A congregation of the United Church of Canada
Do As I Have Done
Every year I remind you on Maundy Thursday that the word Maundy comes from the Latin word mandatum – which means mandate, or more precisely commandment. Commandments are not optional. This isn’t ‘suggestion Thursday’, or ‘consider this Thursday’, it’s Maundy Thursday.
Commandment Thursday.
And we are commanded to love one another.
John 13:34 I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
What does it mean to love one another? Jesus had explained it just a few minutes before.
John 13:15, 17 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
Do as I have done.
It’s more than just the golden rule. It’s more than just do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. That’s almost like saying an eye for an eye. I’ll treat you as well as you treat me. If you don’t hurt me then I won’t hurt you.
That’s not what Jesus has said. At all.
He said “do as I have done!”
He said “as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”
Do as I have done.
Love, for no other reason than I have loved you.
Jesus approached every encounter, every relationship, every experience as an opportunity to love.
Do as I have done.
Jesus saw every person as God’s beloved – a person of worth and blessing.
Do as I have done.
Jesus identified injustice and did whatever was in his power to confront it and change it.
Do as I have done.
Jesus treated every moment as a sacred moment filled with God’s presence.
Do as I have done.
Jesus made ordinary things like the food on our plates and the drinks in our cups into examples of blessing and sacredness.
Do as I have done.
Jesus transcended his society’s usual conventions toward women, the poor, the sick, the stranger, the forgotten, the outcast by acknowledging their wholeness, their fullness, their humanity, their worthiness, their equality.
Do as I have done.
Jesus transcended the protocols of his religious system by substituting all rules and regulations and requirements with love.
Do as I have done.
Do as I have done, even when doing so costs.
Do as I have done, knowing that some won’t understand, and some will inexplicably be threatened by such self-giving love.
Do as I have done, regardless of what the other might do.
Even when the other might hurt you, or reject you, or betray you – Love.
That is a tall order.
It’s hard to always love.
It’s hard to always look for the best in people.
It’s hard to always see the other as a whole person.
That is what it is to love like Jesus loved.
Do as I have done.
And if we don’t? What happens then?
What are the consequences of not loving?
One look around the world shows us all too well.
The other isn’t loved, they’re demonized.
We don’t love one another; we take advantage of one another, we diminish one another, we use one another.
We fail to love. We fall short.
And bad things happen.
It’s quite possible that we don’t intend not to love.
It’s quite possible that we might not even realize we’re not loving.
It’s quite possible we think we’re loving when we’re doing the opposite.
At table that night Jesus looked into the eyes of his friend Judas, and said,
I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
And Judas failed. He failed to love. He turned away.
He knew what he should do – love – but he did the opposite.
Do as I have done.
He didn’t.
And bad things happened.
Later that same night Peter would have his chance.
Do as I have done.
And he denied. And denied. And denied.
Do as I have done.
Judas didn’t.
Peter didn’t.
The disciples didn’t.
The soldiers didn’t.
The Jewish authorities didn’t.
Herod didn’t.
Pilate didn’t.
Do as I have done.
Love one another as I have loved you.
Even unto a cross.
But all that is still yet to come.
Tonight we are still together, at table, hearing Jesus say,
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34-35)
We have seen his example.
We know these things, and we know we’re blessed as we do them.
As we leave this place tonight, and as we make the rest of the Holy Week journey into the agony of Good Friday, through the deafening silence of Holy Saturday, and into the promised joy of Easter Sunday, let us go with this teaching, this commandment, ringing in our ears and moving through our lives.
Do as I have done.
May it be so.
Amen.
