When April and I first met over 21 years ago, I was often seen walking around wearing a Chicago White Sox cap on my head. Now, as many of you know, I am a lifelong Chicago Cubs fan. So you might be wondering why I would have worn a White Sox cap instead of a cap representing my beloved Cubbies. And the answer is really quite ridiculous. You see, a Cubs hat is typically a blue hat with a red C logo on it, whereas the White Sox cap that I owned was a black cap with a white SOX logo. And I wore the White Sox cap regularly because black and white goes with everything. No matter what color of clothing I wore, I could accessorize it with that black and white Sox cap. And back then, I wore a cap almost every day. The reason I tell this story is that if people would have seen me back then walking around in my White Sox cap, they would have very logically assumed that I was a White Sox fan. Even though the truth was that I was not. Looks can be deceiving, right?

In our passage from the gospel of John for this morning, Jesus and his disciples are in the Upper Room on the evening of the Passover. Jesus humbles himself and washes his friends’ feet. And then he tells them that one of them will betray him. And when he has done that, Judas gets up and leaves. And then comes the passage we read this morning in which Jesus talks about how he will be leaving soon and the disciples will not be able to follow him. And then he gives them a new commandment, which is not really all that new. Jesus says to them, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” And then Jesus adds what I think is perhaps more important for us. He says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” Love is the calling card of a Christ follower. It is the logo we wear on your foreheads, the name emblazoned across our chests. It is by our love for one another that others will see that we follow Jesus the Christ.

Jesus says, “BY THIS everyone will know that you are my disciples.” And the THIS that he is referring to is their love for one another. But what does that look like?

I’ve been thinking a lot about that this week and it seems to me that there are a lot of different ideas of what loving one another looks like. Even within the Church we seem to have different ideas of what loving one another looks like. For some it looks like loving and accepting only those who are like us. That may mean only those who look like us or it may mean only those who believe the same way we do. Is that the sort of love Jesus had in mind?

I recently read a story about a Buddhist man who made friends with a Christian woman at his place of work. They went to a movie together and then she invited him to church with her. He thought about going, but soon after he ended up quitting that job and didn’t see her for a while. The next time he saw her, she again asked him to come to church with her. He decided to play along and said, “Sure, I’ll go to church with you, because I’m interested in seeing what you’re interested in. That’s what friends do, after all. And I’m sure you’ll want to come with me to a Buddhist meeting to see what I’m interested in, right?” She was not interested in going to a Buddhist meeting with him and so their friendship ended. In reflecting on the experience, the man wrote this: “That’s how far Christian friendship extends – I’ve seen it over and over and over. Christians look at everyone else as if they’ve got targets painted on their foreheads. Nobody likes being hunted down or treated like someone else’s project. We don’t need to drop all our beliefs just to accept yours, and we don’t need to become more like you just to be acceptable people, worthy of being regarded as people instead of targets. Love does not seek to create clones of itself. Selfishness does.” Is that what Jesus meant when he said, “BY THIS everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another?”

That’s just one example of how Christ followers have lost sight of what it means to love one another. In fact, a Barna Group study from 2013 found that among Christians only 1 out of  7 manages to both hold Christ-like beliefs AND act in Christ-like ways. In another study, something like 84% of those who identify as something other than Christian said that Christians are hypocritical, meaning we say one thing but do another thing. Which brings me back to my story about wearing the White Sox cap. No matter what we claim about ourselves or what “Christian” apparel we wear on the outside, looks can be deceiving. The true mark of our faith in Jesus is if we live like Jesus lived, with love for one another. BY THIS everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

So the THIS that Jesus is referring to is “loving one another” but that looks like living like Jesus did. And as I’ve thought about it this week, Jesus displayed his love in three ways. First, he lifted others up above himself. The main thrust of Jesus’ mission during his earthly life was to lift people up. We see that in the verses from Isaiah that Jesus read when he entered the synagogue. He read, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Good news for the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, oppressed set free. These are all acts of lifting others up. And that is how Jesus loved. If we want to be known as disciples of Jesus, then we will have to lift others up as well. BY THIS everyone will know that we are his disciples.

Jesus lifted people up. But he also accepted people where they were. Jesus welcomed the tax collectors and sinners. He called Zacchaeus out of the tree and went to his home to dine with him. He met with Nicodemus and invited Matthew to be his disciple. Jesus listened to the sick and blind and paralyzed who came to him for healing. He touched the lepers. He promised the thief on the cross a place in heaven. Jesus prayed for his enemies and his friends alike. He offered forgiveness even from the cross. If we are to love like Jesus did, it requires us to accept people where they are. That means not trying to change them, but simply loving them and allowing God to do the rest. We are not the judges. God is. We are just here to show people the love of God in Christ Jesus. And we do that by accepting folks as they are. BY THIS everyone will know that we are his disciples.

Jesus lifted people up and he accepted them where they were. And thirdly, Jesus sacrificed for love. Jesus gave up heavenly glory to come to earth and take on human flesh. He suffer abuse and ridicule at the hands of humanity. He was beaten and bruised, then forced to carry his own cross. He was sentenced to death and killed for treason. Jesus’ death was an act of sacrifice as he gave himself up in our place. Jesus’ whole ministry was about sacrificing oneself for the good of others. If we are to love like Jesus loved, then we need to humble ourselves and be willing to give up even our most prized possessions for the good of another. This sort of sacrificial love can be hard. As humans, we have a tendency to always think of ourselves first. But the love of Jesus shows us a better way. A way that gives of ourselves to others and for others. That sort of love is rare, but it is so needed in our world. And BY THIS everyone will know that we are his disciples.

This morning, five youth took a step forward in their journey of faith. And they all got to this point because of love shown to them by Christians, by many of you. They saw folks from this church lift others up at Laundry Love or in helping with Cat Packs or through the Salvation Army bell ringing or in so many other ways. And by those things they saw people being Jesus’ disciples. And they saw folks form this church accepting people how they are. They saw people being welcomed and valued no matter their age, race, gender, or any other variable. And by that they saw people being Jesus’ disciples. And they saw folk from this church sacrificing themselves for others. Sacrificing their time to serve, sacrificing their money to make a difference in the community and the world, sacrificing their own priorities in order to prioritize the needs of others. And by that they saw people being Jesus’ disciples.

None of us are perfect. We make mistakes. Sometimes we don’t love others as we should. But it is not by our individual decisions that others see Jesus’ love, but in the overall theme of how we live our lives. If loving one another is a pattern in our lives, people will see. And they may not immediately recognize us as disciples of Christ because of it. But they will certainly get a glimpse of Jesus through those acts of love. So, may we all pattern our lives on loving one another, so that by that others will see that we are Jesus’ disciples. And perhaps more importantly that they will feel God’s love for them, just as we have felt God’s love for us. And through all of us loving as Jesus’ loved, perhaps we can change the world. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen!