Famous Last Words

If you knew you had 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes of time to speak to the world, what would you say?  If you knew you had you parting shot, your moment for “famous last words,” how would you use it?  What would you say to those by whom you want to be remembered?

Maybe you’ve thought about what you would say to the commander of a unit as you’re getting ready to check out and you know you’ll have the opportunity to give honest assessments.  I often think of the need to say something absolutely profound and important as I’m leaving a church community.  I wonder, “What words do I want them to remember?  What is most important?”  By what last words would you like to be known?

Jesus gives us eleven words: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.”

One writer says: “Simple enough for a toddler to memorize…profound enough that most mature believers are repeatedly embarrassed at how poorly they comprehend it and put it into action.”

For the most part, we are probably thinking, “Yeah Jesus, right there with you.  Got it; Love one another.”  And then in walks the last person on earth you want to see, she sits right next to you, and you think, “But not her.” And then you’re walking about town and you bump into someone else and you think, “Not him.” And then you hear about this group, or that group, both of which make you angry beyond belief, and you think, “Oh please, Jesus, Not them.”  On the whole, we’re doing okay on loving one another, until it gets real and love stops being easy, and then we feel the burden of the fact that Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment.”

And Jesus, being a savvy kind of guy, looks at the disciples…the same ones who argued about greatness, the same ones who were about to make dust and abandon him as he gets arrested, the ones who would deny knowing him, who would forego testifying on his behalf, the ones who would let the stress of his final hours destroy their relationships with one another…Jesus looks at them and adds, “Just as I have loved you, you also must love one another.  By this the world will know you are my disciples.”  

Just as we think we have an out by saying, “But Jesus, I couldn’t love right there because I was too stressed out, too freaked out, too betrayed, too angry.”  He says the way we love isn’t within our own standards, but within his.

Maybe he knew we’d remember his command to love God with all we are and to love our neighbors as ourselves, and then say, “But I don’t love myself so much right now so…’no love for you!’”

Jesus is aware of how self defeating we can be, of how by the book we can be, so he makes the plumb line of loving one another the love that he has for us.

A portion of this passage is read on the Thursday before Easter, Maundy Thursday.  And every year I preach on the washing of feet and the new commandment.  This year I came to a conclusion that when Jesus says, “Do what I do. Love like I love. Follow my example.” It’s not so much about the actual washing of feet.  It’s about giving the grace behind it.  Jesus takes on the willingness to deal with our dirt so that we will follow his example and deal with the dirt of others.  He gives us his grace, not for our sake alone, but so that we’ll give it to others because the love we share, the grace we give it’s not our love, our grace, our forgiveness; it’s Christ’s.  

And maybe it’s good that he gave this teaching around the table where we would eventually gather in living memory of his sacrificial love; because when we gather, we know that the playing field is leveled; we all need grace, we all still need saving, and as we look around the room of everyone who is gathered at the feast of grace, we see just how big and how welcoming the love of Christ is.  And just as he welcomes, so should we.  Just as he loves, so do we.  Not because we are obliged, but because we know how great it feels to be loved.