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This morning we have 2 biblical concepts to wrestle with, "glory" and "love." both glory and love carries a different weight outside these walls. It's important that we clearly understand what Jesus is talking about in our Gospel lesson, for it inspires us to continue to follow Jesus. His love for you is glorious. His love is shown through us.
John 13:31-35 31 When he was gone, Jesus said, "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in him. 32 If God is glorified in him, God will glorify the Son in himself, and will glorify him at once. 33 "My children, I will be with you only a little longer. You will look for me, and just as I told the Jews, so I tell you now: Where I am going, you cannot come. 34 "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." This morning John takes us to the Upper Room on Maundy Thursday. It seems backwards during the Easter Season to be talking about what Jesus said during Holy Week, but it's not. Jesus was not only preparing his disciples for the end of Holy Week, but he was preparing them for their whole lives. As we look back on what Jesus said, we see his anticipation of the resurrection and His ongoing instruction for the witnesses of the resurrection. Judas has just left the room. He was on his way to reveal the location of Jesus to His enemies. The wheels were in motion. Jesus knew this, and so He says, "Now is the Son of Man glorified." He could have spoken of gloom and doom of the impending suffering and death, but at this moment, He's looking ahead to the resurrection. He would be glorified in the end. But God's glory is not like the glory of the world. The world thinks glory is prestige and honor. To be noticed as great is to be glorified in the world. You're glorified if you're put on Time's 100 most influential people list. But God is glorified in doing great things, regardless if they are noticed. God sent His precious Son to save a worthless world. God's glory was shown throughout Jesus' ministry, as in every thought, word, and action of Jesus it was done in harmony with the will of God the Father. The height of God's glory was in the suffering and death of Jesus, as God had faithfully kept a tally of the world's sins and made sure that everyone of them was put on Jesus. There are many who treat his suffering and death as no big deal, and lose the close connection between the Father and the Son in our redemption. How often is the suffering, death, and resurrection passed off to us as nothing of great importance, aside from the sacrifice of one individual for a group. Does treating the suffering and resurrection of Jesus with intellectual contempt glorify God? No way! Both God the Father and God the son are intricately connected in our salvation, and both are glorified. God didn't care if anyone saw how great his glory would be. His Glory would shine regardless if anyone saw it. God's glory was not for his benefit, but for ours. God made a choice to save us through His Son, and his salvation was the greatest act of love. God's love is different than the world thinks. The world thinks of love as an emotion, a feeling. The World's notion of love is afflicted with emotional lofty lovey-dovey ideals. I'll die for you. I'll climb the highest mountain for you. But the lovey doevey has its limits. Take out the garbage for you? Make small sacrifices for you, that no one will write a song about? God's love is a conscious act of the will for our ultimate good. God so loved the world that—here comes the conscious act of the will for our ultimate good—He gave his one and only Son... We have this conscious act of the will for our ultimate good when Jesus says, "Where I am going, you cannot come." Where was Jesus going? Suffering, death, hell. They are being rescued, they can't rescue themselves. If we had a part in our rescue, then where would the glory be? Imagine if you lost your child or grandchild, and you went out diligently to look for them, nothing else mattered to you, everything else came second to finding that child, and when you do find them, there they are holding a compass and heading towards shelter. Would that really be as great a rescue story if the child was heading for safety anyway? Where I am going, you cannot come. Your salvation is not any of your doing. You have no part in your rescue. God must do all the rescue work, because the world is totally lost. The world doesn't have a compass. The world is walking right to its own destruction and didn't have a clue how bad the destruction was going to be. Sin always leads us to destruction. Sin blinds us with the prospect that it is something good while at the same time leading us blindfolded to the middle of hell. You wonder why some people do horrendous things, and why would people do destructive things to themselves, look no further than sin. A young man sins in his anger and angst, and college students are killed. Our sin can be just as destructive. Where I am going, you cannot come. Think of that phrase again with God's love. Where was Jesus going? To his suffering, death, hell. Where did he not want us to go? To our suffering, our death, and our hell. He made a choice to save us, and that choice was rooted in his desire not to see us suffer. His choice was rooted in his desire not to see us die eternally. God's rescue of us has no one else in mind except you. God didn't rescue us so he could pat himself on the back and how good of a god He is. He is God whether anyone acknowledges Him or not! Unselfish love. Unselfish choice. Unselfish action for our ultimate good. What a wonderful picture in Revelation this morning of the end result of what Jesus did for you. We are His Bride, whom he chooses to live with forever. And because He made that choice, He'll make sure she's happy the entire time they are together. Not just in pandering to all of her whims, but what will bring her true and lasting happiness, the expulsion of her sin. Jesus love for you is glorious, for He did a great thing to deliver you from eternal suffering in hell. His love is also shown through you. Jesus gave his disciples a new command to love one another, but is it really new? It is new because of the motivation. In the Old Testament, The Jews were taught to love one another as they loved themselves. (Leviticus 19:18) We call this the Golden rule, treat others the way you would want to be treated. We see what is new about this command is the motivation. Christ said, "Love others as I have loved you." Let's compare the Old Testament command with Christ's command. Do others as you would have them done to you. Behave towards others as you would want them to behave towards you. The Old testament Law is perfect and right, but it doesn't work with sinful people because we are selfish. I'm doing good to others because that's the way I want to be treated, but I'm treated like dirt. People had better appreciate all the things I'm doing for them and pay me back in some way for everything I do. If they don't appreciate me, well, God better appreciate me for all the things I am doing for others. Notice how quickly the Old Testament love for others quickly turns to love of self. Our love has some ego left over. I'll climb the highest mountain for you, but I'd better be appreciated for it. There had better be a song written about my heroic efforts. Jesus puts a twist on this commandment, changing it to fit his New Testament Church. Treat others the way Jesus has treated you. Love others the way Jesus has loved you. Did Jesus love for us leave any room for his ego? His ego was at the door when he tied a towel around his wastes and washed his disciples feet. His ego was at the door when he spent hours teaching his disciples the truths of the Kingdom of God. His ego was at the door on the cross. There is no way we can love the way Jesus loved us. It is unlike any love for anyone. It's easy to love someone who agrees with you or who benefits you in some way, but to love those who want no good to come to you or who are a burden to you, that's a different love entirely. The only way to love as Jesus loved us is to dwell on Jesus. Jesus made a choice for our ultimate good. His love is yours, his free gift to you, not through your action, but entirely because of what He did for you. That is how the world will know we are followers of Jesus. Not that we follow the Golden Rule, which makes sense in principle, but the Gospel, which makes no sense, doing what is for the ultimate good of the other. Amen |