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.” (Gee: Does this mean
that the Baptists and Pentecostals are right after all?)
Dear Christian friends,
It seems that Lutheran pastors spend all of their time pointing to God’s Bible
and emphasizing to their congregations that we sinful humans have nothing of
value that we can give to God; that we do not act first in starting or keeping
a relationship with God; and that God is not happy with us except for the sole
fact that Jesus died for our sins and was raised for our justification (Romans
4:25). Then, after Lutheran pastors spend all of their time pounding these
things in the pulpit and in Bible class, Jesus comes along in today’s Gospel
and upsets the applecart: “The Father Himself loves you” says Jesus, “BECAUSE
you have loved Me.”
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?
“We love [God],” says John, “because He first loved us.” With these Words from
God, you can almost hear St. John saying, “I know how surprising Jesus sounds
when He says to you in today’s Gospel, ‘The Father loves you because you have
loved Me.’ Don’t be worried or alarmed by these Words! Jesus is not turning the
entire Bible on its ear and He certainly is not changing the message of the
Gospel. Jesus is not wrong and He is by no means to be corrected. You simply
have to look at the context of His Words and remember in light of the bigger
picture. It is, of course, absolutely true what Jesus says, ‘The Father loves
you because you have loved Me.’ But you must understand these Words in light of
the bigger picture context. The bigger picture is this: ‘Love is from God… We
love [God] because He first loved us.’”
Now I will give you two analogies 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
for you. He will likely begin by explaining where he will make the incision,
what he hopes 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
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 part 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. Stated another way,
Jesus is not telling every detail of your surgery, so to speak. Jesus is only
telling you about a very specific part of your Christian life—namely, your life
of prayer. Jesus is not telling you how you become a Christian, or how you
obtain forgiveness of sins, or how you gain the heavenly Father’s love—no more
than the surgeon tells you all the little details of your surgery.
· Here is another helpful 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. In other Words, Jesus is focusing only on the benefit you
receive from the Father’s love, and not from how the Father’s love first comes
to you.
“The Father Himself loves you,” says Jesus, “BECAUSE you have loved Me.” It is
vitally important for your life that you keep these Words of your Lord in
proper perspective, dear saints. Jesus is not telling you about how you gain
the heavenly Father’s love! 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, not concerning how you become a
Christian, but He says these things 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 and confident
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. Focus your attention on
that love you have for Jesus and 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 that divine 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.
“The Father loves you BECAUSE you have loved [Jesus].” These 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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