Love One Another, As I Have Loved You - Lesson Outline

1. Introduction

a) Set the scene

i) Jesus is in Jerusalem for the Passover dinner, along with all other observant Jews

(1) At the Passover, every family in Israel was to come up to Jerusalem to partake of a sacred meal in remembrance of their deliverance from bondage.

(2) The sacrifice of an unblemished lamb was offered at the temple.

(3) Tens of thousands of lambs had been killed in Jerusalem for Passover

(4) Reading 1 – Exodus 12:3,5-8

3¶Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:

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5Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats:

6And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

7And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it.

8And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it.

(a) This was a powerful symbol of the Messiah and Jehovah’s ability to save His people.

(5) READ – Exodus 12:11-14

11¶And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord’s passover.

12For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord.

13And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt.

14And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.

(6) Would come to be called The Last Supper

ii) Christ will go from the Passover celebration to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he will begin the direct suffering associated with His Atonement.

iii) After Gethsemane, he will be taken prisoner and continue the process that will lead to His crucifixion on Friday

iv) By this time on Friday evening, Christ will be dead, having been buried before sundown on Friday.

v) It is Thursday evening, after sundown

(1) Jews measured their days from sundown to sundown

(2) All we will study today occurred during the last peaceful period on the last day of Christ’s mortal life

b) Chris will not meet with His apostles again until after His resurrection. This is the last time he will speak with them privately during His mortal life.

c) Christ knows exactly what will happen to him during the rest of this horrible day.

d) What are His last words? His last teachings? His last requests?

e) READ John 13:1

Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

f) To this day, Jews around the world gather to celebrate Passover and at the same time, Christians around the world celebrate Easter.

i) God the Father will save His people through Jehovah, who is Jesus Christ

ii) Innocent blood must be shed for this salvation, this Atonement, to be completed

2. Jesus institutes the sacrament

a) Christ directed Peter and John to locate a place for a Passover dinner and make it ready.

i) Despite the fact Jerusalem was crowded with Passover celebrants, an appropriate room and dinner were arranged.

ii) Only the Twelve Apostles were with the Savior at this time

b) Reading 2 – Luke 22:14-20

14And when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles with him.

15And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer:

16For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God.

17And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this, and divide it among yourselves:

18For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.

19¶And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.

20Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you.

i) Simple and straightforward account

ii) Verse 19 - This is my body which is given for you

iii) Verse 19 – this do in remembrance of me

iv) Verse 20 - This cup is the new testament in my blood, which is shed for you

c) Reading 3 - Elder Matthew Cowley said: "The administration of the sacrament...is so essential that the words in the prayer of sanctification have been given by direct revelation from God.... In the blessing pronounced upon the sacred emblems of the Master's great sacrifice, the priest repeats God's own words....

"The Sabbath is the day appointed for sacrament service. In the religious worship of this day every member of the Church is expected to present himself before the sacrament board and renew his covenants with his Redeemer. For those who neglect this duty, there is no covenant renewal, and the Lord will not hold them blameless. The vitality of the Church lies in the obedience of its members to the divine plan, and this vitality comes from...meeting together often, and with contrite spirits, partaking of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper." (Matthew Cowley Speaks, pp191-192)

d) Reading 4 – Elder Jeffrey R. Holland has said: “Since that upper room experience on the eve of Gethsemane and Golgotha, children of the promise have been under covenant to remember Christ’s sacrifice in this newer, higher, more holy and personal way.

With a crust of bread, always broken, blessed, and offered first, we remember his bruised body and broken heart, his physical suffering on the cross where he cried, “I thirst,” and finally, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (John 19:28; Matt. 27:46.)

The Savior’s physical suffering guarantees that through his mercy and grace (see 2 Ne. 2:8) every member of the human family shall be freed from the bonds of death and be resurrected triumphantly from the grave. Of course the time of that resurrection and the degree of exaltation it leads to are based upon our faithfulness.

With a small cup of water we remember the shedding of Christ’s blood and the depth of his spiritual suffering, anguish which began in the Garden of Gethsemane. There he said, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death” (Matt. 26:38). He was in agony and “prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44).

The Savior’s spiritual suffering and the shedding of his innocent blood, so lovingly and freely given, paid the debt for what the scriptures call the “original guilt” of Adam’s transgression (Moses 6:54). Furthermore, Christ suffered for the sins and sorrows and pains of all the rest of the human family, providing remission for all of our sins as well, upon conditions of obedience to the principles and ordinances of the gospel he taught (see 2 Ne. 9:21–23). As the Apostle Paul wrote, we were “bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20). What an expensive price and what a merciful purchase!

That is why every ordinance of the gospel focuses in one way or another on the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ, and surely that is why this particular ordinance with all its symbolism and imagery comes to us more readily and more repeatedly than any other in our life. It comes in what has been called “the most sacred, the most holy, of all the meetings of the Church” (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation, comp. Bruce R. McConkie, 3 vols., Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1954–56, 2:340). - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, This Do in Remembrance of Me, Ensign, November, 1995

e) Reading 5 – Continuing with his General Conference address, Elder Holland suggested some of the things we should remember about the Savior:

i) His love and strength in the Grand Council of Heaven.

ii) That he is the Creator of heaven and earth.

iii) All that he did in his premortal life as Jehovah.

iv) The simple grandeur of his birth.

v) His teachings.

vi) His miracles and healings.

vii) That “all things which are good cometh of Christ” (Moroni 7:24).

viii) The unkind treatment, rejection, and injustice he endured.

ix) That he descended below all things in order to rise above them.

x) That he made his sacrifices and endured his sorrows for each of us.

(Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, This Do in Remembrance of Me, Ensign, November, 1995 and Lesson 23: “Love One Another, As I Have Loved You”," New Testament Gospel Doctrine Teacher’s Manual)

f) READ Doctrine and Covenants 20:77

77 O God, the Eternal Father, we ask thee in the name of thy Son, Jesus Christ, to bless and sanctify this bread to the souls of all those who partake of it, that they may eat in remembrance of the body of thy Son, and witness unto thee, O God, the Eternal Father, that they are willing to take upon them the name of thy Son, and always remember him and keep his commandments which he has given them; that they may always have his Spirit to be with them.

g) The Sacrament was just as important among the Nephites

i) As Christ was ministering to the Nephites, He regularly lead them in the sacrament

(1) READ – 3 Nephi 26:13

13Therefore, I would that ye should behold that the Lord truly did teach the people, for the space of three days; and after that he did show himself unto them oft, and did break bread oft, and bless it, and give it unto them.

ii) The Nephites had the identical sacrament prayers we have – see Moroni, chapters 4 and 5

h) Reading 6 - Pres. J. Reuben Clark, Jr. wrote: It is an interesting reflection that up to the time of Christ, apparently . . . Israel . . . worshiped with the ritual which. . . looked forward to the sacrifice of the Son by substituting animal sacrifices as under the Mosaic Law . . .

The sacrifice was always vicarious. Animals were . . . sacrificed for the sins of the individual and for the sins of the people . . . but it was always a vicarious sacrifice, apparent with little actual sacrifice, except for the value of the animal sacrificed, by the individuals themselves, to cancel the debt, so to speak, against their lives and living in the eyes of the Almighty One. The sinner seemingly, in general, took on no obligation to abandon his sins, but took on only the obligation to offer sacrifice therefor.

But under the new covenant that came in with Christ, the sinner must offer the sacrifice out of his own life, not by offering the blood of some other creature; he must give up his sins, he must repent, he himself must make the sacrifice, and that sacrifice was calculated to reach out into the life of the sinner in the future so that he would become a better and changed man. (Behold the Lamb of God, pp. 107-108)

3. After washing their feet, Jesus commands the Apostles to love one another

a) Reading 7 – John 13:3-5,12-17

3 Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;

4 He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself.

5 After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

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12So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?

13Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.

14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.

15For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

16Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

17If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

b) During His last private moments with His apostles in mortality, Christ repeatedly told them they were to love one another

i) Reading 8 – John 13:34-35

34A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.

ii) Reading 8 – John 15:12,17

12This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.

17These things I command you, that ye love one another.

4. Jesus teaches “I am the way, the truth, and the life” and “I am the true vine.”

a) The apostle Thomas understands that Christ is going to leave them

i) READ John 14:5

Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?

(1) Very human response

(2) Haven’t all of us, at one time or another, when faced with a difficult crisis, asked almost the same thing? How can I know the way?

b) Christ has two answers, one short and one longer

i) READ John 14:6

Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

(1) The solution to all problems likes in coming closer to Christ

ii) Reading 9 – John 15:1-5

1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth [purifies] it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

(1) ASK – What does “abide” mean?

(a) to remain; continue; stay: Abide with me

(b) to have one's abode; dwell; reside

(2) Reading 10 – Abide with Me – Hymn 166

Abide with me! fast falls the eventide;

The darkness deepens. Lord, with me abide!

When other helpers fail and comforts flee,

Help of the helpless, oh, abide with me!

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day.

Earth’s joys grow dim; its glories pass away.

Change and decay in all around I see;

O thou who changest not, abide with me!

I need thy presence ev’ry passing hour.

What but thy grace can foil the tempter’s pow’r?

Who, like thyself, my guide and stay can be?

Thru cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me!