Fifth Sunday after Easter

May 02, 2010

“Building on the Commandment to Love!”

 John 13:31-35

Preached at Providence Lutheran Church in Holland, Ohio.

By Pastor Dennis R. King

 

 

The Grace and Mercy of the Risen Lord, Jesus Christ, be with you all.

 

Former President Reagan told a humorous story during the last days of his administration. It was about Alexander Dumas. It seems that Dumas and a friend had a severe argument. The matter got so out of hand that one challenged the other to a duel. Both Dumas and his friend were superb marksmen. Fearing that both men might fall in such a duel they resolved to draw straws instead. Whoever drew the shorter straw would then be pledged to shoot himself.

 

Dumas was the unlucky one. He drew the short straw. With a heavy sigh, he picked up his pistol and trudged into the library and closed the door, leaving the company of friends who had gathered to witness the non-duel outside. In a few moments a solitary shot was fired. All the curious pressed into the library. They found Dumas standing with his pistol still smoking. “An amazing thing just happened,” said Dumas. “I missed.”

 

I am amazed how many Christians have been in the church all their lives and still have missed the Gospel. So many folks still live in the Old Testament, bound by legalisms, restricted by the “Thou shalt nots” without being empowered by the “Thou shalts.” Some are experts at the Ten Commandments but fail at the eleventh, and what Jesus calls the greatest commandment of all.

 

Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men shall know that you are my disciples, if you have love for another.”

 

Note, First of all, that this is what Jesus most desires out of us that we love one another. We may tithe. We may teach in the church. We may sing in the choir, serve on the council or a committee, and even make visits on behalf of our church. All of these are wonderful and much appreciated. But if we do not love we have missed the Gospel.

 

In a Charlie Brown cartoon Lucy stands with her arms folded and a stern expression on her face, while Charlie Brown pleads, “Lucy, you must be more loving. This world really needs love. You have to let yourself love to make this world a better place in which to live!”

 

Lucy whirls around angrily causing Charlie Brown to do a backwards flip and screams at him; “Look, blockhead – the world I love. It’s people I can’t stand.”

 

Some of us from time to time resemble that remark. We love the world. It is people we can’t stand.

Love who? Why everybody. Nothing could be clearer from the Gospel than that. If a Jew could love a Palestinian – I believe if Jesus were telling the story today it would be the story of the Good Palestinian – if a Jew can love a Palestinian, then there is no limit on love. We are to love not only our immediate neighbors but also the cashier who checks our groceries and the policeman who stops us on the expressway as well as the obnoxious people who cross our paths every day.

 

We are to put our faith into action through loving deeds. As someone has said, “We are judged by our actions, not our intentions. We may have a heart of gold but so does a hard-boiled egg.”

 

Comedian Jerry Clower tells a story about Christian love in action. Two Christian businessmen were having lunch in a downtown restaurant. The waitress serving their table dumped a bowl of hot soup right over one of the businessmen. Everybody gasped and stared. As Clower tells it, “They just couldn’t wait for the manager to run out and fire this lady. They couldn’t wait for this man, standing there, dripping, with his suit stained, to cuss this waitress out, but the fellow looked at the waitress and said, ‘Young lady, I’m sorry this happened to you. I know it embarrasses you.’”

 

How would you have handled that situation? Can you love as the Master would have us love? Can any of us do that?

We must examine our text carefully. Note that Jesus says, “As I have loved you, love also one another.” If you took all the psychology texts, boiled them down to their essential truths, and from that extensive effort sought to produce one statement about character of man that would be the most profound statement ever uttered you could not improve on this simple statement: “As I have loved you, love also one another.” Most authorities tell us that we learn to love by being loved. A noted psychologist demonstrated that love is a learned phenomenon years ago in an experiment that every first year psychology student is exposed to. He used baby monkeys deprived of a mother’s love to show that monkeys deprived of love were unable to love. Subsequent studies have generalized this result to people as well. We love because we are loved.

 

This brings us to our second point. The source of our love is Jesus Christ. We love because God first loved us. We see His Love in Jesus. This love is an unconditional love. “Just as I am without one plea,” we sing, and if we understand that we are loved just as we are, with no strings attached, it can transform our lives.

 

We love because He first loved us. Again we sing, “Love came down at Christmas…” and that is true. Not that love was not already in the world, but until Jesus we did not see it walking, talking, and serving others.

 

As one person commented about the Ten Commandments, “They don’t tell you what you ought to do. They just put ideas into your head.” The Old Testament includes the commandments to love God and love one’s neighbor. However, we did not see a loving God in action until there was Jesus. He showed us the content and character of love. When we understand His love for us and make it our own, then we are able to love as He calls us to love. But there is one more thing which must be said.

 

Our love for one another is our primary witness to the world. Jesus said, “By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love one for another.”

 

An Educator tells about a pre-school teacher who faced what she thought was “burn-out.” She was a committed teacher whose heart particularly went out to the so-called “disadvantaged child.” She had begun to despair over some children who seemed to be lost, so limited and, in some cases, so neglected at home. In her growing frustration she vacillated between the feeling that there was something wrong with her or that there was something wrong with “this current crop of pre-schoolers. They just don’t respond like they used to.” Then her mother died.

 

It was necessary for her to take a week off from her teaching duties to attend her mother’s funeral. She was very close to her mother. Following the funeral she needed some time alone to deal with her feelings. Her frustrations at the pre-school seemed like an even heavier burden at this point in her life.

 

After a weekend of aimless shopping, puttering in the garden and watching TV, she realized she must return to her classroom. She felt more like a soldier going into battle than a teacher of pre-schoolers.

 

The first day back was about what she expected. Her hurt and despair produced resentment which she kept carefully hidden. She went through the paces like the competent professional she was. She smiled at the right times and was admirably patient considering the environment and her feelings.

 

But then it happened. She had come around a corner to discover Rachel picking the last chrysanthemum from the pot in the hall. Rachel, by the way, was the most distant, most disruptive child in class. In a stern, trembling voice the teacher demanded, “Rachel, what are you doing?”

 

Rachel held out in her little hand the flowers she had already picked. “Mrs. Terrell,” she said, “You used to be like a mother. Would these flowers help you to be like a mother again?”

Mrs. Terrell thought; “does it show to a five year old?” She spoke, “Rachel, what is a mother like?”

“A mother is like you used to be,” Rachel said. “A mother likes being with children.”

“But Rachel,” said Mrs. Terrell, “I like being with children. I’ve just… well, I’ve been… well, Rachel, my mother… passed away, and…”

Rachel meekly interrupted, “You mean she died?”

“Yes, Rachel,” said her teacher sadly, “She died.”

Rachel looked up at her teacher and asked, “Did she live until she died?”

Mrs. Terrell thought; “what kind of question is that?” “Well, honey, of course,” she said, “All people live until they die; they…”

Rachel interrupted her again. “Oh, no they don’t Mrs. Terrell. Some people seem to die while they are still walking around. They stop being what they used to be. Mrs. Terrell, don’t die just because your mother did. Be alive while you are alive.”

Out of the mouths of babes! How do we witness to the world that Jesus Christ is alive? We do it by being alive ourselves. How do we witness to the world that God is love? We do it by loving one another.

 

In that film a few years back, THE COLOR PURPLE, Sophie experienced some kindnesses in a dark and troubling time in her life that deeply affected her. Looking back on those kindnesses, she said, “It was then I knew that there was a God.” Intuitively she knew that this is the best evidence we have of the existence of God. In an unloving world, there are yet people who really do care about others. Where did such love originate? It came from the very heart of God. We witness to the world that Jesus Christ lives in our heart every time we perform any act of kindness to another. “By this,” said Jesus, “shall all men know that you are my disciples, that you love one another.” So, how about you? Have you missed the point? The primary requirement that Jesus asks of us is that we love. We love because He first loved us. How can you tell if someone lives close to Jesus? By their love! Love is our primary witness to the world that Jesus is alive.

Amen.