The Real Mark of Jesus in Us

It's the Thursday evening before Good Friday.  As the Upper Room dinner began to end, Jesus got up and washed his disciples feet, and then as we saw yesterday, he told them all, including Judas, that he knew he was to be betrayed.  Judas left the meal - the disciples unsure of why he was leaving - assuming that he was going out to buy something.

With Judas gone, Jesus turns his attention back to the disciples.  He has some more to say and he begins this rather lengthy conversation (it's going to go on for two more of John's chapters) with an admonition on what is the real mark of his disciples - love.

John 13:33-38 (MSG)
³³ "Children, I am with you for only a short time longer. You are going to look high and low for me. But just as I told the Jews, I'm telling you: 'Where I go, you are not able to come.'
³⁴ "Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another.
³⁵ This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other."
³⁶ Simon Peter asked, "Master, just where are you going?" Jesus answered, "You can't now follow me where I'm going. You will follow later."
³⁷ "Master," said Peter, "why can't I follow now? I'll lay down my life for you!"
³⁸ "Really? You'll lay down your life for me? The truth is that before the rooster crows, you'll deny me three times." 


He demonstrated his love in the act of washing feet.  He showed them that in humble service of one another the action is one of love.  When he says one is going to betray him, that is the opposite action of selfish sin.  Then after Judas leaves he tells them - briefly - that they are not going to have him very long anymore...and that where he is going they are not able to come.  That's because he knows the day ahead - less than 24 hours from this time - he will be dead.  He is having a Passover meal with them, but this is the "Last Supper" with them.  Now, he is preparing them for the eventual outcome.

It's not often that a person has the opportunity to have a coherent conversation at the very end of their life.  Most who are in this place don't have the ability to share what is important...what they hope the legacy of their loved ones will be.

Jesus does.  He knows that his life on earth is nearly over, and that he is about to leave to go back to the Father.  As he does, he begins to share the important things he wants them to have, and to hold on to.

He starts with what the real mark of a follower of Jesus should be - love.
³⁴ "Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another.
³⁵ This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other." 

It's interesting that Jesus calls it a "new commandment".  It was part of the law:  "To love the Lord your God with all of your heart...and to love your neighbor as yourself...."  Jesus himself had told the man who inquired of what the greatest commandment was that this was so.  So, why is it "new"?
Jesus told them to love "one another"...not just a general love, but a specific object of love.  It was a new command because it was one of radical reorganization of how we love.  Not just once in a while when you can, but always to each other in Christ.
In the centuries to come it was this commitment to love one another that survived the collapse of the Roman Empire, and lived purposefully in the Middle Ages, and saw reformation during in the institutional apostasy of the church...it was love.
And this love as it's role model:  "As I have loved you..."
Jesus says it, the real mark of our showing that we are his followers is that we have this love of one another.
It is the greatest gift we can give the world - love one another.
The real mark of Jesus is that in his followers, his disciples, those who trust in him as Savior and Lord and seek to live in his Kingdom, there is this radical nature of love.

Peace