The Sixth Sunday of Easter
Abide (part 2) Christ is risen! (He is risen, indeed!) Alleluia! Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Today’s Gospel comes from the same chapter of the Bible as last week’s Gospel: John chapter 15. Last week’s Gospel ended with verse 8 of that chapter and today’s Gospel begins with verse 9. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says to all of us—ABIDE: “Abide in My love,” that is, remain in Jesus’ love, continue in Jesus’ love, live always in His love. Then Jesus explains HOW TO DO IT: “If you keep My commandments,” says the Lord, “you will abide in My love.” Dear Christian friends, What do you think of God’s Ten Commandments? If you would like to see a list of the commandments, you will find them on page 321 of the hymnal. What do you think of those Ten Commandments? • Some people might think of the Ten Commandments as yesterday’s religion, totally inapplicable for today. They do not want anything to do with such Words as “Honor your father and mother” (4th) and “Do not ignore marriage” (6th) and “Do not covet your neighbor’s stuff” (9th). Such people might feel fine with the thought of being Christian and they might even demand that you call them Christian, but do not bother them with the duties and responsibilities of producing fruit (John 15:1-8) or doing good works according to the Ten Commandments. If you are a Christian who wants little or nothing to do with God’s Ten Commandments, then Jesus is speaking a strong and serious warning personally to you in today’s Gospel: “Abide in My love,” says the Lord. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love.” What do you think of God’s Ten Commandments? • If you went to confirmation class—and if you actually remember what you were taught there—then you might say the Ten Commandments show you your sin. You are correct. God teaches us in His Scriptures that His commandments teach us what sin is. You might be in the very good habit of studying God’s Ten Commandments as a way of examining yourself so that you may remember again your ongoing need for the forgiveness of sins that is now fully and completely yours on account of Jesus’ suffering and death. If you use the Ten Commandments as a way of identifying sin, you are doing a good thing. Nevertheless, Jesus wants you to know in today’s Gospel that His commandments will do MUCH MORE for you than merely show you your sin: “Abide in My love,” says Jesus. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love.” 1. When Jesus says, “Abide in My love,” He is speaking about everything that He has done for you with His life, His death, His resurrection, His Word, His Baptism and His Holy Communion. Through all of these things, your Lord Jesus has placed you INTO His love. Jesus has washed you clean of every sin. Jesus has removed the guilt and burden of your past, both the ancient history stuff and the recent stuff. Jesus Christ your Lord has opened for you a bright, eternal future and He has promised you that no evil shall ever befall you. When Jesus says, “Abide in My love,” He is teaching us to think of His love as a lush and rich pasture where the Good Shepherd watches over and serves His beloved sheep forever (John 10:1-18). The Words “Abide in My love” teach us to think a garden or vineyard where Jesus the Vine nourishes and supplies you, His branches, with every good thing (John 15:1-11). “Abide in My love” is your Baptism. “Abide in My love” is your eating and drinking of the Holy Communion. “Abide in My love” is “every Word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). 2. “If you keep My commandments,” says Jesus, “you will abide in My love.” With these Words, Jesus is teaching us to think of His Ten Commandments as large, protective fence that He has built all around His pasture, so that the sheep may graze in safety and peace; unmolested by the lion, the bear or the Philistine giant (1 Samuel 17:34-36). Jesus wants us to think of His Ten Commandments as the garden wall that surrounds the Vine and its branches, so that our enemy the devil may never gain the chance to uproot us, ruin the fruit, or hack us away from our life-giving Vine. One of the main points of today’s Gospel is that we would begin to see God’s Ten Commandments as something more than a curb for our behavior and something more than a club that God uses to make us feel a guilty conscience. Jesus wants us to know today that God’s Ten Commandments bring us many other gifts of divine love, far beyond the knowledge of sin. For example, • If you have ever felt feelings of guilt or sorrow or regret, then you also know the terrible effect these feelings can have upon you. Guilty feelings cause you to doubt everything! Guilt and regret can make you doubt whether your situation can ever be repaired and made right again. Guilt and regret can make you wonder whether you can ever get past this thing and go on with your life. Guilt and regret can make you fear whatever consequences might come as a result of your sin and doubt whether you can bear those consequences. Guilt and regret can make you your heavenly Father’s love and forgiveness of your sins. Jesus in today’s Gospel is giving you His Ten Commandments as a way of helping you avoid those terrible feelings of doubt that come as a result of guilt, sorrow and regret. Does your keeping of the commandments save you? No. Jesus has already saved you with His blood and righteousness. Do the commandments forgive your sins? No. Jesus forgives all your sins on account of His death and resurrection. Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed!) Alleluia. By power of your Christ’s resurrection, your keeping of the commandments is now God’s gift to you, to help you avoid feelings of doubt that you truly live and dwell in the green pasture in God’s love. “If you keep My commandments,” says Jesus, “you will abide in My love.” In other words: Stay inside the fence, and you will never wonder whether you have gotten outside the fence! • Here is another gift Jesus gives you in the Ten Commandments: In the Ten Commandments, Jesus gives you a clear roadmap or recipe for the very best way to show love to the people you love. In today’s Gospel, Jesus reduces all Ten Commandments down to one (cf. Galatians 5:15, Romans 13:8-10): “This is My commandment,” says Jesus, “that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” If one person really loves another, that person might say, “I would die for you.” Forget about dying for someone you love! Decide to live for the person you love. Do you love the person sitting next to you so greatly that you would LIVE for him or her; that you would lay down your life for that person in daily service and devotion to that person? “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” God’s Commandments show you how you to lay down your life on a daily basis for the people you love: respecting their body by means of the fifth and sixth commandments; respecting their possessions by means of the seventh and ninth and tenth commandments; respecting their reputation by means of the eighth commandment; respecting their faith in Jesus by means of commandments one, two and three. • Finally, Jesus commends the Ten Commandments to us so that we may also learn from those commandments how greatly our Lord Jesus loves us. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends”— there you have the death and resurrection of your Lord. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends”— there you have every waking moment of Jesus’ bodily days. “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends”— there you have the story of what your Lord Jesus does for you every day by the power of His resurrection and ascension into heaven. Your Lord Jesus did not merely die for you. Jesus now lives for you! The Ten Commandments spell out for you the details of His love for you: guarding and protecting you against the idolatry of your own desires in the first commandment; continually intervening for you for the sake of His own name and reputation in the second commandment; feeding you with forgiveness and nourishing your faith with the third commandment; attending to every need of body and life through the rest of the commandments. What do you think of God’s Ten Commandments? Jesus in today’s Gospel would like you to think of the commandments as the story of His life for you and as the expression of His joy. “These things I have spoken to you,” says the Lord, “that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.” Remain in Jesus’ love, continue in Jesus’ love, live always in His love. ABIDE in His love. _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list [email protected] http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
