David’s Star Lutheran Church Pastor Kurt Loescher
Jackson—Kirchhayn, WI May 3-6, 2007
The Fifth Sunday of Easter
John 13: 31-35
When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once.
"My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come.
"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
The amount of honor we give people usually depends on the impact those people have on our lives. Whether it is a president whose policies have improved our quality of life or protected our borders, or an athlete whose heroics have given us cause to be proud of our school, city, or state. Sometimes we are willing to give honor to people just for who they are—a parent, pastor or government official.
Jesus gives us cause to honor him on all counts. He has accomplished the greatest of heroics and his accomplishment has affected our lives more positively than we can even grasp entirely. And even without his great accomplishment his office as our God and King gives us every reason to honor him eternally.
All Glory Laud and Honor
To Jesus for what he has done
This was the night that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper and washed his disciple’s feet. This was the night Jesus was betrayed. This would begin the most humiliating episode of Jesus’ life on earth. Yet, after Judas leaves to betray him, Jesus proclaims, “Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in him.”
What is so glorious about being dragged and beaten through the kangaroo court of the Jewish religious leaders? What’s so glorious about being set up as a rebellious traitor against the Roman government? What’s so glorious about being sent to your death for it even though the governor could easily see through the set-up? What’s so glorious about a brutal beating and flogging? What’s so glorious about being stripped and hung out as a public spectacle on a cross? What’s so glorious about dying a death you didn’t deserve?
And his Father sent him there. Why does the Father receive glory through all of this? You know, some would assert that it is a barbaric thing to teach that God the Father deliberately sacrificed his own Son. This is the kind of thing we might be more inclined to turn our backs, shake our heads and say, “That’s awful! What a shame!”
Instead, Jesus says that the awful, shameful day we call Good Friday is glorious because he did what he said he would do, what God promised us. Jesus redeemed us, that is, he set us free from our old way of life by spilling his blood as payment for our sins.
If we are honest with ourselves, we can easily remember what we were. Our sinful attitudes, words and actions remind us all the time. Do we remember what it meant that we were dead in our transgressions and sins? Neither you nor I nor anyone in this entire earth’s existence had any right or even desire to be with God. We were dead to him because of sin. Our sin is diametrically opposed to all that God is. God will not coexist with it. He warned us of that before sin ever came about in this world. He said that if you sin you will die. I wish we could know what that means, but we probably wouldn’t survive even the knowledge of hell. We never will have to know what that is. As Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me will never die.” If we could know death in the spiritual sense of the word—forsaken by God, we might appreciate more what Jesus did and give him the honor and glory he truly deserves.
Let’s try to understand what it means to be cut off from God. Take yourself back, all the way back to when you came into this world unclothed and screaming. You needed warmth. You needed care to clean you. You needed to be fed. You needed to be loved. You were entirely dependant on and in need of someone else, preferably your mother. That’s what you need, but instead you are thrown naked into a 2 gallon zip-lock bag, zipped up and thrown into a dumpster. Now you have nothing you need and you are completely cut off. I hope this analogy isn’t too graphic, but remember we’re trying to understand what Jesus saved us from. And as awful and graphic as this prospect is, it still isn’t close to what it means to be cut off from God forever. It might approach what it means, but I doubt it. It’s just as close as I can come. It’s just one of the things I think of when I try to imagine hell.
At this mention of hell, people often object, “How can a loving God do that to people?” That’s the whole point. He desperately doesn’t want that for us. You can see how desperate he was to free us from the results of our own sins against him. That’s what is so glorious about what Jesus did. That’s why he deserves all glory, laud, and honor because he would not let that happen to us. He let it happen to him instead. There’s the glory of the Father who loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son.
Who can do a deed so great? No feat on earth is so monumental that it deserves the honor and praise of Jesus’ act of redemption. He freed the world of sin and loosed the grip of Satan on our souls. More than that, Jesus is not a dead hero. He lives and reigns. For the glory of his his victory over sin and death, God exalted him above all things. All glory, laud, and honor to Jesus for who he is—our King.
To Jesus for who he is
When Jesus said that in the future God will glorify him, he was referring to this very fact, that in only a few days Jesus would continue his reign forever and ever over all things as the King of our hearts and the ruler over all the authorities in heaven and on earth. God did glorify him. “God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9). Yes, Jesus will receive the honor and glory that is due him, one way or another. If he doesn’t receive it from us now for his tremendous act of grace and mercy, he will receive it when we and all people stand before him in judgment.
As Jesus was explaining that they could not follow him in his glorious ascension into heaven, he explained the best way they could give him all glory now. He said, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” The time to give him glory is now. Love as he has loved us. We’ve tried to come to a better appreciation for his merciful act of powerful redemption. That’s how much and how completely he wants us to love one another. That leaves no room for back-biting, arrogance, unkind words, or assuming the worst of our brothers and sisters in the church. It’s a funny thing. We can have all those loveless thoughts and words and still look like we are loving Christians. But we cannot have all those loveless thoughts and have the love of Jesus at the same time. Have love for each other. It has to be there in our hearts and that comes only one way. We get that when we consider by faith the deep love of Jesus for us. See how far we would be from him had he not brought us near to God. When we see how ugly our sins are and how gracious Jesus was to free us from them, how can we look in any other way but with love toward one another? Can an apple tree produce anything but apples? I don’t think so. Neither can members of a Christian congregation like David’s Star who know the love of Jesus have anything else but love for one another.
When we don’t give honor to a government official or any other local hero, it’s either because we don’t appreciate what that person has accomplished or we’re just totally out of the loop and don’t realize what has happened. When we are out of the loop spiritually, that is, not in the Word, we lose some of our appreciation for the overwhelming act of rescue that Jesus braved for us. On the other hand, as we remain real and honest about our sins, so the love of God in Jesus remains strong and real. Having that love we do give all glory laud and honor to Jesus our Redeemer King. Amen.