On Maundy Thursday, Christ explicitly gave his disciples the new command from which the day takes its name, for the Latin words novum mandatum are the Vulgate’s translation of “new command.”
Maundy Thursday feels like the neglected sibling of Holy Week. Good Friday is a day that people understand, the celebration of Christ’s death on the cross. Likewise, Easter clearly marks his resurrection, the happiest of happy occurrences. Holy Saturday at least gives us an excuse to talk about that one line from the Apostle’s Creed (“He descended into hell…). But what are we supposed to make of Maundy Thursday? It can feel a bit like a poorly attended cocktail hour before the real party kicks off.
Nevertheless, when we examine the Biblical narrative, we discover that Maundy Thursday is extremely important for the life of our Church. On Thursday, Christ attended the Last Supper with his disciples, the most significant meal in recorded history. It was here that Christ unveiled to a degree never seen before his plan for an entirely new institution: the Church. Central to this explanation was his institution of the Eucharist, one of three ordinary means by which he would give himself to his people, the others being baptism and the preaching of the Word. At this meal, he gave details about the form the Church should take and announced the power by which it would operate: the indwelling Holy Spirit.
It was also on this occasion that Christ gave a “new command.” Throughout his ministry, Christ had not given a new law to the people but merely explained the law God had already given and predicted its fulfillment (Matt. 5:17). But on Maundy Thursday, Christ explicitly gave his disciples the new command from which the day takes its name, for the Latin words novum mandatum are the Vulgate’s translation of “new command.” From the same Latin root, we have our words mandate and mandatory, as well as the antiquated adjective maundy. The very name Maundy Thursday implies the giving of Christ’s new command.
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).
Reformation Protestants in general and Lutherans in particular are not typically known for their love of new commands. In fact, while the reformers saw a positive role for God’s law as the tutor that leads us to Christ (Gal. 3:24), they were just as likely to mention the fact that the law kills and all who strive to fulfill it after’s Adam’s fall are laboring under a curse (Gal. 3:10). Commands can seem opposed to the gospel of God’s free grace given on account of Christ’s merit and not ours. So why, even as Christ was instituting the Lord’s Supper, that most blessed sacrament of his grace, did he take time out to add to the burden of commands?
The answer lies in a careful analysis of the text, for as we will find, Christ calls this command “new” for good reason. It is not simply an addition to what came before. It is of a different character than the Old Testament law.
The general order of events provided in the Gospel of John reveals that Christ first washed his disciples’ feet (John 13:1-20), then predicted Judas’ betrayal (v. 21-30), and only then gave the new command as the beginning of a long discourse on what the disciples’ lives would look like after his departure (v. 34f). What we find in examining this discourse all the way up to Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” in John chapter 17 is that the theme is union with Christ: all that he has, he will give to his disciples.
The baptism he received, he now passes on to his disciples (as predicted in Mark 10:38-39). He washes them with water, that they might have a share in him (John 13:8). He loves his own until the end, that they may have a part in that love (John 13:1). He grants them his body, that they may become his Body on earth (Matt. 26:26). And now they love each other as he has loved them, and by this the world sees the Body of Christ for what it is (John 13:34-35). We are made partakers in that same glory with which the Father has glorified the Son (John 17:22).
Paramount in Jesus’ mind is the fact that he is leaving, and the disciples will now be left alone in a hostile world (John 13:1). They will face not only obvious opponents, but also false brethren like Judas (John 13:21f). Jesus’ solution is to assure them of God’s sovereignty (John 16:33), promise the coming Holy Spirit (John 16:7f), and encourage them to abide in him (John 15:4). And he says, as I have served you, serve each other (John 13:14f). As I have loved you, love each other (John 13:34).
He institutes the Eucharist, the meal by which he will sustain his Church, for he is about to make the sacrifice which will inaugurate that Church (Luke 22:20). He knows his own. Judas went out from them because he was not one of them (1 John 2:19). That is why, immediately after Judas’ departure, Christ gives the new command to love one another (John 13:34). It is a command for the Church.
This love is different from the general love one should have for neighbors and even for one’s enemies (Lev. 19:18, Matt. 5:44). This love is different because it is borne of union with Christ and can therefore only be enjoyed by those who are knit to him and each other. Judas may have shared in their meal, but he took no benefit from it. He would never know the love they enjoyed. But for those who were Christ’s own, it was a different experience. They were truly grafted into him, made part of his Body, and welcomed to abide there.
How should we understand Jesus’ “new command” in terms of the law/gospel distinction? Is this just another thing we must do to become righteous? No, the very opposite. We must carefully consider what Scripture is saying and take context into consideration, for what Christ is doing here is giving them a gift.
This love they will have for each other does not come from themselves, but from him (1 John 4:7f). It is pure goodness sprung from God. Union with Christ produces this love in his people (Eph. 4:15-16). He commands them to do nothing other than what they will automatically do if they belong to him, for the Spirit in them will be as a fount of living water (John 7:38-39). It will flow out of them unbidden, for it is the testimony of the Spirit that declares they are children of God (Rom. 8:16). This love does not initiate justification but flows from it. It is a very gift of our salvation. It is the love with which Christ loves us, now shared with those who belong to him.
Christ is not announcing here a new form of judgment that will be applied to those who wish to follow him. “Not as the world gives do I give to you” (John 14:27). He is announcing that judgment has already been given, and they are declared righteous. They belong to him. He will make his plea for them on the cross, where the certificate of debt will be cancelled (Col. 2:14). This new command is the announcement of the reality that they are his. There is nothing left to fear—not from the world, the flesh, or the devil. For they have been washed by Christ, united to him, both justified and sanctified (1 Cor. 6:11). God is love, and now they have become a Body, a people who bear the fruit of love (1 John 4:8, Rom. 7:4).
Jesus never dismisses or explains away God’s law. Even as Paul writes, “Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law” (Rom. 3:31). The difference now is that Christ has fulfilled the law. We have died with him to the law and are raised with him to new life, for Christ now lives in us, granting us his righteousness by faith. (Gal. 2:19-20) Christ came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Matt. 5:17). That perfect righteousness he now credits to us, even as he did to Abraham (Romans 4). By faith, we live in that love which binds us to each other and to him.
Yes, we are mandated to love as Christ loved, but not by any power in ourselves. “For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor. 5:14-15).
