John 13:34-35 (ESV) | “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.

Read and consider this verse: “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 ESV)

Today we pause to engage with Maundy Thursday, the day Jesus celebrated Passover with his disciples and gave them a new commandment. Maundy comes from the Latin mandatum novum meaning “new commandment.” Therefore, you could rightly call today “New Commandment Thursday.”

Take a few moment and let your imagination fill your mind with images of the last supper, Jesus washing his disciples’ feet, and sharing his parting words.

At first glance, it seems strange that Jesus says that he is giving the disciples a new commandment.

Notice the similarities between the command in Leviticus and the one Jesus gave to his disciples: “You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.” (Leviticus 19:18 ESV)

The command to love your neighbor is not new. However, the way we are commanded to love our neighbor is new. In the Old Covenant, we are to love our neighbor as ourselves. In the New Covenant, we are to love our neighbors as Jesus loved us. Take a moment to consider what the difference is between loving others as you love yourself and loving others as Jesus loved us.

“… He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciple’s feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him.” (John 13:4-5 ESV)

Here is a famous picture of Jesus’ love. In washing the disciple’s feet, Jesus showed us what his love looks like.  His love is selfless, humble and unmerited.

Read why Jesus gave for washing the disciple’s feet: “For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.” (John 13:15-16 ESV)

Jesus is the Lord of all, yet he humbled himself to the position of a servant. This teaches us that there are no lengths to which we should not go to serve others.

It is a sobering fact to realize that those of us who have been served by the only one to whom all service is due, have regularly refused to serve others yet still claim the name of Jesus. How proud are our hearts? How quickly are we to receive the service of God and refuse to serve others? Take a moment to consider, lament, confess and repent of the ways you have refused to love and serve others the way Jesus has loved and served you.

Jesus lifted up the command of love from the Old Testament. No longer are we to love others inasmuch as we are capable of loving ourselves. Instead, we love them as Jesus loved us. Loving others as you love yourself means you love them at your level. To love someone below your station lifts them up to your level and loves them there. It does not lower oneself but elevates someone else. However, Jesus loved others by lowering himself below the station of those who should have served him. This love is both perfectly and ultimately shown in the cross of Jesus Christ.

Ponder on these words “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:5-8 ESV)

Ultimately, it was Jesus laying down his life on the cross that taught his disciples and the world the lesson that washing feet could only partly portray. Jesus not only gave us an example of the New Commandment on the cross, but also the means to fulfill it.  First, the mindset necessary to love others this way is ours in Christ (Philippians. 2:5). Second, the fullest way we can love someone is by pointing them to how Jesus has loved them. For no matter how much we lay down our lives for others, no sacrifice but Jesus can save them.

Read the words Jesus spoke before washing the disciple’s feet. “… Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.’ Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ Jesus said to him, ‘The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean.'” (John 13:8-10 ESV)

The real washing that comes from Jesus’ type of love makes us completely clean. This is the washing that comes from his blood, shed for us through his sacrificial love.

Prayer: Take a moment and thank Jesus for bowing down like a servant to give up his life to make us clean. Ask him to empower you to love others with this type of love and to embolden you to share the news of his love with those around you.

Luke 5:2-11  [NIV] | ² He saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. ³ He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little from shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat. ⁴ When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.” ⁵ Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” ⁶ When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. ⁷ So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink. ⁸ When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” ⁹ For he and all his companions were astonished at the catch of fish they had taken, ¹⁰ and so were James and John, the sons of Zebedee, Simon’s partners. Then Jesus said to Simon, “Don’t be afraid; from now on you will fish for people.” ¹¹ So they pulled their boats up on shore, left everything and followed him.

Jesus became more familiar with Peter, staying in his home (Luke 4:38) and healing his mother-in-law of a fever, no small malady in a time before pain relievers, antibiotics, and vaccines. Peter’s home became a gathering place of sorts as word spread throughout Capernaum, and others made their way to his home, the desperate seeking healing and hope from this new rabbi.

For Peter, this was completely new. In Peter’s time the blind never saw. The lame never walked. The demons never left.

One day, after Peter returns from an unsuccessful overnight fishing trip, Jesus appears again on the beach and crowds began to form, eager to listen to His teaching. So Jesus asked the brothers to lend their boat to use as a place to sit and teach the gathering crowds. The brothers’ grimy and smelly boat—now a stage for the Son of God. And when the crowd dispersed, Jesus urged the men to give the nets another chance.

The Scripture suggests this tip rankled Peter, and we know why. When an amateur weighs in on our area of expertise, it raises our hackles. These guys knew the lake better than almost anyone. They were good at fishing, having spent their whole lives mastering the currents, discerning where schools of fish gathered and when exactly to cast their nets and when to draw them in. This was their business, their livelihood, their way of life. Jesus—He’s good for miracles and messages, but why was He messing with their business? Peter didn’t say it, but you know the internal dialogue went something like this: Jesus, You know nothing about this business. I’ve been doing this my whole life. It’s just not a good day out here. We’ll come back and get it tomorrow.

What followed was, well, a miracle. This was a vision of Peter’s future life. He was the empty net God would one day fill with spiritual power to preach to thousands of people at Pentecost, lead the early church, and write two books of inspired biblical canon.

This was Peter’s miracle. An empty net and an empty lake suddenly, inexplicably full of fish. Peter knew the sea, but Jesus made the sea.

Author: Daniel Darling

John 1:35-42  [NIV] |³⁵ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” ³⁷ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?” They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?” ³⁹ “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.” So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon. ⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹ The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).

The first encounter between Jesus and Peter seems to have been brokered by Simon’s brother Andrew. He was intrigued with another itinerant teacher, the rogue prophet named John. Some called him “the baptizer” for his controversial practice of calling Jewish people to a new level of repentance and cleansing, beyond the cold rituals. John was unlike the staid rabbis in the synagogue. A wild-eyed nomad who declared the kingdom of heaven had come near, John insisted the people of God must prepare themselves. While many shrugged off John’s message, Andrew listened. And the words cut straight to his heart. John didn’t speak of himself, but of another whom God was sending, with a winnowing fork, dividing true believers from pretenders.

Galileans were ready for messages about God’s coming kingdom, especially at a time when Israel keenly felt the burden of being a subject people. But hope for a better future was shadowed by a palpable sense of despair, a cynicism hardened by crushing Roman rule and failed revolutions. In their lifetime, Galileans had been massacred in an ugly confrontation with the governor of Judea, Pontius Pilate.

And yet Andrew was still listening that one day, during a trip to Jerusalem with John, when the prophet pointed at a fellow Galilean, the son of Joseph, and declared of Jesus, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” Andrew went to the place where Jesus was staying and was captivated by this rabbi’s teaching. So he returned to Capernaum and ran toward his brother Simon and urged him to check out this Jesus.

You can almost picture the scene in your mind, can’t you? I see him shouting, breathless and grabbing Simon by his fishing vest. This is the one! I know it sounds crazy. But trust me, you’ve got to come hear Him and see Him. I’ve never seen anything like this. 

Messiah, anointed one, meant a lot of things; and while the two brothers were catechized in the Torah, they were not scholars who pored over texts. And yet, unlike those who did, they knew enough to follow. They didn’t and wouldn’t understand then that the Christ would not just swoop in and conquer Israel’s enemies. They couldn’t see an unjust trial, a bloody cross, and the sending of the Spirit. But they knew just enough to follow.

Author: Daniel Darling

1 Kings 18:41-45  [NIV] | ⁴¹ And Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.” ⁴² So Ahab went off to eat and drink, but Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel, bent down to the ground and put his face between his knees. ⁴³ “Go and look toward the sea,” he told his servant. And he went up and looked. “There is nothing there,” he said. Seven times Elijah said, “Go back.” ⁴⁴ The seventh time the servant reported, “A cloud as small as a man’s hand is rising from the sea.” So Elijah said, “Go and tell Ahab, ‘Hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.’ ” ⁴⁵ Meanwhile, the sky grew black with clouds, the wind rose, a heavy rain started falling and Ahab rode off to Jezreel.

Life is hard for the villagers who live on a hilly terrain in the Yunnan Province of China. Their main source of food is corn and rice. But in May 2012 a severe drought hit the region and the crops withered. Everyone was worried, and many superstitious practices were carried out as the people attempted to end the drought. When nothing worked, people started blaming the five Christians in the village for offending the spirits of the ancestors.

These five believers gathered to pray. Before long, the sky darkened and thunder was heard. A heavy downpour started and lasted the whole afternoon and night. The crops were saved! While most of the villagers did not believe God sent the rain, others did and desired to find out more about Him and Jesus. In 1 Kings 17 and 18 we read of a severe drought in Israel. But in this case, we are told, it was a result of God’s judgment on His people (17:1).

They had begun to worship Baal, the god of the Canaanites, believing that this deity could send the rain for their crops. Then God, through His prophet Elijah, showed that He is the one true God who determines when rain falls. Our all-powerful God desires to hear our prayers and answer our pleas. And though we do not always understand His timing or His purposes, God always responds with His best for our lives. —Poh Fang Chia

Action Plan:
Through prayer, we draw on the power of the infinite God.

Nehemiah 1:1-10 (NIV) | 1The words of Nehemiah son of Hakaliah: In the month of Kislev in the twentieth year, while I was in the citadel of Susa, 2Hanani, one of my brothers, came from Judah with some other men, and I questioned them about the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile, and also about Jerusalem. 3They said to me, “Those who survived the exile and are back in the province are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and its gates have been burned with fire.” 4When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. 5Then I said: “Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, 6let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you. 7We have acted very wickedly toward you. We have not obeyed the commands, decrees and laws you gave your servant Moses. 8“Remember the instruction you gave your servant Moses, saying, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations, 9but if you return to me and obey my commands, then even if your exiled people are at the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place I have chosen as a dwelling for my Name.’ 10“They are your servants and your people, whom you redeemed by your great strength and your mighty hand.

The room was splashed with an assortment of enchanting colors as women in beautiful saris scurried around, completing the final touches for a fundraising event. Upon hearing about the financial situation of a Christian school for autistic children, these women from India not only heard the need, but they also took it to heart and responded.

Nehemiah did not allow his comfortable position in life as cupbearer and confidant to the most powerful man at that time to nullify his concerns for his countrymen. He talked to people who had just come from Jerusalem to find out the condition of the city and its citizens (Nehemiah 1:2). He learned that “those who returned to the province of Judah . . . are in great trouble and disgrace. The wall of Jerusalem has been torn down, and the gates have been destroyed by fire” (v. 3). Nehemiah’s heart broke. He mourned, fasted, and prayed, asking God to do something about the terrible conditions (v. 4).

God enabled Nehemiah to return to Jerusalem to lead the rebuilding effort (2:1–8). Nehemiah accomplished great things for his people because he asked great things of a great God and relied on Him. May God open our eyes to the needs of those around us, and may He help us to become passionate and creative problem solvers who bless others. —Poh Fang Chia

Those who walk with God run to help with the needs of others.