17 April 2025 – Maundy Thursday

Love is not the gospel. Heavens! People have been loving one another since the days of creation. Nor is Christ’s  love a love which is defined by the love of self nor even neighbour. This is the Golden Rule which is not specifically Christian. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. It is still imbued with the self-interest which is necessary to sustain a civilized society.

But that’s not what is required to build a Christian society nor indeed a Christian community. This is the new love of which Jesus speaks in the thirteenth chapter of St. John’s Gospel. ‘I give you a new commandment that you love one another.’ says Jesus. And we say, ‘There’s nothing new about that!’ But he goes on. ‘Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.’

The chapter begins with Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. And he does this as an example of what it means to love one another! Of course, almost everyone can wash feet! You don’t need any qualifications to fulfil this role. It belongs to the domestic world of home and family – washing feet, baking bread and breaking it, pouring wine and sharing it.

But there’s more. The chapter goes on to reveal the betrayal of Judas which is described as Christ’s glorification.  The love which loves even when it’s betrayed is the love which Jesus has for us and which he enshrines in the new commandment. Christians are distinguished by this glorious love. It’s the love which suffers and dies for the other – a Judas who betrays him, a Peter who denies him, friends who desert him!

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