Acts 14: 21-27 (RM) or Acts 11: 1-18 (RCL); Psalm 145 (RM) or 148 (RCL); Revelation 21: 1-5a (RM) or 1-6 (RCL); John 13: 31-35.

“Love, love, love. Love, love, love. Love, love, love. … All you need is love.”

On the last Sunday of June 1967, a first-time technological breakthrough using communications satellites made possible a globally-networked television broadcast consisting of a sequence of live special events taking place in sites around the world. One segment was a broadcast of the Beatles, surrounded by friends in a London studio, premiering their newest hit-to-be, “All You Need Is Love.”

A charming song with a relaxing lilt and an uncomplicated message, not easily forgettable. The communications technology was state of the art for 1967, but the message appealing and simple. Ah, it all seemed so simple then.

When Jesus tells his friends “Love one another,” it seems so obvious it can easily slip by us. The writers of John, however, gave Jesus’ injunction a deceptively divine casing by repeating the idea of “glorification” – now Christ has been glorified in God, so God has been glorified in Christ, and will glorify him at once. This is Johannine code: “glorified” refers to the impending crucifixion of Jesus, followed by his resurrection.

Then the centrepiece: “Little children, I will be with you only a little longer…” This expression illustrates that the gospel writers were using a classical literary genre, a patriarch declaring a solemn farewell to his descendants. For this reason “children” need not be read as patronizing, though it does have a sort of affectionate colouration. It was part of the original pattern.

Let’s go on: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.” Now we hear clearly the wise elder giving his final instructions to his family members. Since John’s Gospel was finished some three to four generations after the lifetime of the historical Jesus, we know this has to refer to some difficulties or dissension within the Johannine faith community. Jesus is depicting telling his followers, with notable tenderness, to love each other. He is shown giving this advice with Peter on one side about to betray him by denial, and Judas on the other about to betray him for money. This love starts with the willingness to lay down one’s life for another.

The internal situation of the Johannine Christians of that time may have been one in which learning to love each other, in the community, had to serve as a starting point toward reconciliation and resolution of disputes. The vision however propels the contemporary reader to set this modest exhortation on the level of the “new heaven and a new earth,” a vision to heal injustices and repair the damage done to the original blessing created by God.

We don’t have to leave it on the level of our behaviour toward our own. In fact we can’t leave it there. A group turned in on itself and its own problems is sliding toward its demise.

Scripture scholar Dianne Bergant writes,

“And how can we love those who do not love us? … Love those who hate you. If we love in this way how will we be able to fight wars? Or rob or cheat or destroy? Or punish with our power or undermine with our influence? How will we be able to ignore pleading eyes just because the face is a different color or the hair has a different texture? It is no wonder the commandment is called ‘new’ (kainós.) This is something completely different.”

Kainós means “new” in nature, as opposed to “new” in time. New, and different. Different, and just possibly, radically transformative.

And the Beatles once sang, in a time of war and social unrest, “Loveisallyouneed.”

© Susan K. Roll