Lenten Meditation: April 2, 2026
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. John 13:34-35.
Love has so many ways of breaking down: from “I can’t hear you” to “I can’t bear you.” We withdraw into silence, we use cutting words, we nurse quiet contempt.
Our world offers endless reasons not to love: you’re not from here, you don’t belong, your body is wrong, your skin does not match mine. There are the haves and the have-nots, the ones in my camp and the ones outside it, “the rational” and “the irrational,” the people who count and the people who do not.
When we look into the eyes of another human being, why do we not see the God within? What clouds our vision so that we see labels instead of faces, threats instead of an embrace? Can we, with God’s grace, begin to change that?
On the night before his death, Jesus knelt to wash the dirty feet of his disciples—betrayers, deniers, doubters included. And through this example of love, he told them they should do as he had done to them.
Lord, in this Lenten season, help us to humble ourselves before others. Expose the fears and prejudices that keep us from loving. Show us how to resist hatred and extremism with a love that is just as extreme—patient, courageous, and willing to bend the knee in service to others.