Love One Another

May 13, 2012
Easter 6B, Mother’s Day


GOSPEL LESSON: John 15:9–17
9As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
12“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you. 15No 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. 16You 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. 17These things I command you, so that you will love one another.
P: This is the Gospel of our Lord.
C: Praise to you, O Christ.

Everyone knows the Golden Rule. Jesus said, “Do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and Prophets” (Mt.7:12). This is not the same as the New Commandment [cf. John 13:34] that Jesus spoke in today’s Gospel reading, “12This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.” Not “do as you want them to do to you,” but rather “do as I have done to you.” Not “love them as you want them to love you,” but rather “love them as I have loved you.”

The Golden Rule is easy to understand. It is a good way for mothers to train their children to know how to act with other people. It teaches social skills and Jesus says that it fulfills the teaching of the whole Old Testament: the Ten Commandments and the advice of the Psalms and Proverbs. “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The problem with the Golden Rule is that it is selfish. We are nice to others only because we want them to be nice to us. We share our toys because we want to play with the toys of other kids. On the other hand, if we do not care how they act, or if we do not have to worry about them getting revenge, we can treat them however we want. If we have enough power or authority over others, we can ill treat them and bully them or ignore them completely. The Golden Rule means, “I’ll scratch you back if you scratch mine.” I am thinking about what is good for me, then I will do that same good thing to you. If we call that “love,” then it is a calculating love, even a self-serving love. It is a love that uses other people for our own benefit.

The perversion of the Golden Rule is also very selfish. There are people who hate themselves and the whole world. They hate others as they feel that they are hated by others. Or people think it means, “Do unto others what they do to me.” Now, if you are in a loving relationship with others, the Golden Rule is great! Otherwise it is a life of revenge and evil.

Since the Golden Rule is based on myself, it does not need God. I set the standards. My standards might be the same as God’s, but not necessarily. The Rule is a Law, but it is not Gospel. Even when it works smoothly in a good loving relationship, it is because of what I do or because of what other people do. It is not really about salvation, it is about survival. It is for survival in this world only. The Rule may get us by, but it gives no power to live. That is why it is frustrating, because people do not always love us back. Other people are just as selfish and are trying to use us for their advantage.

But in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus gives us a whole new way of life with other people. He says, “12This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.” This is not selfish love, but rather gratitude love. It is not a love that tries to gain something, but rather to share what one has already gained. It is not motivated by what I want to receive, but rather by what Jesus wanted me to receive. If we are in a good relationship, if we are good friends, then we will mutually love one another.

But there are times when our love is not returned. Should that stop us from loving or caring or being kind? It should not. If we love as Jesus has loved us, then we see what happened when Jesus loved us. Look at the life of Jesus. He loved everyone. He healed people. He taught them about God’s love. But the leaders rejected Jesus and to him they showed no love. They hated Jesus so much that they crucified him. Look at all the people in the world today who have received the love of God but do not love him in return. God has blessed this world in many ways. He has given us life. He has given us food and friends and family. But even if people do not recognize the love of God, God does not quit loving them. As Jesus says in Mt. 5:45, “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” In other words, whether people repay God’s love or not, God does not stop loving people. That is pure gospel. It is pure love. It is pure salvation. It is pure unselfishness. It is pure love that Jesus died on the cross to forgive us. He forgives our selfishness. He forgives our lack of gratitude.

Jesus said, “12This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do what I command you.” The friends of Jesus are those people who love one another. The measure of love is that we live and die for our friend. Jesus lived and died for us. This is the power so that we can do as Jesus says. It is the power so that we can truly love one another.

Jesus said, “9As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. 11These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” God the Father loved Jesus, Jesus loved us, and we love one another. This love gives true joy, it is joy that is full, it is love that is full.

Amen.

Michael Nearhood, Pastor
Okinawa Lutheran Church


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