Sermon -- 6th Sunday of Easter (May 5, 2024)

JOHN 15:9-17

ABIDE IN JESUS’ LOVE.

In the name + of Jesus.

M:       Alleluia!  Christ is risen!

C:        He is risen indeed!  Alleluia!

     The readings today have a lot to say about love.  The Father loves Jesus, and Jesus loves the Father.  Jesus loves us, and we should abide in that love.  If we love Jesus we would also love our neighbor.  And if anyone does not love his neighbor he cannot truly say that he loves God.  I suppose the readings today should be widely accepted by all kinds of people, whether they are Christians or not.  No one is going to argue that we should not be filled with love for one another.

     However, people who agree that we should be filled with love have different and even contradictory ideas about what that means.  The word “love” has so many shades of meaning that it has almost lost its definition.  A man loves his wife.  He loves his children.  He loves his dog.  He loves his country.  He loves his job.  He loves football, beer, and pizza.  Is it all the same love?  I hope not. 

     When we hear people talk about love, they usually mean what makes them happy and what gives them pleasure.  If it doesn’t make you happy or give you pleasure, then you don’t love it.  This is what often happens between a husband or wife.  When they get married, they confess their great love for one another.  But then they discover that marriage is more work than they were prepared for.  It involves more sacrifices than they were ready to make.  It’s not that either was unfaithful or abusive.  But they were no longer getting pleasure out of their marriage.  It was not as exciting as they thought it would be.  Visions of romantic gestures got replaced by paying bills, arranging schedules, and folding laundry.  So, rather than remaining committed to one another as they had vowed, they abandon the marriage.  They say they no longer love each other.  What they mean is that they are not getting the pleasure they thought they should have.  This is what happens when love is about what makes you happy.

     When Jesus Christ speaks about love, he looks in the opposite direction.  He said, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:12-13).  In fact, our Savior’s love far exceeds that.  Jesus did not come to save the people who like him.  Jesus came to save all people, even those who despise him.  Jesus suffered and died for people who try to keep God’s Commandments and fail, and for people who reject the Commandments as stupid and oppressive; for people who have a great interest in religion, and for people who deny God’s existence; for the women who wept at Jesus’ cross when he died, and for the men who mocked and laughed at him while he hung in tortured anguish.  Jesus came to suffer and die for every single person.  He laid down his life to secure your place in eternal life.  This is love—that Jesus gave up everything for your good.  Abide in Jesus’ love.

     The entire Bible defines love as seeking the good of someone else.  It doesn’t matter if they deserve it or not.  Jesus taught his disciples, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:43-44).  Your enemy does not deserve your love.  Those who persecute you do not deserve your prayers.  But love does not ask what people deserve; love gives what people need.  That is why Jesus came to save you.  It is not that you deserve it; it is that you need it.  Abide in Jesus’ love.

     The Lord also sets a standard for love.  That goes in the opposite direction of the world’s standard, too.  First, the world says that love is what brings me pleasure and makes me happy.  Then, the world says love is letting people do what they like as long as it doesn’t hurt you.  You might think it is fine that some guy blares rock music until 3 AM and that love means letting him enjoy his life.  But you might feel differently if he lives next door to you.  Love does not mean letting people do what they want how they want and when they want.  That is letting selfishness run amuck.

     Jesus says that love’s standard is set by God’s word.  He said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.  Abide in my love.  If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love” (John 15:9-10).  God’s Commandments tell us what is good, and it tells us what is evil.  The Commandments are not oppressive.  They instruct you on how to love your neighbor and to do good to him.  The Commandments do not ask you to consider if your neighbor deserves your kindness and goodness.  It tells you to do it because that is how God treats mankind, no matter how wicked they are.  Jesus said, “[The Father] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same” (Matthew 5:45-46)?  Now if you find that this is hard, or even impossible, to do, then you have discovered that you are not perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. 

     When God created the heavens and the earth, he created everything with a purpose.  Everything was designed to work a certain way for the honor of God and for the good of one another.  But sin perverts God’s intended purposes.  God gave each of us a mouth to use.  You can use it to sing God’s praises, to pray, to speak calming words to someone who is scared, comforting words to someone who is grieving, or kind words to someone who is having a bad day.  Or you can use your mouth to shout at other people, to belittle them, to spew out obscenities, to tell lies, or to slander.  Obviously, one way serves the good of our neighbor; the other way does him no good whatsoever—even if it makes you happy to do him harm. 

     Other examples abound.  The Scriptures, on the one hand, teach, “God (brings) forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man” (Psalm 104:14-15).  So, there is a proper use for wine, but Scripture warns of its abuse and condemns drunkenness.  Even intimacy is a gift of God, but it has its proper use.  This is what the Lord says, “Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous” (Hebrews 13:4).  Intimacy is a blessing for the marriage bed, and it is restricted to a married man and woman.  It is even called pure within the bonds of marriage.  It allows the husband and wife to tighten the marriage bond between them, each knowing that they are not just being used for the pleasure of another.  And, if a pregnancy should result, it is a cause for joy, not grief or panic.  People will argue that stepping outside of God’s design will make them happy and bring them pleasure, but stepping outside of God’s design is never victimless or harmless.  A stable family is good for society; unbridled passions and affairs are not.  To misuse, abuse, or pervert God’s gifts is to earn his wrath and not to seek the good for one’s neighbor. 

     Abide in Jesus’ love.  That always begins with Jesus’ love for you.  To recognize that God’s Commandments guide us into thoughts, words, and actions that are truly good for us and for our neighbor, you have to be able to recognize that the God who gave those Commandments has your best interest in mind.  For you to believe that about God, God has to demonstrate his own love.  “God is love” (1 John 4:8), says St. John.  It is more than God is loving.  It is that the essence of love is God.  And God personified is Jesus Christ.  He demonstrated that perfect love in the way he dealt with sinners. 

     St. John wrote, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.  In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).  The propitiation is the substitutionary sacrifice that Jesus became for us.  All of God’s wrath which we have earned because we have sought our own happiness in defiance of God and pursued our own pleasure at the expense of our neighbor—all this Jesus took upon himself.  Our sins were transferred to him.  Therefore, God’s wrath was targeted upon Jesus.  Jesus suffered and died for sins he did not commit and died under a curse he did not deserve.  God offered up his own Son so that he would not lose you to eternal death and hell.  This is how God loves you. 

     That is the kind of love you want to abide in.  It seeks only your good.  It provides for you nothing but blessing.  And since Jesus rose from the dead, it bestows upon you the resurrection to everlasting glory.  If this is what the Lord has done to deliver you from death and hell, won’t his Commandments also seek your good in this life?

     Abide in Jesus’ love.  Receive the benefits of his saving work, and then in response to his love for you, go forth and show love for your neighbor.  This means serving him according to God’s word.  Love for your neighbor will not mean giving him what he deserves.  It may not mean letting him do whatever he wants, but it always means treating him according to his need.  It means being kind to the wicked and the good.  St. Paul encourages you, “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.  So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:9-10).  Love for your neighbor may mean you will need to warn or to correct him so that he is not deceived by Satanic lies or swept away by worldly influence.  It always means that you confess God’s truth, but it also means confessing God’s truth in a way that shows you are rescuing the lost rather than rubbing his face in his sins.  Your neighbor does not need your scorn, but your mercy—and even more, Jesus’ mercy.  Love for your neighbor means yearning for his eternal well-being and his temporal good. 

     Abide in Jesus’ love.  Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” (John 15:11).  It brings Jesus great joy that you are his and benefit from his saving work.  This is our joy as well.  And since we know that God is love, we strive to live like him.  In this world, we struggle to do it.  In the heavenly kingdom, we all will be perfected in it.  And this will make our joy complete.

In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.