Fundamental Changes

John 13:31-38

Main Idea: Jesus explains how his coming crucifixion fundamentally changes the disciples’ future.

1. The Cross and the Glory of God (13:31-32)
2. The Cross and the Disciples’ Future (13:33-38)
   1. The disciples cannot go with Jesus (13:33).
   2. The disciples are part of a new community (13:34-35).
   3. The disciples will be empowered to follow Jesus (13:36-38).

Have you ever been in a situation when a major life-change happened unexpectedly? The shock magnifies the pain, anxiety, and fear. It’s hard enough to lose a loved one, but if it’s unexpected, the world seems to stop, and it takes a long time for it to begin spinning again. The world is about to stop for the disciples of Jesus. Everything they’ve known and believed for the last three years is about to be tested. They’ve left their careers and families to follow Jesus. They’ve been ridiculed and mocked. They’ve seen friends turn away. They’ve committed every moment and every muscle to following him. Now Jesus is about to leave them.

Put yourself in their shoes. They’ve been following Jesus around every minute of every day for months and months. He called them to leave their homes and belongings, saying, “Follow me.” Now he’s essentially saying, “I’m leaving you. You can’t follow me anymore.” This is earthshaking. Dreams and visions of what they were going to build with Jesus are crumbling around them. The floor is swaying from side to side, and their next steps are clouded by doubt and confusion. But Jesus prepares them for his departure. Beginning in John 13:31 and extending through the end of chapter 17, we’re allowed to eavesdrop on Jesus’s final instructions to his disciples. We get to listen as Jesus teaches them why he’s leaving and what they’ll do after he’s gone. These chapters make up the longest continuous section of Jesus’s teaching in all of Scripture. The eight short verses at the end of chapter 13 introduce this extended section of teaching.

The Cross and the Glory of God

John 13:31-32

Jesus begins by saying “Now” (v. 31). The now points us back to the preceding event. Judas just left to alert the authorities. The events have been set in motion that will lead to Jesus’s trial, his beating, and ultimately his crucifixion. Notice Jesus doesn’t simply say, “Now I am going to die.” He talks about being glorified.

Jesus chooses language that not only describes what he’s doing but also places what he’s doing in its context. He’s not simply informing the disciples of his next move; he’s helping them see the significance of the next move. We do this all the time. If you’re in the kitchen stirring flour into a bowl and your child asks you, “Hey, Mom, what are you doing?” You could say, “I’m moving this piece of wood in a circular motion.” That’s true, but it gives no context to your actions. You would probably say, “I’m making cookies.” That’s the big picture; that’s what gives meaning to the action of stirring. If people can get the big picture, then they’ll have a frame of reference to interpret the individual pieces.

Jesus helps his disciples see the upcoming events in the big picture of God’s self-revelation. Twenty-three times in the Gospel of John we find a form of the word glory. Five of those twenty-three occurrences are found right here in verses 31-32. There are two aspects to God’s glory. Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” You could substitute honor or excellent reputation for glory, and the meaning wouldn’t change (Grudem, Systematic Theology, 220–21). But there’s a second aspect to God’s glory, and that’s the visible manifestation of his excellent character. One theologian says God’s glory is “the revelation of His splendid activity” (Carson, John, 482). In the Old Testament God’s glory was not simply the honor due him, but it was also the cloud or bright light that marked God’s presence among his people. This revelation was referred to with the title “the glory of the Lord.” In Exodus 16 God promised the people that in the morning they would see his glory. So God’s glory is the visible expression of his excellence, and when that excellence is seen, then people are prompted to give him the glory—the honor and worship—he is due.

When Jesus speaks of the glory of God, he incorporates both aspects, but he applies them in a way that couldn’t be done in the Old Testament. When the Israelites needed to be reminded of God’s glory, he appeared to them—and revealed his character and attributes—in a bright light or a cloud. But how does God appear to man in the New Testament? How is God’s excellence displayed in visible form? Through Jesus. Jesus is the glory of God. He is the manifestation of God’s excellence. Because he himself is God, he perfectly reveals the excellent character of God. He is the exact imprint of God’s perfect and holy nature.

• When we see Jesus, we see God.
• When we see Jesus, we understand who God is.
• When we see Jesus, we should recognize the honor and excellence God deserves, and we should respond with worship and praise—we should glorify him.

Now, to get to the bottom of why Jesus places his death and resurrection in the larger context of the glory of God, we need to consider another question: How does the mockery, beating, rejection, and murder of God’s Son reveal God’s character and cause anyone to recognize the excellence of God? Jesus doesn’t say, “Now there is a possibility that the Son will be glorified. Now will God hopefully be glorified in me.” He says, “Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him” (v. 31; emphasis added).

New Testament scholar D. A. Carson answers that question helpfully: “The supreme moment of divine disclosure, the greatest moment of displayed glory, was in the shame of the cross” (Carson, John, 482). There is no place we can look to better understand who God is than the cross. There is no place we can look and more clearly recognize that he is worthy of all honor and glory than the cross. The cross is the highest moment of God’s revelation to mankind. In the cross we learn more about God’s excellence than in any other moment in history. In the death of Jesus, we see God’s holiness and love, righteousness and mercy, justice and grace, sovereignty and humility, wisdom and patience. If we want to understand God, we must study the cross. If we want to be transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, we must study the cross. A crossless Christianity is a Godless Christianity. Only through Jesus Christ—his suffering sacrifice—can God be known.

The cross is the place that fuels our worship of God. Every human being is a worshiper. You are worshiping someone or something every day. Only God merits undying allegiance and unqualified praise. What are we to do when our worship of God grows cold and stale? We go to the cross. God will never seem distant when we’re standing on the hill where his Son was sacrificed in our place. True, passionate worship springs from a heart that has been gripped by the grace of God displayed in the cross. In those seasons of life when you’re struggling to care—you want to care, but it’s a chore—make frequent, daily pilgrimages to the cross. Watch as Jesus willingly took our bruises. Be reminded that through his stripes you have been healed. The old song says, “I’ll cherish the old, rugged cross.” Never get over the cross. The cross is not the starting line we quickly leave behind. The cross is Grand Central Station, and every part of our life runs out from it. Everything in the Christian life needs to revolve around Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). The cross is our message, the cross guides our methods, and the cross empowers our mission. When the cross is central, God causes true worship to flow from our hearts, through our lives, and out our lips.

The Cross and the Disciples’ Future

John 13:33-38

The Disciples Cannot Go with Jesus

Jesus prefaces this truth with a term he uses nowhere else in Scripture. It’s translated “children,” and it’s filled with tremendous care and concern for the disciples (v. 33). Jesus’s departure is not going to be easy for them. This is not a message he could simply drop into the middle of a conversation: “Hey, Peter, did you pick up the fish from the market? Oh, by the way, I’m leaving, and you can’t come with me.” The dynamics of the relationship are changing. They’ll no longer be able to walk physically with him. So Jesus uses a term filled with care and overflowing with tenderness: my little children.

How could Jesus say to them here in chapter 13, “Where I am going, you cannot come” (v. 33), and just a few verses later tell them he was leaving to prepare a place for them so they could be where he was (14:2-3)? The key to solving this mystery lies in the phrase “just as I told the Jews.” Back in chapter 8 Jesus told the Jews that he was going away and they would seek him and not find him: “Where I am going, you cannot come.” The Jews wondered if Jesus was going to kill himself (8:22). They were wrong about the means of Jesus’s death—he was not committing suicide—but they were right to understand that he was referring to his death when he said that. Now in chapter 13, as he speaks to his disciples, he is not saying, “I’m going to heaven. Sorry, you can’t go there.” He’s saying, “I’m going to the cross, and I go alone. You cannot go to the cross with me.” Only Jesus could go to the cross and pay the penalty that satisfies the demands of justice.

The Disciples Are Part of a New Community

Their relationship with Jesus is changing. They will still follow his teaching and commands, but they will no longer physically follow him. That’s not the only relationship that’s changing. Their relationship with one another is undergoing a radical overhaul. With Jesus’s departure they are now being brought into a new community that will be defined by love.

When Jesus was on earth, how would someone know that a person was a disciple of Jesus? The answer is easy. They would watch them. If they followed Jesus around from place to place and listened to his teaching, then they were one of his disciples. That’s fine when he’s on the earth, but now what are they going to do? How will anyone recognize them as his disciples if he isn’t around? “They will know you are my disciples because I am forming you into a new community that will operate on principles of love” (vv. 34-35; my paraphrase). Three times in these two verses Jesus says, “one another.” The “one anothers” are his disciples. There is to be a community of disciples identifiable to the world by their love for one another. He is not leaving the disciples alone. He is leaving them together. Because of their relationship with him, they have a relationship with one another. He addresses them all as children, an intimate, family term. This is what he is leaving behind: a group of God’s children, a band of brothers who serve one another in humility and love. That’s what a church is.

He calls this command to love one another a “new” command, but there’s nothing new about God giving a command to love others. All the way back in Leviticus we find the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (19:18). In what sense is this command new?

First, it’s new because it has its source in Christ’s love for them. The command is to love one another as Christ has loved them. Here is a new standard for love. This is the ultimate example of our love for one another. We are to see Jesus’s sacrificial, selfless love as the measure, goal, and enabling force of our love for one another. Also, our love for one another is only possible because of what Jesus did on the cross. Had he not paid for our sins and given us a new, righteous nature, we would be unable to love one another. I can love now because he first loved me. So it’s a new command because of his love, which enables and exemplifies sacrificial love.

Second, it’s new because it will define a community that is just coming into existence. Shortly after Jesus departs this earth, the church is established. This command is new because it’s specifically given to this new institution made up of followers of Jesus.

Every organization is identified by certain characteristics. If you see a big, brown truck with yellow letters and a man dressed in brown steps out to deliver a package, you can identify the organization. Churches should not be identified by a white steeple, a sign with clever sayings, or a large wooden cross; they should be identified by the quality of one member’s love for another. Genuine disciples of Jesus cannot be identified on the basis of a cross tattoo, fish decal, or “I ? Jesus” mug. Jesus says in effect, “My disciples will be distinct because of their love.” People will see their love for one another and the only response they’ll be able to make is, “Wow, they must be followers of Jesus.”

Followers of Jesus will love others more than we love ourselves. That’s a pretty tough standard. What does that look like on a practical level? If you love others like you love yourself, you’ll give others the benefit of the doubt. We’re so suspicious of other people. We distrust their motives. We often act like other people are criminal masterminds, intentionally weaving a web of lies, trying to entrap us. Instead, we should give others the benefit of the doubt.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been around a hypochondriac—someone who always thinks she’s sick. She gets a cough, looks online, and now is pretty sure she has the bubonic plague. Or he sees a red spot on his arm and thinks he’s dying from leprosy when it’s dried ketchup from lunch. Such people live suspiciously. Everything is a clue with a deeper meaning. Hypochondriacs are anxious, they’re nervous, they’re overwhelmed by fear. Too often we view others with greater suspicion than a hypochondriac views a sore throat. We don’t give others the same benefit of the doubt we give ourselves. Love detests evil (Rom 12:9). It’s patient, not suspicious of other people (1 Cor 13:4-7). Love doesn’t say, “Why’d they do that? What did they mean when they said that? What they probably really meant was . . .” Those are unloving ways to treat other people. Are you continually plotting ways to hurt other people? Of course not! Then why do you think other people are doing that to you?

Two of the great ways to love people (and they go hand in hand) are to assume the best and have a sense of humor. When someone says something to you that could be interpreted two ways, assume the best possible interpretation and laugh about it. Even if you’re wrong, you’ll be happier. Sometimes we parse other people’s words like we’re back in high school English class. We’ve diagrammed their sentences to see if there’s any possible way for what they said to be understood as offensive. If there’s even a remote chance, we consider it hostile and get offended. Why? Because we don’t love them as we love ourselves. Christian love intentionally assumes the best about people. It refuses to jump to conclusions. It doesn’t judge motives. It is kind.

The Disciples Will Be Empowered to Follow Jesus

Peter brushes aside Jesus’s command to love one another in a new community of faith. He’s still struggling with Jesus’s announcement that he is leaving and they can’t come with him. He asks Jesus where he’s going (v. 36). Look at the bold statement Peter makes: “I will lay down my life for you” (v. 37). Jesus challenges Peter: “Really? No. In fact, you’re not even going to spend the rest of the evening following me. You will deny me three times before the rooster announces the dawn” (my paraphrase).

So Jesus tells Peter that he will not follow Jesus. He’ll turn away. But if we back up, we see before that he tells Peter, “You cannot follow me” (v. 36). So Peter’s not entirely to blame. It’s true he won’t follow Jesus, but that’s because he can’t follow him. Peter has no power within himself to continue as Jesus’s disciple. Are we to conclude that in the face of difficult circumstances, there’s no ability in us to follow Jesus? That might be true if it weren’t for a small phrase tacked onto the end of verse 36: “But you will follow later” (emphasis added). After Jesus goes to the cross, Peter will be able to follow him. One of the themes Jesus instructs them on in the next few chapters is the gift of the Holy Spirit to indwell and empower them to follow him. Through suffering and persecution, into acts of love and mercy, they will be given the power through what Jesus accomplished to really live as his disciples.

Reflect and Discuss

1. How will the world identify Jesus’s followers?
2. What do you think the disciples felt when they heard Jesus was leaving?
3. Define God’s glory.
4. How does Jesus speak of God’s glory in a way that couldn’t be done in the Old Testament?
5. How does the suffering and shame Jesus is going to endure cause people to recognize the excellence of God?
6. What steps can we take when our worship of God grows cold and stale?
7. What can we learn about Jesus based on his calling disciples “children”?
8. Why does Jesus tell them, “Where I am going, you cannot come”?
9. In leaving the disciples, how is Jesus not leaving them alone?
10. How can Jesus call the command to love one another a “new” command?