Sermon for the Fifth Sunday of Easter (May 19, 2019)

Easter 5 – Series C (May 19, 2019)

“Do People Know You Are a Disciple of Jesus?” (John 13:31-35)

It’s the night that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper.  He is gathered with his chosen disciples in the Upper Room in Jerusalem.  And he gives them a new commandment … to love one another.

Now, that sounds easy enough.  Love one another.  Okay.  I can do that.  That’s just one I have to remember.  Not like having to remember TEN.  And those Ten Commandments, well, they’re a bit harder to keep.  Love?  I can handle that.

But can you?  Is it really all that easy?  And is it really all that new?  Jesus had already referred to this when a lawyer asked him, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” (Matthew 22:36). Jesus answered by quoting passages from Deuteronomy (6:5) and Leviticus (19:18): “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the first and greatest commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 22:37-39).  So there you have it.  Even in the Old Testament, the Law is summarized by “Love God.  Love your neighbor.”

So, what’s so new about what Jesus has to say here?  Jesus says to love “just as I have loved you.”  And how would the disciples have understood that?  Jesus demonstrated it earlier that night when he washed their feet.  That was the job of a slave.  Their teacher, their master, their Savior, their God humbled himself and acted as if he was their servant.  He knelt down in the dust and got all dirty for them, to cleanse their feet.  He put his own needs, his own ego, his own rights as their superior aside and served them sacrificially.  And the next day, he would be nailed up on a cross and get all bloody for them, to cleanse their souls.  To cleanse our souls.  Love “just as I have loved you” means to love by acting as a servant, by setting your own needs, your own ego, your own position aside and serve others sacrificially.  By being willing to give up your life for someone.

Easy?  Now, we’re not so sure anymore, are we?  And loving others is even harder when it comes to loving people who aren’t very lovable … people who annoy us, people who are obnoxious, people who have done something that deeply hurt us, people who have radically different politics than us.  Loving others is harder when it comes to loving those toward whom we have some long-standing prejudices.  Take Peter, for example in our first reading Acts.  There he is reporting to the church in Jerusalem how, after receiving a vision in Joppa, he went to Caesarea to the household of Cornelius – an uncircumcised Gentile of all things! – and witnessed how the Holy Spirit came upon them and granted them “repentance that leads to life” (Acts 11:18).  Prior to this, Peter would have never set foot in the house of an unclean Gentile.  Jews simply did not do this.  But in his vision, he saw a sheet coming down out of heaven, with shrimp and lobster and bacon cheeseburgers (okay, there weren’t really bacon cheeseburgers), all kinds of things that the Old Covenant had forbidden them to eat.  A voice told Peter to dig in.  Peter said, “No way.  I’ve never eaten anything unclean.”  And the voice replied, “What God has made clean, do not call unclean.”  Peter grabbed the clue.  All those old, long-standing bigotries and prejudices were set aside.  He went to Cornelius’ home, preached the Gospel, baptized everyone who heard the Good News, and stayed with them for a few days, eating and drinking with them … Christian fellowship, oneness in Christ, showing love for one another.  But old habits die hard.  Later on, we read in Paul’s letter to the Galatians that Peter fell back into his old prejudices and refused to eat with Gentiles.  Paul had to call him out on that.

“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another,” Jesus says.  Do people know you are a disciple of Jesus?  Do we live like the first believers did as described in Acts 2: “…they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers … all who believed were together and had all things in common … they were selling their possession and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need.  And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people” (Acts 2:42-47).  The second century church father Tertullian, from Carthage in North Africa, famously quoted the pagans around him who observed the Christians and said, “See how they love one another.”  Love was apparently one of the distinguishing marks of the early church. 

But even people who are not Christians can love.  So what makes us different?  What makes someone a disciple of Christ?  After the resurrection, Jesus sent his apostles out with this word: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19-20).  Baptizing and teaching.  That’s how disciples are made.

In Jesus’ day, disciples chose their teachers.  It’s the other way around with Jesus.  He chooses you.  He calls you to faith by baptism and by the Word of God.  The Holy Spirit works through those means to give you faith.

A disciple also listens to his teacher and learns from him.  That’s what you are doing right now.  Listening to the Word of Jesus here in the Divine Service.  Listening to his Word at home as you read it by yourself or together with other family members.  You are a disciple of Jesus.  Baptized and taught by him.  And the Holy Spirit produces the fruit of love in you as a disciple.

Yes, we need to repent of the ways in which we have not loved well.  But you are forgiven.  Jesus loved you and still loves you today with a humble, sacrificial love.

Take note, too, what happened on either side of today’s Gospel reading.  Jesus washed the disciples’ feet as a picture of humble, sacrificial service.  And then comes our text.  It begins with these words: “when he had gone out.”  When who went out?  Judas!  The one who betrayed the Lord.  Jesus knew what Judas was going to do, and yet he still lovingly washed the feet of the one who would betray him and never return in faith.  Then, right after our text, Jesus says that Peter will deny him.  It happened that same night.  Jesus knew it was going to happen.  And yet Jesus still lovingly washed the feet of the one who denied him three times and did return in faith to “feed [Christ’s] sheep” and eventually give his own life for his confession of faith.  And our Lord Jesus loves you so much that he humbly and sacrificially served you by dying for you at the cross, even though you have not loved well, even though you and I have failed him in so many ways.

Jesus addresses his disciples as “Little children.”  They’re not so little, you might say.  But how are they like children here?  Their Lord is about to leave them.  They are unsure of what this all means.  They are scared.  Confused.  Dependent.  But completely loved by their Teacher.  He does not demand allegiance.  He does not coerce them to love him.  He does not beat them like a cruel schoolmaster.  He treats them with mercy and compassion.  He serves them.

In the same way, you are “little children” to him.  We can be scared.  We can be confused.  And we are totally dependent upon our Lord and Master.  We are lifelong disciples of Jesus.  We never stop learning.  We never stop growing.  We continue to listen to his Word in the Scriptures.  We continue to be fed and nourished by his body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.

He humbled himself by taking on the form of a servant.  He who washed us in Holy Baptism.  He loved us by giving his life for us.  He empowers us to love one another as he has loved us.  And he has promised, “Behold, I am making all things new.”  There will come a day when all our fear and confusion will come to an end.  But our dependence upon him will continue into eternity.

“The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son” (Rev. 21:7).  Your Lord Jesus, the Son of God, conquered sin, death, and hell for you.  In baptism, his victory becomes yours.  You are more than a conqueror through him who loved you.  Jesus’ Father is your Father.  He is your God.  You are Christ’s disciples now.  You are God’s sons and daughters forever.

Amen.