When (Judas) 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” (John 13:31-35 – NRSV).
Introductory notes
General
“As the first events in the Johannine account of Jesus’ final night with his disciples began (vv. 1–5), three themes emerged: the arrival of “the hour” (v. 1), Jesus’ love for his own no matter how sinful they might be (vv. 1–3), and Jesus’ bringing his task to a perfect end by means of a consummate act of love (v. 1). At the conclusion of this account one of those themes returned: Jesus’ love for his own (vv. 34–35) no matter how frail they might be (vv. 36–38). Another theme is added: the glorification of Jesus and the revelation of the glory of God (vv. 31–32). This theme was also found at the center of the passage, in Jesus’ claim that his disciples would come to recognize him as the unique revelation of God in and through events that lie in the near future (v. 19). John 13:1–38 is a description of the glory shown by unconditional love, and Jesus asks that his disciples live and love in imitation of him. This is the example (v. 15), the new commandment (vv. 34–35) he gives to them. The example and the new commandment coalesce.
“Many themes adumbrated during the ministry have now come to the fore: the frailty of the disciples (cf. 1:35–49; 4:27–38; 6:1–15, 60–71; 9:1–5; 11:5–16), the betrayal of Judas (cf. 6:70–71; 12:4–6), the denials of Peter (cf. 1:40–42; 6:67–69), the departure of Jesus (cf. 7:33–34; 8:21), the impossibility of following him to the Father ‘now’ (cf. 7:33–34), an oncoming event that will transform the lack of knowledge and faith ‘now’ into an ‘afterward’ when disciples will know and will follow (cf. 2:22; 12:16), the knowledge of Jesus (cf. 2:24–25; 4:1; 5:42; 6:15; 10:14–15), his love for his own (cf. 3:16–17, 34–35), the cross as the moment of Jesus’ glorification (cf. 1:51; 11:4; 12:23, 33), and the revelation of God in and through the event of the cross (3:13–14; 8:28; 12:23, 32–33). Puzzles produced by the story of Jesus’ public ministry converge, and in this sense 13:1–38 introduces the reader to 14:1–20:31” (Francis J Moloney SDB, The Gospel of John, Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press 1998, 387).
Specific
When (Judas) had gone out: Our Gospel text for today follows on John’s account of the Last Supper. More particularly, it follows immediately on the exchange between Jesus and Judas which concludes with the statement: “It was night” (John 13:30). John 13:31 thus marks the beginning of the section of John’s Gospel often referred to as the Farewell Discourses (13:31-14:31). The departure of Judas has been something of a turning point. Jesus now turns to address the disciples who will stay with him. There is an urgency about the moment. “Now the departure of Judas puts the actual machinery of arrest, trial and execution into motion” (D A Carson, The Gospel according to John, Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991, 482).
glorified: The verb doxazō is used five times here. Central to John’s narrative on the Incarnation, is this theme of “glory”. See for example: “the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (1:14); “‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed” (17:1-5). Jesus’ miracles are all “signs” of the Father’s glory.
Our Gospel text today re-iterates this and points to the Cross: “…. God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.” Pheme Perkins writes: “The plot of the Gospel is focused on the ‘hour’ of Jesus’ glorification, his return to the Father at the crucifixion.” (“The Gospel According to John” in The New Jerome Biblical Commentary, edited by Raymond E Brown, Joseph A Fitzmyer and Roland E Murphy, Geoffrey Chapman, 1968/1990, 61:14, 947.)
love: The verb agapao is used four times here. This is the highest form of love in the Christian Scriptures. There is a moral vision here, but it is underpinned by a mystical vision. The love John speaks of is an expression of the life of God. Our “abiding in him” (see for example 15:1-19) means that we too can “love”. That is, it is our communion with God that enables us to fulfil this commandment – “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another”. The amazing beauty and wonder of this love is that it comes not as conquest of will but as gift of grace.
What does it mean to love one another?
In today’s Gospel – John 13:31-33 & 34-35 – we hear yet again the great commandment: “Love one another as I have loved you.” That commandment seems to be straightforward, but centuries of experience would suggest it is anything but. For example, C S Lewis suggests how our “loving” can actually be “unloving” in The Screwtape Letters. Screwtape, instructs the young devil, his nephew, Wormwood: “Avail yourself of the ambiguity in the word ‘Love’.” He continues with cutting irony: “‘If people knew how much ill-feeling Unselfishness occasions, it would not be so often recommended from the pulpit’; and again, ‘She’s the sort of woman who lives for others – you can always tell the others by their hunted expression’” (Chapter XXVI).
The same destructive influences that can undermine any of our attempts at good behaviour can also be at work in our attempts to love one another. Those influences may include, for example, selfishness and egotism, greed and vanity. Recall the devil’s temptation of Adam and Eve: “You will be like God!” (3:5). When we – implicitly or explicitly – displace God in our lives, everything we do will be tainted, including our attempts to love one another. The antidote, as Meister Eckhart observes, is to let God be God in you.
John explains in his First Letter: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. … for God is love. … In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us” (4:7-10). Jesus puts it beautifully in the parable of the vine: “Abide in my love” (15:9). This involves a radical, new way of being. Thus, he tells Nicodemus, you must be “born of the Spirit” (3:8). St Paul describes it as a “new creation” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
It may, therefore, be better if we hear Jesus’ command to love one another as an invitation to receive and participate in the love of God, rather than as a moral imperative to imitate Jesus through right behaviour. Experience suggests that the latter can easily expose us to those destructive influences mentioned above. It is also likely to attach the expectation of reward and punishment to right behaviour. Reward and punishment, in turn, invariably imply judgment and fear. All of which will almost certainly distort and/or undermine the love we endeavour to put into practice.
Jesus’ command to love cannot be fulfilled if we focus on ourselves and what we must do. It can only be fulfilled if we are empty of our self-centeredness, if we let go of reward and punishment and surrender to God. Then we will begin to discover love as gift rather than conquest, a work of grace rather than self-mastery. God’s love – true love – liberates. It does not entrap or manipulate, it is never self-serving though it will in fact be deeply fulfilling because that is why we exist.