Bible Passage: John 13:31-35
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: May 18, 2025

Bulletin May 18, 2025 – Confirmation

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

Today is a big day for two of our youths at Lord of Love.  It is their Confirmation Day.  They will stand in white robes before the Lord’s altar and they will confess and promise.  They will confess faith in the Triune God.  They will confess, “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried.  He descended into hell.  The third day he rose again from the dead.  He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty.  From there he will come to judge the living and the dead.”  They will promise to be faithful to this God, even pledging to die a martyr’s death rather than deny this confession.  It will be obvious to everyone in attendance that these two young adults are Christians!

But what about after today?  They won’t always have a chance to say the Apostles’ Creed to people.  Neither do you.  So if we don’t have time and opportunity to confess with our words, is there any way the world can know that you are with Christ?  Jesus answers that for us in our text today.  Jesus tells you, his disciples, that by reflecting his love, You Give Yourself Away.

Our text describes for us events that took place on Maundy Thursday night, the night before Jesus dies.  In fact, our text begins with this “time-stamp.”  After Judas left. (v. 31)  You may remember that Judas got up and walked out of the Passover meal that Jesus was eating with his disciples.  It was after Judas left that Jesus says, Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him.  If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify the Son in himself and will glorify him at once. (v. 31)  In the military, when it is time to launch an operation, they say, “It’s go time!”  That’s kind of what Jesus is saying here.  Judas has gone to gather the soldiers who will arrest Jesus.  It’s “go time.”  It’s time to go to Gethsemane, to the Sanhedrin, to Pilate, to shame, to suffering, to death, to the cross.

But Jesus says this will be a time for glory.  The cross and resurrection will mean glory for Jesus as this world’s Redeemer!  The cross and resurrection of Jesus will mean glory for the Father, who so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son!

Having said that, Jesus gets intense and personal.  He addresses his disciples, Dear children…(v. 33)  With these words, Jesus pulls the disciples in close!   This is coming from the heart!  I am going to be with you only a little longer.  You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now:  Where I am going you cannot come. (v. 33)  Jesus is telling them things are going to be different.  When his work is complete, he will ascend again into heaven.  No longer will they walk along the road with Jesus or sit on a grassy hillside with Jesus.  No longer will people be able to see them with Jesus and say, “Those guys are disciples of Jesus.”  But Jesus tells them there is a tell-tale sign they are with him.

A new command I give you:  Love one another.  Just as I have loved you, so also you are to love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (v. 34)  Jesus calls this a “new command.”  What’s new about it?  Didn’t God always command us to love.  Indeed.  Here is what God said in the Old Testament:  Love your neighbor as yourself. (Leviticus 19:18)  Now listen to Jesus’ command:  As I have loved you, so also you are to love one another.  There is the new part!  Never before had the world seen the love of Jesus!  Up to this point it was, “Love your neighbor the way you want to be loved.”  Now it is, “Love one another the way JESUS loves you!”

So here we must ask ourselves, “What is Jesus’ love like?”  Here are some words that describe Jesus’ love:  giving, self-sacrificing, unconditional, resolute, self-abasing (that is, willing to lower oneself for the sake of others), relentless, vulnerable (Jesus was willing to endure people saying all kinds of nasty things about him because of the people he loved), undeserved, committed, steadfast, and forgiving.  When Jesus’ followers love each other like that, we give ourselves away as his followers!  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples.

Friends, our marriages ought to give us away in this world as disciples of Jesus!  We live in a culture where, quite frankly, husbands and wives treat each other shamefully!  But we are different!  Husbands and wives, the way you talk to each other and treat each other ought to make the world stop and say, “They give themselves away!  They are followers of Jesus!”  We live in a culture that can only be characterized as “narcissistic.”  Narcissism gets its name from Narcissus, that mythological Greek figure who fell in love with his own reflection.  That is our world!  People are in love with themselves!  That is so much of social media!  “Hey, world, here’s me!  Here’s me eating my breakfast!  Here’s me dressed for the day!  Here’s me doing this funny TikTok challenge, because it’s only funny if it’s me!  Here’s me doing absolutely nothing!”  In a culture that says “Me!” the Christian loves with a love that says “You!”  And the world pauses, “You give yourself away!  You are different!””

To love with Christ-like love, we must be on a heavy, steady diet of Christ’s love ourselves!  For only Christ’s love forgives us for those times when we act more like Narcissus than Christ.  Only Jesus’ love makes us WANT to love one another as he has loved us!

I love to play hide and seek with my grandkids.  Because when they hide, they can’t stand it!  The moment you go looking for them, they start shouting.  “I’m over here, grandpa!”  They give themselves away.  So it is with Christ’s people in this world.  We cannot hide, nor would we want to!  With our words and with our loving deeds we give ourselves away…as disciples of Jesus!

Amen.