What's New about Love?

Rebecca Sheridan
Thursday, April 2, 2026
John 13:1-17, 31b-35

    What is new about Jesus’ command to love one another?  From the beginning, hasn’t God been urging us to love one another?  How are we doing at loving one another here, 2000 years later after Jesus gives us this new commandment?  It may not be new, but Jesus encourages us to remember and renew our commitment to love one another, just as he first loved us.
    The title of this holy day, “Maundy” is not “Monday” but the Latin for Commandment.  It is Commandment Thursday.  As a parent, I have tried telling my children to “just get along. Stop fighting.  Love one another.” I don’t find that commands to love generally work very well.  There are plenty of fights, disagreements, and periods of separation we have to go through to get back to loving one another in our household.  I’m pretty sure that’s true of your household, too.  I have found that showing love, in addition to telling, helps foster love in our family.  How do we love each other? We help with household chores, we choose our words and use words to encourage and affirm, not just criticize or put down.  We ask for forgiveness when we mess up and try to forgive one another.  We stick together even when it’s difficult.
    This command, “Love one another” is sometimes easier said than done, sometimes in our homes, and often even more so beyond our household.  Even here at church, we struggle to love one another as a faith community – people get on our nerves, we have disagreements about different directions, and conflicting personalities.  Perhaps “command” is not the best word to associate with love.  Maybe it’s better to think about Jesus urging us to love one another – because love is the basic foundation of faith and function of faith community.  Without love, we have no trust – in God, or in one another.  Without love, we cannot forgive.  We cannot heal.  We cannot grow.  Jesus is desperate for us to love one another!  Jesus is desperate to show us how to love one another, just as he loves us.
    So even though the command is not new, at least to us anymore, the teaching of Jesus is renewed and urgent for us today, right now!  Love one another!  Tell one another that – I love you!  God loves you!  And show one another.  When we remember what Christ has done for us on this holy night, on the night when he was betrayed, we can see in many ways how Jesus has shown us his great love for us.  Jesus shows us how to love one another, and we need to remember, again and again, his words and actions for us to pass on.
    Jesus washes his disciples’ feet, the job of the household slave – he serves rather than being served.  Jesus shares a meal with his friends, remembering God’s great love for the people of Israel in leading them out of slavery in Egypt into freedom.  Jesus gives himself as the Lamb of God, delivering us from sin and death into the love and freedom of the kingdom of God.  Jesus tells us that this bread we share at Holy Communion is his body, and this cup we drink is the NEW covenant in his blood. Jesus shows us how to love.
    Tonight, we too show and tell love for God and for one another. We confess our sins and receive Christ’s forgiveness.  We share the holy meal that Christ shared with his disciples, receiving his body and blood.  We share the peace of the Lord with one another.  We pray for one another.  We serve one another.  We are not perfect at this loving one another thing.  We need daily reminders.  Yet as we move toward the cross and the empty tomb, we give thanks to God that Christ lives in us, giving us power to love, because he first loved us.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.