LOVE TO THE LOVELESS SHOWN
Sermon Text: St. John 8:46-59 (v. 52a, 53b). Then the Jews said to Him, “… Who do You make Yourself out to be?”
Lord, this is Your Word and these are Your words. Dear Father, through Your Son You promised: “If anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.” We ask You: Send Your Holy Spirit into our hearts, that, as You have caused us to hear Your Word and to know Your Son, we may keep His Word, trust in it with our whole heart, take comfort in it, and never see eternal death; for the sake of Your Son, our Savior. Amen.
In the name of Jesus, the great I Am, dear people loved by God: Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
What a title this hymn has that we just sang: “My Song is Love Unknown.” We sing of a love that we say is “unknown.” But we know Jesus and His love! This hymn suggests that you might know it on a factual level, you know what Jesus did – “the Savior’s love to me” – but that it’s a mystery you can’t ever “know” fully. This is called growing in the knowledge of Christ.
The next line of that first stanza – the theme of this sermon, Love to the Loveless Shown, That They Might Lovely Be – not only pictures what Jesus did in His Passion. It also pictures what we see in John 8. In a way this is Jesus’ pre-trial hearing. We’ve come into the middle of a contentious scene.
It says in verse 13, at the beginning of this confrontation, that these are the Pharisees. They are the ones who will condemn Jesus in a late-night trial and bring Him to Pontius Pilate, and will stir up the mob to yell, “Crucify Him!” This is months before that, but it’s a preview of it, taking place on the temple grounds. The Pharisees come up and question Jesus, making accusations right away: “You bear witness of Yourself; Your witness is not true.”
They’re reacting negatively to Jesus’ “witness about Himself,” what He said about who He is. This actually goes back to John 5, when He healed a lame man on the Sabbath. When they questioned Jesus, the result was: they “sought to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath” (in their view) “but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God.”
This is the issue: who Jesus is. As we said together in our creed today: that He is “God of God … very God of very God … being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.”This is the problem that the Pharisees, and other unbelieving Jews, had with Him, which we see in John 8. They keep hearing Jesus say things like, “I am with the Father who sent Me,” and, “I proceeded and came forth from God,” and, “the Father who sent Me.” This is what they reject: that Jesus is the Son of God, that is, true God.
At the point where our Gospel lesson begins, which is toward the end of this conversation in John 8, Jesus repeats back to them their rejection of Him: “Which of you convicts Me of sin? And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe Me?” He says that they already judge Him guilty of the sin of blasphemy, and He declares that they don’t believe in Him.
The Pharisees don’t deny it. They just accuse Him of being a “Samaritan” – and they hated Samaritans, so this is showing that they have only hatred in their hearts for Jesus – and they accuse Him of being demon-possessed. Jesus says He is not demon-possessed; He doesn’t reply to the charge of being a Samaritan, showing that He accepts being the hated one! When He says that they must honor Him in the same way they honor the Father – so He is equal to the Father – they answer: “Who do you make Yourself out to be?” It’s as Caiaphas will say in the trial, “Tell us if You are the Christ, the Son of God!”
What are we seeing here? We focus on the words. But behind Jesus’ words, and the fact that these conversation goes on and on, back and forth, we see Jesus’ patience. He doesn’t end the conversation; they do. They’re being arrogant, shallow, selfish. They refuse to let Him be God. They stand in judgment over Him. Then He really does answer this question, says, “Before Abraham was, I Am” – that He is the “I Am” who spoke to Moses from the burning bush – and they attempt to stone Him to death. Then Jesus does lean into His True-God-ness, and goes right through the men trying to kill Him.
But He is patient with them. He doesn’t play His Deity-of-Christ trump card. He doesn’t show that He is all-powerful. He doesn’t strike them down. He doesn’t lash out at them. He doesn’t take it personally or get huffy. He puts up with it because He loves them. He wants them. He won’t give up on them. They are after Him to kill Him, but He is after them to win them!
This shows how He is to those who are loveless toward Him. This is what our sin is: lovelessness, first of all to God. You don’t love Him above all things. You don’t fear and love Him enough to put Him first all the time. You don’t fear and love Him enough to be patient with your wife/husband, your child, or the people who are making you late. You don’t fear and love Him enough to humble yourself and let others be first. You don’t fear and love Him enough to hold your tongue about others. You don’t fear and love Him enough to not put people on the other side politically into the enemy camp. You don’t fear and love Him enough to let that grudge go. In other words, our sins are not just “lawlessness” – they are lovelessness toward the Lord.
Even if you do know this, how do you act toward those who are loveless toward you, from whom you experience rejection, even if it’s just the godless world despising or judging the Church, or you as a Christian? Do you put them in the enemy camp? give up on them? Do you have no patience to give and fail to think well of them? That’s the easy road for us, we go down that road so readily. The hard road … well, we’re seeing Jesus walk it in John 8.
Jesus says: “I do not seek My own glory; there is One who seeks and judges. Most assuredly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word He will never see death.” This is the Gospel. Imagine, Jesus spoke it to them!
What’s going on here? Justification, a special word the Bible uses for God’s forgiveness, how He judges the guilty innocent for Jesus’ sake. Remember, our Gospel lesson began where Jesus spoke of their judgment of Him. But now He speaks so calmly of God’s judgment – “the One who seeks and judges.” Jesus is calm and confident about this. He doesn’t fear the Father’s judgment. He knows He is righteous, does God’s will perfectly. Nothing they say threatens Him. But He knows – even if they don’t – that they are in grave danger, under great threat, for rejecting Jesus and despising God’s grace.
This is why Jesus came! We also said this together in the creed, where we confess Him to be Man: that “for us men” – which means not males only, but all mankind, every man, woman and child – “and for our salvation” – this is the heart of it, what’s in His heart – “came down from heaven … and was made man.”
So for these loveless ones in John 8, it was also for their salvation, because of their danger, because their lovelessness would end not in destroying Him but in their own eternal destruction. This breaks Jesus’ heart. That’s why He patiently continues to speak His word to them. Because, as He says to them, “whoever belongs to God hears God’s words.” Our Lord wants them to belong to God! He keeps giving them God’s Word. Love to the loveless shown.
Justification – God’s judgment in which He declares the guilty sinner to be righteous, innocent, forgiven – comes through the Word. Personalize this. You perhaps feel judged by people around you. You feel judged in your own conscience. You may be your harshest critic. It’s so hard for you to be at peace with God, with yourself, with the world. But when His words of eternal life are spoken to you, His words about your Savior, the words of Jesus, His word of forgiveness and blessing is spoken to you, you are being justified, forgiven, cleansed. As we say in the Nicene Creed (whose words are based on the Bible), that “He came down from heaven for us men” – every person – “and for our salvation,” believe that He considers you worth it, so precious, important to Him, that He came down for your salvation, to establish peace for you, with God. Love to the loveless shown, that they might lovely be.
God’s judgment of you – the only one that matters – is that you are holy, not under judgment all, but God is well pleased with you. You can be just as calm as Jesus, that “there is One who judges,”and He judges you to be completely innocent in His sight, for Jesus’ sake. That they might lovely be.
The way He did this is that He came to be rejected, He came to suffer and die. Not to be stoned – the Jewish punishment for blasphemy – but to be killed on a Roman cross – the Gentile punishment, to be the Savior of the nations, of all people. Jesus speaks of His glory and honor here; this is His glory: that He died, He was rejected, He was forsaken by God on the cross, for you, so that you are not rejected, not forsaken, and will not see death.
“For you.” These are the Lord’s Supper words. Given – for you. Shed – for you. When you come to His Supper, you’re justified, eating and drinking into yourself the forgiveness He places into the Sacrament, His acceptance of you that replaces all the rejection you feel. You’re eating and drinking into yourself peace with God, peace with yourself, peace with the world. The world’s relentless anger needs this. So does your turbulent soul. When you receive His body and blood, it’s “love to the loveless shown, that you might lovely be.” You carry His love to the loveless with you into the world. Amen!