4th Friday of Lent (March 20). As Jesus loved you

Prepare to Listen.  The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?
 
Prayerfully Read John 13:31-35
31When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.  32If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.  33Little 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.’  34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
 
Prayerfully Wonder
In the Synoptic Gospels, Jesus often plainly said he’d suffer, die and rise again on the third day.  John is never that plain.  Instead, Jesus speaks in metaphors, makes vague remarks and uses symbolic signs, when speaking of his destiny.  That’s what he’s doing in these verses, concluding with a key command.
 
Glorified/glorify is the first hint about his future, and also the first time Jesus used this word to describe what God would do for him.  It’s how he understood his death and resurrection, not as a tragic defeat, but a triumphant victory for him and the Father.  The vindication of all he said and did.  Because he knew his end was near, he looked forward to it happening “at once.”
 
His second hint, specifically about his death was him about to leave them.  They’d look for him but, as he’d said before to the Jews, “Where I am going, you cannot come.”  He was going to the cross, alone.  They couldn’t go there with him.
 
And then he gave his new commandment.  He was leaving, but they must “love one another.”  We know this isn’t new, as in never-before-given by God.  What is new is the type of this love: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”  And how did Jesus love us?  He laid down his life for us.  Love, as Neyrey notes, is “most frequently linked to ‘laying down one’s life’ for another.”[1]  A willingness to sacrifice for another.
 
What would it mean for you to love as Jesus loved you, that is, in the way that lays down your life for another?
 
Prayerfully Respond
Lord Jesus, you love us to the edge, laying down your life that we may live fully and glorify you.  Give me what I need to love one another, whoever they be, with your new love.  Amen.
 
Live obediently.  Love as Jesus loved you.
[1] Neyrey, Jerome H.  The Gospel of John.  New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.  2007, p. 236.