Sermon for the Sixth Sunday of Easter
The Father Loves You BECAUSE You Have Loved Jesus
Theme: Your love for God—given to you BY God—will lend certainty to your
prayers.
Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!) Alleluia! In today’s Gospel, Jesus says
something to His original disciples, and also to you, which you might find
surprising or even jarring. Jesus says, “The Father Himself loves you BECAUSE
you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.” With these Words,
Jesus is NOT speaking about how you become a Christian. Jesus is simply adding
confidence and certainty to your prayers, that you may pray without any doubt
in your mind God your heavenly Father hears you and answers you.
Dear Christian friends,
This is the sort of verse that provides good fodder for those Christians who
mistakenly think you must first ask God into your heart before He can have
become your personal God, your Lord and your Savior. Here Jesus makes it sound
as though you must first love Jesus, and then, after you have given your love
to Jesus, the Father will love you in return. Many well meaning but misled
Christians could point to Jesus in this Gospel say to you, “Look at His Words!
Jesus clearly states here that the Father loves you BECAUSE you have loved
[Jesus]. How much clearer can Jesus be?”
Apparently, St. John the Evangelist, the man who wrote today’s Gospel into a
book, did not think Jesus was speaking quite clearly enough. (Certainly these
are the only Words of Jesus that have ever been misunderstood or misapplied,
either.) St. John the Evangelist not only wrote this Gospel, where Jesus’ Words
are recorded, but John also wrote a couple of other letters that are contained
in God’s New Testament of the Bible, too. In his First Letter, it seems as
though John was remembering what Jesus said in today’s Gospel. Then John wrote
a further, more detailed explanation for you so that you would not
misunderstand what you have heard from Jesus today. You might even go so far as
to say that John’s First Letter could be thought of as a sermon that was
written (in part) to clarify and explain Jesus’ Words in today’ Gospel. Jesus
says here, “The Father Himself loves you BECAUSE you have loved Me.” In his
sermon on Jesus’ Words, John
explains and clarifies, not wanting you to misunderstand:
“Love is from God and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone
who does not love does not know God because God is love. … We love because He
[God] first loved us” (1 John 4:7, 19)
So which is it? Jesus and John say what seems to be opposite things.
Jesus makes it sound as though our love must come first, because He says that
the Father loves you because you love Jesus. John makes it sound as though the
opposite is true: “We love [God],” says John, “because He first loved us.” How
is it possible that both statements can be written into the same Bible, given
to us by God?
Here are two analogies for you, to help you understand why Jesus would
say one thing to you, and why John would come along and say what seems to be
the directly opposite thing.
· Suppose a doctor describes to you the surgery he is about to perform on
you. The doctor will likely begin by explaining where he will make the
incision, what he hopes to find (or not to find!) when he opens your body, and
what he intends to do while he is in there. The doctor might not take the time
to give you all the details in the bigger picture: about how you will have to
dress in one of those terrible hospital robes, how the anesthesiologist will
first come and interview you before he medicates you, or process used to
sterilize the surgery room and all the equipment. The doctor will simply
explain to you a small portion of the bigger picture.
Think the same way about Jesus’ Words in today’s Gospel. When He says, “The
Father Himself loves you BECAUSE you have loved Me,” Jesus is NOT speaking
about the entire act of your salvation and eternal life. Jesus is only giving
you assurances about your prayers. In other Words, Jesus is not telling every
detail of your surgery, so to speak. Jesus is not telling you how you become a
Christian, or how you obtain forgiveness of sins, or how you gain the Father’s
love—no more than the surgeon tells you all the little details of your surgery.
· Here is another analogy: Suppose one of your friends is teaching you
how to use a soda machine. Your friend will say to you, “Put your money into
the machine here, push this button, and the bottle of soda will come out this
little door.” What your friend probably will not explain to you is that someone
first came along and loaded a whole bunch of soda into the machine, so that it
would be possible for you to push the button and get your bottle.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is only telling you about how the soda comes out of
the machine, so to speak, and not about the guy who first loaded the soda into
the machine. That is to say, Jesus is not telling you all the details about how
ALL love comes first and only from God. Jesus is not taking the time to
explain, “We love [God] “because He first loved us.” Jesus is simply talking
about the great, miracle-producing effect that God the Father’s love has in
your heart and in your mind, once the Father’s love has entered into you
through the Word. Jesus is focusing your attention only on the benefit you
receive from the Father’s love, not how this love first comes to you.
God the Father has loved you from the foundation of the world. God the Father
loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you, forgiving you all your
sins and giving you the gift of eternal life. As St. Paul says in another
place, “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And, as
you very likely have memorized, St. John also has written:
God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him
should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the
world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through
Him (John 3:16-17).
So here we are, back at today’s Gospel, where Jesus says, “The Father
loves you BECAUSE you have loved Me.” Why on earth would Jesus say such a
jarring thing? Jesus says these Words to you, so that you may receive great
comforts in your prayers to your heavenly Father. Jesus knows that you
sometimes feel guilty over the things you have done, or the things that have
been done to you. Jesus knows that you sometimes feel as though your heavenly
Father is absent from you, not willing to hear your prayers. Jesus knows that
you sometimes are tempted to feel as though God your Father was angry with you
or judgmental toward you. So Jesus wants to give you a way of feeling certain
that your prayers are truly heard and received by your heavenly Father. “The
Father loves you BECAUSE you have loved Me.” In other words, do you feel in
your heart and your mind that you truly love Jesus, who died for you? That is a
good thing. When you struggle you’re your
prayers, focus your attention on the love you have for Jesus. Use that love as
a way of insisting against all of your fears and your temptations that God
truly hears your prayers. Never mind for the moment that the Father’s love
first made it possible for you to love Jesus. Just focus your attention on the
great effect God the Father’s love-creating love has had in your life: because
of the Father’s miraculous Word, you love Jesus; because you love Jesus, be
assured that the Father loves you.
One more analogy: Think of the famous book—and movies that have been
made from it—titled Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Willie Wonka owned a
candy factory that no one was allowed to enter, except if you possessed a
special gold ticket. Standing outside the imposing gates of the factory, young
Charlie might have wondered whether he would truly be allowed inside. Where
does he look for confidence against his fears? He looks at the gold ticket he
holds in his hand. The ticket had been given to him by Willy Wonka, the factory
owner, but now that the ticket was in his hands, the ticket emboldened Charlie
to approach the gates of the factory.
In the same way, think of your love for Jesus as being a lot like
Charlie’s golden ticket. God the Father miraculously gave you that love,
planting it in your heart and mind through the power of His Word. Just as
Charlie’s ticket emboldened him to approach the gates of the Wonka factory, use
your God-given love for Jesus as a way of emboldening your prayers.
“The Father loves you BECAUSE you have loved [Jesus].” These Words in
today’s Gospel do not tell you how to become a Christian. Jesus’ Words in
today’s Gospel show you how truly abundant and rich the Father’s love is for
you, so that you will never feel uncertain and never feel afraid. Not only has
God the Father given you the preaching of the Word, through which you now have
the forgiveness of sins; not only has He given you the protection of Jesus in
Baptism and the meal of eternal life in Holy Communion; not only has He given
you the absolution at the beginning of worship and the Benediction at the end
of worship; not only has He given you Christian brothers and sisters all around
you to console you and comfort you: God the Father has also placed His love in
your heart, so that you may love Jesus. Jesus now makes the circle complete,
allowing you to use your love for God as another assurance of His great,
undying love for you: “The
Father loves you BECAUSE you have loved [Jesus].”
The peace of God which passes all understanding guard your hearts and
minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.
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