Love: The Mark of a New Creation

As this fifth Sunday of Easter moves us closer to Pentecost, we find ourselves on a path lit by resurrection. Each step takes us deeper into understanding what it means to live as people of the risen Christ. Today, we consider the essential marker of Christian identity -- love found in the very heart of God.

When Love Becomes Visible

In the spring of 1945, as Allied forces liberated Nazi concentration camps, they discovered unspeakable horrors, but also extraordinary stories of resistance. In Ravensbruck, a women's concentration camp, Dutch women had formed a secret community of faith. Despite brutal conditions and constant danger, they shared their meager rations, nursed the sick, and worshipped together.

When asked years later how they maintained their humanity in such inhumane conditions, survivor Corrie ten Boom explained that their love for Christ and one another became their most powerful act of resistance. Facing dehumanizing forces around them, they bore living witness that another reality was possible.

In their darkest moments, these women embodied the "new commandment" Jesus gave his disciples on the night before his crucifixion. Their love for one another, modeled after Christ's sacrificial love, became the unmistakable sign of their discipleship.

A Command Rooted in Sacrifice

John 13:31-35 (NIV)

When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."

When Jesus gathered with his disciples for their final meal together, he knew that everything was about to change. The shadows of betrayal and death had reached into their circle. In this charged moment, after Judas had departed into the night, Jesus spoke of his being glorified. But this strange glory did not come from political power. Instead, it came from the opposite of power – surrender, suffering and sacrifice. This was Christ’s personal example of his love.

Jesus' words must have puzzled his disciples:

 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another."

This command to love didn’t sound new. After all, loving one's neighbor was already central to Jewish faith. What made this commandment new was Jesus redefining how they were to love: "as I have loved you."

Jesus wasn't simply reiterating the familiar "love your neighbor as yourself." He was establishing himself as the pattern and standard for love.

In the days to come, the disciples would witness the full extent of that love. His love would endure betrayal, abandonment, torture, and death. Jesus' new command anticipated the cross, inviting his followers into a love that holds nothing back.

Moreover, Jesus elevated this mutual love to the defining characteristic of Christian community:

 "By this everyone will know that you are my disciples."

The followers of Jesus would be recognized not by theological precision, ritual observance, or moral perfection, but by their love for one another.

Breaking Down Barriers

This revolutionary understanding of love would soon challenge the early church's assumptions about who belonged in God's family. In Acts 11, we witness Peter defending his decision to baptize the Gentile Cornelius and his household. Faced with criticism from Jewish believers, Peter recounts his vision of clean and unclean animals and God's clear message:

 "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."

Peter's testimony culminates in this recognition:

"So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God's way?"

The Jerusalem believers respond with awe:

"God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life."

The barriers that had separated humanity for centuries were crumbling in the face of God's expansive love.

This boundary-crossing love reflects the cosmic vision of Psalm 148, where all creation from highest heaven to deepest sea, from mighty rulers to humble children joins in a symphony of praise to the Creator.

“Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone is exalted; his splendor is above the earth and the heavens.”

In God's economy, distinctions do not divide, but create a harmonious diversity united in common purpose. The psalmist reminds us that human categories and divisions are transcended in the unity of worship and love.

Love in the New Creation

Jesus' new commandment ultimately points toward the glorious vision described in Revelation 21, where God declares,

 "I am making everything new!"

In the new heaven and new earth, God's dwelling place is among people. The divisions, sorrows, and pains of their former lives give way to unhindered communion with God.

The love that Jesus commands his disciples to embody is a foretaste of this coming reality. It anticipates the new creation breaking into the present. When Christian communities live out Christ-like love for one another, they become living testimonies to the world that God's future is already taking shape in the present.

Living the Command Today

What would it mean to take Jesus' new commandment seriously today? In a world fragmented by political polarization, economic inequality, and cultural tribalism, Christ-like love stands as a radical alternative. This love isn't mere sentiment or affection but a concrete commitment to seeking one another's flourishing even at personal cost.

When we love as Jesus loved – across differences, beyond our comfort, despite possible disappointment – we make the invisible God visible. Our love becomes the lens through which others can glimpse the divine reality that holds all things together.

As Pentecost approaches, we remember that fulfilling this commandment is not a matter of human striving but of openness to the Spirit's transforming work. The same Spirit that fell on Gentile believers, breaking ancient barriers, empowers us with a love that exceeds our natural capacity, reflecting the very heart of God.

Prayer

Loving God, as you have loved us in Christ, help us to love one another with that same selfless devotion. May our love for each other be the clear sign that we belong to you. Amen.