For Jesus, one of his main ways to demonstrate love was to redefine “justice.” Throughout his witness, Jesus makes it clear that God’s love is not neutral; God takes sides. God loves everyone, but pays particular attention to those who society overlooks. There is no greater witness to this justice-is-love proclamation than at Easter.

Mandatum ovum is Latin for the words, “New Command.” It is the phrase that offers us the namesake for our Holy Thursday gathering, which we call “Maundy Thursday.” In this command, Jesus offers his followers a new way of understanding what it means to be a follower of Christ: to love one another.

Conflict avoidance is not the way of Jesus. In his ministry, Jesus often put himself in the midst of conflict for the purpose of proclaiming the way of God. We saw the same thing in the early church, when Paul and Peter disagreed on the expansiveness of God’s love. Sometimes conflict is the most faithful step for Christ’s disciples.

The world is not lacking religious zealots. Take a nice spring drive through the beauty of our Commonwealth, and you’ll find it hard to miss religious symbolism, whether that is crosses, the name “Jesus,” or other flags paying homage to a diety – human or godly. Sometimes what we need most is to disconnect from the gods of the world, that we might be recentered in the God of resurrection – the God of new life.

It seems like every corner we take we find another gaslit fight waiting to break out. The world is anxious, like a lit powder keg, waiting for ignition. In such a tense moment, what we need is to cultivate a calming presence that difuses tension and holds fast to truth and love.

We’re all just a little bit conceited, aren’t we? We live in a world that has given us permission to be a know-it-all, who can spit out fake news as if it were truth, and people will believe us. But the way of Christ is one of humility and selflessness. A faithful posture requires a limiting of one’s ego.

Very few of us live without wounds that lie beneath the surface. We have likely been traumatized, or we know someone who has. The world would try to convince us that carrying wounds and trauma makes us less loved, less faithful, and less able. Yet Jesus invites us to see and touch his wounds to know we are not alone.

Jesus faced the devil in the wilderness, a spiritual force that invited Jesus to turn away from the truth of God’s power and authority. Paul says that, for all people of faith, we struggle in a similar fight against spiritual forces and cosmic powers. So what really is behind the systemic issues that continue to deteriorate God’s beautiful creation?