LOVE ONE ANOTHER!
Rev. Bernt P. Tweit
First Lesson;
Acts 13:44-52
Epistle Lesson;
Revelation 21:1-6
Sermon Text;
John 13:31-35
Happy Mother’s Day! How wonderful it is to see so many mothers worshipping with us this morning! But, maybe even more importantly, how wonderful for all of our own mothers! We each have a mother, who has shared with us, Jesus our Savior, so that we are where we are, this morning, listening to God’s Word, and worshipping and bringing glory to Him.
I want you to hear some notes that some small children, once wrote, or have written to their children, on Mother’s Day.
First of all, eight-year-old little Angie said this:
Dear Mother,
I am going to make a meal for you on Mother’s Day. It is going to be a surprise.
P.S. I hope you love popcorn and pizza.
Or how about this note from little Robert.
I got you a turtle, for Mother’s Day. I hope you like the turtle better than the snake I got you last year.
Or little Eileen who wrote:
Happy Mother’s Day!
I wish Mother’s Day didn’t always fall on Sunday. I wish it fell on Monday, so I wouldn’t have to go to school.
Little Diane wrote:
Dear Mom,
Happy Mother’s Day!
I picked some flowers for you. I picked them while Mr. Smith wasn’t looking.
Or finally, how about this one. Little Carol writing:
Happy Mother’s Day!
Here are two aspirin. I hope you enjoy your day.
Now, I think in our examples, or those notes for this morning, we see the feeble attempt of these children to show God’s love to their parents. Each one of these examples shows a little bit of selfishness, the selfish love that we oftentimes show other people. And maybe it comes through most clearly with little Eileen, who wanted Mother’s Day to be on Monday, not for her mother’s sake but for her own sake.
Today, as we look at our text, we see a command that Jesus gives to us. That command is to love one another. In our text for today, I want two things to shine through. First, to see how God has given His love to us, in Jesus. Secondly, how God’s love for us should then be shown forth to other people.
The command that Jesus gives in our text for today is not a new command. The command was present back in the Garden of Eden, with Adam and Eve. They perfectly loved God. And they perfectly loved one another. But, after the fall into sin, God wrote the command of love down on two stone tablets. The Ten Commandments can really be sewn up in that one word, love. The First Three Commandments talking about the love that we should have for God, and the last seven talking about the love that we should have for our neighbor.
Now let me help to set the stage for our text for today. Our text was spoken by Jesus, on Maundy Thursday evening. It was spoken to His disciples, in the upper room, in Jerusalem, after Jesus had celebrated a meal with His disciples, after He had instituted the Lord’s Supper, and after Judas had left. Jesus is speaking these words to His eleven disciples. Look at our very first phrase, those first four words in our text for this morning, when it says, "When he was gone." It is in that simple little phrase that we see a chain of events that begins to take place that shows how God’s love was given to us.
You see, that pronoun "he" is talking about Judas. When Judas was gone from the upper room on Maundy Thursday evening, a chain of events began in which Jesus and God were glorified.
When Judas left, he went to get some guards and religious leaders.
They went into the Garden of Gethsemane, there waiting for Jesus and His disciples. Judas knew that Jesus would be going there, after the meal.
That led to Jesus being arrested,
which led to going to a false trial, during the middle of the night,
which led to His being found guilty (although falsely),
which led to His being sentenced to death,
which led to Him carrying of His own cross to Calvary,
which led to Jesus being nailed to that cross,
which led to Jesus showing us the spiritual agony that He went through when He cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
which led to Jesus yelling out the completion of our salvation when He said, "It is finished."
which led to Jesus’ death on the cross,
and then His decent into Hell, where He proclaimed victory over our sin over death and over the devil,
which led to Jesus’ resurrection from the grave on Easter morning,
to His ascending into Heaven forty days later, where Jesus now sits at the right hand of God, sitting at the right hand of God in glory.
When he was gone, when Judas went out from that upper room, on that Maundy Thursday evening, it led to that chain of events that brought glory to Jesus and also brings glory to God our Father. It is through this act of love that scripture says,
"God reconciled the world to Himself in Christ
not counting our sins against us." 2 Corinthians 5:19
That means that God has brought us into harmony with Him, once again. No longer looking at our sins, but rather looking at the faith that we have in Jesus, as our Savior, given to us by the Holy Spirit. It is in this act of love that both Jesus and God the Father are glorified.
In the book of Philippians this is what Paul writes about that glory coming to Jesus and then to God. He says,
"God exalted Jesus to the highest place
and gave Him the 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 2:9-11
Yes, it is through that act of love of Jesus’ death on the cross, that God’s love for us has been most clearly shown to us.
Now, with Jesus giving us this new command to love one another, we should also see secondarily in our text, see how God’s love for us, in Jesus, should be shown forth from us. Notice, today, who it is Jesus was speaking to. Jesus was speaking to the eleven disciples. When Jesus gives this new command of love, He isn’t telling them how to become members of God’s family, because they already were members of God’s family. But rather, with this act of love, Jesus is showing His disciples, and showing us, how we are to act. You see, it is not our obedience that makes us members of God’ family. It is being born into God’s family that makes us His members. It is our actions, as members of God’s family, which show that we are members of His family. Think about it this way: As parents we give instructions to our children. When they don’t obey us, we are saddened and we are hurt. But we don’t throw them out of the family. It is not our obedience that makes us members of our family, but it is our birth. In much the same way, we are members of God’s family, not by our obedience, but rather because we are born into His family through His Word and through Holy Baptism.
Jesus commands us to love and to share that love with one another. I think that comes forth with this illustration that I have this morning. There was once a little boy who had a twisted and abnormal foot. He went into the hospital to have surgery on his foot. A doctor performed surgery and his foot came out so that it was normal.
Well, after weeks and months of recuperation, a friend came to pick him up from the hospital. The friend came to the hospital and was awestruck at the magnificent hospital. And he said, "What a magnificent hospital you have been in."
That little boy said, "You are right, but I want to tell you about the doctor."
As that boy and his friend were leaving the hospital, the friend was commenting on the kindness that the nurses had shown to him, during his stay.
The boy again said, "Yes. But I like the doctor the best."
When that boy finally arrived home, his mother came running up to him, fell on her knees, looked at the boy’s foot and said, "Now you are just like the other boys!"
All along, the boy was saying, "Yes, but I want to tell you about the doctor, who made my foot well."
You see, that boy all along wanted to reflect what the doctor had done for him. In much the same way we want to reflect what God, our Heavenly Father, has done for us, and by telling other people what Jesus has done for us.
In our text for today, Jesus tells us why love should show itself in us. But maybe the more important question is this: How should God’s love be shown forth from us? Scripture doesn’t always give us very specific examples. As we look at our text for today, we hear all that we need to hear. Jesus says,
"Love one another,
even as I have loved you."
"Love one another, even as I have loved you." Jesus’ love is most clear for us, as we look to the cross, this morning, and see how God was willing to put His one and only Son into death for us, so that our sins are forgiven, so that we have eternal life in Heaven, with Him.
Jesus was once sharing with His disciples, how it is that we show our love, how that love is shown forth from us. He said on the Last Day this is what I am going to say to believers, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Receive the inheritance prepared for you from the creation of the world. I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was naked and you clothed me. I was in prison and you came to visit me."
Believers on the Last Day might say, "But Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you something to eat? When did we see you thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you naked and clothe you, and in prison and come to visit you?"
That is when Jesus is going to say, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you also did it for me." Matthew 25:34-40
You see, as God’s love has been shown clearly for us in Jesus, we can be just like a mirror that simply reflects that love of God, through Jesus to others. That can be done in all the words that we speak. That can also be done in all of the actions that we do.
Today we do understand though, that while we live in this world, the love that we have for other people and the love that we have for God, will be imperfect. We so thank God that our sins of selfishness, the sins of our selfish love, are forgiven, in Jesus’ sake.
May we follow that new command that Jesus gives us. "Love one another even as I have loved you." We have seen the love that God has so clearly shown to us, through Jesus’ death on the cross. May we reflect that and may our light so shine before men, that they see your good deeds, and glorify our Father, in Heaven.
Amen.
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