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Our Glorious Lord Inspires Gracious Love

            It’s not unusual for guests at a wedding reception to clink their glasses with spoons indicating that they expect the bride and groom to stand and kiss.  A few couples try to be tricky by saying, “We won’t kiss if you clink glasses, but we will if somebody stands and sings a song with the word ‘love’ in it.”  Some people are quite bold.  They jump up right away, and you know what’s coming.  What the first song that’s usually sung? … “Oh, I’d love to be an Oscar Mayer wiener!”  Others are caught by surprise and say, “We can’t think of any song with the word love in it.”  Maybe they’re just nervous.  Because if there is any topic in the history of the world that has had more songs written about it, I’d like to know what it is.  Love is such a common topic for songs, poems, and stories that some people might say, “We’re sick of hearing about it.”

            If people grow tired of songs, poems, and stories about love, how will you be able to listen to one more sermon about love?  What can be said about God’s love that hasn’t been said before?  There’s only one way we can find new and renewed joy in God’s love.  It happens when we dig into the depths of our Savior’s own words and discover the absolutely unique character of his love, love so fabulous that it changes the way we think and behave.  For our glorious Lord inspires gracious love.

His love is something sure

            The gospel account, appointed to be read this day from John’s gospel in chapter thirteen begins with the words, “When he was gone”.  Your first thought might be, “Who is he?”  The answer to that question may not seem like a big deal, but it is.  The answer to that question helps understand the setting for Jesus’ words about love and gives us insights into the uniqueness of his love.  To determine who had just gone out, all we have to do is scroll back to the previous paragraphs.  Jesus said,“One of you is going to betray me.”  Then he said to Judas,“What you are about to do, do quickly” … As soon as Judas had taken the bread dipped in the dish, he went out”(John 13:21,27,30).  Judas was the one who had gone out.  Jesus spoke the words we are about to study after Judas had gone out from the upper room where Jesus and his close followers were eating the Passover meal for the last time.  This was the night before Jesus died, just a few hours before his arrest and trial.  The disciples could just feel the tension in the air.  Something very, very big was going to happen.  They could tell by the look in his eye and the tone of his voice.  They could tell because over the last few months he had stepped up his instruction time with them, sort of like the last week before final exams.

            During the last months and weeks, as they slowly made their way to Jerusalem for the Passover, Jesus had predicted on more than one occasion that he was going to suffer and die.  Peter, ever the spokesman, took Jesus aside and rebuked him, “Never, Lord!  This shall never happen to you!”(Matthew 16:22).  The disciples didn’t understand.  “Lord, how can you establish your kingdom, reign on the throne of David, restore lost and fallen Israel if you are dead?  What a waste!  What a tragedy if you died!”

            Then, on this night in the upper room, Jesus said, “Now!  Now is the time!”  The disciples were starting to cringe, “Oh, no!”  He’s going to talk about death again.”  But Jesus surprised them and said,“Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him”.  The disciples must have been shocked by this and relieved.  “Whew!  That’s better!  He’s talking about glory.  You go, Jesus!  That’s much better than talk about death.”  But just as they were breathing a sigh of relief, Jesus brought them back to reality, not harshly, not rudely – “You dummies!  Don’t you get it?” – but in his most affectionate tone, “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.”

            Jesus’ words about being glorified may have surprised you, too.  The time had come for Jesus’ suffering and humiliation.  The time had come for him to die.  And yet he said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified.” Doesn’t that strike you as strange?  I thought Jesus’ glory didn’t come till Easter morning.  What does his death have to do with glory?  What does an execution have to do with being glorified?

            His first disciples and we would understand the connection between his death and being glorified if we remember what he said just two days earlier, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.  I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed.  But if it dies, it produces many seeds.  Do you understand?”(John 12:23-24), Jesus asked.  So, now I ask you, “Do you see the connection between his death and his being glorified?  If a king rode past your house in a parade in a gold covered carriage with hundreds of jeweled assistants and thousands of sharp-stepping soldiers, you might say, “Wow!  What glory!  But what did he ever do for me?”  But if that king came by your house, having just been discharged from the hospital because he was recovering from near fatal injuries which he got six months earlier when he jumped from his carriage and rescued you from a runaway bus, you’d say, “Wow!  What glory!  He risked his life for me!”

            Without the cross we would see Jesus on Easter and say, “Wow!  What glory!”  But we’d whisper to the person next to us, “What has he ever done for me?”  But with the cross in the picture we say, “Wow!  What glory!  He didn’t just risk his life.  He gave up his life for me!”  Recall that Jesus told his disciples, “My children … where I am going you cannot come.” And good thing!  You know where he went.  Not just to the cross!  He went stepped into the fires of hell.  He hung there suspended between heaven and earth, abandoned by the heavenly Father, and he did that so we wouldn’t be shoved into that eternal furnace and abandoned by the heavenly Father because that’s exactly what you and I deserved because of the sin we were born with and because of all the bad stuff we’ve done – do I really need to list the catalog of our sins – and all the good stuff we were too lazy or selfish to do.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to go where Jesus went.  Praise God!  Because Jesus went down that path of doom, we won’t ever go there.  Easter is all certainty and glory.  Good Friday is all suffering and gory.  Easter is the victory parade.  Good Friday is the victorious battle.  Easter is the award ceremony.  Good Friday is the winning basket.  Easter says, “The plan worked!”  Good Friday is the plan at work and brought to a conclusion.  Easter is the glory of Jesus’ greatness.  Good Friday is the glory of Jesus’ grace.

            And the way he speaks about his commitment to save us is amazing.  He spoke about it before it happened as though it was a done deal.  “Now is the Son of Man glorified.”  He speaks with certainty.  His love is something sure.

            We are human beings.  If you’re not sure, look in a mirror later today.  We are human beings, and we have something in common with every other human being.  We need love.  We need a sense of acceptance in spite of the realization that we aren’t always so loveable.  That’s the kind of love Jesus gives.  It’s something sure, so sure that God himself staked his glorious reputation on it.  “If God is glorified in him, then God will glorify the Son in himself.” God puts his entire reputation on the line and says, “Do you want to see love?  Then look at my Son.”  There may be plenty of songs, poems, and stories about love, but this is what real love is all about – the God who made all things and made you, loves you!

His love is something to share

            Three little children ran after their dog into the woods near their home and got lost.  A huge search party finally found them.  The children said that even when one of them got tired, they stuck together.  Sounds like a story line for a movie.  You, no doubt, have seen movies with similar plots, like the pioneer family heading west.  The parents got killed.  So the children banded together.  They were so close that they’d die for each other.

            When Jesus told his followers that he was going away, they did not understand that he would be with them invisibly.  They were wondering, “What can we hang on to?  Where do we go for hope, support, encouragement, strength, and love?”  Jesus answered, “A new commandment I give you – love one another.  As I have loved you, so you love one another.” This was not natural and normal.  They had a tendency to go their own ways.  On more than one occasion one or the other of the disciples tried to climb ahead of the others for positions of honor closest to Jesus.  They had a natural inclination to bicker and bite, to squabble and squawk at each other.  Later, that same night they all ran away.  “Every man for himself!”

            But Jesus changed all that.  His sure and certain love inspired their love and concern for each other.  From Jesus they received love to spare and love to share.  The record of the early church shows it – “all the believers were together and had everything in common” (Acts 2:44); all the believers were one in heart and mind (Acts 4:32).

            That kind of love had a profound effect on others.  One ruler in the early centuries after Christ said of Christians, “They love each other even without being acquainted with each other.”  An opponent of Christianity named Julian admitted, “Their Master has implanted the belief in them that they are all brothers.”  The Bible tells us that the love they shared led others to search for the truth about the meaning of life and “the Lord added to their numbers daily” (Acts 2:47).  Jesus promise came true,“All will know that you are my disciples if you love one another”(John 13:35).

            That’s God’s plan for the Christian church.  Even if you are unrelated to others here today, even if you come from different backgrounds and different cultures, even if our congregation doubles in size so you hardly know anybody’s name, we are still connected by the blood of Jesus, and his love inspires ours.  His love is something to share.

            That special connection is especially in evidence today.  Several young people of our congregation will publicly affirm their trust in Jesus as others of their age have done in neighboring congregations.  What they are saying is that God connected himself to them at baptism.  That bond of love from God is something special they share with each other and with you and me.  That’s the blessing of congregational life, an evidence of the love we share.

            Sharing Jesus’ love is also why our congregation has chosen be part of a church body known as the Wisconsin Evangelical Synod so that together with fellow Christians all across this land we can pool our resources and do things together that we could not do separately.  Do you know that by your prayers and offerings you are helping to start new churches and new ministry efforts in Hampton, Georgia, and Castlerock, Colorado?  Do you know that by your prayers and offerings missionaries are training national pastors in Hong Kong and Malawi and in many other countries?  Do you know that by your prayers and offerings Christians are learning about Jesus and are doing so under the threat of death in countries that I cannot mention publicly because our sermons are now streamed on the Internet, and if I mention them, their lives will be in danger.  Do you know that by your prayers and offerings nearly eighty college graduates, who have completed their training to be educators in Lutheran schools, and forty-some men, who have completed their studies for pastoral ministry at our seminary, will be assigned to a Lutheran congregation just eighteen days?  The word “synod” means “walking together,” and that’s exactly what you have been and are doing as members of this congregation and this synod so that Jesus’ love gets shared with thousands and thousands of others.

            What is love?  How about this?  Dearest Jimmy, “No words could ever express the great unhappiness I’ve felt since I broke our engagement.  Please say you’ll take me back.  No one could ever take your place in my heart, so please forgive me.  I love you, I love you, I love you!”  Yours forever, Marie.  P.S. And congratulations on winning the lottery.  How about this?  “God demonstrates his love in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”(Romans 5:7).  You don’t have to wait for glasses to be clinked or a song to be sung to see love in action.  Look at Jesus.  Our glorious Lord inspires gracious love – love that’s sure and love to share. Amen.

Preached at Grace Lutheran Church, Milwaukee, WI (www.gracedowntown.org) on May 2, 2010

Services

Sundays 7:45, 9:00 & 10:30 am

Mondays 6:30 pm

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church | 1209 North Broadway Milwaukee, WI 53202 | (414) 271-3006

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