The LCA provides this sermon edited for lay-reading, with thanks to the original author.
Easter 6
John 15:9-17
Dear Heavenly Father, send us your Holy Spirit so that we may love as Jesus Christ first loved us. Amen.
‘Love’ can be a slippery word! When I say its ‘slippery’, I mean it can be so hard to define. Just think how many different ways we use it.
For example, we might love certain foods or drinks. We might have gushy feelings of emotional or sentimental love. We talk about ‘making’ love. And some write silly love songs.
Yet today Jesus commands us to love.
But what love is that, exactly?
Are we being told to love each other in the same way we love our food and drinks? If this was the case, the text might read something like, ‘Greater love has no one than this – that lovely feeling as our favourite food or drink slides down into our belly.’ No, that’s not the kind of love Jesus is talking about. Our love would then be dependent on us having the food or drink we crave, or at least until we love or crave a different food or drink.
Are we being told to always have that gushy emotional feeling for everyone? If this was the case, the text might read something like, ‘Greater love has no one than this – that fluttering stomach, those stammering statements, or that rush of mushy sentimentality for loved ones.’ No, this isn’t the kind of love Jesus is talking about either. You see, if our love was always dependent on our feelings and emotions, then our love would be very sporadic. Our love would also only be directed toward those persons or things that our lovely feeling is centred on. And most of you know by now that even these feelings of love come and go.
So are we being told to make love with everyone? Is the old saying ‘Make love and not war’ what Jesus is talking about? If this was the case, the text might read something like, ‘Greater love has no one than this – that intense buzz you get from a great orgasm.’ No, this is definitely not the kind of love Jesus is talking about!
Now even though many people chase this type of love, it doesn’t last. If this is all we’re after, we’ll soon discover this type of love also quickly fades in the sense that, the more you chase ‘love-making’, the less thrilling it becomes. This is the reason for so much sexual frustration these days, and the ugly side of our sexual temptations flood the media.
We’re tempted to ‘make love’ by following the example of pictures in magazines or on the internet, and we watch people ‘do it’ in films, and even on prime-time television. For many, it’s now so easy to obtain that it can lose its thrill. Therefore people get frustrated and have to try more and more weird acts to get that thrill once again.
So what type of love is Jesus talking about?
Jesus says, ‘Greater love has no one than this, that he lays down his life for his friends.’
The love he talks about is very specific. This love is obedient and sacrificial. There is no greater love than an obedient and self-sacrificial love. This type of love comes only from God through Jesus Christ and is patient and kind. This love doesn’t get envious or boast, and it isn’t arrogant or rude. This love doesn’t insist on its own way, and isn’t irritable or resentful. It doesn’t rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. We’re to love this way so that our gushy emotions, love-making and any other type of love become secondary.
Also, this love isn’t just talk, but action. God didn’t just tell us he loved us, but showed us in a very graphic way on the cross. Beaten, stripped, spat on and tortured on a cross, his concern is still for those around him and for you, saying ‘Father, forgive them’. He doesn’t just tell us how to love, but shows us through the sacrificial example of Jesus Christ.
The love God gives us through Jesus makes a huge difference to us. You see, apart from Jesus Christ, all we’d know is God’s anger against our sin. Without Jesus Christ, we’d have to work hard to make God happy with us or so we could earn his love. But our actions would only lead us to despair because we know our love is sporadic at best and very quickly fades away. Even if we were to show this unselfish, obedient and sacrificial love for a few moments, we’d often stuff it up in our next breath as we once again become selfish, disobedient, irritable, and greedy. Therefore, how could we possibly approach God with such inadequate love?
So God turned this all around. Instead of us having to show God how much we can love only to embarrass ourselves, he instead shows us how much he loves us. He allowed his only Son Jesus to die so that we might live. In this way, when Jesus died, there was an almighty exchange. Jesus took on all our sinful impurities, all our failures at love, and all our selfish guilt so that we may know God is love. In return for all our guilt and shame, he gave us friendship, forgiveness, eternal life, and his own sacrificial love. It doesn’t seem fair!
You see, his love is no ordinary love. Jesus sacrificed his life so that we may know what true love is. Through Jesus Christ, we know God loves us, and undeservingly so, despite all our failures at love.
But Jesus’ sacrifice also becomes our ultimate example of what true love is. Love isn’t a response to gushy emotions. Love isn’t sex. And love isn’t even just talk or a silly love song. Love is action. Love is the action of obedience and sacrifice for the sake of others.
Now although this type of love can be felt by our emotions, it no longer depends on our emotions. I mean, if we were to love only when we feel like it or when we have an emotional rush, then of course we wouldn’t love this way very much. But, because we know God’s sacrificial love through Jesus’ obedience, suffering and death, we can love even when we don’t feel like it, for this type of love is no longer dependent on our feelings of love, but dependent on Christ’s unselfish love flowing through us. In this way, love isn’t a feeling, but rather it’s a determined action.
You received this sacrificial and obedient love at your baptism. You also receive it every time you hear his words of forgiveness, and when you eat and drink his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.
You see, when you were baptised - when God chose you - God reassured you of his love. You were received into his friendship. There, as God spoke his name over you, Jesus took all your failures, all your guilt, all your broken attempts at love, and swapped them for his forgiveness, his holiness, and his obedient and sacrificial love.
But okay, this may all seem fine in theory, but how does it affect your daily life?
Well, consider for a moment all your relationships.
Let’s start with husbands and wives. How do you currently love your spouse? Do you wait for a rush of emotions before you show love to your spouse? Do you wait for the other person to do something for you before you return the favour? Is your love only spoken, but never acted upon? Or do you love as Christ has loves you? Are you imitating Christ’s obedient and sacrificial love in your marriage? Does your love reflect the undeserving forgiveness of Christ?
Or, as parents, what are you willing to sacrifice for your children? Are you patient and kind, or are you irritable or resentful? Are your children learning from your own example of obedience? In the same way, children, do you insist on getting your own way, and is this the way Christ showed love to his own Father?
Workers, are you trying to get ahead in your work at any price, as if everyone else owes you a reward? Or do you willingly humble yourself, obediently doing even the most menial tasks as loving service to others about you?
Christians, as you gather together in worship and fellowship events, do you show the love of Christ, or only speak about it? Are you arrogant, rude, irritable, resentful, or insist on your own way? How might you show the obedient and sacrificial love of Christ to those around you?
People will often judge a church by the way they love one another. In this world of hatred, selfishness, division, individualism and unforgiveness, how might we show them the kingdom of God at work among us as we love each other through patience, trust, unity, encouragement, and forgiveness?
Now there may be times you feel guilty that your love has been inadequate, or has been anything but the type of love Christ has first given you. In this case you return to the source of this type of sacrificial and obedient love. You go to Jesus, asking for forgiveness, and receive his undeserving love once again. By remaining in him, by hearing his words, by receiving his gifts of forgiveness, peace and life in the Lords Supper, and by allowing the Holy Spirit to move you to loving actions, you can love as Christ loves you.
At times you may also feel it’s a lot of hard work with little reward or benefit, yet there is a benefit. The benefit is joy. Now this isn’t just a feeling of happiness, but a deep down satisfaction that all is well between you and God. There is joy in your obedience and sacrifices. There is joy in loving patiently, hopefully, and unconditionally.
Now this may not be what you expect, since you may expect there’s only joy in disobedience. But your ability to obediently love as Christ loves you, assures you that you remain in his love. You love, feeling true joy, despite yourself and your past failures at love and despite the way others treat you for your love. You love, knowing God chose to love and cherish you even though you don’t deserve it. You love, knowing that God chose to give you eternal life. You love, rejoicing God didn’t choose to call you an enemy or a slave, but chose to call you ‘friend’.
Therefore, love one another, as Christ loves you.
The peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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