel for this morning: Just as I have loved you, so also you are to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Jesus points to love as a clear marker of whether someone is a Christian, indicating that they trust in Jesus as their Savior.
However, that raises several questions. “Love,” at least in English, has to rank up there as one of the top words with a multitude of different understandings depending on who you are talking to. Does someone think of love purely in an emotional sense, the butterflies in your tummy when you see the person who is dear to you? Does someone define it in a physical sense, so that it is someone for whom you hold a deep sexual attraction? Does someone define it as a general sense of kindness to others by which they might say they love all (or at least, most) people? And, going beyond the expressions of love, we must delve deeper into the motivation behind those supposedly loving actions. Is it other-serving or self-serving? Is it borne out of a pure desire or a societal obligation? Is it done out of kindness and care for someone else, or fear of what will happen if the loving action isn’t done?
As we continue to bask in the Easter glory—the glory of Jesus’ victory over sin and the grave for us—these are good things for us to wrestle with. Last week, we had a good illustration of Jesus’ love for us. He was clear that he came to bring eternal life so that we would never perish in hell. But today we grapple with the flip side of that, not how the Shepherd loves the sheep as much as how the sheep respond to that loving Shepherd.
Our Gospel for this morning takes us back to the upper room where Jesus and the disciples are celebrating the Passover on the night that Judas betrayed Jesus. In fact, the first verse of this brief reading makes it clear that Jesus speaks these words immediately after Judas leaves to carry out the betrayal. Jesus had told Judas, “What you are about to do, do more quickly” (John 13:27), and so he did.
It is in this upcoming betrayal that the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. Why? Because this is really the beginning of the millennia-long plan to save humanity from our sins. Judas’ betrayal later that night will be the first domino to fall that will lead Jesus to the cross to suffer for the world’s sins. Jesus and the Father are both glorified in this work to save mankind from the punishment of hell. Jesus tells them what this work will mean: Where I am going, you cannot come. The disciples would not be able to journey to the cross; they would not be able to bear the punishment for the world’s sin. Only Jesus could do that; the journey ahead will be a lonely and solitary one.
But they will not be without work or direction. Jesus gives one of the two main commands on that Maundy Thursday (or “Command” Thursday) evening: “A new commandment I give you: Love one another.”
To our ears, that might sound a little off. In what way is this new? Hasn’t there always been a command to love others? It was codified in the covenant and law that God gave to his people after the Exodus: You must not take revenge. You must not bear a grudge against the members of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself (Leviticus 19:18). Jesus himself said that to love God above all and love your neighbor as yourself was, in fact, the greatest command and summary of the entire law (Matthew 22:37-40, Luke 10:26-28). So why does Jesus call this commandment “new”?
John, the author of our Gospel for this morning, offers some commentary on this very thought in his first letter. There he writes, “Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command but an old one that you have had since the beginning. The old command is the message you heard. At the same time, the command I am writing is new—it is true in Jesus and in you, because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is still in the darkness. The one who loves his brother remains in the light, and nothing causes him to stumble” (1 John 2:7-10). John recognizes that this command is both new and old at the same time, and it is probably the motivation for this love that makes that distinction.
The old command of the law to love was just that: a law command. “You must do this,” the law said, “or else.” However, Jesus offers a different motivation for showing love to others here: “Just as I have loved you, so also you are to love one another.”It’s still a command, but it’s a command with gospel motivation rather than fear-based motivation. There’s no threat here, no warning if you fail to do as Jesus directs. Rather than fear of punishment, joy in Jesus’ love for us is what drives this command. Jesus’ love is to be both the motivation and the model for our love for other people.
Our Second Reading this morning from 1 Corinthians 13 is essentially a commentary on this love—what does it look like, sound like, act like? Patient, kind, not envious, not self-seeking. In the context of 1 Corinthians, Paul illustrates how far the members of the Corinthian congregation have fallen short of genuine love. 1 Corinthians 13 love is the love Jesus is directing his disciples to have for each other. 1 Corinthians 13 love is God’s love for us, and it is the goal we have for the love we show to others, even if we often fall short.
But this godly love, this reflection of God’s ultimate love for us, is always the goal in every relationship and interaction, from our blood relatives, to the members of our church family, to the stranger we’ve just met. Patient, kind, compassionate. To what end? “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The word Jesus uses here, translated “know,” is a special kind of knowledge. It’s not mere book knowledge. This is not describing someone knowing you are a Christian in the same way that they know if you are tall or short or what color eyes you have. No, this knowledge is experiential knowledge. This is knowledge that comes because someone has seen it, felt it, and been immersed in it. The implication is that everyone knows you’re a Christian, one of Jesus’ disciples, because that love for each other has included them as well; you have loved them with the same kind of love with which Jesus loved you.
Is that how you would describe your interactions with others? Whether people who are familiar to us or unfamiliar, would you describe your actions and attitudes as this godly, 1 Corinthians 13 love? How willing in the past week have you been to give of yourself for others? How willing have you been to devote your time to someone who needed a moment, your energy to someone who needed a hand, your resources to someone who needed a bridge over a difficult time, your thoughts and prayers to those who had things that should be brought before God’s throne?
If we’re honest, while I pray that we tried, we will also see that we’ve fallen short. Immediate family and strangers alike haven’t received from us the kind of love Jesus is urging us toward here. We have been stingy—selfish—in our doling out of love, to the direct contradiction of Jesus’ command and direction. We struggle to love others as we love ourselves, let alone to love as Jesus has loved us!
Rather than beating ourselves up over those failures, though, I think it’s perhaps in our best interest to remember why we want to have this kind of love for other people. It’s not just because we’re supposed to, nor is it just because it makes us or others feel good; it’s a reflection of the love God has already shown us. That means that this love for each other and all people is one of the strongest attractive forces we have to bring people to Jesus, even before they hear the words of the gospel message itself. The goal is that it instills in people the desire to know more, as this God-like love is so foreign and confusing compared to the way people typically treat others, yet also so very wonderful that they want to learn more. “What would lead someone to treat me in this way? What would cause them to care about me when no one else seems to? What would drive their passion for service, even if no one else sees or knows about it?”
We know that answer clearly: our love is driven by thankfulness for God’s love for us. By nature, our sin made us utterly unlovable. Yet Jesus’ love for us wiped out that unlovable sin—even the times that we have been unloving to others!—and left us as perfect in God’s sight. That kind of self-sacrificing, all-encompassing, all-forgiving, wholistic love is what we strive to reflect to others, show to others, and use to hold others carefully and firmly in our hearts and actions.
It is remarkable to me that one of the primary ways God gives us to express our gratitude for his forgiveness is by loving one another. It almost feels like a 2-for-1, loving God by loving my neighbor. But so great is God’s love and concern for others—believers and unbelievers alike—that he puts this goal of Christ-like love for all people in front of us. Jesus even says, when commenting on people’s good works at the end, “Just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me” (Matthew 25:40).
So, dear Christian, wear that mark of your faith. Show true, genuine love for all people, regardless of who they are, because one thing unites us all: every human being is a soul for whom Jesus died. His love has paid the price for their sins as it did ours; his love has prepared a place for them in eternal life as he has for us. In peace and joy, love as you have been loved!
Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Amen.
