Sixth Sunday of Easter
May 13, 2012
What did we pray for this morning in the Collect of the Day? “That we
may think those things that are right and by Your merciful guiding accomplish
them.” We prayed to God, addressing Him this way: “O God, the giver of all that
is good.” This is who our God is. He is God, and He is a God who gives, and He
is the one who when He gives He gives what is good. If you learn this and take
it to heart you will understand much of what you have in your life: what your
life is and what you have been given. You will see that there is so much good.
You will see more and more that when God gives it is what is good.
On Mother’s Day many mothers wonder where all this affection and thanks
and gifts are the other 364 days of the year. It’s sad that so many of us don’t
readily and joyfully thank our mothers, that we don’t give them the affection
they deserve, that we don’t give to them in return for all their love and
affection. If there’s any good in this perhaps it’s that our mothers don’t love
us and care for us in order to receive thanks and affection.
That’s really what love is, isn’t it? Can you imagine if moms loved their
children for love in return? There might not be much love they would give to
their children. When moms love their children it’s much more that they just
naturally love their children. That’s what love is. They want to love them and
care for them and do what is best for them.
This leads to another thing we learn from our moms: that what they give
us isn’t always what we want or what is pleasant. But it’s certainly love. And
it’s definitely what is best for us. Love often means giving us things that our
sinful nature recoils against. But that is exactly what we need. We need
someone to love us in a way which won’t ignore our sinful ways.
In the Gospel reading today Jesus talks about His relationship with us.
He talks about the relationship His Heavenly Father has with Him. In our moms
we get a wonderful picture of the kind of love Jesus is talking about with us
and that His Heavenly Father has for Him. It’s love that gives what is good,
even if it’s painful.
So when Jesus is saying that as the Father loves Him so He loves us and
then He starts talking about commandments and how we are to keep His
commandments, well, we get a little squirmy. What do commandments have to do
with love? How is it when God gives us commandments that that is good and that
in this way He is loving us? He says: “If you keep my commandments, you will
abide in my love.” When we write our Mothers Day cards we probably aren’t
saying things like, “Mom, thanks for telling me to clean my room and eat my
vegetables.” We say things like, “Thanks for loving me and taking care of me.”
As we grow older we see more and more that all those commands are part of that
love, part of taking care of us. This is the way it is with God. He gives us
His commands because He loves us and takes care of us.
Of course, a relationship that consists of the one in authority handing
down commands and the one under authority obediently keeping them wouldn’t be
much of a loving relationship. Fortunately, that’s not what Jesus is talking
about here. He is talking about a true loving relationship in which He loves us
and we love Him in return. Again, we have an excellent example of this is in
our relationship with our moms. What kind of relationship would it be if all
she did was tell us what to do and we simply did it because we had to? That
wouldn’t be much of one. But it’s not that way. She loves us unconditionally
and we love her and trust her and give to her. That we also do what she tells
us to do we, hopefully, see more and more that it is because she loves us and
it is what is best for us.
With Jesus He knows all this. He’s God and He is love Himself. His
relationship with His Father is pure love yet even so Jesus delights in keeping
His Father’s commandments. Does it seem odd that He does so? Yes, it does. He
certainly doesn’t need to, He’s God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have a
perfect relationship without any commands needing to be kept. There is one reason
Jesus keeps His Father’s commands and that is love. It’s love for His Father of
course. But it’s really located in His love for us. Jesus keeps His Father’s
commandments because of you and me. Because it’s what we need, because it’s
what’s best for us.
So when Jesus talks about us keeping His commandments He’s not laying
something down on us that zaps all the love out of our relationship with Him.
He’s giving to us something that breathes love. If we’re honest, and hopefully
we will be, we will see that we do not keep God’s commandments. We’re often
like we are with Mom: “Do I have to?” We so often see God’s commandments as
burdens. Kind of like the way we so often see the things Mom makes us do. But
John in the Epistle reading says that “His commandments are not burdensome.”
God does not gives us His commandments to burden us but to love us. That’s why
we prayed in the Collect “that we may think those things that are right and by [His]
merciful guiding accomplish them.” His commandments are loving.
That we sin and often recoil at God’s commandments shows that we often
don’t think the things that are right, and we could also add good and
beneficial. We need to keep in mind that when Mom tells us to do the things we
ought to do these are first and foremost commands from God. Her authority is
first and foremost God’s authority. By grace we will also see that her love for
us also is first and foremost His love for us. He is loving us by giving us a
mom to love and care for us.
So when Jesus says “This is my commandment, that you love one
another as I have loved you,” He is not laying a burden on us. He is not
telling us, “This is how you must obey Me, you must love one another.” He is
giving to us. He is loving us by giving us a command which is not a burden but
rather an act of love. We are to love others. Should we not? Should we not love
others? Don’t we want to? Does a mother love her children because she has been
commanded to by God? Doesn’t she rather do it because it is a joy? Doesn’t she do it simply because she
loves her children?
And so with us. We love others. If
it seems a burden at times that’s because it’s hard work loving others. It’s
hard when they’re not very loving back to us. It’s hard when it does seem to be
a burden, when it takes a toll on our time or health or finances. But Jesus’
command is really an exhortation simply to love others in the way He has loved
us. And how is that? He says that
there is no greater love than someone laying down his life for his friends.
This is love exemplified in Jesus. It’s His love for us, in which He loves us
to an extent in which there is no greater extent. It’s not a love that has a
limit or a love that can be exhausted or a love that places conditions on us.
It’s a love in which He lays down His life for us.
When He laid down His life for us He didn’t just give His life, He took
our place. He’s not just talking a physical act of salvation here. He’s talking
about taking our place as we stand before God. He became as we are, a sinner.
He became as one who deserves punishment for not keeping the commandments of
God. He laid down His life so that when we die it doesn’t mean eternal death
and condemnation.
The kind of love that draws Jesus to do this also draws Him to view us
in a new way: “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know
what his master is doing; but I have called you friends.” Jesus is above all
our Lord and Savior. He is also our friend. When you have close friends you
know what a blessing they are. When you don’t you know that also because you
know what you need. We need friends. Jesus calls us His friends. We know one
friend we can always count on and His command to us is that we then love each
other as fellow Christian friends. This command and this love is not
burdensome. If it’s tough to love one another at times it’s because love is not
an easy thing. It’s a conscious choice and effort. But the good news is that
it’s love that flows out of the Father’s love for His Son and our Lord’s love
for us in laying down His life for us, His friends.
We did not choose Him, He chose us. His love really comes down to that.
He has loved us and continues to love us by giving us what we need to think
those things that are right and by His merciful guiding accomplish them. Amen.
SDG
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