In thinking about our Gospel text this morning I was reminded of the movie 300. This 2006 movie was quite the success. Men liked the battles and I’ve been told that many women liked the abs. Whatever exactly the case, the film grossed about 450 million dollars. The movie is loosely based on the Greco-Persian Wars from the first half of the 5th century BC. The movie tells the story of King Leonidas of Greece who commands an elite bodyguard force of 300 men. Leonidas and his men have a brilliant strategy against the huge invading Persian force of about 300,000 men. Leonidas and his men repair a wall that forces the Persians into a narrow pass that is ideally suited for the Greeks with their hoplite warfare and long spears to defend. Leonidas inflicts heavy casualties on the Persians for two days. But then a local Greek resident named Ephialtes betrayed her fellow Greeks by revealing to the Persians a mountain path that led behind the Greek lines, outflanking them. Nevertheless, the courage of the 300 was a thing of legend, and helped strengthen the will of the Greeks to defeat the Persians. Without this victory we here today likely would have a quite different Western world to live in. In our Gospel text this morning there’s also some battle themes. We’ll entitle the sermon with the words of Jesus: A New Command.
At first glance we might not think to associate our text with battle. After all, doesn’t Jesus say to love one another? But we’ll see there’s battle imagery all over the place in our text and its context. We’ll begin with the context. Last week I briefly alluded to the fact that in the middle third or so of John Jesus is engaged in intense skirmishes with his opponents. This contrasts in some ways from the other Gospels where Jesus in the middle of those Gospels tends to train his disciples for ministry and serve the crowds, although there is some resistance by opponents too. But in John the resistance is palpable. For example, after the feeding of the 5000 at the time of the Passover feast in John 6 we hear “After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him.” And then in connection with the feast of Tabernacles in John 7–9 we see that Jesus’ opponents send officers to arrest Jesus (7:32), and then after a long and heated debate where Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am,” Jesus’ opponents attempted to stone him (8:58). And then at the feast of Hanukkah Jesus’ opponents again attempt to stone him for saying that he and the Father are one; here they also have an ongoing order to arrest Jesus (11:57), and they even plot to put Lazarus back to death because Jesus had raised him from the dead (12:10). In the midst of the Hanukkah feast Jesus’ disciple Thomas also said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go [to Jerusalem], that we may die with [Jesus] (11:16).” In light of all these things there certainly were battles going on between Jesus and his powerful religious opponents. These things also seem to reflect the ongoing hostility of much of Judaism towards Christianity at the time John wrote his Gospel.
What then about our text itself? Does it show some signs of a battle between Jesus and his opponents? I believe that it does. Our text begins by saying, “When he [Judas] had gone out, Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.” Judas had just betrayed Jesus and would soon procure a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees (18:3). Thus Judas was preparing for battle. Jesus himself seems to be preparing for battle as well. Jesus has huddled together with the Twelve, who are now the Eleven with the betrayal of Judas. It kind of reminds you of the 300 Greeks from our opening illustration staring down the 300,000 Persians. Or more in keeping with John’s Gospel, it reminds you of Judah Maccabee with his small group of 800 faithful Jews who were hunkered down in Jerusalem defending it from the 20,000 infantry and 2,000 cavalry sent by the Greek general Antiochus Epiphanes. Ultimately Judah would bravely and honorably give up his life in this fight. So too is Jesus hunkered down with his men, well aware that the great fight and his own death were immanent. Thus Jesus in our text is in the midst of washing the feet of his foot soldiers in the context of Hanukkah. Here John’s Gospel downplays the connection to Passover on Maundy Thursday, for example by mentioning that it was still before the Passover feast and by simply saying Jesus was at a supper, omitting a reference to a Passover meal and omitting the Words of Institution. Jesus has shed his outer clothing, as if for battle. The warrior Jesus is giving his disciples their orders, which he calls a new command.
But now we must ask the question, what kind of battle did Jesus see himself engaged in? It wasn’t a bloody battle, as Judas seemed to think as he gathered a band of troops around himself. It wouldn’t involve an actual sword, as Peter mistakenly thought when he cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant Malchus in Gethsemane. It wasn’t even the sort of godly fight the Maccabeans fought for the sake of their independence from invasion and freedom of worship. No, the type of battle Jesus was interested in was spiritual. This can be seen in The New Command Jesus gives the disciples. As he says in our text,
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
This sounds pretty similar to what we considered last week. Last week we emphasized that Jesus does not want us to be consumed by a desire for revenge but rather to forgive those who wrong us. This week we see that Jesus is calling on disciples to love one another. But considering that we disciples are prone to sin against one another, this love will also require forgiveness. This can be seen immediately after our text when Jesus tells Peter that in spite of Peter’s confession that he’s ready to lay down his life for Jesus, Peter will rather deny Jesus three times before the rooster crows. Here Jesus does not seek to punish Peter, but rather tells him “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” Peter as a sinner cannot follow Jesus all the way to the cross. But Peter will still follow Jesus. Peter will retain his faith because of Jesus’ love for him and forgiveness of him. Thus Peter is called to a different kind of battle, a spiritual battle that is rooted in being forgiven by Jesus but also tries to follow his example of love.
We too should try to fight this battle. As we together try to serve others with the gospel, we like Peter and the disciples will fall short. Not only will we not always serve others. We will turn on each other. We will revert back to old ways of fighting and will harm one another. Perhaps this might happen at a voters meeting. Or perhaps it might happen by being unwilling to engage with one another. Or perhaps it happen by complaining about one another. There are all sorts of ways that God’s people can take up arms against one another within a congregation. But in the midst of the carnage, Jesus in our text calls us back to his New Command. He calls on us to put down our weapons. And calls on us to take up the weapon of love. As Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 4 in words reminiscent of Jesus: “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” I’m not saying this is easy. It was hard last week to think about forgiving those who have really wronged us. Similarly, it’s hard for us to love each other when we have harmed each other. But Jesus has equipped us with the weapons we need for this. At his supper he gives us his body and blood and reminds us that we all have sinned much more against him than we have one another. And yet Jesus has abundantly forgiven us. May we this day at his table think about Jesus’ love for us, even as we also look at each other as those that Jesus has called us to love.
Finally, this morning I’d like to consider the real heart of our text, Jesus. It’s true that our text calls on us to love one another. But the real heart of it is that Jesus is working and sacrificing to enable this love to happen. Have you ever thought about what Jesus might mean when he says that he’s issuing A New Command? Already in the Old Testament God tells us to love our neighbor as ourselves. We hear this three times in Leviticus 19, for example in Leviticus 19:18:
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
Isn’t this saying the same thing as our text? How then is Jesus’ command new? To see how it’s new listen again to Jesus’ words:
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
The newness of the command is its connection to Jesus: “Just as I [Jesus] have loved you.” The death and resurrection of Jesus show divine love to the world in ways it has never seen before. It’s true that God’s love was certainly evident in the Old Testament, for example in his creating the world. And yet we see new depths of love in the love that Jesus shows us in dying for our sins and rising to give us new life and eternal life. When it comes down to it, Jesus’ work on the last night of his life was a work he had to complete alone. Judah Maccabee in the events celebrated by Hanukkah earned a certain place of privilege due to his military prowess, bravery, and self-sacrifice. Much more so did Jesus gain glory through his work of opening heaven for us. Ultimately in holy week we see that the there are two sides in a battle: Jesus on one side and our sin on the other. The glory of our redemption is his alone. Our text this morning teaches us a little bit about how we should love one another. But it teaches us a whole lot about how much Jesus loved us. Ultimately our text is about Jesus’ love as the source of his New Command.
