The Missing Link (Tuesday/Holy Week)

‘… As I have loved you. ’. (John 13:34)

John 13:21-38 (Tuesday of Holy Week)

For some reason best left to those who decide these matters, the Gospel of today, Tuesday in Holy Week, is edited to omit verses 34-35:

A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Perhaps, the editors decided that the storyline, since it is about betrayal, needed to be kept focussed while the above verses are covered last Sunday. Whatever the reason, I suggest that there is a good reason to retain this in a story of betrayal. Who has not known betrayal at some stage in their life. Whether it concerned an exclusion in the school yard or the telling of some confidence or the betrayal of a lifetime commitment or covenant. The fall-out can be devastating.  No wonder Jesus was ‘troubled in spirit’ (v. 21). That was putting it mildly.  It was not just the betrayal of Judas that so troubling. ‘Thus even my friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has turned against me’ as Psalm 40:10 puts it. The others would betray him as well (though out of fear than malice). And the crowds who, a few days ago, were proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah, would be absent later in the week. It was a case of 1^st century opinion polling when someone rose to fame and popularity only to drop to rock bottom as quickly as he rose.

When we are betrayed (or when we have betrayed others should it happen God forbid) we have the  ‘new commandment’ to fall back on. No matter how desperate, pointless, destructive a situation and relationship is we can always start to put love into practice now. When this is mutual it can transform the darkest situation. This is what ‘church’ is really about. It is about witnessing to the world and ourselves the power of sincere, mutual love that makes a powerful difference even in the midst of betrayal and destruction.  The commandment to love one another as Jesus loves us is new in that it builds on the commandment to love found in the Old Testament (e.g. in Leviticus 19:18: ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the Lord.’) and goes beyond it by explicitly including all nations and peoples (a theme also found throughout the Old Testament but less emphasised).  And the quality and test of love is the capacity to lay down one’s life for those one loves (e.g. John 15:13 – ‘Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends’)

The sad thing about Judas in this story is that he didn’t wait for the ‘new commandment’. He was gone to do his business. Sadder still is the fact that he could not forgive himself afterwards when it was all over.

In the way that Matthew recounts this episode he tells of Jesus’ conversation with the disciples and Judas in particular. However, that is all: Matthew (26:20-30) goes straight into the narrative of the breaking of bread (Eucharist to us) – something that is entirely lacking in the Gospel of John. However, the missing link in John (the ‘new commandment’) is worked out in the breaking of bread and the breaking of Jesus body later this week on Friday.  Being ready to die for others is the common thread even in the context of huge betrayal and trauma.  The ‘new commandment’ is given in John’s account but the tragedy is that Judas did not wait – he ran off to his betraying before Jesus got to the key point during that last supper. We might think that Judas was the only potential betrayer. But consider that Mark tells us each of the disciples asked Jesus:

‘Surely you don’t mean me?’ (Mark 14:19)

The reality is that most of them fell well short of what was the right thing to do that week. Peter was the prime example among those who stayed behind after Judas’ departure. Luke (22:20-23)goes so far as the mix in the prediction of betrayal almost in the same breath as when he told his disciples ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.’ (v.20). Breaking bread, pouring out, loving unto death even when betrayed are all mixed together.

Later (before the gospels were committed to writing), Paul of Tarsus would trail a blaze of destruction and persecution into the heart of the new Jewish community who followed Jesus of Nazareth.  Did any of this prevent the disciples including Paul himself from fulfilling their call, ultimately, and paying the price?  The missing link was then and still is ‘love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.’