Sermon for 5th Sunday of Easter – ‘Love one another’ preached at the Eucharist, Sherborne Abbey on Sunday, 18 May 2025 by The Reverend Robert Green (Acts Ch 11: v 1 – 18; John Ch 13: v 31 – 35).
“Love one another, just as I have loved you” (Acts Ch 11: v 1 – 18; John Ch 13: v 31 – 35)
Those of us who have visited Jerusalem, and I know that there are a number of us who have, will almost certainly have visited the church of St Peter in Gallicantu, which is perched on the slopes of Mount Zion. outside the walls of the old city. The name simply means St. Peter of the Cockcrow. It is built on the traditional site of the palace of Caiaphas, the High Priest, and below are some rock caves which were used as prison cells prior to a prisoner’s trial, and it is thought that Jesus was held there until daybreak of that first Good Friday. It was here in the courtyard of the palace before a charcoal fire that Peter’s threefold denial took place before the cock crows. Visiting this church for the first time, can hardly fail to affect any Christian as it brings to life this story of failure and denial of a friend, adding further to the trauma of Jesus’s arrest and subsequent crucifixion. The church is in effect a monument to that terrible failure. I mention this because our Gospel reading this morning is sandwiched between Judas’s departure from the Last Supper to betray Jesus to the authorities, and Peter’s rash promise to lay down his life for his Master.
Knowing this context gives our reading an added poignancy. In the midst of imminent betrayal and subsequent denial, Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment: “Love one another, just as I have loved you. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” This comes hot on the heels of the news that Jesus is leaving, and where he is going, the disciples cannot follow. We clearly have a definition of ‘love’ which is more than looking after and sticking up for one another, for although Peter is going to deny three times that he knew Jesus, and in one account on the third denial he swore about his knowledge, that didn’t stop Jesus loving him. Peter is not excluded. His threefold denial demonstrates Jeus’s extraordinary love by continuing to love the one who will deny him.
This love is deeper, stronger and surprising- much more than human love. It is accepting of exactly who we are, with all our weaknesses. In the following verses after Jesus has prophesied Peter’s denial, he goes on to speak about there being many dwelling places in his Father’s house, and I go to prepare a place for you, and that includes Peter and all of us.
The church of St Peter in Gallicantu might seem a monument to Peter’s failure, but its true significance is to remind us of the opportunity for Jesus to show what true love is. As we were reminded a fortnight ago in Becca’s sermon, Peter had to face the need for healing as the risen Jesus three times asks him, around a charcoal fire, “Do you love me?”, and each time he receives a commission: “Do you love me? Feed my lambs”; Do you love me? Tend my sheep; Do you love me? Feed my sheep”. There is no condemnation or rejection of Peter, but rather encouragement to continue to make disciples.
Jesus gave his disciples, and us, a new commandment that we are to love one another just as He loves us, but that quality and depth of love is humanly impossible. As Tom Wright puts it: ‘This would be unthinkable without the gift of the Spirit’. In our Christian life we do not have to go it alone, for the Holy Spirit is our constant companion to strengthen and guide us, and in a few weeks’ time we shall be celebrating the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost which empowered the disciples to spread the Good News of Jesus throughout the known world. As we heard in the Reading from Acts after Peter had his vision making it clear that the Gospel was for all people, it was the Holy Spirit who then told him to go with the messengers from Caesarea to a man’s house, (he is not named), and the whole household received the Holy Spirit as the disciples had at Pentecost. At the end of this Eucharist we shall ask to be sent out “in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory” That is our commission despite our weaknesses and fallibility, and like Peter we will not always get it right, but when we know how much Jesus loves us, we have nothing to lose.