You Might Br a Disciple If…

                                            John 13: 31-35

          I think Jeff Foxworthy is a pretty talented man. But he got famous on one simple idea. No matter what else he ever does, Jeff Foxworthy will always be famous for being the man who coined the phrase: “You might be a redneck if…” “You might be a redneck if your working television sits on top of your non-working television… You might be a redneck if you’ve spent more money on your pickup truck than you have on your education. You might be a redneck if you’ve ever made change in the offering plate.”

          You get the picture. I’m sure you have your own favorite redneck joke. Foxworthy was really good at poking fun at us in a way that hurt a little and hit home a lot. He drew word pictures that we could see in our mind’s eye, and we could identify with those images.

          Foxworthy could have learned his craft in any number of ways. One person he might have picked up a tip from is Jesus. Jesus spoke that way more than once. He did it in the thirteenth chapter of John. Oh, he wasn’t talking about rednecks. He was talking about disciples.

You know what’s funny! I googled redneck. Wikipedia defines redneck as “a working-class white person, especially a political reactionary from a rural area.”  If you step back and look at that for a moment, it really is not a bad working definition of Jesus. He wasn’t white; he was Jewish. But he was certainly working-class. He was a political reactionary, even a revolutionary. And he was from a rural area up in the north country. Ever thought about Jesus being a redneck? It might come in handy when you’re witnessing to someone who doesn’t know him like you do.

In this text, Jesus was in the upper room this night before he went to his death on the cross, and he had supper with the faithful. He washed their feet. He gave Judas his marching orders. He told them he was about to be glorified. Those present really didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. He knew that. He went on to tell them that where he was going they could not come. He didn’t mean forever, but it didn’t matter to the disciples. They were still trying to figure out what he meant by glorified. Then Jesus gave the disciples something to live by. He called it “a new commandment.” He was about to lay on them one of those one-liners that can make people famous, just like it did Jeff Foxworthy.

          Jesus said something very simple but so profound. “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are to love one another.” So simple. Love one another. He was talking to a hand-picked group which had been with him from the beginning of his ministry. And it had been a boots on the ground ministry that went up and down the road from Galilee to Jerusalem and points in between, always covering the synagogue but never omitting the crowds that gathered on the banks of the river or the side of a mountain.  Jesus was working-class. That’s the way God planned it. Even Foxworthy picked up on it in the many sayings for which he is quoted. Here’s another one: “Look at where Jesus went to pick people. He didn’t go to the colleges; he got guys off the fishing docks.”

And what did Jesus mean? What was his point? Well, I suspect he had more than one point. The first should be pretty obvious. If you love one another like the Son of God loves you, you are right in the short rows of righteousness. You are exactly where Jesus wants you. The second point Jesus made himself in this passage.  “By this all people will know that you are my disciples.”

There it is. You might be a disciple if people see that you love one another. How much? The same as Jesus loves you. That’s how much. They were just like us, those disciples. Working-class people. But they became disciples. Disciples of Christ. And it all started with that new commandment: Love one another.

Can you remember the New Commandment? Jesus gave it to the ones he loved on the night when it was all about to come to an end, or at least, a new beginning. He wanted them to remember just one thing. Love one another. That way, people would know. They would know that they were looking at disciples…followers…of our Savior. By this all people will know. Love one another. There’s a line to remember.