In last week’s blog, I shared with you the surprising reactions of Abraham and Job to tragedy. Today’s blog is called, “Surprise, Surprise” because I have another surprise for you. See if you can pick it out from the following verses: 31When he was gone, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him. 32If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. 33“My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. 34“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” – John 13:31-35 Did you spot the surprise? Well if you did, you are amazing, because I played a trick on you (don’t be angry with me 
). The trick is that you need to read the preceding verses to recognize the surprise. Here they are: 18 “I am not referring to all of you; I know those I have chosen. But this is to fulfill this passage of Scripture: ‘He who shared my bread has turned against me.’ 19 “I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am who I am. 20 Very truly I tell you, whoever accepts anyone I send accepts me; and whoever accepts me accepts the one who sent me.” 21 After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, “Very truly I tell you, one of you is going to betray me.” 22 His disciples stared at one another, at a loss to know which of them he meant. 23 One of them, the disciple whom Jesus loved, was reclining next to him. 24 Simon Peter motioned to this disciple and said, “Ask him which one he means.” 25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, “Lord, who is it?” 26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.” Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot. 27 As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. So Jesus told him, “What you are about to do, do quickly.” 28 But no one at the meal understood why Jesus said this to him. 29 Since Judas had charge of the money, some thought Jesus was telling him to buy what was needed for the festival, or to give something to the poor. 30 As soon as Judas had taken the bread, he went out. And it was night.” Do you know what preceded even these verses? Jesus washed his disciples feet. So let’s see if we can put this all together. He washes his disciples feet (including the feet of Judas). Then he identifies His betrayer (although his disciples did not understand what he was saying). Then He tells his disciples to love each other as He has loved them. Surprise! Why do I say that? Well let me put things in terms that are more personal. You are with some folks, and you do this beautiful and humble act of service to them. One of them is a person who you know is going to wound you in a deeply harmful way. Their betrayal will set into motion you being falsely accused and then executed in a torturous and shameful way. Your betrayer is one you have loved, but now he has his hand in your death. Then you start talking to those you are with about how important it is for them to love others. Surprise! Who would see that coming? Who would respond that way? Who would think that what just happened was ultimately going to be for the best? Yet, after all of this, Jesus’ initial words were “Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in Him”. So in the midst of all that was happening to Jesus, He knew His time on the earth was short and that He needed to share one of His most important messages, and that is that people are to love on another as He has loved us. How did (does) Jesus love us?
- He loved us when we were His enemies.
- He loves us even though we still sin.
- He loves us even though we are deeply inferior to Him.
- He loves us even though we have nothing to offer Him.
- He loves us even when we disappoint Him.
- He loves us even when we hide that we know Him, because we are afraid of others’ reactions.
- He loves us even when we consider many other things more important than Him.
- He loves us even when we behave as hypocrites.
- He loves us even when we treat others miserably.
He loves us. He calls us His dearly loved children. Since this is who God is, should we really be so surprised when after He is betrayed, He called for people to focus on His love for them and to share that type of love with others? We have some surprising to do this week. We are going to have opportunities to love those who mistreat us. Will we remember Jesus’ love for us then? Will we hear His call to love as He has loved? If we do, we will bring Him glory as , and boy, won’t others be surprised. Let’s pray that we can live this way. For Him, Rob