Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Gospel according to John, the fifteenth chapter:
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 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. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
Thus far the text.
My dear friends in Christ,
She loves me. She loves me not. She loves me. She loves me not. Have you ever done this? When I was younger and I’d get a schoolboy crush on a girl, I’d think about her and pull the petals off a flower. One petal was she loves, the other was she loves me not. And I’d go around the whole flower, thinking if I got to the end of all the petals, and the last petal was she loves me, well, then she probably did. It was silly, and of course it didn’t mean anything. You’ll never know if someone loves you by pulling petals off a flower. Flowers have nothing do with love.
But, we do wonder sometimes if someone loves us. I sometimes have to discipline my little boy when he does something wrong at home. And lately, and it breaks my heart, but after his discipline, he asks me if I still love him. And of course, the answer is yes! But I have tears in my eyes as I pull him close to me and hug him. And I just want to squeeze him so hard his eyes start to pop out, and I tell him that I will always love him, whether he makes good choices and bad choices, and there’s nothing he can do to get rid of my love. All he wants to know is if I love him.
Sometimes you might argue with your parents, or your brothers or your sisters, even your friends, and you might wonder, do they still love me? Do they even like me? Who we love changes. Throughout your whole life, there will be people that come into your life that you choose to love, and those who are chosen for you to love. Mom and dad, you always have to love. Siblings, you always have to love. Friends change. You change churches. You meet new people. You choose to love those people.
But, here’s the thing to remember: God chose you. He chose to make you so that He could love you. He chose to create you, you out of all the people He could have made, He chose to create you so that He could love you. And His love for you never wanes. It never gets less. God’s love for you always remains. It’s consistent. It’s steadfast. It’s immovable.
Now, you don’t deserve this love; I don’t either. Everything we do is sinful, everything we do is against God and His Law. For that He should be rightfully angry. You don’t deserve His love, but, you have it nonetheless. God chose you to love, and He doesn’t change His mind about that. But, what does it mean that God loves you?
Jesus tells us that there is no greater love that can be had than in laying down one’s life for a friend. That means you’re literally dying for someone else. And in the love of God, Jesus Himself, sent by God the Father, laid down His life for you. There is no greater love than laying down your life for a friend, and Jesus laid down His life for you, His friend. He did. He counts you as His friend. He chose to love as His friend. He’ll always be with you, for He loves you. And because He loves you, you can follow Him through this Lenten season, watching how He loves you and showing that same love to others along the way. Christ loves you so much, more than you could know, all the way to the cross. There is no greater love than this. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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