In our gospel reading for today, Jesus gives his disciples one last commandment before he leaves them behind. And this commandment is to prepare them for the time to come – the time of intense persecution. The world will hate them in Jesus' name. And so, to counteract the world, and to get them ready for the world to come, Jesus commands them to love one another....
A commandment to love someone. If we weren't so used to this language from the Bible, a commandment to love someone would sound very strange. Can you imagine if there was an eleventh commandment, “thou shalt love thy spouse?” What would that mean for married relationships? “I love you, sweetheart - not because of your virtues or my desire to be with you or because I desire your happiness as an essential part of my own happiness – no, I love you because God TOLD ME to.” As soon as you have a commandment to love someone, you have to question if it is still truly love.
And in our gospel reading, Jesus makes it even more strange. Not only are the disciples commanded to love one another, they are commanded to love one another as Jesus loved them. OK, so how did Jesus love them? Well, Jesus says at the beginning of our gospel reading that he loved them as the Father loved him. Putting two and two together, does that mean we are commanded to love each other as the Father loves Jesus? Does that mean we are to have a Fatherly love for each other? Does that mean, like in the garden of Gethsemane, we can ask each other to sacrifice, to go through crucifixion, if it suits our purposes?
Wait, it gets even more strange. How did Jesus say he abided in his Father's love? Jesus kept his Father's commandments, just as he directs us to keep his commandments to abide in his love. So does that mean, in loving each other like the Father loved Jesus, we are supposed to have commandments for each other to follow? Sounds VERY paternalistic! And it might explain some of the attitude of the church throughout history – Father knows best....and when we say Father, we mean WE.
I think the key to unlocking this strange commandment is to go where Jesus goes next in the reading – he warns the disciples that the world will hate them and persecute them. In fact, the persecution may come to a situation where disciples are tortured to reveal their brothers to the authorities, and in this situation, there is no greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends, and for the gospel. It is in the context of the hatred of the world, that the commandment to love one another is given.
And it is in OUR context of the relative apathy towards Christianity in our society, that the commandment to love one another is neglected. We are quick to throw fellow Christians under the bus. We are quick to escalate our differences in interpretation into “we're Christian, and you're not really.” We are quick to assume any Christian caught up in scandal or controversy is guilty as accused. We are quick to break fellowship with other Christians over trivial matters. We are quick to publicly point out the sins of other Christians, without even addressing the sins with the sinners.
And given the fact that none of us are being tortured for our faith, we are quick to knuckle under to whatever pressure society is placing on us, to abandon the gospel and conform to the world. In NO WAY is this loving one other as Jesus loved us.