Rev. Charles Lehmann + Quinquagesima + 1 Corinthians 13 In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
It's Valentine's Day, and so love is on our minds. And this morning, purely because of the date Easter happens to fall on this year, our assigned epistle reading is Saint Paul's great love chapter. Even people that know almost nothing about the Scriptures have heard 1st Corinthians 13. You may have even had it read at your wedding. Though it is supposed to be about love, Valentines Day, like many holidays, is mostly about spending money. Last year the American people spent 14.7 billion dollars on Valentine's Day related stuff. The average amount each American spent on their special someone was $102.50, which was $20 less than 2008. Though for some of us these numbers might seem completely ridiculous, those who are spending the big bucks would probably say that you just can't put a price on love. When we look at the Lord's Word, however, we find that God does put a price on love. God's love for you and me is very costly. The price for God's love is so high that only He could ever pay it. So today as we consider what the Lord is saying to us through His Word, we will be asking a very simple question. What sort of love is Paul talking about in 1st Corinthians 13? We can begin to understand what Paul is saying by answering a few questions about what he's not talking about. Is Paul talking about love between friends? No. Is he talking about the love that is shared by a family? No. Is he talking about the special love that is only meant to be shared between a husband and wife? No. Paul is not talking about any of these. The Greek language has at least four ways to talk about love, and the word used in today's epistle is the kind of love that can never truly be shown by fallen humanity. There is only one place that we really find the kind of love spoken of in 1st Corinthians 13. The self-giving, self-sacrificing love that Paul is talking about was shown to all the world when Jesus died on the cross to win forgiveness for you, me, and all people. In our Gospel reading from Luke 18, Jesus predicts His suffering, death, and resurrection. He says, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spat upon. And after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise.” That, dear Christian friends, is exactly what Paul is talking about. He is not talking about the love of a husband for his wife. He is not talking about chocolate and roses and candlelit dinners with a nice bottle of wine. 1st Corinthians 13 can only make sense if we read it through the lens of the cross. Only God's love is patient. God bore with our sins for thousands of years. He did not give us the eternal punishment we deserved. He did not kill Adam and Eve in the Garden, but accepted the blood of an animal instead. Because of the blood Jesus shed for us, God also bears with us each day. He constantly shows love and mercy when what we actually deserve is wrath and punishment. Our love, on the other hand, is not patient. It can't wait. When we want something we want it now. Immediate gratification is the rule of the day for us. When we have to wait even a moment to receive what we want, we take offense. We want what we want and we want it now. Even when we are showing love for others it's often because we want the immediate payoff of the warm fuzzy feeling that we get inside. Only God's love is kind. Our heavenly Father did not send His Son into the world because He needed something. The Holy and Blessed Trinity would have lost nothing by allowing us to experience the eternal punishment that we deserve. But the Father chose to show His kindness to us by sending His Son to the cross. He didn't do this because He had to or was obligated to. He did it in His freedom. He did it because He is kind. Our love is not kind. Even at our best, our love doesn't live up to the perfection that God demands. Too often, we show love and affection because it makes us feel good or because we get something out of it. We do it because we enjoy it or because it keeps the peace. If love didn't offer such tangible benefits to us, we probably wouldn't even bother. Only God's love does not envy or boast. Jesus did not descend to earth in His glory and majesty. He did not ride down on a fiery chariot with ten thousand times ten thousand of His angels attending Him. Jesus came in the weakness of human flesh and was laid in an animal's feeding trough. Though He created the entire universe and all things belong to Him, Jesus was born in the depths of human poverty. His love was shown to us with His holy back torn to shreds, with a crown of thorns on His head, and with nails through His hands and His feet as He died the death of a slave on our behalf. Our love is filled with envy and boasting. We compare Valentine's Day gifts. We brag about the romantic way we proposed to our wives. While we do do this out of love, we also do it because we don't want the other guy to have a better story than ours. We are always comparing our relationships to others. We boast in our own and envy the one we think is better. In comparing, we forget the fact that the greatest way to show love is to lay aside all of our pride and seek only the good of the one we love. Every description that Paul gives of love is a description of what Christ has done for you on the cross. Our love falters. It is arrogant and rude. It is irritable and resentful. Only God's love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things. Only God's love for you in Christ never fails. Jesus bore all things when He carried all of your sin, suffering, and death to the cross. Jesus believed all things when He completely trusted His Father and believed all things that had been spoken in God's Word. It is that faith which Christ had for His Father in a perfect way that He has given to you through the power of His Word. Jesus hoped all things when He lifted His eyes to heaven and prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus endured all things when on the cross He suffered the eternal punishment that all people deserved on account of their sin. When Paul wrote 1st Corinthians 13, he was talking about God's love for the world in Christ. We get the love chapter wrong when we think that in it we are the ones showing love. We get it wrong when it becomes a checklist that we are required to mark off. That gets the chapter wrong because we are on the receiving end of 1st Corinthians 13. We are the ones being loved. You, dear saints, are people loved by God. This same love that Paul writes about is also written about by John in his first epistle. John writes, “In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him.” The cross is the very definition of love in the Scriptures. On the cross, you see Love Incarnate offering His very life for those who hate Him. That, dear friends, is one of the most significant ways that God's love is different from ours. What hurts us most is when our love is not returned. It can cause us to turn against the one whom we loved. It can tear apart the relationship forever. But God is not like us. We cannot by our hatred of Him diminish His love for us. Christ's love for you is as irrevocable and absolute as His death for you on the cross. The Father has written His love poem to you with the blood of His Son. As for prophecies, they will pass away. As for tongues, they will cease. Even knowledge will pass away. But God's love for you in Christ will not pass away. Jesus has shed His blood for you. He has washed away all of your sin. It is gone. You are forgiven. You are free. In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in faith in Christ Jesus. Amen. Rev. Charles R. Lehmann Pastor, Saint John's Lutheran Church, Accident, MD http://www.stjohncove.org ___________________________________________________________________________ 'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors; posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for redistribution _with_ _attribution_ unless otherwise specified by the author, as well as for quoting or use in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_. 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