Think of it -- that long, terrible night, when the shadow of the cross falls across an anguished Jesus, even as he and the disciples finish their meal together!  Judas Iscariot has just left the table to go do his evil work.  And now Jesus looks at the remaining eleven and sighs.

    He knows how weak they are, how fragile is their faith.  So he says, “Little children, I’m with you only a little longer. You’ll look for me. . ., (but) where I’ m going, you can’t come.”

    Yes, Jesus knows how shocked they’ll be at what soon will happen.  His arrest and death will break their hearts.  So, filled with affection and concern, he gives them words to try to help them:  “I give you a NEW commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

    But, friends, is it REALLY a new commandment?  Hasn’t God, for centuries before this first Maundy Thursday night, been telling God’s people “Love the Lord your God with all your heat, soul, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself?”


    Yes.  Of course.  What, then, is new about the commandment that Jesus is giving here, on this disturbing night? -- Simply this:  these words: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

    What a TOUGH ORDER! -- The disciples are to love each other with as GREAT a love as that of Jesus for them!  That kind of love doesn’t come naturally!  THINK about it!  Jesus here knows that the game’s up for him!  Yet he’s thinking first NOT of himself but of his disciples!  Lord  knows, during the coming hours and days of agony, they’ll NEED to support one another through thick and thin.  But HOW AMAZING it is that, even here at the very door of his own Passion, when he MIGHT WELL dwell only on his own terrible fate, Jesus expresses his concern and care for others!

    Yes, “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”  -- Friends, Christ gives this command to you and me TONIGHT as surely as he gives it to the disciples here that first Maundy Thursday.  As you and I approach this holy table, what are our hearts like?  Is yours filled with love for your sisters and brothers?  Or with resentment? -- Perhaps against that fellow church member who recently spoke ill of you, or with whom you’ve quarreled?  Or, maybe, with jealousy towards that sister or brother whom you think occupies a more important place than you?

    The early Christians weekly celebrated together what they called the “Agape meal,” or “love feast.”  Yes, as a part of regular worship, they would share food in a special meal – very much like our wonderful church “potlucks” today -- of which Holy Communion, or the Eucharist, was a central part for them.

    But, you know, EACH time we Christians TODAY come together for the Lord’s Supper, we may call it a “love feast.”  When you partake of this sacrament, leave behind you all hatred, bitterness, jealousy, anger towards others.  For such doesn’t belong here!  And try to love your brothers and sisters as Christ loves YOU!

    Years ago, while in seminary in New Jersey, I became friends with a fellow student: a tall young black man from Kenya East Africa.  He told me about HIS OWN most memorable Communion service.  For centuries, he said, his tribe and another tribe in that same region of Kenya had been mortal enemies.  Their peoples had fought bloody wars, had slain one another—had even massacred defenseless women and children, had committed horrible atrocities against one another.

    But then the Church of Scotland missionaries came.  They worked among the peoples of BOTH rival tribes, and told them of the love of Jesus.  After several years, the chiefs of each tribe, together with most of their people, were baptized into the Christian faith.  And, later, the two tribes met together in a great service of worship, jointly to celebrate the Lord’s Supper.  “I’ll never forget it!” said my Kenyan friend.  “As our peoples shared the bread and the wine, we FORGOT those long years of hatred and warfare and murder, and we knew that we were brothers and sisters in Christ!”

    Friends, THIS, then, is God’s intention for you and me, as tonight we gather around this table.  Yes, come, obeying the wonderful command of our Savior, the HOST at this feast:  “Just as I have loved YOU, you also should love ONE ANOTHER.”

Prayers:
    Eternal God, your love was incarnate in Jesus Christ, who washed disciples’ feet on the night of his betrayal, loving them to the end.  Wash from us the stain of sin, so that, in hours of danger, we may not fail, but follow your Son through every trial, and praise him to the world as Lord and Christ, to whom be glory now and for- ever.
    God of Grace:  you welcome us to the table of our Lord Jesus, and give gifts far more than we deserve.  We are grateful for Christ, who feeds our faith and renews your covenant with us, who by his death gives life to all who trust in him. How can we begin to thank you for his love?   Give us willingness to serve as HE has served US.  At this holy table, once more, unite us to him, who is Bread of LIfe and the Vine from which we grow in grace.
    For we ask it all in his holy name.  AMEN.