1 John 3:16–24

¹⁶By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

¹⁷But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

¹⁸Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.

¹⁹By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him;

²⁰for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.

²¹Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;

²²and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

²³And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.

²⁴Whoever keeps his commandments abides in him, and he in them. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us.

The night was dark. It seemed darker than usual. In the streets wailing and crying could be heard coming from every direction. Fear griped the hearts of people as families huddled together inside their homes. Holding each other's hands for comfort and trying to calm the young ones, they hurriedly ate a meal of roast lamb and bitter herbs and flat bread. The blood of the lamb's they ate was painted on the door of the house. That blood was the only thing standing between them and the angel of death; the angel that struck every family not having blood on the door. That blood of the lamb, the very lamb that they had slaughtered and were eating for supper, was their only hope for life. Every year after that they were to eat the same meal in remembrance of that dreadful night and to look forward to the real lamb who was coming, the Lamb of God, the Messiah.

The Lamb of God did come to take away the sin of the entire world. In an ironic twist, that Lamb became the Shepherd. The Shepherd, who laid down his life for his sheep. The Shepherd who took the place of the little lambs and stood in harm's way sacrificing his own life in order to save the sheep from death.

Jesus says, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the father, and I lay down my life for the sheep."

Were it not for the blood of the lamb, who is the good shepherd that poured out his blood to cover us, we would be still in that dark night wailing and crying out. If there were no blood to paint on our door posts, nothing would shield us from the angel of death. But because the good shepherd gave his life and like a sacrificial lamb poured out his blood, we have been liberated from death; we have life instead of death. We live in the light of day instead of the dark of night. By his death we have life!

The Good Shepherd is the author of life. He gives his life in order that we might have life. Death is a curse; life is the gift of God, the God of life. And life is what the Good Shepherd comes to give; by making us to lie down in green pastures and leading us to still waters. He restores our soul and leads us in paths of righteousness.

And this is love. The eternal questions of the ages is, "What is love?" Every starry eyed boy and girl asks this question. Lovers, brides, grooms ask "What is love?" Every broken heart wonders, "What is love?" "Why does it hurt so much?"

By this we know love: that the Good Shepherd laid down his life for us. The love of God is not a good feeling toward us. The love of God is not "feeling our pain" or feeling sorry for us. The love of God is an action, a deed, it is the very act of salvation. It is the death of God in our place. It is God bearing our sin. It is his death in order that we have life. That is love.

We sometimes hear it said that his death on the cross demonstrates his love for us. Yes it does, but it is much more than a demonstration. He didn't die on the cross merely to tell us how much he cares for us; merely to show that he feels our pain or identifies with us in our suffering. He died on the cross to actually do something for us. He died to take away our sins. His death is not just a sign or symbol of his love, it actually removes our guilt from us; it wipes out the evil in our hearts; it frees us from the power of sin and the devil; it reconciles us to God. It actually accomplishes things for us; it really gives us things, it gives us eternal life. He was not just "making a statement."

And if he so loved us that he gave his life for us, then we ought give our lives for one another. In our first reading today, we heard about Peter and John. They loved others because Jesus loved them. They healed a lame man begging at the door of the temple and when the people started asking how it happened, they proclaimed the gospel, the message of Christ having died for us and rising from the dead.

This message, the gospel of Jesus Christ, was offensive. The leaders and officials arrested Peter and John and put them in jail. The next day they went to court and there in court they boldly proclaimed the message that Jesus died and rose again. They preached the gospel, even knowing that they would be threatened and punished. They knew the cost. Yet they boldly proclaimed the message of Christ, the message of life instead of death, the Good Shepherd who laid down his life for his sheep and who took it back again that we might have life eternally.

And for this testimony; for this gospel message that they preached, they eventually would be punished, persecuted, imprisoned, exiled, and even put to death. They laid down their lives for others that others would hear the message and receive life eternally. They took up their cross and followed Jesus right to their deaths. They gave their lives in love for others.

And that is love: giving your life for one another. That is our response to the love of the Shepherd who gave his life for us. "Because he laid down his life for us, we ought lay down our lives for the brothers," says God in our reading.

So often when we love we get hurt. Everyone who has ever fallen in love also knows the grief and sorrow of a broken heart. There is no love without pain. There is no love without sacrificing ourselves, giving of ourselves. Love is never selfish, it is always giving. Love is not done for ourselves, but for others. There is always a cost to love. There is always something we must give up. It might be our pride when we have to confess a wrong we have committed to someone else. It might be our desire to get even when we have to forgive someone who does us a wrong. It might be our position or status when we have to yield to someone else. It might be our power when we have to submit to someone in authority. It might be our loss when our kids grow up and become independent of us. It might be the sense of loss when we give our son or daughter over to someone else in marriage. It might be the loss of someone we love when that person is taken away from us by death. Love hurts because love always gives something of ours away to someone else.

The question then is, how do we love our brother in practical terms? As we continue reading the text God tells us when he says, "If anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and turns his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and truth."

He tells us that love is action. It is not sentimental feeling, or feeling sorry for someone. Nor is it the pleasure we derive from being with a certain person who makes us feel good. Love is action! It is the action of giving. Love is sacrifice. That's why love is often painful. It is always giving ourselves for others. It may be time, effort, a skill or ability. It may be to perform some sort of work or service, it might be giving something we own or it might be monetary help. In whatever form it takes, love always gives to others. Love does not serve self. It always serves others. It always costs us something.

It was love when our Good Shepherd gave his life for us even though we have not loved him, even though we have not loved our neighbor. He gave his life because so often our love is selfish love. We love expecting something in return. We do good to others hoping that in turn they will do something good for us. We love those who make us feel good, who give us happiness, who can love us back. But that is not love, it is self-centerdness. That is not loving our neighbor as ourselves. That is the sin for which he died. For our self love and lack of love he went to the cross. It hurt him. It cost him. But he did it for us. Our self-love is forgiven. It is wiped clean.

And in baptism He gives us his Spirit, his strength. He gives us not a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of strength and of love. He gives us the power to love others unselfishly; to love when it costs us; to give our lives for one another. He gives us the courage to witness for Christ even if it means persecution and death. He gives us the power to love others as ourselves and to give our lives of our brothers. The Spirit transforms us and gives us the power to love as God loves us, without seeking our own self interests.

That is an important concept to understand that everything God does he does for us. God never seeks his own self interests. Even his command to obey his law is because of the blessing we receive from doing so, not because it does anything for him. When he tells us to worship him, he is not just being proud and wanting something from us, worship is God giving us his gifts. The reason he wants our worship, our praise, our thanksgiving is because of the blessing we receive when we worship him and thank him. When he says he is a jealous God, it is because when we are unfaithful to him we lose his blessing. It is not because we hurt him. His displeasure in our unfaithfulness is that he can no longer bless us. Every fiber of God's being exists to give us life and to bless our life.

Therefore, we give our life for one another in order to give life to others and to bless them. We serve others to make their lives better. We proclaim the gospel and administer the sacraments in order to give them eternal life. It does nothing for us, it may even cost us our life as it did Peter and Paul and James. We do it in order to give the blessing of life to others in spite of the cost to us personally. When we protest against the culture of death, against euthanasia, abortion, physician assisted suicide, we get nothing in return, it is for the life of others. When we give our time, our money, our food, our homes to those in need, it is not for us, but for them that we sacrifice and give.

Love is giving ourselves to others; it is laying down our life for others as the Good Shepherd laid down his life for us. Love always gives and that is what God has done for us: given himself over to death so that we might have life, and have it abundantly.

Amen.