Sermons

Several years ago, there was an expedition of explorers who were exploring Antartica. Unexpectedly, they were caught in a blizzard and trapped for several weeks. As they hunkered down in their tents, their food supply got lower and lower and they got hungrier and hungrier. They became more and more afraid that they would starve to death. One night, one of the men awoke and saw another man opening a third man's food sack. "He's stealing that guy's food," the first man thought. He was about to say something when he noticed that, instead of stealing food, the man was putting extra food into his friend's food sack, which he had taken from his own supply. He was doing it in the middle of the night, because he didn't want anyone else to know about his act of kindness. That's the love of friends. A friend is willing to selflessly sacrifice for his friend. The love of friends is what Jesus talks about in these verses which we would like to consider today. THE LOVE OF FRIENDS Nine times in these verses Jesus uses some form of the word "love." Three times he talks about friends. He is talking about the love of friends. And in the middle of our text, Jesus said what may be the most often quoted words about friends: "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends." What most people don't know are Jesus' next words: "You are my friends." There is no greater love that anyone can show for a friend than the willingness to die in that friend's place. We don't need Jesus to tell us that. That's obvious. And it's what Jesus says, too. This is the greatest act of love one friend can show another friend--to lay down his life for that friend. And that's what Jesus did for us, his friends. I told you that story about the starving man in Antartica who was willing to give up his food so his friend would have a better chance of living. It's a memorable story, because it's such a rare story. How often does something like that really happen? How many of us would be willing to do the same thing? We hear occasionally of parents who have lost their lives as they save their children from a fire or from drowning. But there's a reason we hear about it, because it doesn't happen very often. But it did happen with Jesus. He gave up his life for us, his friends. He didn't just give up his life for one friend, he gave up his life for everyone. We were the ones starving and Jesus gave up his food. We were the ones in the burning building and Jesus rescued us. We were the ones drowning in the lake of fire and Jesus saved us. And in a sense, he did it over and over again, because he did this for every person who ever lived when he gave up his life on the cross. Jesus tells us here that we are to love each other. The Bible tells us that elsewhere. We know we are to love other people. But, my friends, we cannot really love other people until we know the love of Jesus in our hearts. "We love," the Bible says, "because he first loved us." Only then can we truly love each other, when we really know in our hearts the love of our friend Jesus. II. And that's the other thing that Jesus talks about here--loving our Christian friends. Jesus says: "My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you." Later he says: "This is my command: Love each oher." We know that the Bible tells us to love all people. Jesus even told us to love our enemies. But what Jesus is talking about specifically in these words and what we'd like to spend some time thinking about today is this love: the love for each other, our brothers and sisters in the Christian faith, the fellow members of our Christian congregation. Jesus spoke these words originally to his disciples. These words are part of his conversation with them in the upper room on Maundy Thursday evening, the night before he died. Remember the disciples and some of the arguments they had? On occasion they would argue about who would be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. They had just had another one of those arguments just a few minutes earlier. Jesus directed these words first of all to them. They were to love each other, not get into disputes about who was the greatest. As Jesus would do for them, they were to be willing to sacrifice for each other, instead of trying to tear each other down. And that's what he says to us, too. Jesus, who loved us so much that he gave up his life for us, wants us to love each other, our Christian brothers and sisters. As I think about that subject, it is easy for me to quickly think of both negative and positive examples. I can easily and quickly think of times when the members of our church have shown love to each other, in wonderful and self-sacrificing ways. And I can just as easily and quickly think of examples of members who have been cold-hearted and cruel to other members. It seems to me that the positive examples of Christians showing love to Christians come from difficult times. When one member of our Christian family has experienced a tragedy of some sort, there are so many people who, in love, are quick to extend help and comfort. I can think of countless times when that has been the case. My family and I have been recipients of that Christian love at different times. Most of us have. It is a wonderful thing to be a part of. It is a wonderful thing to see--Christians showing love to other Christians. And yet, we would be ignoring the truth if we did not admit that we are sometimes like the disciples, who occasionally took shots at each other, rather than showing love to each other. It seems to me that Christians are at their worst when they start talking about other Christians behind their backs. For some reason, when Christians get to talking, the Eighth Commandment often goes flying out the window, and the devil leads us to say some mean and hurtful things. It is at times like that we demonstrate very little love for each other. The point is simply this: we need to hear these words of Jesus and to take them to heart. He says, "Love each other as I have loved you." And like the disciples, we know that we can always improve in this area of Christian life--showing love to our fellow Christians. It is one of the many areas in which we often fail--but that's why Jesus loved us and laid down his life for us, so that we might have forgiveness for those failures. Knowing the love of our friend Jesus, let us show love for our Christian friends. That brings up another point: our fellow Christians are sinners. That's why they need Jesus' death on the cross, just as we do. That's what makes them hard to love sometimes--their sinfulness. Yes, they are sinners, but as Christians, they are forgiven sinners, just as we are. Our fellow Christians sin like we do, they have repented like we have, they know the forgiving love of Jesus, as we have. Which means they will be with us forever in heaven as well. So, let us love one another. Let us love our Christian friends with a love that, with God's blessings, will be continued into eternity. Let us love each other as our friend Jesus has loved us. AMEN.