Acts 14:21b-27; Rev. 21:1-5a; Jn. 13:1, 31-33a, 34-35
During the supper, after Judas had left to carry out his betrayal, Jesus turned to his remaining disciples and spoke words both heavy with grief and radiant with divine purpose: "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him... I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." (John 13:31-35). These words are not a mere farewell or ethical maxim. They represent the heartbeat of Christian discipleship. In the context of betrayal, impending suffering, and parting, Jesus emphasizes love as the identifying mark of His followers.
The passage begins with Jesus' declaration of glory: "Now the Son of Man has been glorified." It is important to understand that in John's Gospel, glory is intimately connected with the cross. The cross, a symbol of shame, becomes for Jesus the very throne of glory. The Old Testament offers glimpses of this paradox. The suffering servant of Isaiah (Isaiah 53) bears our infirmities and