5-18-25                 John 13:31-35

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33 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.’ 34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Our Easter celebration continues for the life Jesus won lasts forever.  Amen

For the last four weeks we have been proclaiming the most wonderful and holy event: Jesus is risen! [ ] I wouldn’t want you to forget that. It is the foundation of our relationship with God, it is the basis of our hope and our confidence in the promise given to us. Yet our gospel text this week does not provide us another account of Jesus showing himself alive to his followers. This time we are returned to the evening of the Lord’s Supper after Jesus had washed the feet of his disciples and told them that he knew he was about to be betrayed by one of them. The penultimate event of the resurrection is being placed into the context of this earlier instruction given by Jesus. The glory of Jesus shines through his victory over death reflecting and amplifying the very glory of God Almighty. It changes for all time the relationship Jesus has with these disciples. At this point Jesus takes one final opportunity to reiterate a major concern regarding those who follow him. He gives a new and overriding command, which is why that day is called Maundy Thursday – Maundy means command.  By this command, the attitude and motivation we are to have is spelled out; for it is in this way that we are to relate with all people.  I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. No stipulations are given to narrow down the list, everyone qualifies. The grumpy neighbor, the arrogant boss, the obnoxious radical who lives within their own truth, the fussy lady you can never please, the person who doesn’t look like you or sound like you, each of these and all who earn an unsavory label, are included. Jesus says we should love one another. By love he means, we are to treat them with the same kindness, patience, generosity, and concern that we would like to be treated. If you recall the lesson Jesus gave on that evening, when he established his Eucharistic Meal, you will understand just how deep that mindset and feeling is meant to go. Jesus, their Master and Lord, humbled himself, washing his disciples’ feet. He put them first, taking on a servant’s role. That is what we are also to do, we show love by placing another’s need before our own. You do not love someone because of what you can gain from them; you love by giving of yourself.

Peter learned this lesson; we heard about it in our first reading that described a vision which he was given. ‘What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’  Jews had long been taught to keep themselves separate from Gentiles, from anyone who was different. Now, in this church, among those who follow Jesus, that directive has changed.  The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us, Peter said. They came to realize through Peter’s experience and other circumstances that arose within the spreading of this new faith that Easter brought many to new life. It was not easy for them to open the doors, to love one another. Step by step they began to understand. Here we learn: They praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.” It is not easy for us to open the doors, to love one another.

The Connection publication points us to: The hit movie Wicked, the imaginative prequel to The Wizard of Oz. Based on the long-running Broadway musical, the movie centers on the story of Elphaba, the young woman who will become the Wicked Witch of the West. We learn from this musical/movie how we can get confused about what being loving really is. Elphaba is born with brilliant green skin, a condition that isolates her from the world. Despite her father’s rejection of her and the cruel mockery of others, Elphaba possesses an internal strength of character and a deep sense of responsibility.   [I haven’t seen the movie but I think I should]

 Elphaba meets the “popular” Glinda, the Good Witch in waiting. The blonde-haired, pink-dressed, flighty Glinda is the antithesis of the green-skinned, dark-clothed Elphaba — and nowhere near as gifted. The two are students at Shiz University, Oz’s famed school for sorcery. The two loathe each other. 

 At first, like everyone, Glinda is put off by the sight of the green-skinned Elphaba — but once the shock wears off, Glinda offers her “help” with Elphaba’s “problem.”  Elphaba responds as she usually does to such patronizing: “Fine, let’s get this over with: No, I am not seasick; no, I did not eat grass as a child; and yes, I’ve always been green.” Glinda replies, “Well, I, for one, am so sorry that you have been forced to live with this.”

 “Is that so?” Elphaba counters. “Yes,” Glinda goes on. “And it is my intention to major in sorcery. So, if at some point, you wanted to address the, um . . . ‘problem’ . . .  “Problem?” repeats Elphaba.

 “. . . perhaps I could help,” Glinda offers.

 But Elphaba will have none of it.

“Offering to help someone that you don’t know with skills that you don’t have, I’m sure everyone is duly impressed.”

(Connections May 2025)

Like Glinda and the good people of Oz, we can easily let another’s “problem”, as we perceive it, become an obstacle to relationship. In actuality the real “problem” is our own: our inability to see beyond labels, our refusal to embrace the needs and hopes of another, our own conviction of what is best and right. 

Yet what is it that Jesus says? You also should love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Jesus wants to have his followers easily identifiable by the loving way they treat one another, those who are like us and those who are different. We should be especially easy to spot in this world today when hatred, cruelty, and plain ol’ nastiness abound.

Make yourself known!  This world will be better for it! Then all will learn that Jesus is risen!  [ ]