Teaching the Children

Maundy Thursday


John 13:34-35

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

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Teach your children well,
Their father's hell did slowly go by,
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picked, the one you'll know by.
Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry,
So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

"Teach Your Children" written by Graham Nash and recorded by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young

This was becoming a very different sort of evening. The first last supper had just been celebrated. Jesus had washed everyone's feet. In the ancient of days, you couldn't require a slave to wash your feet, you just had to do that yourself. Suddenly, the Lord is washing the feet of his disciples. True to his reputation, Peter tells the Lord not to wash his feet. Peter knows local custom and knows it's not right. That's the thing about God, God takes what's not right and makes it right. Like washing feet.

Since the Lord God can wash a disciple's feet, it's not below the vocation of any disciple to wash the feet of others. It's God telling us that there's no act that's "beneath them."

Judas was out the door. Satan had entered him and so time was short. God is eternal, but in this life Jesus only had the time it took Judas to round up the troops and come back. So time was short. It was the hour, both figuratively and literally. So Jesus gives his final instructions to his disciples.

Jesus teaches his disciples one more commandment. Love one another. Just as he loved them, they must love one another. This hasn't always been easy. Jesus' love included discipline. Peter found himself on the receiving end of this gem more than once. Jesus' love included sending the disciples off into the world to share the gospel. Jesus' love even let them stretch their wings beyond where they could fly-showing them that he would always be with them.

Jesus teaches that by this, everyone will know that they are his disciples. It is in their love that the world will know who his disciples are. It is also the way that the world will know who false prophets are.

Teach your children well. Teach them your dreams. Teach them that there is something wonderful in this life, and it is found in the font of many blessings. By this, our hell will go by. By this, there is new life--even in death.

Final words mean everything. Many want their last words to be profound and wonderful and glorious. People want their last words to be significant. Last words say to the world "If I had just one last thing to say, this is it." Jesus' last words are to love one another." That's it. He begins with love. From love, the same love he has shown his disciples, everything else will flow.

In love everything worth doing, everything worth having, everything worth sharing begins. Love is the beginning. Love is everything.