May 17, 2009
The Sixth Sunday of Easter

John 15:9–17
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. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. 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. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. (ESV)

 

  In 1967, the Beatles came out with the hit single, “All You Need Is Love.” It began with three identical words, “Love! Love! Love!” And then it repeated them two more times.1 Two years earlier, the lyrics of a Hal David/Burt Bacharach song struck the same theme: “What the world needs now is love, sweet love. It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.”2 Few would disagree.

   But I have some questions. Does love help a terminally ill person to commit suicide? Does love mean that if you love somebody more, it’s okay to leave your spouse for the other? Does love mean that everybody gets to define his own morality and that you should just shut up and tolerate it? I hope you answered no to each of these questions!

   In our text for today, Jesus uses the word love nine times.3 He says to his disciples, “This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”4 But love, as it is used in here is not some kind of mushy, romantic love. It is not a love that tolerates immorality. It is not a love that tolerates untruth. It is, however, a love that would actually move a person to give up his life for someone else, even give up his life for an enemy!

   This love, which Jesus commands, is the Greek word agapē.5 Agapē is the highest form of love. It is that love which is concerned only with the welfare of another. It willingly seeks to give all that is necessary, even if by so doing, the giver loses all—even his own life. Another characteristic of agapē is that it is rendered even if the recipient is totally unworthy of it, even if, by any other standard, the recipient is absolutely unlovable. Agapē is the love of self–sacrifice. It is intentionally doing something helpful for another person despite the cost or consequences to oneself.

   So it is in this regard that I ask you, “How’s your love life?”

• Have you broken your promises, your confidences, or your trusts?
• Have you lied to cover your tracks?
• Have you badmouthed your friends, your classmates, your coworkers, your boss, your church, those who volunteer to head up a church program or office, or maybe even your pastor?
• When it comes to others, have you always explained everything in the kindest way?
• Have you belittled or abused those closest to you?
• Children, have you always honored, loved, and cherished your mother and father?6
• Wives, have you always submitted yourselves to your husbands as to the Lord?7
• Husbands, have you always loved your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her?8

   I think we will all agree that love (i.e., agapē) is beautiful. But I think we will also agree that we have fallen far short of the mark. We have even worshipped other gods instead of the true God who has loved us perfectly. And what does God think of our love affairs with other gods? He says, “The soul that sins shall die.”9

   Jesus says in our text “Greater love [agapē] has no man than this, that a man lay down hislifefor his friends.”10 But what kind of love is it when a man lays down his life for those who hate him, who whip him within an inch of his life, and who sin against him? What kind of love is it when a man lays down his life for those who despise him and accuse him—the sinless Son of God—of being demon–possessed? What kind of love is it when a man lays down his life for those who plot his death, engineer his crucifixion and, then, when nailed to that cross, pray for them, saying, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do”?11 What kind of love is it when a man lays down his life for such poor, miserable, loveless sinners as you and me?

   This is love beyond human comprehension. This is God's agape for us in Christ Jesus which has as its purpose our redemption from sin and its hellish consequences. As St. Paul says, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”12

   When we trust in Christ alone for our salvation, God covers us with the pure, white robe of Christ's righteousness. When he looks at us repentant sinners, he doesn’t see our sin–drenched lovelessness, but only the pure holiness of his Son. Our sins have been charged to Christ's account and his righteousness to our account. Yes, he pronounces us “not guilty!” What a gift!

   And it is God's love for us in Christ that moves us to love him and others. Such is the teaching of the apostle John, for he writes, “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.”13

   My dear Christian friends, look around you this morning. Some are in school; some are unemployed; some are employed; some are retired. Some of you are young; some are old. Some are in good health; some are not. Some are lonely and hurting. Some are grieving; some are filled with despair. Some are sad; some are cheerful. Yet we all have this in common: We are members of the body of Christ.

   These people are more than your fellow churchgoers; they are your spiritual family. And of this family St. Paul says, “There should be no division in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it.”14

   “Every congregation,” says one writer, “can choose to be a bag of marbles, single units that don’t affect each other except in collision. Or they can choose to be a bag of grapes. The juices begin to mingle, and there is no way to extricate yourselves if you tried. Each is a part of all.”15 I, therefore, urge you, do more than merely collide with each other this morning. Mingle. Get to know your Christian family. These are the people of whom Christ says to you and me, “This is my commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.”16 Jesus, therefore, tells us to truly care for and to intentionally help one another in love.

   The love the early Christians had for one another is famous. The early church father Tertullian (AD 160–212) once wrote, “It is our care for the helpless, our practice of loving–kindness that brands us in the eyes of our opponents. ‘Only look,’ they say, ‘look how they love one another…Look how they are prepared to die for one another’…Thus had this saying become a fact, ‘By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another’” (John 13:35).17

   To practice agape is not easy. It is hard. It was hard for Jesus to suffer and die for us on the cross. Thus, when Jesus calls us to love as he did, he knows our struggle, for he knows he is commanding us to die! To die to our own selfishness. To die to the attachments of this world. To die to ourselves.

   And sometimes God allows us to see the fruits of agapē in this life, as, for example, in seeing an alcoholic turn to sobriety because someone loved him enough to confront him . . . or in experiencing the rekindling of a marriage when both partners begin to deny themselves and live for the other.

   A woman once told psychologist George W. Crane that she hated her husband and wanted a divorce. “I want to hurt him all I can,” she declared. “Well, in that case,” said Dr. Crane, “I advise you to start showering him with compliments. When you have become indispensable to him, when he thinks you love him devotedly, then start the divorce action.” The woman was intrigued by this novel approach. A few months later she returned and said that all was going well. “Good,” said Dr. Crane, “now's the time to file for divorce.” “Divorce?” she responded. “Never! I love my husband dearly.”18

   How, you may ask, did this turnaround come about? First of all, this wife had, heretofore, assumed that romantic love, not agapē, was the only basis for marriage. Logically, then, she felt that if this love should depart, there was no longer any valid reason for remaining in the marriage. But when she, even with dishonorable motives, began to deny herself and show her husband the behavior of genuine love, a curious thing began to happen in her heart. She gradually experienced the returning of that deep affection and devotion she thought had vanished forever. She discovered that it is not romantic love that makes and sustains a marriage. But rather it is God, honoring his own institution of marriage, that makes and sustains the love. Yes, my friends, God is faithful to his own estate of marriage and blesses it abundantly if we but remain faithful and committed to our spouses through thick and thin. Yes, agapē is hard to practice, but it is all the more beautiful when we as Christ’s people bear the fruit of Christ’s love.

   And the Gospel tells us that as we branches remain grafted into Christ, the true vine, we cannot help but to bloom and bear fruit. So as we remain in Christ’s Word and the blessed Sacrament, we will bring forth Christian love for one another.

   Dear Christian friends, a final question for us all. What shall we take home with us today? How about this: A heart filled with joy because of Christ’s selfless love for us, and a heart that brings the fruit of Christ’s love to others? This is the selfless way of Christ. And it is, and will be, our way as well for we bear his sacred name. Amen.

   May God grant this to us all for Jesus’ sake,
   Amen.

 

Soli Deo Gloria!

 

Endnotes

1        See http://www.dmbeatles.com/song.php?song=15.

2        By Hal David and Burt Bacharach, 1965. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_World_Needs_Now_Is_Love.

3        It occurs five times as a verb and four times as a noun.

4        See John 15:12.

5        Agapē is pronounced ah/gá/pay.

6        Ephesians 6:1–3 says, “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother (this is the first commandment with a promise), that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.” (ESV).

7        Ephesians 5:22 says, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” (ESV)

8        Ephesians 5:25 says, “Husbands, love [agapao, verb form of agape] your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (ESV)

9        See Ezekiel 18:4.

10        See John 15:13.

11        See Luke 23:34.

12        See Romans 5:8. Love in this verse is also agapē.

13        See 1 John 4:10–11, KJV.

14        See 1 Corinthians 12:25-26, NASB.

15        Attributed to Charles Swindoll, source unknown.

16        See John 15:12.

17        The quotation is from Apology 39. For more information on Tertullian see http://www.crossroadsinitiative.com/library_author/14/Tertullian.html and http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14520c.htm.

18        INFOsearch, “New Love in an Old Marriage,” The Computer Assistant, Arlington, TX.

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