'Love one another as I have loved you': John 13 31-35: St Peter’s Tewin 6th May 2007: Usha Hull


I’d like to read to you this headline from the Guardian, which appeared on the 16th of September, 2001. It reads,

‘Only love and then oblivion. Love was all they had to set against their murderers.’

 And as you have probably guessed, the headline refers to the catastrophic events on September the 11th, 2001.

There were millions of words written after the events of September the 11th. Yet what made me cut out and keep this particular article was that here was a hard bitten journalist, Ian McEwan his name was, talking not about terrorism, not about fanaticism, not about hatred and catastrophe, but about love.

He talks about how, through the medium of modern technology, those who were about to be bereaved took the last calls from their loved ones. A new technology, the mobile phone, says McEwan, has shown us that that ancient human universal, love, is all that matters in the end.

He tells of how a woman, trapped in the World Trade Centre, knowing there was no escape for her, left a message on her sleeping husband’s answerphone. There was really only one thing left for her to say. There are three little words that not all the terrible art, the worst pop songs and movies, the most seductive lies can somehow ever cheapen. And she said those three little words repeatedly. ‘I love you,’ she told her husband, over and again, before the line finally went dead.

This message was repeated many times over from those who were about to die, from the hijacked planes, from the burning towers, from wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, friends, lovers. It seems that in the final moments before death the human heart will cling to what is ultimately important.

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus knows he is going to die very soon. And yet, confronted with death, his message too, is one of love. Let’s think about this for a moment. If there is one certainty in life, it is this that we are going to die. Sadly, many of us live our lives as if this were never going to happen. Yet faced with that great finality, what do we think would be our message? Surely this message would reflect our lives as we had lived them? And surely it should be one of love?

To the disciples listening to our Lord at that final supper, the commandment to love one another was not a new one. In Leviticus 19 the Lord had commanded Moses to tell the Israelite people, ‘Love your neighbour as yourself, for I am Jehovah.’

The new commandment that Jesus gave the world was not just to love one another, but to love one another as he himself had loved us. Now to the disciples, this would have been a revolutionary idea. They had been taught, as in Leviticus, that what was necessary was to do for others what they would like done for themselves. But sacrificial love, such as the Lord showed, was a whole new concept. Sacrificial love went a step further than love of oneself and of one’s neighbour. It meant a love that suffered, a love that shared the pain of the world.

And the love of Jesus was always a sacrificial love, a love that entered deep into the core of our humanity, a love that felt another’s pain, that empathised. Empathy, as I understand it is different from sympathy. Sympathy feels for another. Empathy feels with another, takes on the other’s pain.

To illustrate this point, I will tell you a little story about a young missionary doctor in China in the earlier part of this century. This young doctor found himself sent to a remote region, to an isolated hospital. He had little knowledge of local customs and no knowledge of the local language. Then a terrible epidemic broke out.

The doctor was still too inexperienced in tropical diseases to diagnose the sickness, let alone treat it. What he needed was advice from Shanghai but he knew that none of the patients being treated at the hospital would survive the journey. If only, he thought, someone newly infected with the illness could reach Shanghai and allow the illness to be diagnosed.

So this young missionary took blood from one of his infected patients and injected it into his own veins before setting off himself for Shanghai. He took the sickness of others on himself in order that others might be healed. In effect, he laid down his own life so that others might live.

To the world, this is folly, this is madness. But to us who would follow in the footsteps of our Saviour, here is the power of God working in our lives. For this is just what Jesus did in love. He took on the sickness of the world in order that through him the world might be healed.

As Christians we know that although we cannot fully enter into the suffering of another human being, we have the choice, in love, of sharing in another’s pain with courage and with kindness. We tread here in the footsteps of one who has already walked this road before us, who has suffered for us, cried for us, been just as lonely and tired and sad as it is possible to be.

Indeed, there is realism in the way the Christian through love embraces suffering in his or her daily life. Whereas in other religions often suffering is something to be avoided, something that is evil, the Christian knows that yes, suffering is evil, but that sometimes the way of the cross, the way of love, of sacrifice, of selfless giving, is the only way to our redemption.

I’m not talking here only about absolute sacrifices as in the case of the young doctor in China. In the wider picture, I’m talking about our own daily lives. I’m talking about discipline in our lives, about selflessness, about concern for others, kindness, the ability to forgive, the humility to say sorry. I’m talking about things only you would know is necessary for you on your journey towards God if you look deep into your heart.

Down the ages there have been so many Christians who have loved with this kind of sacrificial love. Following in the footsteps of the Lord they have given when it hurts, helped when it is not convenient, and devoted energy to the welfare of others rather than their own.

Coming up, between 13th to 19th May, is Christian Aid week, and here is a practical opportunity to show others the kind of love our Lord shows us. In the Darfur area of Sudan, an estimated 1.9 million people are living in camps and thousands have been killed. The situation is critical, with overcrowding, lack of clean water, the threat of starvation and constant violence of every kind. Christian Aid is well aware that there is no quick fix of any kind, and Darfur is just one of the campaigns it is fighting on the world front. Your say, your support, your help of any kind is vital.

In our day to day lives, the way of our Lord is not an easy road to walk. We live in a materialistic world that is often hostile to the values and way of life asked of us. Rejection is a constant companion. Possibly, each of us here knows what it is to feel unloved, unsupported and even, sadly, sometimes unnecessary.

Like our Lord, as Christians we need to absorb hurt without giving hurt back, and meet the negative forces of this world, such as hatred, rejection and derision with compassion, with kindness, with intelligence and understanding. We need to believe that despite the things that life may throw at us, love is still the greatest power in the universe and that we are wrapped in the love and mercy of our God.

Yes, love is a many splendoured thing, as the song says. In the words of Evelyn Underhill, it is like a cosmic energy that flames from the constellations, it is concealed in the abyss of the atom, it is whispered by the Holy Spirit in the human heart. And it finds its ultimate expression on the cross.

I began by quoting an article from the Guardian, by Ian McEwan, talking about the love we human beings have for one another. It’s interesting that in the article he goes on to say that it was lack of empathy and of imagination that led the hijackers to do what they did. If the hijackers, he said, had been able to imagine themselves into the thoughts and feelings of the passengers, they would have been unable to proceed.

Let’s think about that for a moment. Love one another as I have loved you, said our Lord. And to put our own selves into the shoes of someone else, to imagine what they are feeling, to care about what they are concerned about, to put their wellbeing paramount and to work lovingly for their ultimate good requires sensitivity, requires imagination and often requires courage. This is the kind of love our Lord himself showed throughout his life and this is how he has asked us to love in our own lives.

Imagining what it is like to be someone other than ourselves is at the core of our humanity. This is where the compassion we have for others should be rooted. This is where the Christian morality that underpins our lives should begin. Our ability to love one another as our Lord has loved us is what defines us as human beings.

I end with this brief lovely prayer from All our Days. Let us pray.

Lord of the loving heart, may ours be loving too.
Lord of the gentle hands, may ours be gentle too.
Lord of the willing feet, may ours be willing too.
So may we grow more like you,
In all we say or do.

Amen