Sunday's Message - If We Love Him

Here's the message I offered during the celebration service in the Presbyterian Church of Hopedale on Sunday, May 17.

John 14:15-21

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.

“I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.

“They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”

If We Love Him

Let me ask y’all a question: have y’all ever heard of something called a “conditional sentence”? Well, don’t worry if you haven’t. It’s one of those things that we use all the time without knowing what it’s officially called. You see, a conditional sentence always has two parts. In one part, usually beginning with the word “if,” there’s a condition. And then, in the other part, there’s a consequence. For example, I might say, “If it rains (the condition), the picnic will be canceled (the consequence).” Pretty cool, right?

And you know, as we go through this pandemic, conditional sentences have become a big deal. For instance, if you want to go certain place, you have to wear a mask. And if you want to eat out, it’s got to be take out and brought back home. And of course, the big one we hear all the time, if this lock-down continues for too much longer, it’s going to be devastating to the economy, but if it’s ended too soon, more people will get sick and die. It’s like being caught between a rock and a hard place.

And I’ll tell you, all this corona conditional jazz has hit the Rudiger family close to home. As I mentioned last week, Maggie is in the class of 2020; therefore, she’s suppose to be graduating from Weir High this month. But that’s all up in the air thanks to COVID-19. For example, a couple of weeks ago, we got a robo call from the Superintendent of the Hancock County schools saying that, if the governor and the state department of health give their approval, graduation would still be held on Wednesday, May 27, but they’d do it on the athletic field with a limited attendance. In other words, if these conditions are met, a modified graduation will take place. You see, that’s a conditional sentence.

And you know, we’ve got another one right here in the passage we’re looking at this morning. I mean, remember what we talked about last week. Jesus told two of his disciples that he was about go somewhere, and if they wanted to know where he was going, they’d need to trust him, something that they didn’t seem able to do. Well, right after he said all that, Jesus dropped on them a conditional sentence, didn’t he? He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” [John 14:15, NRSV] Now, at this point, there was no way for Thomas and Philip to know what he meant by “my commandments.” But Jesus would remedy that in just a minute, when he said, “If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” [John 15:10-12, NRSV] And so the command was clear, “that you love one another I have loved you.” And just so they wouldn’t get the idea that this love was just emotional, Jesus continued: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.” [John 15:13-14, NRSV] And so, there you have it. Both the condition and the consequence were clear. If those disciples really loved Jesus, they would love one another in the same way he will soon show his love for them. If they loved him, that’s what he expected them to do.

But you know, even though the expectation was straight forward, actually doing it would be really challenging. I mean, as I think everybody knows, loving one another in the same sacrificial way Jesus loved us, man, that’s going to be tough. And I think Jesus knew it, and that was why he made them this two-fold promise. I mean, first, he said, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.” [John 14:16-17, NRSV] In other words, to help them obey his command to love, the disciples were going to receive something Jesus called a παρακλητος, an Advocate, someone who would challenge them when necessary and comfort them when needed and advocate for them all the time. Put another way, after Jesus left, he’d send another figure that would do for them same kind of thing that he’d done while he was with them. That was the first promise. And second, Jesus promised that he would come back, if only for a short time, to do it, you know, to give them the Spirit. And I think that was what he was getting at when he said, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” [John 14:18-20, NRSV] Now that’s what he said. And you know, that was exactly what happened. Now, we’re going to talk about this again when I’m back here on Pentecost, but listen to how John described the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of truth: “When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’” [John 20:19-23, NRSV] And so, according to Jesus, if you love me, what will you do? “You will keep my commandments.” And if that’s what you decide to do, how will Jesus help? After leaving, he’ll come back and bring to you another Advocate, the Spirit of Truth, the Holy Spirit. And so they have the what and the how.

And the why, why should they show their love for Jesus by keeping that commandment to love others as they’ve been loved, just listen: “They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.” [John 14:21, NRSV] You see, if they chose to claim the Spirit and to obey the Son, not only would they be showing their love for him, they’d also be sharing in both the love of the Father and Son. And that just makes sense, because remember, in the passage we looked at last week, “Jesus said..., ‘Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, “Show us the Father”? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves.’” [John 20:19-23, NRSV] And so, according to John, Jesus was clear in what he said to those disciples. “If you love me, then you will keep my commandments.” [John 14:15, NRSV]

And I’ll tell you, I think that same conditional sentence applies to us. You see, if we’re serious about loving Jesus, I mean, if we’re willing to do something more than just talking about what we feel and if we’re ready to let the rubber hit the road and to start showing that loving our Lord and Savior is a heck of a lot more than just making a bunch of promises that ain’t worth a bucket of spit unless we actually do something, if that’s where we are, then we know exactly what to do, right? Man, we need to keep his commandments. In other words, we need to roll up our sleeves and to do something about it, maybe putting into action some other words Jesus offered, this time in the Gospel of Matthew: “for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me... Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.” [Matthew 25:35-36 & 40b, NRSV] We can do that. Or maybe it means working into our character some of these words of Paul: “Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.” [1 Corinthians 13:4-7, NRSV] I’ll tell you, just like those disciples, we know exactly what to do, if we really do love Jesus.

But you know, unlike them, we’ve got a leg up on the how, and I’ll tell you what I mean. Remember how, after the resurrection, Jesus breathed on the disciples and they received the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Spirit of truth. Well, I want you to believe this: that Spirit is alive and well and living in the town of Hopedale and in Weirton and even in Pittsburgh. And that Spirit is still doing what Jesus said that it would do. A little later in this same conversation, Jesus will say, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will prove the world wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because they do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will see me no longer; about judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.” [John 16:7-11, NRSV] You see, we live after he returned; therefore, we’re actually in a better condition than those disciples who had to wait. I’m telling you, if we’re serious about showing our love to Jesus by keeping the commandment to love others, we can claim that Spirit which is in us right now. And that’s how we can do it.

And as to the why, why would we want to show that we love Jesus by loving one another as he loved us; well, I don’t think that’s changed at all. You see, when we do that, not only will we be showing our love for him, we’ll also be able to share in his love for us. As a matter of fact, when we make the decision to be actively loving, we might actually begin to really understand what Jesus was getting at when he said, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” [John 3:14-17, NRSV] I’m telling you, that’s why we do it.

And you know, all this flows from that one conditional sentence, “If you love me, then you will keep my commandments.” [John 14:15, NRSV] Of course, just because the condition and the consequence are clear, that doesn’t mean things will work out the way we want. Remember, right at the beginning, I was telling you about how the superintendent said that, if the governor and the state department of health gave their approval, graduation would still be held on Wednesday, May 27? Well, Friday we got a call telling us that neither the governor nor the department of health gave it’s approval; therefore, Maggie’s graduation is now scheduled for July 27. That’s just the way it is, the condition wasn’t met. And I think that’s also true of that statement in the passage we read. You see, even though we may believe that when we keep the commandment offered by Jesus, we move closer to God, and even though we may believe that, through the Spirit, Jesus has given us the ability to do it, and even though we may believe that keeping the commandment means loving one another in the same way as we’ve been loved by Jesus himself, man, even though the consequence is clear, the condition is still in doubt. And you know, that’s going to be the case until we prove the condition is true and we decide if we really do love him.