John: A New Commandment
Pastor Fletcher preaches from John 13:21-35 about Jesus’s exhortation to his disciples to love one another at the Last Supper. Discussion points: Jesus could have stopped Judas but chose to lay down his own life; the cross is the moment when the glory of God shines brightest; the more you understand God’s love for you, the more you understand your own sin.
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Scripture reader: [John 13:21-35] After saying these things, Jesus was troubled in his spirit and testified "Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another uncertain of whom he spoke. One of Jesus, one of his disciples whom Jesus loved was reclining at table at Jesus side. So Simon Peter motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So that disciple leaning back against Jesus said to him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it." So when he had dipped the morsel, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. Then after he had taken the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "What you are going to do, do quickly."
Now, no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that because Judas had the money bag, Jesus was telling him, buy what we need for the feast or that he should give something to the poor. So after receiving the morsel of bread, he immediately went out and it was night. When he had gone out Jesus said, "Now is the son of man glorified and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in himself and glorify Him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you, you will seek me and just as I said to the Jews, so now I also say to you. Where I am going, you cannot come. A new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you. You are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
This is the word of the Lord.
Preacher: Several years ago, we had we had someone visit our church for the first time. His name was Sam. I think many of you might actually know Sam. he was a phd student at MIT studying math. really smart guy, needless to say, and he started visiting a church in 2012. This is back when we were just getting started in Brookline. There were and actually at that time, oddly enough, we had an evening service. It's kind of like forgotten from the history of city on a hill in many ways. We had an evening service once upon a time in Brookline back when there were less people than there are here this morning, at the morning service, we had an evening service that had even less people. It was like 15 or 20 people.
I, and, we, we did that every week for a long time and Sam came to one of these evening services for the first time as a first year phd student. And, he was, he was sociable. He hung out the entire time but after the service, that first week and maybe for the second week also, I noticed Sam do something a little peculiar after he got done, hanging out with people and chatting for a little while, he would go find a quiet corner and type on his computer.
And I did not have any idea what he was doing over there just feverishly taking notes until actually several years later, when Sam actually wrote a blog article about his search for a church. He has a, a blog. It's, it's really a fascinating blog, but he has a, a he wrote a blog article about his search for a church in Boston and how he decided upon a church in Boston and like a good phd student would, he had basically designed a study to scientifically decide which was the best church for him. So when, as he visited churches, he had to go and take a bunch of notes afterwards so that he could compare and contrast and he made charts and graphs and all of this stuff about which church would be the best church for Sam to be a part of. And as you read all of that, you just think, how did we win this competition? There are so many churches in Boston and all of them are so good, not all of them, but there are a lot of good churches. There are a lot of good churches in the city. And, and, and how did he decide that?
Surely sometimes when I first read through it, I was like, started making me feel a little, you know, a little better about, about ourselves. Like, maybe we've done something that's we found the secret, whatever it is and, and we're scientifically better than the other churches. And, but no, actually you read his article and by the end of the blog, what he attributes the reason why he, he chose to come to our church wasn't actually anything to do with his scientific study, but it was just because he felt loved. That's all there was to it. He just felt loved. People offered him a ride home after church, they asked him to, to spend time with them. He just felt love and I love it how even for the most strictly academic people that we might encounter who think very logically, there's no greater apologetic for the Christian faith than love. There is no greater apologetic for the Christian faith than love.
Verse 35 Jesus says this, he says by this all people will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another, the defining mark of the Christian is love, it feels so simple, doesn't it? I mean, this is why we come to church, right? Just to have the the the preacher say now we need to love each other. He says all people, this is how all people, this is people outside of the church, everyone, this is how they will know that you those who are inside of the church, the disciples of Jesus will know that you are disciples by the way that you love one another. The ones of you who are inside the church, the love that we share with one another is the defining mark of the way that outsiders should recognize that we are Christians.
And so let me ask you this question in our society today. What are Christians known for? I know that I, I'm a Christian leader. This is my full time job and I have a lot of relationships with people in the community, my, my children's friends, parents, our neighbors. And I'm always a little, just a little hesitant to tell them that I'm a pastor. I tell them I'm I'm proud of it. But there's a part of me that thinks in the back of my head. I hope that you don't think I'm a judgmental hypocrite. The second I tell you this because that is the way that most of the world views Christians as judgmental hypocrites.
Surely part of that reasoning is due to selective reporting. I mean, if you hear a story about Christians on the radio or if you read a story about Christians somewhere rarely are they going to talk about the millions of people that we have supported through disaster relief. The hospitals that we've started the, the many Christian parents who a adopt and foster Children into their home, so many good things that they do not cut, cut talk about. But what you will hear about are the controversies and there are quite a few. Are there not? It's like every week you hear a new controversy being communicated in the news stories and it is true as Christians, we have failed to be known for what Jesus told us that we are to be known for.
But look, no one becomes a Christian because they're so awesome. That's why you become a Christian. We know we're terrible people. That's why we need Jesus. And so we have this message from him telling us what we are to be known for. And, and really, as I've pondered this for this week and ask the Lord how we should be considering this. What I want to do is kind of limit the scope a little bit because it's so easy to look at Christians at large and, and talk about all that we need to do to make a better reputation for the church. And for Jesus. But really what I wanna focus on is right here in this room and throughout the week and homes all around the area. How do people know us? CoaH Somerville City on a hill church which is, you know, sometimes we call it CoaH, city on a hill church, Somerville. How are we to be known by our neighbors? That is the focus of today and I pray that it is people who follow Jesus whose desires are shaped into the desires of Jesus and who love one another.
Today, we're continuing the series on the book of John. We've entered into a new section of the book. We've been going through the book of John for about eight months now. And we've entered into the second section of the book. The whole first section of the book. The 1st 12 chapters of John are a series of miracles and, and claims that Jesus makes to show that he is the Messiah when you and then the last section of the book starting in, in chapter 18 through the end of the book is really the story of jesus' crucifixion and his resurrection.
And so now we've entered this middle part of the book and what we have here is it just really slows down and we get about five chapters of extended meditation on who Jesus is and what he's come to do. We get five chapters of Jesus teaching his closest disciples who he is we get five chapters of Jesus just talking to them in an upper room. We call this the upper room discourse. And he is probably the, I think it's the longest extended teaching of Jesus in all the scriptures and what's happening at the upper room discourse.
Last week, Calvin started us very well by discussing how it begins. They, they go into this room and Jesus, you know, it's gonna be a different night when Jesus takes the towel and bends down and starts to wash the feet of his own disciples. He's setting the tone right away. It's the Passover feast. It's a, it's a time to enjoy unhurried time with those who are closest to you. And so, today we, we start the discussion at the Passover feast. They've all got their feet clean. They're sitting around the table, reclining around the table in a ancient, near eastern home. The tables would not be high like the ones that we think of get, get Leonardo da Vinci out of your head. OK? They did not sit on one side of the last supper. This is the last supper. The upper room discourse is last supper. Same thing. They're not on the same side of the table and the table's low, they're reclining around the table and Jesus starts the conversation.
Truly, truly, I say to you, one of you will betray me what an icebreaker, Jesus. You know, a way to start the discussion around the dinner table. This is that kind of sounds like a Thanksgiving in my family. The disciples are, are all looking at one another like it's not me, is it you who is it? Who is it gonna be? Who is it? And one of the, and one of the and one of the gospels they like each take turns going. Is it me Jesus? Is it me Jesus? And and, and he's like no Peter, it's not you.
But in, in this one, we see one of the disciples whom Jesus loved was reclining at the table at jesus' side. Now, this phrase, the the disciple who Jesus loved. this is who we know is the author of John. But this disciple is never given a name in John. And we only know who he is based upon inference. And so traditionally, the church is understood this disciple that Jesus loved quote unquote sounds rather like a prideful name for yourself if I say so myself. But it is John son of Zebedee. There's a lot of reasons why we think that I guess we don't have a lockstep case for it, but there's a lot of reasons why we think this is John, the son of Zebedee. And hence we call the book John, right? Because otherwise we would just call it the gospel according to the disciple Jesus loved.
So here we have John and he's sitting at Jesus side when it says he was reclining at the table at Jesus' side. The Greek more literally says that he was reclining in his bosom. Now, I know that's not something that men usually do these days where they recline in each other's bosoms. OK. But in an ancient world and this culture, it was fine. All right. There's, there's nothing weird about this whatsoever. Men were just a little bit more affectionate toward one another than in modern day society. And so we have John reclining literally leaning upon the chest of Jesus and as he's reclining there, what Peter does actually one thing about this rec reclining on his bosom that I want to bring out is John chapter one.
It actually says that no one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. So he is at the Father's side. That actually means that he is also reclining at the Father's bosom. So Jesus, no one has ever seen God, the only God but Jesus, the only God who is at the Father's side reclining on his bosom, this this position of intimacy that Jesus enjoys with his father. And now that Jesus is sharing with his follower, this beloved disciple that we have here. And as they're at the dinner table, Jesus says, one of you will betray me. And it's like Peter looks over at John. He's like ask him, who is it? Ask him, John. And so John, it says that he reclined his head. So John goes Jesus, who is it? And Jesus says it is he to whom I will give this morsel of bread when I have dipped it.
Now, I think that Jesus must have said this quietly because after Judas takes the bread and leaves, everybody's like, well, where is he going? And so I don't think Jesus said it loud, but I think he did disclose it to John in that moment because he takes a morsel of bread and he dips it and he hands it to Judas. And at that moment, the spirit of Satan enters into Judas and Jesus says to him, whatever you're going to do do it quickly, which reminds us that no one takes the life of Jesus, but he lays it down himself. He could have stopped Judas in that moment, but he's, he invited Judas, whatever you're going to do, do it quickly.
And so Judas left at that moment full of selfishness and willing to sell out Jesus of Nazareth for a few, a few silver coins. As Judas leaves Jesus begins his speech. Now, this is a farewell speech. This is actually a pretty common form of literature in the ancient Hebrew world. We actually see several farewell speeches throughout the Bible that occur occur. The first one, we just preached a sermon on it less than a year ago. Genesis 49. You do not have to turn there right now. But it is the Jacob father Jacob giving a blessing to his 12 sons. We also see one of these speeches with Joshua giving a speech a as he's nearing the end of his death. It is, it spans three chapters in the book of Joshua. It's a long speech to his sons. We also see a speech like this from David to his son Solomon who who carry on the throne for David.
And so here we have Jesus beginning a farewell speech, but Jesus has no children and instead he addresses his disciples as my little children, Jesus, the most complete human to ever live to ever live whose life has impacted more people on this planet than any other person in the history of the world was never married and never had Children that should hearten a few of us in here that you don't have to be married or have Children for your life to be full of meaning and purpose. Look at Jesus most complete man that's ever lived. You can be complete. You don't have to find a spouse to complete you. You can be a complete person and look at what he's doing.
He's leaving a spiritual legacy to his disciples. He's poured into these men so much. He's able to look at them and address them as children. These are men who are not that much younger than he is Jesus at this point is 33 years old. I am Jesus his senior today. I'm 38. These men probably around the same age as Jesus. Now he is Jesus. Ok. So I, I understand that there's a little bit of gravitas that goes with that. But he's able to look at these men who are his peers and he say my little children, look at the legacy of faith that he's left. May we be intentional in our lives in the same kind of way those of us who have children, may we have words for our children? Those of us who don't have children and those of us who do, may we leave a spiritual legacy such as this in our church.
Jesus begins his speech now is the son of man glorified and God is glorified in Him. If God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him, him in himself and glorify him at once. Now, that's a lot of talking about glory, right? And it's a little confusing as to what Jesus is talking about. But what Jesus sees is this wonderful dance that he's been living throughout eternity past with the Father and the Holy Spirit. And he knows that he wants to bring glory to the father and that the father is going to bring glory to Jesus. And the moment of His glorification is coming because what we actually see is that the cross is the moment where the glory of God shines brightest.
Now, what is the glory of God? But it is the outward shining of his inward being. The glory of God is the outward shining of the inward being of who God is. And so as you see the character of God, you are receiving the glory of God. And what Jesus is saying is my moment of glorification is at hand. The hour has come. Jesus has done plenty of things to show the character and glory of God. Up until this point in the story, he has healed the blind. He is fed 5000 with just a few bread, loaves and fish. He has risen Lazarus from the dead even.
But Jesus says all those pale in comparison to what to the glory you are about to see on the cross. What most people thought was his moment of defeat, nailed to a bloody wooden cross, wearing a crown of thorns. Ari having been flogged, condemned between two thieves, sentence to execution, betrayed by his own disciple and abandoned by almost all of his followers would be the moment of glory where their inward being of who God is would be on full display on the cross. We see the one who is at the bosom of the Father throughout eternity. Past enjoying perfect intimacy with the Father, sacrifice himself willingly laying his life down to pay for sins.
He did not commit to bring sinners like you and I into that same intimacy with the father that we do not deserve on the cross. The true nature of who God is is on radical display. Because the true nature of who God is, is simply love and what is love. But it is not just a feeling that we feel, it is not the butterflies, it is not this infatuation. It's a fun part of love many times. But love. You can just put an equal sign if you're taking notes. OK? Equals sacrifice.
When you get in front of a co a a group of your peers and you commit to the cognitive marriage. What do you commit to for better or for worse, richer or poorer through good times and bad through health or sickness. I belong to you. I'm committed to your good no matter what that means. I will lay my life down because I love you and nothing's gonna get in the way of that when you see acts of love, what are those acts? It is one person sacrificing their own good for the good of another.
And that is what Jesus does on the cross. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God bearing the weight of the wrath of God for sinners. This is love laying himself down. This is the picture of the glory of God who he most is, is selfless. You look at Judas, Satan has entered Judas. What does He do selfishness. What does Jesus do? Selflessness? Hatred is not the opposite of love, selfishness is. And so you have Jesus communicating on the cross, the very heartbeat and passion of who God is. We see what's most core to who God is on the cross. And so we see his love, we see His glory, the inward being of God on full outward display, glory of God.
There's a hymn that we sing sometimes and when we sing it, I find myself rolling my eyes sometimes because it just seems so ridiculous. It's so hyperbolic to me, it, it's so over the top. Until I look at the cross, we sing it. It says the love of God is greater than, as far, is greater, far than tongue or 10 or pen can tell it goes beyond the highest star and reaches to the lowest hell. The wandering child is reconciled by God's beloved son. The aching soul again, made whole and priceless. Pardon one? Oh Love of God. How rich and pure, how measureless and strong it shall forevermore endure. The angels and saints song. Could we with ink, the ocean fill? And were the skies of parchment made where every stalk on earth a quill and every one ascribe by trade to write. The love of God would drain the ocean dry. Nor could the scroll contain the hole though stretched from sky to sky?
That feels so hyperbolic until you really look at the weight of what he has done that. Every sin for every person who would call upon his name was placed on Jesus in that moment and he bore it all so that we would get to share in his eternal inheritance forever with God. So with all that in mind, listen to what Jesus says. A new commandment. I give you that. You love one another just as I have loved you. Oh, that is hard. That is hard. You also are to love one another.
This phrase new commandment in Latin, it's called the Monet Tum Novum. Sorry, I don't speak Latin. which is actually where we get the word Monday, Tuesday, Monday, Thursday, sorry, Monday, Thursday. as a kid, I always thought they were saying Monday, Thursday and I was like, that makes no sense. But Mon Monday, Thursday is the day before Good Friday that there's traditionally in many churches, a foot washing ceremony and a teaching on this new commandment. The new commandment isn't anything new at all though. Is it like if anything we should get from the Bible? It's love one another. I mean, that's not new, that's in the Old Testament, isn't it? Yes, of course. It's in the New Old Testament. Of course, Jesus or, or God has always told us that to love one another.
But what's new about this new commandment is this added point to love one another as I have loved you that is what's new verse 35. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another, the defining mark of the Christian life is not the regurgitation of theological facts. The defining mark of the Christian life is not how often and how feverishly you pray. The defining mark of the Christian life is not the exercise of of spiritual gifts. The defining mark of the Christian life is simply love. It's love, it's love for one another. The aroma vibe culture of our gatherings should and must be that of self sacrificial love for one another.
And here's the thing with the new commandment. As I've looked at it this week, the more you understand it, the less you feel like you're doing it because it works like this, the more we understand our own sin, the more we understand the love of Christ and just what it cost Him, the more you understand your own sin, the more you understand the love of Christ and the more you appreciate the love of Christ, the higher the standard to love one another feels and the more you understand the higher the standard to love one another feels, the more you feel like a sinner, it's a spiral, ok? Or maybe up spiral of love and, and of appreciation for the glory of who God is.
It's a commandment that you can never satisfy. In fact, if you feel as though you have satisfied it. You have some steps of maturation in your Christian life to go because it is just not one of those things that you can ever actually fully achieve to understand, appreciate. And most importantly, to experience the love of Christ is what empowers inspires and enables our love for one another. The more we look I can stand here, I I'm tempted in fact to stand here in front of you and be like, so get out there and love each other, love each other. People go love it, love love. Maybe that would help a little bit, but it's gonna be so much more effective for you to look at the love that you have received in Christ as you see what Christ has done for you, it will turn your hearts to love one another.
When I was a, a kid. I had kind of a for those of you who haven't been around for a while. I had like a weird childhood. Ok. my, my wife and I joke about this. It's probably not as funny as we used to think it was, but like, statistically speaking, I should be selling drugs in Mississippi somewhere. that's like where my childhood, should be. I grew up, my father left when I was five and I'm an only child, single mom and a, we grew up impoverished in, in a rural area and it, I, I don't want to exaggerate things. I had a very loving home. My mom is great and, my, my mom's family is great. Hi. They, they watch, but there, there was just part of me that just never felt at home. there I, to be very blunt, I, I was just kind of a nerdy kid.
I probably would have fit in a little bit better in Somerville. But where I grew up, I was just like a nerdy kid who wasn't interested in sports. I wanted to play with lego and watch Star Wars. And I, I just didn't make friends very easily. and never really felt like I had a place and when I was in like eighth or ninth grade, I decided to start attending the church that my family many members of my family attended. we, we had not been regular in my entire life until then and I went to church and really, for the first time in my life, I received love from people that weren't my blood family and I saw how they loved each other and I made friends and I had a youth pastor where I didn't have a father.
The Lord gave me a spiritual father who literally and figuratively put his arm around me and just spent far more time than what would be enjoyable with a 14 year old and not in a creepy way at all. And the love of Christ through the people of Jesus, change me. Have you experienced it? Have you been in that setting? There's no greater apology, apologetic for the cro for the cause of Christ than the new commandment to love one another.
If you have experienced the love of Jesus, let me just let me just bring it down to a couple application points for us here. If you have experienced the love of Jesus, if you haven't, I invite you to experience it today, we're gonna have some prayer counselors afterwards that would love to pray with you and help you to understand that better. But if you have experienced it, I just wanna point out a few things first. If you wanna follow jesus' teaching with the new commandment, you have to be in a church. I mean, how are you going to love one another when there is no one another to be committed to and to love? It's not that we're just when he says love one another. It's not that he's actually talking about within the, the, the the disciples, loving one another.
Now, it's not like Jesus doesn't tell us to love our neighbors. In fact, Jesus tells us to love our enemies. So it, it goes far, we're, we're to have love for everybody. But we're particularly to be known for how we love one another, for the aroma and culture and vibes and feelings of love that we have acts of self sacrifice with one another. That is how we are to be most known and tell me how you do this apart from a church fellowship where people know one another and are committed to one another. It's why we practice meaningful church membership here so that, you know who is committed to the local church so that you can, we can be connected to one another and committed to one another and look, churches are messy, but it wouldn't be self sacrificial love unless relationships required a little bit of sacrifice.
Sometimes when we think about church, we think about church as being a place of inspiration and information where you learn new things about the, about the Bible and you're inspired to live a better life. But if that's all that church is, you are wasting your time coming to this building. There are better teachers than me on youtube. Ok. You can pull out your phone and find them. I'll give you a few names afterwards if you want. But we come together so that we can love one another so that we can be so we can see a few faces so that we can be reminded. These are the people I'm committed to and these are the people that I'm laying down my life. And these are the people that are laying down their lives.
For me, it's opportunity for relationship that shared experience. The mark of the Christian is to love one another. And if that's the mark of the Christian. That is the mark of the church. We have to pursue a gospel culture in our church of love. This means that our relationships, the, the feeling you get when you come in to a gathering of the people of God is a feeling of love. That should be what we are known for.
And let me tell you, I love being a part of this church because I have experienced that. Amen anybody else I really have. And if you're new, I hope that you've experienced it and I hope that you will experience it. And I just wanna say, thank you. It's really easy. It would be really easy. And it is really easy for a lot of pastors to not feel that in their church. And you guys just have blessed me so much. I there's no part of me that's not proud of you in this, but let's just continue to move forward with it. There are a few things that do damage our ability to have this gospel culture and, and one of it would be a lack of experience and understanding of the gospel. Again, we have to go back to what Jesus has taught us.
But the other one that I just wanna bring out for a moment, it, it is something that I do think is preventing this from becoming a, a really rich gospel culture that we have here. And it's a de it actually comes from a positive desire and it's, it's this that we don't want to be a burden that no one wants to be a burden to anyone else. And so they, they don't really make their needs known or they don't really allow their needs to be known. And so they are just kind of superficial surface level and, and get out of here or, or, or try to try not to share as much as they can.
Galatians. 6:2. Ok. This was a verse that I've studied a lot in seminary Galatians 6:2 says this bear one another's burdens. Catch the second part. Ok. This might be something you miss. You've probably heard that first part bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Well, what's Paul talking about? He's talking about the new commandment to love one another. What does it look like to love one another to fulfill the new commandment? But to bear one another's burdens. And that means that you have to be willing to be a burden. Now, is that hard for many of us? I think it's hard for almost all of us in order to bear one another's burdens and fulfill the law of Christ. It must mean that you are both needed. That's easy for most of us and needy. Oh, not fun, not fun to be needy. It means that you're vulnerable. Oh, not fun either. And intentional with others.
It means that your community groups aren't just Bible studies, but there are times where you can really share your needs with one another and where one another don't just say, oh, I'll pray for you, but actually lovingly come around you and support you. When you are a burden, you are giving your church community an opportunity to fulfill the law of Christ. Do you see that, that if you were never a burden, if none of us are ever a burden on anyone else, we have no opportunity to fulfill the law of Jesus. You are needy, let yourself be needy, but you are also needed.
So church leaving this place, let me just encourage you. Don't wait, send those text messages of encouragement, make those meals and drop them off. Pick up the phone call, someone, invite someone over, drop off a gift, show love, whatever it is, show love. Let's just let that be what we're known for the way that we show love to one another. Let me just end with this, making it really personal. How are you known by those outside the church? Yes. I'm not always really excited when I think about this for myself.
Do people know that you're a disciple of Jesus? Do they see you with the people from your church family or do you have a very private faith? How can you this week, this week display the love you have for Jesus in the way that you love one another. Let's take steps of obedience.
In just a moment, you're going to have an opportunity to participate in a sacred meal. And what we do with this meal every week is we're reminded of the love of Christ that his body was broken for us. His blood was shed for us that we might live in response to him, that we might experience his love. And so if you're a Christian here this morning, if you are calling Christ and, and following after him with all of your heart, I invite you to come and receive it. You might need to consider what's going on in your own heart and commit your life more to Jesus this morning. And if you've never experienced that love of Christ, we're gonna have some prayer counselors in the back that would be more than willing to pray with you and to help you to trust in him and experience that love for the first time.
But with that said, I'm gonna invite you to the table at this moment. I love it when we're in the upper room discourse because Jesus initiated this meal meal during the upper room discourse. And it's like we're being invited to the table with Jesus and his and his disciples. It's like we're right there and we're enjoying it ourselves. Take it in a worthy manner, consider what's going on in your heart and live a life of self sacrificial life. Would you stand as we pray.
God, would you make us a people known for how we love and care for one another? Would you help us to fulfill the new commandment? Not out of a strict sense of moralism and guilt, but out of an overflow of the love that you have poured into our hearts. May we receive that love to a new degree this week that our eyes might be open to just the depth of the glory of God and the love of Christ for us. And may we have open hearts to receive that love? Would you open each of our hearts to receive the love that you've given? May this communion meal be a sacred time where we are reminded of the divine sacrifice that you have made on our behalf. And we ask these things in Christ's name, Amen.