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A sermon is a manner of oral communication and therefore words and sentence structure/order would be added, altered, or deleted at the moment of delivery. + In Nomine Jesu + The Rev. Evan Gaertner Holy Thursday We gather tonight brothers and sisters tonight to be fed with the good news of God’s Word that we have been given a new commandment. A traditional name for this Thursday of Holy Week is Maundy Thursday, which is from v. 34 of our Gospel text, “A new commandment I give to you that you love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one anther.” The word Maundy is from the Latin word “commandment.” The danger of the word commandment is we often look at this word commandment in light of the old commandment. The old commandment is framed by a do this because if you do not you will be damned. To put this in maybe its more subtle format: When Jesus says, “Love one another just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” we reduce this love of Jesus to be a mere example. If people only see in us an attempt to live in light of the examples we have been given by Jesus, they will quickly find our hypocrisy. If we fulfill this new commandment merely as example we disregard the comprehensive scope of Jesus love. Look at the first verse from John 13, “When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” Jesus saw us in the world and did not turn away. The love of Jesus for those in the world, for us sinners, is impossible, too large for us. Our meager attempts to love in the same way that Jesus loved do not, cannot match the love of Jesus. It is remarkably easy though to take this commandment of Jesus to love one another and put it into the framework of the old commandment. Do this love or you will be punished. Act as a Christian or you are in truh-ble. The love of Jesus is not primarily about a call for us to love. The power of the new commandment that Jesus gave to his disciples is found in Jesus’ trust in the will of the father. Jesus loved us to the end, to the cross, to the death. This love for us to the end is illogical because we can in no way deserve, repay, or reward this love. So when we reduce this love to become a love that is possible apart from the death and resurrection of Jesus, we take away the true power of this love. So many will talk about Christian love as if they are talking about a way of life, a system of values. But if we take Jesus out of the equation of love and just make it about love, we are still caught in the trying escape out of the old commandment. Without Jesus we do not have the freedom of the new commandment and the death threats of the old commandment remain. Without Jesus we are in the end responding to the old commandment and are under the damnation of the old threats. Jesus, having loved his own who were in the world, loved them completely. Jesus death on the cross was the crowning glory of his love. Consider the cross is an act of trust in God, in the kingdom, in the new commandment. Jesus’ dying on the cross is a trust that this love is a redeeming love, forgiving love, conquering love. Jesus’ flesh received the totality of our lovelessness, our own unbelief, our own condemnation. The crowning glory of God is Jesus receiving the world on the cross and not turning away. Jesus is the seal of the new commandment, to love one another just as we have been loved. The guarantee of this love is Jesus death and resurrection. By the power of the resurrected Jesus this love continues. Everything that we are, faith, love, knowing, seeing abide in Jesus whose new commandment has been given to us. The commandment to love one another as we have been loved is built upon the work of Jesus. Have faith in Christ. Trust in his love. Faith in Jesus is intricately connected to living as a child of God. We cannot separate our works, our love, our lives from the love of Christ. We remain in him and so our alive. Consequently the new commandment stretches through us to one another giving witness to God instead of to ourselves. Our love for one another is always Christ’s love. If Christ is absent, then love is absent. The love of Jesus is the love that sees us in this world and still continues to love us to the end. We trust in that love. We go forward with Christ and Christ alone.
Soli Deo Gloria |
