Sermon for Easter 6B, May 10, 2015

Text: John 15:9-17

            Beloved in Christ, it is so easy to misunderstand the word “commandment” as it is used in our English translations of the New Testament. For us, “commandment” is exclusively a law term. It tells us what to do and not to do. It is all about laying down the rules and enforcing them. It is all about changing our behavior and getting us to conform. But as you look throughout the New Testament—and especially in the writings of John—that is just not the case. You see that the Greek word that is being translated as "commandment" must have a broader use than the English word allows. And if you approach today’s Gospel with the assumption that Jesus is giving some rules to His disciples before He takes off, you will grossly misunderstand what He is saying.

            It might be helpful for us to begin by looking at 1 John 3:23, where John writes, “And this is [God’s] commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as He has commanded us.” Now the words “love one another” are a commandment as we traditionally use that term. Those words are telling us to do something, something that will require hard work on our part. But look at the first part of this commandment: “that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ.” That isn’t a statement of the law, but an invitation of the gospel. It is an invitation for us to find our life in Christ.

            Instead of saying “commandment,” it might be more useful to say “teaching” or “lesson.” If you want to be more literal, you could say, “something that has been entrusted to us by a teacher.” Sometimes these points to be learned are rules. Other times they are truths that God has revealed about Himself. Still other times they involve both. Now go back to that sentence in 1 John 3 again with this new understanding: “This is what God has entrusted to us, that we believe in the name of His Son Christ and love one another.” That puts a different perspective on things, doesn’t it?

            Why do I mention all this? It’s because so many people think that Christianity is all about following rules. Even people who don’t like a multitude of rules still think that Christianity involves one rule—loving other people—and they judge others based on how well they have kept that one rule. And people naturally assume that this is the case because there are rules in Christianity, just as there are rules everywhere. We can’t live without rules. Even people who say that there are no rules have their own rules. Don’t believe me? Imagine what would happen to a man dressed in a tuxedo who walked into a Hell’s Angels’ bar and tried to order a Shirley Temple, especially if his limo was blocking their motorcycles in. What would happen to the “there are no rules” or “live and let live” philosophy then? And so there are rules everywhere, including in Christianity. They are summarized by the Ten Commandments, but of course those commandments go very deep. The commandment “You shall not murder,” for example, also forbids anything that would harm anyone, including ourselves. It forbids not just murder and suicide, but domestic violence, fighting, brawling, and the like. It also forbids anger, hatred, name-calling, and bullying. And so with all the other commandments.

            Now these rules are absolutely necessary. They are exactly what we need as a society and especially as Christians. To talk about “holiness” without taking these rules seriously would be to make the Christian life into a joke. Yes, I know that they are difficult, indeed impossible for us to keep, but we cannot set them aside for that reason. Even the command of Jesus that we His disciples love one another is so difficult that no Christian has kept it consistently. But that doesn’t mean that we can set it aside. And so if we assume that Christianity is all about keeping the rules, we really end up in a dilemma. Either we fudge the rules or we fudge our record of keeping them. But our Lord Jesus Christ came to bring us life—life that is deeper than merely keeping the rules. Rules may help our lives to be more orderly and constructive, but they really do not give life. And so the real power for life comes from outside these rules.

            You see, what makes us “us” isn’t the way we have kept the rules but rather the fact that God has given us life. He gave us life when He created us in the first place, but He also gave us new life when He forgave our sins. Talk about something that energizes us and fills us with joy and hope! All our sin, all the evil we have done, all the mistakes we have made that still cause us deep regret—all of those things have been forgiven. God loves us, not based on how well we have kept the rules, but based on how generous and good He is.

            This is what got Jesus excited in today’s Gospel and what He longed to talk about. He didn’t start by saying, “Do this” or “Don’t do that,” but instead He spoke about His great love for us. It is a God-size love. Jesus said, “As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you.” Think about that for a moment. The intensity of Christ’s love for us can only be described in terms of God the Father’s love for His Son. It is epic. It is cosmic. It is beyond all telling. It is more intense than all the quasars and black holes combined. It is more beautiful than the forests. It is more enduring than the mountains. God the Father didn’t love His Son half-heartedly, but always and with the deepest love. That is the same measure of Christ’s love for us.

            That is the legacy Christ wanted to leave us. He wanted us to abide in His love, and therefore He directs us to His words, where we will find His love. Earlier in this chapter our Lord had urged His disciples to abide in His Word as a way to abide in Him. Now He adds that His words (what He calls here His commandments) are the means by which we abide in His love. Just as the Son clung to His Father’s words and found in them nothing but love, so we will find nothing but love if we cling to Christ’s words. Make sure that you understand that Jesus is not saying that if we obey Him sufficiently He will love us. No. He talks about keeping His words, that is, treasuring them and clinging to them. We hold onto them because they are words of love.

            They are like letters that you got from home when you were away. Maybe some of you can’t relate because you never were away from home or because you’ve never used snail mail to correspond with loved ones. But when I left for college, which was a thousand miles away from home, there was no email, and so I would write to my parents and they to me. I also corresponded with some friends from high school. I still cherish the letters that I got, for I know that there was a lot of time and effort that went into these handwritten letters. By reading those words, I would abide in my parents’ love. Furthermore, nobody would say that I had to read the letters several times to prove my worthiness and then my parents would love me. No, it was precisely because they loved me that they sent these letters to me. So it wasn’t my reading of the letters that caused my parents to love me, but rather I learned even more how my parents loved me as I read the letters.

            Now there would be instructions in those letters. A mom can’t write a note to her son without giving helpful reminders about what to do and not to do. But nobody would say that the letters were just all about laying down rules and guidelines. Instead, whatever she wrote in those letters was intended to be helpful advice spoken out of love. And that is true with the instructions our Lord gives. Not every instruction our Lord gives is a rule or part of the law, but some things our Lord teaches are. That is true with His commandment to “love one another.” Without a doubt it is law, and not an easy one either. But just as my mom’s advice was couched in an attitude of love, so is Christ’s. He is not giving an order for the sake of giving an order. No, He entrusts us one to another so that we can love each other and thereby experience again the same sort of love that He has for us.

            Look at the second paragraph in today’s gospel. It begins and ends with the commandment to love one another, but most of it is all about Christ’s great love for us. He is the one who lays down His life for us, as a true friend should. Lest we lose the point, He calls us friends. And if we are friends, we are no longer mere servants who are kept in the dark. Instead we are friends who have the privilege of knowing all that Christ has revealed about God the Father. Furthermore, we aren’t the ones who initiated this friendship, but rather Christ is. He wants that rich life of love to flourish in us and bear fruit so that we may pray completely confidently to the Father. Yes, Christ wants us to love one another. That is a command, not a suggestion. But the more we look at it, we see that it is simply another way of abiding in God’s love—and that is not burdensome at all.

            And so, beloved in Christ, abide in Christ’s love. That is His legacy to you. And also embrace your brothers and sisters in Christ, for they too are part of His legacy to you. In Jesus’ name. Amen.