Love one Another
Lectionary for the Fifth Sunday of Easter — May 18, 2025 —Acts 14:21–27 —-Psalm 145 —-Revelation 21:1–5a —- John 13:31–33a, 34–35 (NIV)
What kind of city do you long to dwell in?
The story of the Bible is filled with cities. From the very beginning, they have symbolized more than geographic locations.
They are the places where human ambition gathers and where things often go wrong.
Cain built the first city after killing his brother.
Nimrod, a warrior and empire-maker, founded Babel and Nineveh.
Egypt built its power on the backs of slaves.
Sodom became synonymous with injustice and disregard for the stranger.
Even Jerusalem, the city that bore God’s name, became the place where prophets were silenced and the Messiah was crucified.
Cities in Scripture are rarely havens of peace. They represent control, consolidation, pride, and eventually collapse.
Babel reached for heaven to make a name for man and was scattered.
Babylon grew rich by trading in the bodies and souls of human beings.
Jerusalem, meant to be the joy of the whole earth, had become a place of sorrow.
Though chosen to bear God’s name, she silenced His messengers and missed her moment of mercy. As Jesus approached, He made clear what awaited Him there:
“I must press on today and tomorrow and the next day—for surely no prophet can die outside Jerusalem!” Luke 13:33
Then He wept and cried out:
“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing” Matthew 23:37
Even the temple…..Herod’s magnificent structure, admired by the disciples...could not escape judgment.
“Do you see all these things?” He asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down” Matthew 24:2
It is no accident that Revelation ends with a stark contrast. The city of man is Babylon the Great, a haunt of every evil thing.
The only city God builds is the one that descends from heaven—the New Jerusalem, prepared not with bricks or politics, but like a bride.
The Hard Road Through the Cities of Men
In Acts, Paul and Barnabas retrace their steps through cities like Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch. These were real places, filled with some who embraced the Truth and many that resist, persecute, and try to kill.
Paul was stoned and left for dead in Lystra:
“ They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city.”Acts 14:19–20
Yet like His master Jesus, Paul passionately goes back filled with love to encourage the believers there.
“We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.”Acts 14:22
The Kingdom of God does not emerge through force or acclaim. It grows in the cracks, moving through suffering, and taking root in weakness and opposition——How?
By the power of LOVE.
While others build cities to concentrate power, Paul moves from place to place announcing a different foundation—one that cannot be bought, traded, or overthrown.
The Only City Built by God
Revelation does not reveal what human philosophies and theological or political aspirations may expect: a perfect version of Rome or a restored Jerusalem or temple.
Instead we are shown a new city that is not lifted up by human effort, but one that descends from Heaven, Holy and as a gift of Divine love…… and in no need for a temple!
“I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”Revelation 21:2
The only city God builds is not built on the back of slaves or by crushing the weak.
The Holy City descends as a home for all the longing pure, the ones who pursue wholeheartedly the Lamb as their Shepherd.
This city stands in stark contrast to the cities of man—Babylon, Babel, Nineveh, even old Jerusalem.
Its gates never close—there’s no fear, no threat, no need to defend. “On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there”Revelation 21:25
It has no temple—because “the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” Revelation 21:22. God’s presence fills the whole city.
It needs no sun or moon—“for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp” Revelation 21:23.
A river flows from the throne, and the Tree of Life returns, “and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations” Revelation 22:2.
This is not human city built on pride, conquest, or fear—but the dwelling place of God with His people. A city of light, healing, and eternal welcome.
John hears a voice:
“Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people.”Revelation 21:3
This is the fulfillment of everything lost in Eden, longed for in exile, and wept for outside the gates of Jerusalem.
A Different Kind of Glory
Sleeping Through Storms, Awake in Gethsemane
A reflection on fear, partnership, and the agony of love
There is a storm where Jesus sleeps while the disciples fear death. And there is a garden where the disciples sleep while Jesus is troubled unto death.
Not just ironic reversals but invitations to the depth of fear, love, and the cost of redemption. On the sea, the disciples panic in spite of familiarity with boats, storms, wind, and wave.
The life they know is ebbing away. They wake Jesus in desperation:
“Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” Mark 4:38
A primal and understandable terror revealing that they do not know the One in the boat. Jesus wakes and speaks peace to the chaos. Not just to the sea, but to them. And He asks:
“Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Mark 4:40
Later, in Gethsemane, it is Jesus who is overwhelmed by the weight of what is to come…….
He is about to face the full hatred of the evil one, cloaked in religious power and imperial law. He will be mocked, flogged, stripped, and pierced. But more than that, He will endure something no storm on earth can compare to: separation, even for a moment, from the Father He has always known.
He asks His friends to stay awake with Him. To pray and to watch. But they cannot. Three times He asks but they sleep. Jesus weeps, sweats blood, and yields His will alone. He is not rescued from the storm. He walks into it……
A reversal and revelation, Jesus is faithful through a death no one else could survive.
He persists. Not just through the physical torment, but through the humiliation, the betrayal, the silence of heaven, the scorn of earth. He presses forward not only to the Cross but through it, to expose every power that pretends to rule. He defeats them not with armies or angels, but with surrender, obedience, and love.
And having descended into death, He breaks it open. He rises not only for Himself, but to plant the first seeds of a new creation. He becomes the cornerstone for a new city, where storm and shadow are no more.
In the storm, the disciples fear losing their life.
In the garden, Jesus gives His.
And now He asks us:
Can you stay awake with me and trust Me in the storm?
Will you walk with Me through suffering, humiliation, and rejection, knowing that resurrection is on the other side?
This is a story of partnership.
God has entered our storm. He has endured our night. And He has opened a way for image-bearers to become glory-bearers
In John’s Gospel, just before Jesus gives His new commandment, He says something that reshapes our entire understanding of glory.
“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:23-25
“Now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him.” John 13:31
We tend to speak of glory as the moment we are honored. This includes the walk across the stage, or the promotion and award.
We mark it with music and robes, speeches and photographs.
Glory, in our world, is what happens when people see what we’ve done and give us what we think we deserve.
But Jesus speaks of glory on the night He is betrayed, humiliated, tortured, and killed on a Roman cross.
He redefines glory as the revelation of God’s love, a love that is willing to be mocked, humiliated, falsely accused, tortured, pierced, and murdered.
This is a mystery: the glorification of Jesus which is ultimately the path for death and its power to be exposed, humiliated, and annihilated along with all the power of darkness. The love of God exposed and destroyed all the powers of evil…
“….He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”Colossians 2:13-15
Love as Foundation
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.” John 15:12-14
This commandment is the cornerstone of the city God is preparing.
Where Babylon trades souls, the Bride washes feet. Where Babel builds upward to an end, the people of God open their arms and serve. Where the old cities consume and destroy , the new city invites and is bastion of hospitality.
The Statue, the Son, and the Bride
Nebuchadnezzar’s statue in Daniel 2 is not just a dream of power. It is a revelation of how human empires always look when God reveals their inner architecture. A massive figure, impressive, terrifying, and deeply unstable. Gold, silver, bronze, iron, and clay fused together. A Frankenstein of ideologies, ambitions, and fragile alliances. Beautiful to the eye, but brittle at the feet:
“Its head was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay.”Daniel 2:32–33
It is the embodiment of worldly glory, temporarily dazzling, ultimately doomed.
And then comes the stone. Not cut by human hands. Not shaped by kings or councils. It strikes the statue, not in the head, but at the fragile feet—where iron and clay pretend to hold together. The whole thing collapses. And the stone becomes a mountain:
“The rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth.” Daniel 2:35
This is the kingdom of God. It doesn’t rise from human conquest. It descends from divine mercy. It doesn’t dazzle. It endures.
False Faces and True Glory
The Psalms speak of idols with faces, mouths, eyes, ears yet without breath and life.
“They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see… nor is there breath in their mouths.”Psalm 135:16–17
That statue in Daniel is just a larger version of the same dead promise. Its silence mocks its strength. Its beauty masks its rot.
Then in Revelation 1 John sees Jesus Christ THE LIVING ONE.
“His eyes were like blazing fire… His feet like bronze glowing in a furnace… His voice like the sound of rushing waters.” Revelation 1:14–15
“Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” Revelation 1:17-18
Where the statue is divided and dead, He is whole and ALIVE.
Where the statue is speechless, He speaks THE TRUTH. Where the statue falls and becomes dust blown in the wind, He stands throughout time. He is the fullness of God in bodily form spanning the ages.
A House of Living Stones
And now, the miracle: the stone that shattered the statue becomes a mountain. And Peter tells us we are part of that mountain.
“As you come to Him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him— you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house..” 1 Peter 2:4-5
Christ is the cornerstone, and the house He builds will never be torn down.
The Harlot and the Bride
At the end of Revelation, two women are revealed. The first is Babylon, the harlot. She is dressed in gold riding a beast, and drunk on the blood of the saints. Her power comes from domination, with borrowed glory, and destined for destruction. She sold herself to all the “kings” of the earth:
“The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. 5This title was written on her forehead: MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of those who bore testimony to Jesus. When I saw her, I was greatly astonished.”Revelation 17:4-6
“With a mighty voice he shouted: “Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great! She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detestable bird. For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.” Then I heard another voice from heaven say: “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not share in her sins, so that you will not receive any of her plagues; for her sins are piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.” Revelation 18:2-5
Then comes the other woman, the Bride. She is not drunk, but radiant. Not selling herself, but given in covenant. Not adorned in wealth, but prepared in holiness.
“…to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.” Ephesians 5:27
Babylon is built by human hands and influenced by the evil one. It seduces, enslaves, and consumes. It is a den of vipers and predators.
The Bride descends from heaven, prepared, adorned and holy.
To the One Who Calms the Storm and Walks Into the Garden
We are not citizens of Babel or builders of Babylon.
We are not parts of a lifeless idol but belong to Jesus as His Bride.
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelation 21:1-6
All Things New
Christ does not just rise to reign. He rises to renew.
And He speaks, not just to John in a vision, but to us now, those waiting, those enduring, those hoping.
“He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life.”” Revelation 21:5
“The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’” Revelation 22:17
The incarnate, embodied love of Jesus.
Paul tells us that Jesus loves the Church as He loves His own body. Not metaphorically or abstractly but personally, sacrificially, and faithfully.
“He who loves his wife loves himself… This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the Church.”Ephesians 5:28, 32
Not a transactional but a covenantal love. The Creator condescending to become part of His creation, preordained for eternal sanctification.
This is why marriage is holy. Not because it is flawless, but because it points beyond itself to a deeper union defining the divine partnership. A love that does not dominate or discard, but delights, endures, and redeems.
And this is why Jesus says:
“Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” John 13:34