Fifth Sunday of Easter (C) 2019

+ In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti + Amen.

Text: John 13:31-32
Theme: Love Glorified


Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Dear friends in Christ Jesus,

“God is love.”1 You’ve heard that before. At least, I hope you have! But do those words wash out of our thoughts like water off a duck’s back, or fail to penetrate our ears like rain on impervious soil? Do we dismiss that truth as if it were a hollow religious platitude? Yes, God is love, but is that tangible to us? Do we believe it is vital to our well-being? Or can we get along okay without it? Is it necessary to recognize God’s love? Do we need to thank Him for it? Does it really change things? Today, Jesus said, “Love one another: just as I have loved you.”2 Here we have the sum and substance of biblical truth.

So, what are the contours of divine love and how does it shape human love? How does love relate to the demands of God’s law, and the promises of His gospel? Love is certainly a command. The first three commandments instruct us to love God above all things. The remaining commandments bid us to love others selflessly. So, love is an obligation incumbent upon those charged with the welfare of others. Love is not an option. It is a requirement. God directs us to care for each other. In this sense, human love is often not as voluntary as it ideally should be. Motivations are often hidden. Be warned that sometimes the most tainted acts of love are those in which the heart craves the recognition of altruism from others. False humility is a favourite deception of Satan.

So, love is the command and the ideal, but all efforts are tainted by sin. The corruption of sin is so insidious that nothing in all creation remains unaffected. God demands purity of actions, but also of speech and of motivations. Honest reflection on God’s law quickly condemns us. A brief tour through the commandments is always confronting. Recognition of our shortcomings is precisely the point of confessing our sins publicly in the Divine Service. The pastor says, “I ask each of you in the presence of God who searches the heart: Do you confess that you have sinned, and do you repent of your sins.”3 Apart from such repentance, the declaration of forgiveness can have little meaning.

Do you love God above all things and show evidence of that by your actions? Do you honour the Sabbath as God’s holy day? Do you respect all proper authority? Do you value life as God’s gift and seek to protect it? Are your thoughts and actions free from sexual immorality? Does your anger ever flare up? Are you so free from jealousy and envy that you are consistently content? Are you knowingly selfish and resolute in your right to be so? Is your faith characterized by such firm trust in the Almighty that all your anxieties, worries and doubts are firstly committed to His care? Dare anyone claim to answer affirmatively?

Dear friends, there is no act of human love that is completely free of self-interest. An expression of love can be so spontaneous, so passionate, so free, that the mover is not self- aware of personal benefit. Still, motives always display a degree of impurity. This is a biblical axiom. Sin is so all-pervasive that no human faculties remain uncontaminated. If perfection were achievable in any facet of human virtue then the holiness of Christ, and His atoning sacrifice for sin would be unnecessary for our salvation. Then God could put us on a path of moral reform and religious rectitude, and we could ascend to the lofty heights of holiness under our own efforts.

Indeed, many either intentionally or unwittingly think this is exactly the method of Christianity. The logic is simple: Christ is the example par excellence. Imitate Him. Emulate Him. Replicate His singlemindedness. Mimic His steadfastness. Copy His cleanliness. Reproduce His selflessness and you will push open the gates of heaven with neither St. Peter nor the angels able to hold them shut. God will be forced to recognize your claim of worthiness!

God forbid, dear friends, that we would be trapped in such deception! Oh, how foolish we are to want to be back under the yoke of the law! As Paul said to the Galatians, “You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you…After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort…..Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’”4 What goal were these Galatians trying to achieve? There is one, and only one that matters: To get from this fallen world into the glorious presence of the triune God in that existence called heaven. The goal is to live with confidence in the grace of God.

Do not lose track, dear friends, of what should most be valued. Your baptism is infinitely more important that any title, honour, or accomplishment that is rendered to or by you in this life. Your identity as God’s child is immeasurably more valuable than all you could ever hope to possess, participate in, or experience in this world. The Lord cuts to the heart of the matter when He says, “What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”5

Love is the command of God. But love is also a description of the uninhibited expression of goodness of one to another. As such, love is the fulfilling of the law. Only Christ could achieve this. His fulfillment, actively- following the commands-, and passively- giving His life in sacrifice- is the definition of divine love. Today Jesus said, “Now is the Son of Man glorified.”6 What did He mean? He meant that the defining act of God’s love was about to take place: His own death and resurrection on behalf of sinners.
Pilate brought Jesus out and said, “Behold the man!”7 And what the crowd beheld was the most improbable suspect to ever stand trial. There was no crime, there was no transgression, there was no conspiracy worthy of conviction. But there was a strategy in play- an ‘invisible’ one devised by God- to restore creation to its original purpose. You see, in order to establish genuine peace, the paradigm of false peace had to be overturned. In order to establish genuine love, the structures of false love had to be subverted. In order to establish permanence, the façade and machinery of everything temporary had to be destroyed. The Man who hung upon the cross accomplished this in one fell swoop.

Christ is glorified in His crucifixion and the Father triumphs in the Son’s perfect obedience. The Scripture says, “This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”8 Pray that the Spirit would animate you with His love. And when He does, rejoice that you are privileged to participate in the work of the kingdom. Christ lives and His kingdom is eternal.

The Bible often uses marriage to teach about divine love. We heard this reference in the Book of Revelation, “I saw the Holy City (that signifies all God’s people)- prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.”9 The image is one of proper marital love. Christ will cherish His Bride, the Church, and the union will be one of pure, vibrant, and incorruptible love. The first blessing of this eternal union is God’s glorious and accessible presence with His people. Other blessings that follow are the elimination of all grief, pain, and death. These promises we can only grasp now by faith. They are not tangible to us presently. This is where faith does its ‘heavy lifting’. Yet, its not really faith that is doing the lifting, it is Christ. He is the one who will make good on the promises. He loves us with an incorruptible love. Amen.

Christ is risen! Alleluia!
He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

+ In nomine Jesu +

Fifth Sunday of Easter
19 May 2019
Reverend Darrin L. Kohrt
1 1 John 4:8
2 John 13:34
3 LH p.6
4 Galatians 3:1, 3, 11
5 Mark 8:37
6 John 13:31
7 John 19:6
8 1 John 4:10
9 Revelation 21:2