A New Commandment

Maundy Thursday, April 17

When asked by a scribe what the greatest commandment of the 613 Old Testament commandments was, Jesus responded by quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4, the Shema, "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." He also quoted from Leviticus 19:18: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." The first commandment was like the second in that love toward God was always to be demonstrated in loving others whom He had also made in His image with equal value—especially among the chosen people of His covenant. Love for others was, therefore, not really what was "new" to Christ's commandment in John 13, although perhaps what was new would be the heightened extension of this love between Jew and Gentile.

What, then, did Jesus mean that He was giving them a "new commandment"? Today in the Christian calendar marks the remembrance of Maundy Thursday. It is the beginning of the "Great Three Days," otherwise referred to as the Paschal Triduum, beginning at sundown on Thursday and ending at sundown on Sunday (Gross, Living the Christian Year, 167). "Maundy" comes from the Latin word mandatum, or commandment. This day remembers the night of Jesus's last celebration of the Passover with His disciples and the night of His betrayal by Judas and arrest for trial. It was also the night when Jesus, in preparing for his departure, gave his disciples a new commandment to love each other as he had loved them, which he had just earlier demonstrated as their Teacher by assuming the position of a household servant and by washing all their grimy feet.

Throughout His earthly ministry, the Lord had loved His disciples with compassion and patience. Even after all they witnessed, they still lacked faith and understanding (Matthew 8:26, 16:8, and Luke 12:28). They did not rightly perceive Jesus's Messianic mission of suffering (Matthew 16:22), and I believe Peter probably spoke for the rest of them when he refused to let Jesus wash his feet. Sometimes, actions do speak louder than words, and Jesus knew that the power of His living example would stick in their minds in a different way than would His verbal commandment.

Not only this, but Jesus had not come just to teach the rightful heart and intent of God's law. He was not merely another lawgiver like Moses. He came to perfectly model and embody the Law as the New Adam, and then followed it through obediently all the way to the cross on behalf of sinners. God had spoken His law from heaven under the Old Testament, but now the Law was being spoken in Jesus's words and through His very life as the "Word made flesh" (John 1:14, Hebrews 1:1).

Apart from the life of Jesus as a new example, what was also new about the commandment was the particular emphasis on sacrifice and mercy that Jesus desired of His followers. It was not enough that they would not act unjustly towards each other, but that they would also go above and beyond mere obedience to the letter of the law in sacrificial love for each other. Not doing someone harm (justice) is not quite the same thing as not returning evil for evil or showering good on someone even when they do not deserve it or if it harms or hurts you. That was the costly love that Jesus was teaching them, showing them, and eventually would ultimately display the next day as He hung draped and bleeding on the shame of a criminal's cross.

In Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, He had instructed His disciples not to return evil for evil but to actually do good to those who mistreat them (Matthew 5:39, Luke 6:35). In teaching His disciples to pray, Jesus instructed them to ask the Father to forgive their sins (transgressions or debts) as "we forgive those who sin [transgress or have debts] against us" (Matthew 6:9-13). The ability to show mercy and graciously forgive others would be one of the chief hallmarks of Jesus' followers that sets them apart from those who are of the world. As Paul later exhorted Christians at Ephesus, "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32).

While humble, self-sacrificing service is certainly in view in Jesus's act of foot-washing, what may be utmost in His mind was a relationship built on mercy and forgiveness. Physical washing could symbolize spiritual cleansing, such as for tabernacle/Temple priests (Exodus 30:19-21) and also in John's and later Jesus's instruction to be baptized. When Peter demanded that Jesus then wash more than just his feet, Jesus replied, "‘The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you." For he knew who was to betray him . . . ." In other words, once in fellowship with Jesus and with each other, this would need to be maintained through renewable forgiveness. "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times" (Matthew 18:22).

On this Maundy Thursday, let us, first of all, pause to honor with thanksgiving the incredible humility of Jesus in His willingness to obey the Father and sacrifice what He deserved to give us what we need. Then, let us consider how we might each live out more faithfully this "new commandment" to love others as Jesus loved us— especially those who are of the household of faith—generously, in humility, with kindness, grace, and sacrifice. Forgiveness of each other's faults is a sacrifice, but it is a sacrifice that Jesus embodied and eternally paid for on the cross.

The faithful mission of Jesus's disciples would very much rest on their bond of unity, a unity to be expressed in Christ-like love for one another. This was so important to Jesus that it was included among his final prayers before being led away to offer up His life as a new sacrifice.