John 13:31-35 LOVE ONE ANOTHER
Today is Mother’s Day. Have all of you sent or received your Mother’s Day cards yet? It can be a lot of work, sometimes, trying to find the perfect Mother’s Day card. Some of those cards are just too sappy – you wonder to yourself, “Who writes these things?” Some of those cards are too long – the poems are over three pages long! Some cards have a sense of humor that you just don’t get, or don’t like. Some cards are too cold, too distant. But then, finally, you find the perfect card. Sometimes it takes awhile. Whatever Mother’s Day card you buy, or receive, they all have one common theme, and that common theme is love. I don’t think it’s possible to find a Mother’s Day card that doesn’t contain the word “love” on it. It’s the sign of a healthy family, when the word “love” can be used to describe how everyone feels about each other.
Today, Jesus tells us that love is also a sign of a healthy spiritual family. “Love one another,” Jesus told his disciples. According to Jesus, “love” is not just something that is contained in a greeting card, or is something that you say on Mother’s Day. “Love” is a sign, or THE sign, of being a disciple of Jesus Christ. Today, we’re going to ponder what that means. We’re going to ask ourselves, “Have I been showing this kind of love to my fellow Christians?” We’re going to look at Jesus’ love for us. By the time this sermon is over, it is my prayer that you will be motivated more and more, to show love, real Christian love, to the people that God has placed into your life.
It was a common thing for a Jewish person, right before he died, to gather his family together and tell them one last thing that he wanted them to remember. That’s what Jesus does here. He knows he’s going to die. He knows that he’s no longer going to be spending time with his disciples in the same way that he had been doing before. And so, the night before he died, Jesus gathered his disciples together. He had one last thing he wanted to share with them. Verse 34: “A new command I give you: Love one another.”
You could say that Jesus was giving them the 11th commandment. “Look at the fellow disciples who are sitting next to you. John, look at Andrew. Peter, look at Philip. Matthew, look at James. Look at these people who are sitting next to you! I want you to love them.” And the word for “love” that we find here in the Bible is really a unique word. It’s the word “Agape” in the Greek. It’s a special kind of love, a love that expects nothing in return, a love that doesn’t keep score. A love that just gives and gives an gives, and doesn’t demand any type of giving back. A generous, sacrificial kind of love. “I want you to show each other that kind of love,” Jesus told his disciples.
And then Jesus gave them an example of that special, agape-kind of love. The second half of verse 34: “As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” Very soon, the disciples would see what kind of love Jesus would show them. The giving, the sacrificing, the humility, even the suffering – all these things were a part of the love that Jesus was about to show his disciples.
And as those disciples showed that kind of love to each other, the world would take notice. Look at verse 35: “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” The way Christians would treat each other would be a visible sign to the rest of the world – these people are disciples of Jesus Christ – look at the way they treat each other.
An unbelieving Greek historian in the first century wrote this about the Christians: “It is incredible to see the fervor with which the people of that religion help each other in their wants. They spare nothing. Their first legislator has put it into their heads that they are brethren” (Lucian, AD 120-200). One of the leaders of the Christians wrote this: “It is our care for the helpless, our practice of lovingkindness, that brands us in the eyes of many of our opponents. ‘Look!’ they say. ‘How they love one another! Look how they are prepared to die for one another!’” (Tertullian).
Does this kind of love exist among us, the Christians of today? Is that really a description of just how greatly we are concerned for each other? Sometimes, the answer is yes. But often times, our sinful nature does get the best of us, and the answer is a very sad no. Jesus wanted Christians to go to the ends of the earth for each other. But that sinful nature we have often gets in the way of us really showing any type of love for each other.
What we’re really good at, sad to say, is finding the things that are wrong with each other. We like to point out each other’s quirks – maybe not out loud, but in our minds. And that causes us to pull away from each other. Focusing on each other’s faults makes us feel better about ourselves. And that is exactly what our sinful nature likes, because by nature, we are more interested in loving ourselves, serving ourselves, and thinking of ourselves, than we are in anything else. That sinful nature we have makes any thought of loving or giving or making sacrifices for fellow Christians – often times, that is the furthest thing from our minds. Jesus wants our love for each other to stand out so much that unbelievers will take notice. But most of the time, to outsiders, we look no different from anyone else.
It’s depressing to think of our lack of love for each other. But it is comforting, and it makes our hearts rejoice, to think of Jesus’ love for us. “I have loved you,” Jesus says in John chapter 13. Have you ever pondered what that means? Jesus doesn’t love you because you’re so lovable. Jesus loves you because he is love. God is love. He doesn’t focus on your faults. He’s not turned off by your sinful tendencies. And he doesn’t wait for you to do something that would make him love you. He just loves you. And even though you never asked him to, without you even asking, he humbled himself for you, he became a man, and kept the law of God perfectly for you, as your substitute. Even though you never asked him to, he died on a cross, as a sacrifice for your sins. “What’s in it for him,” you might ask. The answer is nothing. That’s agape love – the giving, the sacrificing, the forgiving of all your sins – that’s the kind of love that Jesus has shown to you.
And today, Jesus gives you more. He brings you to faith through the waters of baptism. He speaks to you through his Word. He blesses you over and over again. He forgives you. He answers your prayers. “What’s in it for him?” you might wonder again. Once again, the answer is nothing. Jesus just loves you.
As we think also about Mother’s Day, there is the story of love that a mother had for her child. The story is told by William Gladstone, who was announcing the death of Princess Alice of the House of Commons many years ago. The little daughter of the Princess was very sick with diphtheria. The doctors told the princess not to kiss her little daughter, or breathe the little girl’s breath – the princess might get sick herself, and die. “Stay away from your daughter,” she was told. Once, when her child was struggling to breathe, struggling to stay alive, the mother, forgetting herself entirely, took her daughter in her arms to keep her from choking to death. Gasping for breath, her little daughter said, “Kiss me Mommy!” And without thinking of herself, the mother tenderly kissed her daughter because she wanted to help her and comfort her. A few days later the Princess got sick and died. (From sermonillustrations.com).
That’s a picture of Jesus’ love for us. Jesus didn’t think about himself. He didn’t stay away from us because of our sin. He knew it would cost him his own life, but he still came down to be with us anyway, to take our sins upon himself, and to die as our sacrifice, that we might be forgiven and live forever.
Today, Jesus tells us to love each other, as he has loved us. Obviously, that starts in the home, with your family - those people that you live with every day, those people whose faults you can see, better than anybody else. What are we to do with those people? Love them, Jesus says. That means forgiving their faults, looking past their shortcomings, just as Jesus does when he looks at you. Love them. Go to the ends of the earth for them. Make big sacrifices for them. Be unusually generous toward them. Love your family and your friends in a way that will make other people look at your twice. Do you have any unbelievers in your life that you are close to? Surprise them with the way you love other people. Today, on Mother’s Day, make it a point from this day forward to love as Christ has loved you.
We want that to happen here, at Beautiful Savior. Here you sit, and you sit, you might think, “Poor us. We are so small compared to the big churches in town.” But remember, this church is different. This isn’t the kind of place where you can show up for an hour, nobody really seems to care about you, and then you go home. We want this church to be a place where we truly love one another. When someone asks you, “How are you doing,” we’re not just being polite. We care. It’s true that we all have our quirks and shortcomings at Beautiful Savior. At a smaller church likes ours, that might be easier to see. But that’s not was we focus on. We forgive each other. We make sacrifices for each other. We want to be the kind of place where people will go to the ends of the earth for each other.
A little boy once walked all the way across town to attend Sunday School at a certain church. “Why did you walk all the way here,” someone asked him. “Why didn’t you just go to the church right down the street from your house?” “Because here,” the boy said, “here, the people love each other.”
That’s what we want this place to be. Ultimately, that is the best way we can glorify our Savior, for the amazing love he has shown to us. Let’s not just talk about it. Let’s show it. “Everyone will know that you are my disciples,” Jesus say, “if you love one another.” Amen.
