John 13:31-38 The
New Commandment WC McCarter
Introduction
We have
found ourselves in the Upper Room with Jesus and His disciples over the past
couple of weeks, and we will continue to make our way through these sections to
hear what the Lord has to say to His first disciples as well as His disciples
in the latter days, you and me. This is a tense time in the narrative as the
time for Christ’s glorification draws near.
READ Scripture- This is the Word of God
Now the Son of Man is Glorified (31-32)
The betrayer
has now been fully possessed by Satan. The hour of darkness has come. However,
the hour of Christ’s glorification has also come, and He makes that clear at
the beginning of this passage. Jesus will have a lot to say now that Judas has
left the house, and He begins by declaring His coming glory. Since we know the
whole story, we can now see clearly, even in the Upper Room, that the most
glorious event of human history and the time when God will put His glory on
full display is at the cross of Calvary. The term “glory” (as you have heard me
say before) refers to someone’s worth. For someone to be “glorified” means that
their value is put on full display. God the Father will make the glory of His
Son known in the humiliation of the cross.
This is the
story that we are reading, learning, and discussing on Sunday evenings. From
the beginning of human history until now God has been working out a plan to
redeem us by the work of Christ. This King would overthrow much more than a
human government. He would conquer the enemies of the people of God: Satan, the
demons, sin, and death. He would do so by taking the penalty for the sins of
the world upon Himself. Here is His glory. How valuable is He? You would be
cursed for eternity and abandoned to the lake of fire if it were not for what
He has done. He has taken your place to bear your penalty. There is no thing
and no one more valuable than Him.
Let me point
out that Jesus shows His relationship with the Father again here. The glory of
the Father and the Son are so attached that when the Father is glorified, so is
the Son, and when the Son is glorified, so is the Father.
A Little While Longer (33)
Jesus is now
going to speak plainly to His disciples about His departure, and He begins by
speaking to them gently saying, “Little children. . . .” This is a term of
affection from a teacher to His students. The men only have a little time
remaining together. Jesus is dropping on them what amounts to a bomb in their
minds. They may begin to feel defeated and desparate, so Jesus affectionately
speaks to them. This is a phrase (little children) that the Apostle John heard
loud and clear, and it became the designation he used for his congregations
later in his life. Jesus will spend much of His time in the Upper Room
preparing these men as much as possible for His departure.
What Jesus
had already said to the Jews, now He must say it to His closest followers. He
is leaving, and they cannot go where He is going. At least not yet. There are
many promises that will follow. When Jesus spoke this same thing to His
opponents on a couple of previous occasions, He meant that where He was going
they could never come. Their hearts
were evil, and they would die in their sins. When Jesus says this to His
disciples, He means that they cannot come just yet. As we will see, He is going
to prepare a place for them, and He will come again so that where He is they
may be also. We will see in response to Peter’s question in verse 36 that Jesus
says promises that, “. . . you shall follow Me afterward.” It is only a
temporary thing, but Jesus is leaving.
Love One Another (34-35)
This
evening’s teaching is Jesus’ farewell speech. He will leave them with many
things including His commands. He wants to leave them with a new commandment,
and this command becomes a major theme in the rest of the Lord’s farewell
speech as well as the remainder of the New Testament Scriptures. He commands
them to love one another, but what makes that command new? The Old Testament
commanded the same thing. In fact, Jesus had been teaching throughout His
ministry that the Law was fulfilled in two commands of the OT, Duet 6, “Love
the your God” and Lev 19, “Love your neighbor.” Why does Jesus say that He is
giving them a new commandment?
The second
part of verse 34 is what makes the command new because He says, “. . . as I
have loved you. . . .” This is a new revelation. Christ has said that He has
come not to be served, but to serve and give His life as a ransom for many. He
is now showing, that night in the footwashing and the next day on the cross,
the definition of love. Loving one another is not light and fluffy. It is not
sweet and pretty. Christian love is sincere and sometimes dirty. It is
difficult and sometimes ugly. Christian love is sacrificial. Christian love
commands us to consider others better than ourselves. Christian love calls on
us to lay down our lives for our brethren. This is the new commandment.
In what
way(s) were the disciples recognized as followers of Jesus during His ministry?
They literally followed Him. They were His tail. They were His shadow. If Jesus
went to Galilee, the disciples went to Galilee. If He went to Jerusalem, they
went to Jerusalem. They traveled together, ate together, and rested together –
they lived together for three years. That’s how someone could tell that they
were Jesus’ disciples. They were always with Him. But, now He is leaving. How
will people know that they are His disciples after He leaves? Jesus gives them
a new “badge” (Piper). They are to love one another. There is the new sign of
their discipleship, and it is ours as well.
All true
believers will exhibit this kind of love because THE FRUIT of the Spirit IS
LOVE. This is the mark of the Christian life. This is what declares to the
world that we are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the flag that we
raise above our assemblies: Love for one another. He first loved us, so we love
one another. He laid down His life for us, so we lay down our lives for one
another. We may not be called upon to physically die for a fellow believer
(although we will if need be), but we surely offer our bodies as living
sacrifices.
You Cannot Follow Me Now (36-38)
Although
Jesus has just given the new commandment, Peter wants to back-track and ask a
question about Jesus’ departure. In verse 33, He said that He was leaving. Now
Peter asks, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus responds by further explaining
what He has said. In verse 33, He said, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” At
the end of verse 36, He says, “. . . but you shall follow Me afterward.” Jesus
is leaving, and although the disciples cannot follow Him there now, they will
be able to go there later. This can only be understood by the disciples after
everything takes place. They do not understand that Jesus is going back to the
Father. Remember what verse one said, “. . . when Jesus knew that His hour had
come that He should depart from this world to the Father. . . .” Then in verse
three, “. . . Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His
hands, and that He had come from God and was going to God. . . .” He is going
to the Father, but by way of the cross. No one can go where He is going. He
must go this route alone. He is the Lamb of God who will take away the sin of
the world. None of the disciples can go with Him.
Of course,
this is not good enough for Peter. He asks an acceptable question at first.
There was nothing wrong, apparently, with asking the Lord where He was going,
but Peter wants to push the issue farther. He wants to know why he can’t follow
Jesus now. He even pledges that he would lay down his life for the sake of his
Master.
Jesus knows
more about Peter than Peter knows about himself, and that is true of us as
well. We rarely have a balanced or genuine view of ourselves. We often think to
highly of ourselves and sometimes we think to lowly of ourselves. We never
really get a sense of how damaging the sin can be that is in our lives. We
think that we would do well, but often we do not. Like Peter, we think that we
will charge the hill for the Lord’s sake, but we fail miserably. The issue is
not with the Lord or the cause. The issue is with our own hearts. When we
operate in a worldly mode (often called the “flesh”), we cannot please God, but
when we are walking in the Spirit, He directs our steps into paths of
righteousness for His name’s sake. The flesh told Peter that the Lord should
not die. The flesh told Peter that he should go with the Lord right then,
although the Lord told him he could not. After all, who is it that is laying
his life down for the other (Carson, 486)? It is the Lord that must first lay
down His life for Peter and the world. Of course, Peter will lay down his life
for the sake of Christ some three decades later when he is crucified by Rome.
Jesus says,
in essence, You think you know yourself,
but you do not. I know your heart, and I know your future. Listen up, you will
deny Me. Peter made a pledge of allegiance to the Lord, but in only a short
time he would deny his Lord three times. On the same night that Judas betrays
the Lord for 30 pieces of silver, Peter would deny the Lord three times. As one
author has said, “Sadly, good intentions in a secure room after good food are
far less attractive in a darkened garden with a hostile mob” (Carson, 486). In
Palestine, roosters would usually crow about 12:30am, 1:30am, and 2:30am, so
that the Romans called the watch between midnight and about 3:00am the “cockcrow”
(Carson, 487). Thus, it would not even get very late into the night before
Peter would deny his Lord three times.
Conclusion and Christian Application
(1) Forget worldly understandings of
wisdom, strength, and value. Corinthians says in one place, “But God has chosen
the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen
the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty” (1
Cor 1:27), and in another place, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness
with God” (2 Cor 3:19). God will use the cross to glorify Himself. If you
cannot accept salvation by the work of Christ on the cross, you will not and
cannot be saved.
(2) Through the tension and uneasiness,
we must hear Jesus say that His disciples will be known by their love for one
another. If you say you love God, you must love your brothers and sisters. We
love God and one another because He first loved us and gave Himself for us.