A Love to Die For
Intro
Have you ever noticed how we Americans love slang? I didn’t, until I spent some time helping Russian immigrants with their English. I was constantly catching myself using slang phrases which of course were not in any of their English books. One time my friend Lynn (who is American) and I were leaving one Russian family’s home. She said, “Well, we’ve got to hit the road now.”
And Valentin, the husband, said, “What is this Hit the road? Why you hit the road?” Usually in this kind of situation, I would say something like, “I don’t know. It’s just one of those dumb things we say.” But Lynn wanted to explain the logic of it, and was stomping one foot and saying, “See, we hit the road.”
Valentin, obviously unmoved by Lynn’s explanation, finally shook his head and said, “To American, maybe makes sense; to Russian, is crazy.”
Often slang terms arise when we’re searching for superlatives, words to describe the highest or utmost degree of something. It’s not big, it’s humongous
We’ll attach “super” or “mega” to a word. Or, something’s not just funny, it’s “a laugh and a half.”
In an effort to get ever more vivid expressions, we even move to the extremes of life and death. I knew someone who made a cake that was so packed with chocolate that we called it, not super-chocolate or even mega-chocolate cake, but “Death by Chocolate”!
And then of course, the ultimate is when something is so good, it’s “to die for,” “Oh that cake is so good, it’s to die for!” When we are trying to find a way to convey the height of our love for something, what stronger language can there be than that? “You should see his car: “It’s to die for!”
When it comes right down to it, probably no one would actually be willing to die for chocolate cake, or a great car, but it certainly expresses vividly the height of our appreciation for those things.
Love is often demonstrated in sacrifice
Many of you have probably read O’Henry’s short story: The Gift of the Magi
It’s about a poor young couple spending their first Christmas together.
Neither have the money to buy gifts, but each one sells the only thing they have of value to buy something for the other.
She has her beautiful long hair cut off to buy him a chain for his pocket watch.
He sells his watch to buy expensive combs to put in her beautiful, long hair.
Our willingness to sacrifice what is precious to us is a practical, visible way to show our love for others.
What is ultimately most precious to us in this life is, our life itself.
So the giving of one’s life is the ultimate sacrifice
Did you hear about the guy who says to his girlfriend,
“I’d climb the highest mountain for you,
“I’d swim the deepest ocean,
“I’d give my very life for you”
She says, “Oh, honey, that’s so wonderful. But what I really need is for you to help me clean up the garage on Saturday.”
And he says, “Are you kidding? Now you’re just trying to take advantage of me!”
It’s easy to say “I’d die for you,” when we’re pretty darn sure we won’t ever be called upon to fulfill our vow.
But if it’s true that love is demonstrated through sacrifice, and that the giving up of one’s life is the ultimate sacrifice, then the giving up one’s life is also the ultimate expression of love for another human being.
When Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport on August 16, 1987, there was only one survivor among 156 people on board: a four-year-old girl named Cecelia.
Cecelia survived because, as the plane was falling, her mother, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around the little girl, and refused to let her go.
She gave the ultimate sacrifice for her daughter, and it was the ultimate expression of her love.
Stories like that show us the noblest and truest expressions of human love.
And while we are deeply moved by stories like that, almost anyone who is a parent – and even those of us who aren’t – can understand why a parent would give up their own life to save their child.
Consider this story of sacrifice
During the war in Vietnam, a young West Point graduate was sent over to lead a group of new recruits into battle. He did his job well, trying his best to keep his from ambush and death. But one night when they had been under attack, he was unable to get just one of his men to safety.
The soldier left behind had been severely wounded. From their trenches, the young lieutenant and his men could hear him in his pain. They all knew any attempt to save him – even if it was successful -- would almost certainly mean death for the would-be rescuer.
Eventually the young lieutenant crawled out of hiding toward the dying man. He got to him safely but was killed before he could save himself.
After the rescued man returned to the States, the lieutenant’s parents heard that he was in their vicinity. Wanting to know this young man whose life was spared at such a great cost to them, they invited him to dinner.
When their honored guest arrived, he was obviously drunk. He was rowdy and obnoxious. He told off-color jokes and showed no gratitude for the sacrifice of the man who died to save him. The grieving parents did the best they could to make the man’s visit worthwhile, but their efforts went unrewarded.
Their guest finally left. As the dad closed the door behind him, the mother collapsed in tears and cried, "To think that our precious son had to die for somebody like that."
That’s what Jesus did.
That’s what it says right in these verses:
Christ died for us while we were still sinners
Not, “once our good deeds had outweighed our bad ones”
Not, “once he saw we were basically good people”
While we were still sinners
While we had not the slightest interest in Him
But while we were helpless to save ourselves
The highest, noblest expression of human love is the willingness to die for someone we find worthy.
Usually that worthiness is based on their relationship to us
We may be willing to die for someone in our own family
Like the young lieutenant, we may be willing to die for someone we are responsible for, regardless of whether we have much of a relationship with them.
Paul says, “It’s unlikely someone would die for a good person.” Literally, it’s “a righteous person” - Someone who is morally upstanding
Would you be willing to die for someone because they are morally upright? I don’t know if I would
Then he says, “It’s a bit more likely someone might die for a person who is especially good.”
So if someone isn’t just a righteous person, but a truly good person, someone like Mahatma Gandhi or Martin Luther King or Mother Theresa
Would you die for one of them?
I still don’t know if I would
Few would be willing to die for someone just because they were righteous, or even because we saw them as truly good.
The only reason most people might to die for another is out of love.
But God’s love exceeds the most noble expression of human love
He loved us enough to die for us,not when we were righteous or good, but JUST because He loved us
John’s gospel tells us, that the night before He died, Jesus said, “Greater love hath no man than this, that (he) lay down his life for his friends.”
If it’s true that the ultimate expression of love is to give up one’s life for others, then the Cross is the ultimate demonstration of God’s love
Have you ever thought, “Yeah, right, ‘God loves me.’ Prove it!” There it is (point to cross): Proof positive that God loves you.
Too often we doubt or we forget God’s love
That’s why we have this symbol everywhere in the church
That’s why the cross is the most obvious symbol of the Christian faith
That’s why we celebrate the Lord’s Supper
Not so that we always feel guilty that Jesus died for us
But so we will never forget how much He loves us.
One article I read said this: To stare at the cross is to get the clearest, deepest look into the heart of God.
And what do we see as we gaze into the heart of God?
Is it judgment?
No, although those who reject His love will be judged
Is it “You lousy sinner!”?
No, even though all of us have sinned “and have fallen (so far) short of the glory of God.”
We have all rejected Him at some time.
When we “get the clearest, deepest look into the heart of God” what we see, what we hear, is “I love you.”
God is saying, “When I think of what I love the most, I think of you!
You’re “to die for”
“I Love you enough to die” to restore the relationship willfully broken by your sin.
It wasn’t my fault it was yours
But I’m willing to die to restore the relationship
Conclusion
The mother of a nine-year-old boy named Mark received a phone call in the middle of the afternoon. It was the teacher from her son’s school.
"Mrs. Smith, something unusual happened today in your son’s third grade class. Your son did something that surprised me so much that I thought you should know about it immediately." That was not a particularly comforting thing to say to her.
The teacher continued, "Nothing like this has happened in all my years of teaching. This morning I was teaching a lesson on creative writing. And as I always do, I tell the story of the ant and the grasshopper:
"The ant works hard all summer and stores up plenty of food. But the grasshopper plays all summer and does no work.
"Then winter comes. The grasshopper begins to starve because he has no food. So he begs, ’Please Mr. Ant, you have so much food. Please let me eat, too.’" Then I say, "Boys and girls, your job is to write the end of the story."
"Your son, Mark, raised his hand. ’Teacher, may I draw a picture?’
"’Well, yes, Mark, if you like, you may draw a picture. But first you must write the ending to the story.’
"As in all the years past, most of the students said the ant shared his food through the winter, and both the ant and the grasshopper lived. A few children wrote, ’No, Mr. Grasshopper. You should have worked in the summer. Now, I have just enough food for myself.’ So the ant lived and the grasshopper died.
"But your son ended the story in a way different from any other child, ever. He wrote, ’So the ant gave all of his food to the grasshopper; the grasshopper lived through the winter. But the ant died.’
"And the picture? At the bottom of the page, Mark had drawn three crosses."
God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
The cross of Christ is proof positive that God loves you enough “to die for.”
