April 13 Devotion

Maundy Thursday

Read John 13

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. (v. 34, NRSV)

On the very night Jesus was to be betrayed and arrested, he shared a meal with his friends. After the meal, Jesus got on his knees and washed the dirt off the feet of those who would forsake him, deny him, and desert him. After he washed their feet, he told them, "Love like that."

What is love?

Love is patient and kind. It is not envious, boastful, arrogant, or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. It never ends! (See 1 Corinthians 13).

But what does it mean to love as Jesus loved? It means all that and more.

It means to love unselfishly and sacrificially. Jesus did not love with any expectation in return. He loved because He knew he ought to love. He only desired to give of himself, and give all of himself. There were no conditions or limits on his love.

Most importantly, to love as Jesus loved requires action. The words of the Ghana folk song, Jesu, Jesu (#432, United Methodist Hymnal) say it well:

Kneels at the feet of his friends, silently washing their feet,
Master who acts as a slave to them.

Neighbors are rich and poor, neighbors are black and white,
Neighbors are near and far away.

These are the ones we should serve, these are the ones we should love, All these are neighbors to us and you.

Loving puts us on our knees, serving as though we are slaves,
This is the way we should live with you.

Prayer: Jesus, fill us with your love and show us how to serve our neighbors as you would. Amen.

Jeffrey Taylor