“Just As” Love
Bible Passage: John 15:9-17
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: May 5, 2024
In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,
Have you ever been thrown into a situation where you are told to do something you have never done before without anyone showing you how to do what you are supposed to do? That can be very frustrating, can’t it? It works far better when someone shows you what you are being told to do. It works far better if someone shows you how to operate the machine. It works far better if someone shows you how to hold and swing the bat. It works far better if someone shows you how to open the “settings” and how to pull down the tab and click on the correct things. It helps tremendously to see someone else do it before we try.
In our text today, Jesus tells us what we are called upon to do in this world. He says, Love one another. (v. 12, 17) And here is the truly wonderful thing about this. He doesn’t just push us out into the deep water and say, “Figure it out!” He himself shows us what love looks like. He is the perfect example of what we are to be. Just as he loves us, so we are to love one another. He commands us to love with a “Just As” Love.
This is my command: Love one another as I have loved you. (v. 12) “As I have loved you.” If we are to love just as Jesus loves, we should carefully examine Jesus’ love. What can we know about it? Well, first of all, Jesus tells us that the love he has for us is patterned after the relationship he and the Father have. As the Father has loved me, so also I have loved you. (v. 9) Jesus further explains, I have held on to my Father’s commands and remain in his love. (v. 10)
Our relationship to Jesus mirrors this. Jesus says, …so also I have loved you. Remain in my love. If you hold on to my commands, you will remain in my love. (v. 10) Just as the Father loves Jesus and Jesus remains in this love by holding on to the Father’s commands, so Jesus loves us and we remain in his love by holding on to his commands. It makes Jesus happy to hold the Father’s commands, and it makes us happy to remain in Jesus’ love and hold to his commands. I have told you these things so that my joy would continue to be in you and that your joy would be complete. (v. 11) Living in this loved and loving relationship “completes” us.
The next “just as” will blow our minds. Jesus calls us friends! You are my friends if you continue to do the things I instruct you. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends, because everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. (v. 14-15) Jesus contrasts friends and servants. And here’s the contrast. Masters don’t take servants into counsel or confidence. Masters don’t say to servants, “Hey, sit down. Let’s have a heart to heart.” No! To a servant, a master says, “Do this. Get that. And look sharp about it!” But with a friend you say, “Come. Sit down with me. I’d like to talk to you. I’d like to share something with you.” That is what Jesus had done with the disciples! He had talked to them as friends. He had shared with them sacred secrets, things that God had kept hidden from the wise-guys and self-imagined smarties. But he had revealed his plans, his loving and saving plans, to the disciples. They were Jesus’ friends!
And it wasn’t just that Jesus talked with them as friends do. Jesus was willing to die from them. No one has greater love than this: that someone lays down his life for his friends. (v. 13) Friendship can show itself in many ways. A friend might give a friend advice. A friend might be willing to give a friend some money to help him out. A friend might be willing to give a friend a place to stay during a rough patch. But there is no greater act of friendship, of love, than this: giving your life for a friend! And that is the love of Jesus for us! And here’s the thing, we haven’t been great friends to Jesus. Each day he wants to spend the day with us, but often we are too busy to be bothered with spending time with our Friend in his Word. We’re busy people! Have you ever ignored a text message from a friend because you were busy? We have all ignored the sacred “text” our dearest Friend has given us. Yet, he loves us. He doesn’t “unfriend” you. He remains the Friend who couldn’t love you any more than he did. He laid down his life to save yours. The words of Jesus in our text jolt us out of lazy complacency: You are my friends. (v. 14)
Just as Jesus loves us and says to us, You are my friends, so he wants us to say to one another with the same love that fills his heart, “You are my friends!” That is intentional, choosing love. Jesus says in our text, You did not choose me but I chose you (v. 16). The disciples hadn’t come to Jesus and said, “Will you be our friend?” Jesus came to them and said, “You are my friends!” So we don’t wait for one another to prove their “friend-worthiness.” We simply say, “You are my friend.”
I saw a meme this week that was thought provoking. Jesus was preaching to a crowd and he said, “Be kind to everyone.” And someone in the crowd shouts, “Even Gary?” And someone else yells, “Yea! Gary’s the worst!” And Jesus says, “Yes, even Gary.” Is there a Gary in your life? A co-worker? A classmate in school? Someone who walks through the same front door as you at the end of every day? “They are the worst! They are so hard to love!” I will only feel like loving Gary when I realize this. I am Gary! I am the worst! And Jesus said to me, “My friend, for you I lay down my life!”
Some of you will recognize the name Madalyn Murray O’Hare. She is a famous atheist who is credited with getting prayer taken out of school in America. She was the outspoken founder and president of American Atheists. In her diary there was a sentence that she wrote a number of times. “Will somebody somewhere somehow please love me?” In her heart-of-hearts she longed for love. This is the world in which we live. Atheistic, proud, in-your-face. And yet, desperately wanting to be loved. This world is loved more than it knows. Jesus gave his life for the people of this world. We can tell them about this love! And in our lives, we can show this kind of love as we love one another with a “just as” love, just as Jesus loves us.
Amen.
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