5th Easter-Sunday Joh 13.31-35 A new heart...

The time after the resurrection of Jesus is coming nearer... 

The first reading (Acts 14.21...) brings the message: Paulus + Barnabas implant
a new heart in Antiochia into the disciples. Such a spiritual heart-trans- plantation needs a long way and endurance.... maybe years!

In the sec. reading (Apk 21.1-5) is reveald: there is a NEW heaven + a NEW earth
and in the NEW situation God is named "Emmanuel" (living with the people).
You also need to keep in mind: "Jesus and God are seen as one".
Never forget the slogan:"Now I am making the whole creation new".

Und now the gospel: John let (100 years after Jesus has died) Jesus proclaim:
        "I shall not be with you any longer"
It means we have to accept: Jesus (and with him God) goes... he dies... he will
not be with us...   he disappears... there will be emptiness! The focus of their
lives, the one they have followed is not any more...   void! It's like today: a lot of
people feel God is absent... God is not at hand...   and worse: Jesus himself
announces as a Eu-angelion, as a joyfull message: I shall not be with you any longer! The absence of God (and Jesus) is a precondition for the New heart,
for the New heaven, the New earth. Into this New situation - emptiness -
void of God and Jesus - he himself gives a New commandment, a New chance
of Life:  "love one another".   (as Jesus has given an example).

And if you like to recognize the followers of Jesus in 2013 - there is a New sign to
recognize them:  "look: how they love one another"!  They don't love anymore "God"
oder "Jesus"; there focus is not God or Jesus - they love one another! This is the
real test (Religion is evaporated / secularisation is the wind).
   The old heart beats for God / for Jesus  (Religion).
   But Jesus has gone and with him his God - the heart is empty.
   The New heart beats for "one another" (New heaven + New earth).

The secular Christianity knows: we don't have Jesus any more, only his example.
we don't have God any more, only his word. There will be a new heaven and a new earth wherever the chance is taken; "love one another".