Last Supper 4 - John 13:31-35

It seems that even Judas’ presence in the room with Jesus and the rest of the disciples was distracting enough to halt any spiritual growth there. It’s kind of like when Joseph Smith, Martin Harris, Oliver Cowdery, and David Whitmer were had been chosen by God to see the gold plates and when they went to the forest and prayed as instructed, nothing happened until Martin Harris recognized that it was his presence there that was withholding the Spirit. Once he left, then the angel came and showed all that stuff to the remaining three. Judas’ murderous heart impeded the teachings that the Lord had planned for them, but now that he was gone Jesus could move his teachings forward.

Interestingly, I had briefly read what was coming up for today yesterday and saw that the topic of the “new commandment” was on the agenda. Listening to the most recent general conference talk this morning on my way to work, I heard Elder Jeffrey R. Holland discuss the changes to Home and Visiting Teaching saying, “Brothers and sisters, as the world of quorums and auxiliaries matures institutionally, it follows that we should mature personally as well- individually rising above any mechanical, function-without-feeling routine to the heartfelt discipleship articulate by the Savior at the conclusion of His earthly ministry. As He prepared to leave His still-innocent and somewhat-confused little band of followers, He did not list a dozen administrative steps they had to take or hand them a fistful of reports to be filled out in triplicate. No, he summarized their task in one fundamental commandment: ‘Love one another; as I have loved you… By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
I love when the Lord connects everyday stuff to the scriptures for me. The idea of love has always been a difficult one for me. I’m not naturally a “loving” person, mostly angry, jealous, and bitter. But at one point, early on in my study, probably right after I learned who God was, I read something about love and asked God to help me love people, because mostly I didn’t. I don’t know what changed, but suddenly I was able to love, I was able to connect to others with feeling, I wanted people to be happy, and to succeed, and to feel encouraged. I’m not saying that I’m perfect at it because clearly I’m not, but it was an amazing transition and truly life changing. The phrase “God is love” is so abstract but I’ve learned that all good feelings come from God, like love, and he can bring love into our lives, if we ask for it.
The IM says, “After the Savior dismissed Judas, the setting was prepared for the Savior to give important teachings to the rest of the Apostles, as recorded in John 12:31-16:33. One of the first such teachings was the commandment to love others. This commandment is also found in Leviticus 19:18. However, whereas in the Old Testament we are exhorted to love our neighbors as ourselves, here the Savior commands us to love one anotheras He loves us.” This is a key difference. The commandment to love others as we love ourselves implies that we actually do love ourselves. I think that the vast majority of people have some level of self-loathing, it’s just the way the mortal world works. So if we treat ourselves horribly, then it would make sense that we would treat others horribly as well. But the commandment to love others as God loves us, forces us to recognize His hand in all things and the joy that he brings to our lives. We would have to precede every interaction with others with the question “how would Jesus treat this person? How would He address this issue?”
The IM goes on to quote Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin as teaching, “What quality defines us best as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?... Love is the beginning, the middle, and the end of the pathway of discipleship. It comforts, counsels, cures, and consoles. It leads us through valleys of darkness and through the veil of death. In the end love leads us to the glory and grandeur of eternal life… Brethren and sisters, as you prayerfully consider what you can do to increase harmony, spirituality, and build up the kingdom of God, consider your sacred duty to teach others to love the Lord and their fellowman.
This is the central object of our existence. Without charity-or the pure love of Christ- whatever else we accomplish matters little. With it, all else becomes vibrant and alive. When we inspire and teach others to fill their hearts with love, obedience flows from the inside out in voluntary acts of self-sacrifice and service… When Jesus gave His disciples a new commandment to ‘love one another; as I have loved you,’ He gave to them the grand key to happiness in this life and glory in the next. Love is the greatest of all the commandments- all others hang upon it. It is our focus as followers of the living Christ.”
Love is pretty abstract so I’m going to define it for myself. Love wants the other person to be happy, even if it means you don’t get what you want. Love helps someone else when they need it and can’t do anything for you in return. Love takes a deep breath before answering a harsh word. Love keeps it’s mouth shut to prevent needless drama. Love opens it’s mouth to preserve truth. Love stands up to protect others, even in less than ideal circumstances. Love treats everyone equally, the janitor and the CEO alike. Love encourages and uplifts when someone is hurting or depressed. I believe that one of the best forms of missionary work is to live your life so that others will want to know Christ because they know you. Living a life with love, kindness, and compassion draws all people to you, where you can point them to the Lord.
There is a t-shirt saying that I really like, it says:
Love Thy Neighbor:
Thy Homeless Neighbor
Thy Muslim Neighbor
Thy Black Neighbor
Thy Gay Neighbor
Thy White Neighbor
Thy Jewish Neighbor
Thy Christian Neighbor
Thy Atheist Neighbor
Thy Racist Neighbor
Thy Addicted Neighbor
And really, this is the Lord’s point right? When he says to love others the way he loves us, and he loves everyone the same, then whatever treatment we receive from Him needs to be the way that we treat others. It’s easy to love people who love us, but the real growth comes when we love those who “offend” us or don’t love us in return. There are people with whom we disagree about lifestyles or attitudes or beliefs, but there is no need to hurtful or alienating towards anyone else. We are not their judges, we don’t need to surround ourselves with toxic people, boundaries are appropriate, but we can do it in a kind way and that ability is a life lesson.
Even when the Lamanites would not stop physically attacking the Nephites, literally trying to kill them, “their wars never did cease for the space of many years with the Lamanites, notwithstanding their much reluctance. Now, they were sorry to take up arms against the Lamanites, because they did not delight in the shedding of blood; yea, and this was not all- they were sorry to be the means of sending so many of their brethren out of this world into an eternal world, unprepared to meet their God.” They were able to value the people as children of God while still fighting for their own safety.
How do we love those with whom we don’t agree? When I was looking up the saying above, I could only remember the “Love thy gay neighbor” part so I googled it and one of the search results is from The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, in an article entitled, “5 ways to love your gay neighbor.” I’m going to take out the word “gay” because we need to love all our neighbors this way, and it really irritates me to put someone in the box. The first step says, “Regardless of the circumstances, we are called to love our neighbor in the strength of God’s power, which drives out fear and increases our faith. Fearless love takes risks. It steps outside of its comfort zone. It breaks down stereotypes and demonstrates trust in God.”
I think the biggest problem that people have with loving people who are different than them, especially Christians, is that they don’t want to have even the appearance of evil. Don’t we teach our kids to choose their friends wisely because they can be bad influences on them? I think a lot of people are afraid of what others might think if they are caught “fraternizing” with those who live lifestyles contrary to the gospel. It’s really sad actually because that’s not what Jesus did, not at all. He ate dinner with “sinners” and prostitutes and tax collectors, he wanted to be friends with anyone who wanted to be friends with him.
Another part of the article says, “Love your neighbor patiently… Very few people response to the gospel the first time that they hear it. As those who have been saved by a patient God, we need to be patient with our neighbor. Furthermore, while our love must be redemptive, it must not be dehumanizing. What I mean by this is that our neighbor is not some salvific notch in our evangelistic belt. We must not view our neighbor as a threat to be neutralized, but as a human being created in the image of a loving and patient God.”
And let’s remember that we are also imperfect, sometimes significantly, we need to receive just as much patience and compassion as we dispense to our neighbors. This is a journey that we are all on, none of us are “ahead” of anyone else, we are all struggling and just doing our best to be happy. We need to support each other in personal growth and do our best to set good examples and to just be kind to everyone. I heard a saying once that was something like, “if you treat everyone like they are going through a major crisis in their life then you’ll be right half of the time.” That was profound to me because we are all having trouble all the time, any attempt to belittle or cripple anyone else is really just doing it to ourselves the worst.