For much of Eastertide we hear stories of things that happened between Jesus’ resurrection and ascension – which really makes sense as we are between those two events… But the Gospel for today is more prominent in Holy Week, rather than in the events after Easter. It is the scripture that gives us the name Maundy Thursday.
The name Maundy Thursday comes from the Latin of the anthem that was part of the liturgy in ancient times: Mandatum novum do vobis
which itself comes from this part of John’s Gospel. Mandatum, over time and with the gentle erosion of linguistic evolution, becomes “Maundy” and then attaches to a day – Maundy Thursday.
And this is part of John’s Gospel that we heard this morning. The specific quote is “I give you a new commandment (mandatum novum do vobis), 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.” (NRSV)
Here is another Mandatum novum: “Your priority from now on should be to love one another. Copy my love for you. If you love one another, people will recognize you as my followers.” (Good as New)
A few striking things:
This is not really a new commandment… It’s not the first time Jesus has talked about the importance of love. We recall when Jesus is asked what is the greatest commandment he says: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and strength;” and the second part “love your neighbor as yourself.”
This, in turn, is really a paraphrase of the ancient temple creed found in Deuteronomy. Shema yisrael: “Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One. […] You 
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”
God commands the faithful to take this command to heart, to teach it to the children, to recite it at home and when travelling, when you go to bed and when you arise…
You’ll notice that Shema yisrael does not contain the second part: love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus has slipped something in…
We tend to understand this as two great commandments, one – love the Lord your God; and the second – Love your neighbor as yourself. but we really need to understand them as different expressions of one command.
We cannot love God unless we love our neighbors. We cannot love our neighbors unless we love ourselves. We cannot love God, who we cannot see, unless we love ourselves and our neighbors who we can see.
What is new in John’s Gospel is that Jesus has gone a step further from the ancient command. Jesus tells us that we are now called to love as God loves.
We are not just called to worship and love God, but to act in a Godly way. If we want to follow Jesus, then this is what we must do. This is the new commandment.
In case we have doubt about how big a deal this is, Jesus amplifies that everyone will know us by our love… This is our identity… our essence… God is love and so love is the thing that defines us as Godly.
In the history of the Christian church we have not always been known by or for our love. We, as a tradition, as a people, as individuals… This phrase turns around in a fascinating way: If we do not love one another, then we are not followers of Jesus… not disciples… not Christians.
There is an interesting nuance between “commandment” and “mandatum” or “mandate” – and it’s a nuance that pops up in English, not in the original languages.
Command is a rather broad word – it refers to a system of control. Beyond that, it can require that we must do something, or that we must not do something. A command can demand or forbid.
Mandate, in modern usage, has come to mean specifically something that we must do. Mandate is a positive word – much more specific than command which is neither positive nor negative.
So, we have a mandate… not the memory of a mandate, or the re-enactment of a mandate, or a reflection on someone else’s mandate… We have a new mandate. We are to love one another as God loves us.
Sometimes it seems that we struggle to make the Gospel and complex as we possibly can. We have ideas about what we can eat on which days, about how we should worship and pray, about how our society should be formed, about what kind of clothes we should wear, what kind of hymns to sing, what kind of politics to support…
Within our own Order we had, many years ago, a simmering spiritual debate about the nature of peanut butter… Is it a “butter” or is it a “jam” in it’s essence? The reason for the debate? The Order had the understanding that, during Lent, it was not good to have butter and jam on your breakfast toast. But if peanut butter was, in essence, a form of jam, then surely you could have peanut butter and jam… This was considered a spiritually important discussion.
The Order of the Holy Cross is not the only religious institution to engage is this sort of religious hair splitting. In the middle ages, theologians seem to have spent a great deal of time debating how many angels could dance on the head of a pin.
Missing in such discussions is love. Where is the love? We can make all the clever arguments about faithful living through pins and peanut butter, but Jesus is so clear – the only way to live in faith with Jesus is to love. Everything else is, to be polite, fertilizer.
One other question that comes to my mind is why is the Lectionary confronting us with this particular lesson today? Usually we hear about the new commandment on Maundy Thursday. Here in this season where we hear about the various encounters between the risen Jesus and the always struggling disciples why this?
Well, some would say that if we could only hear one piece of scripture, this would be it. If we heard only one sermon, it should be on this passage of scripture. This is Jesus defining for us in clear terms what it means to be a follower of Jesus. From a liturgical drama standpoint, crucifixion and resurrection are the peak of the story, but from the humble follower of Jesus, this instruction is it. Jesus died and rose from the dead so that we could love one another as Jesus loves us.
So, the question is not why this week… the question is why not every week? Every day? At every moment of our lives?
And in fact, we do hear this at all times and in all places – for this is what Jesus always says to us. We have a mandate to love one another as we are loved by God. It is the only command we need to hear – for from it proceed all good ways of living.
Br Scott Wesley in the world 