Isaiah 50:4-9a,
Hebrews 12:1-3,
John 13:21-32,
Psalm 70, Wednesday in Holy Week.
Well if they don't know by now they should surely get it from this. The disciples have enjoyed the hospitality of Jesus at the Table, including his washing of their feet like a servant (διάκονος), and then - if they had been listening - he foretells his own betrayal. And even then he is ready: he tells them what they now need to know. Love one another. Don't forget it.
This is what you need to know, in the days ahead. Not just for you. For everybody.
If you only care about your own survival, you are already dead.
What Jesus gives them, in the new commandment, is the gift they need not for themselves and their personal security - far from it: it is the gift they will exhibit and share, as they bring the light to the world and the message of good news to its people. All of them.
What they will show, in their love for one another, is the way the kingdom of heaven will be. It is a sign, a foretaste, as all the other signs were meant to be, of what is to come. What is to come: what God has promised, and therefore what will be fulfilled.
The way - will it be easy? No. They have trials ahead. But even more, if they can keep this law, they will have the life that cannot be grasped, only given, that is in the hands of the Father to give and the Son to share.
Will they live that life? Will we? In the Spirit's help, God willing, we can and we do.
Well if they don't know by now they should surely get it from this. The disciples have enjoyed the hospitality of Jesus at the Table, including his washing of their feet like a servant (διάκονος), and then - if they had been listening - he foretells his own betrayal. And even then he is ready: he tells them what they now need to know. Love one another. Don't forget it.
This is what you need to know, in the days ahead. Not just for you. For everybody.
If you only care about your own survival, you are already dead.
What Jesus gives them, in the new commandment, is the gift they need not for themselves and their personal security - far from it: it is the gift they will exhibit and share, as they bring the light to the world and the message of good news to its people. All of them.
What they will show, in their love for one another, is the way the kingdom of heaven will be. It is a sign, a foretaste, as all the other signs were meant to be, of what is to come. What is to come: what God has promised, and therefore what will be fulfilled.
The way - will it be easy? No. They have trials ahead. But even more, if they can keep this law, they will have the life that cannot be grasped, only given, that is in the hands of the Father to give and the Son to share.
Will they live that life? Will we? In the Spirit's help, God willing, we can and we do.
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