As the Easter story moves forward, we hear how the church is now needing structures and organization beyond simply following the original disciples. Paul and Barnabas are appointing “elders” for their new groups of believers, using a framework familiar in Jewish life anywhere away from Jerusalem and its temple rituals.
But there is more to this next phase of development of the early church than some management innovations. The coming break with Judaism is visible, on the one hand in the outreach to and acceptance of Gentiles into the Christian community, but also in a deeper sense that Jesus had created something new – this new Easter life was not just another iteration of the centuries of revitalization and restoration of Jewish beliefs – it was different. John of Patmos describes it as “a new heaven and a new earth”. In this new life, people did not have to go to God, God had come to them:
“Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race.
He will dwell with them and they will be his people
and God himself will always be with them as their God.”
The One who sat on the throne [Jesus] said,
“Behold, I make all things new.”
John the Evangelist puts the words in Jesus’s mouth: “the Son of Man is glorified“. He gives “a new commandment” – “love one another”.
This itself is not a new commandment, it’s there from the Mosaic Law: love God and love your neighbor. Jesus had preached on exactly this topic. What makes it new is what follows: “As I have loved you, so you also should love one another”. This love is not more of the same old, same old – this commandment is to love as Jesus did! Which of course is impossible! – but it is possible because Jesus has actually left us his love. We have it, we can use it.