Sermon John 15:12-17 “A New Commandment”

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon John 15:12-17 “A New Commandment”
New Covenant Church
Maundy Thursday, March 29, 2018

Today is Maundy Thursday.   The word “Maundy”  comes from the Latin “mandatum” which means “command”.   So this is Commandment Thursday when we remember the New Commandment Jesus gave us on the night before his death.   Throughout the season of Lent, we have been looking at the Ten Commandments.   So far we have looked at the first five commandments which Jesus summarized by saying, “Matthew 22:37 .... ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’”   After Easter, we will look at commandments six through ten which Jesus summarized with, “Matthew 22:38 ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”   So we are to love God and love our neighbor.  But tonight we turn to a new commandment from Jesus.   We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

The Ten Commandments were given by God to Moses to proclaim to everyone.   They are principles for good living in the world God created.   Follow them and you will live a good life.   Ignore them and you will suffer the consequences.   It is all up to you, but I encourage to do what God says you should do.

The New Commandment from Jesus was not for everyone.   Rather it was for a small group of select individuals.   Jesus and his closest followers, the 12 disciples, had gathered in an upper room to share one last meal together.   Judas was excused because he had decided to no longer follow Jesus.    He became the betrayer of Jesus.   So the group to whom Jesus gave the new commandment was just the eleven who continued to follow him.

The reason for this new commandment was that these disciples could now no longer follow Jesus.   They had followed him as far as they could.   Jesus told them, “John 13:33 ...Where I am going, you cannot come.”  Jesus was going to the cross where he would die.   Then he would be placed in a tomb.   Then he would rise from the dead and ascend into heaven.   With the cross, the ability of the disciples to continue following Jesus as they had came to an end.   And they needed something else, a New Commandment.

Here is the New Commandment Jesus gave to his disciples. 

John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.

So Jesus’ closest disciples were told that they could no longer follow Jesus.   Instead of following Jesus they were commanded to love each other.   Of course, it is much easier to follow Jesus than to love each other.   It is much easier to come to worship and study the Bible and pray that it is for us to truly love each other.   This is especially true when Jesus said that loving each other could require the giving of your life for someone in the church.   Few of us would love that much.  But Jesus loved us and died for us.

Peter wasn’t about to stop following Jesus and start loving the other ten.   He told Jesus that he was going to keep following him.   But Jesus was correct.  It was impossible for Peter to keep following Jesus, and within hours he denied being a follower of Jesus three times.

Clearly giving one’s life for someone in the church is an extreme example of love for each other.   So short of that what would loving each other look like?   Jesus showed that loving each other is like washing each other's feet.

Luke tells us a wonderful story of someone who experienced forgiveness and therefore loved Jesus so much that she washed his feet.

Luke 7:37 A sinful woman in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. So she brought an alabaster jar of perfume 38 and stood behind Jesus at his feet, crying. She began to wash his feet with her tears, and she dried them with her hair, kissing them many times and rubbing them with the perfume.

The disciples had assembled for a formal Passover dinner.   Low tables were arranged in a U shaped pattern.   The disciples reclined on cushions around the outside of the U.   They reclined on their right sides and reached with their right hands to pick up a piece a pita or an olive or some cheese or whatever might be on the table.   As they reclined on their couches their feet were stretched out behind them as you can see in the picture I took of the olive wood carving on the screen.

Jesus took a bowl of water and a towel to the outer part of the U.   There he began washing their feet.    It was common hospitality to offer guests a bowl of water and a towel so they could wash their own feet.   But no one would ever wash someone else’s feet.   And the law said that no servant could ever be compelled to wash someone else’s feet.   So the act of washing someone’s feet was not compulsory; it must be an act of love.  Jesus loved his disciples so much that he washed their feet, and he commanded them to love each other in the same way.

 Do the members and regular attendees of New Covenant Church love each other so much they you would lay down your lives for each other?   Do you love one another so much that you would wash each other’s feet?  My prayer is that this church would be filled with so much love over the next year that next Maundy Thursday you would all come here eager to wash each other’s feet in worship.
So why did Jesus command us to love each other?  The reason is simple.   Jesus was going to heaven and was leaving behind a church.    If the church left behind continued to love one another the way Jesus had loved them it would thrive.   But if the church ignored Jesus’ command and refused to love each other then it would wither away and die.

The command to love each other is our responsibility in the covenant the church has with Christ.    The benefit that we receive from Christ is this, “16 I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit-fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.”  So if we truly love each other then whatever we ask for from God will be provided to the church.   
Jesus has chosen us as his closest disciples.   We have been following him learning about him in worship, Bible study, and prayer.   Jesus wants New Covenant Church to flourish.   This can only happen if we love each other as much as Jesus loves us.   Are we willing to wash each other’s feet?   Are we ready to lay down our lives for one another?    Like Peter and the other disciples, those are the questions we face as we gather around this table tonight.   Let us pray.

Father in Heaven we pray for your love to fill us to such a level that it will spill out of us to fill this church.   Help us to love each other just as Christ loved us.   This we pray in your glorious name. Amen.