Intro: Has anyone seen the movie, ‘Contact’, with Jodie Foster as a researcher of the universe, & Matthew McConaughey as a minister with whom she becomes acquainted. Having lost her Mom at a very young age, Foster’s character was extremely close to her father before he passed. He was the one who taught her to be inquisitive, to question, to look beyond accepted so-called ‘facts’. Now as an adult & a scientist, she finds herself in conversation with the Rev’d about aliens and other life forms. She is somewhat obsessed in her quest and they are discussing her rabid determination that nothing may be believed until absolutely proven to be true. Rev. Handsome asks her, “Did your father love you?” Without hesitation, she declares, “Of course!”, to which the Rev inquires, “How do you know?”
If ever there was a challenge to the logical mind, it’s the reality of love. We can’t see love as a … something, and yet it’s a noun … or is it a verb? Can’t hear it, box it, hold it, throw it, smell it, store it, sell it, buy it, manufacture it, although I have known those who can bake it. You can’t drive love, or legislate it, or control it, or even adequately define love. Yet we are able to feel it, share it, enjoy it, talk about it, sing about it, be inspired by it, strengthened, calmed, united by & in love, held up, brought down, confused, straightened out, comforted, humbled and made bold by love. All this & much much more by a nebulous entity without empirical, quantifiable properties. Love is more concept than concrete yet it can be seen in our eyes, our expression, our words & our behaviour.
The most powerful parts of human existence could only come from God - the God who expresses His love with a messy stable, a willing crucifixion, and a quietly victorious Man on the garden side of His own tombstone. Of God’s love, we may be absolutely certain.
How does anyone know that we love them?
Our parents and early home life are the first examples we encounter, so I’ll start there. The last thing that either my Mom or Dad did before leaving the house, and the first thing they did upon returning to the house, was share a kiss goodbye or hello. It didn’t matter if Mom was running out for 15 minutes to get milk, or if Dad was off to Canadian Tire for the afternoon, they would find each other wherever they were in the house or out in the garden for a kiss. Woe betide the kid who got between them when Dad came home from work! It’s a little thing, a lovely ritual, a sign of the love & respect between them to let the other know where they are, and to be clear, every day, that they are each other’s priority.
How do we know that Christ loves us? Because our lives, our needs & wounds & joys & fears & peace are His priority. It’s in verse 15; there are five words for ‘love’ in ancient Greek and Jesus says, ‘agape’, referring to brotherly Christian love. But there’s more. To feel ‘agape’ love is to put the other first in your affections. Jesus doesn’t claim to love us, then wander off to find more amusing company because we’re having a crying jag in the midst of a dark day. He doesn’t talk behind our backs and complain about us to His Father. Jesus doesn’t deliver ultimatums or threaten nasty consequences if we don’t do everything His way. That’s not love. Jesus never hit anyone, or screamed abuses, or controled anyone’s actions & decisions, or pummeled someone’s self-esteem with cruel derision. Because that’s not love. If anyone within the sound of my voice is experiencing these things & being told they are loved, or if you know someone in such a situation, that love is a lie. Call the church, call a doctor, call the cops, but tell someone because Jesus says you’re His priority and God created you for genuine love.
God also created us to share love, making us more sieve than solid, allowing love to flow through us and out toward others. That’s how He knows we love Him → it’s actually in our unconditional, selfless sharing that Jesus knows we hear Him, we know and accept His lessons and His Word, and we’re willing to make His concerns our priority. In the face of such love through Christ, it seems entirely natural to respond in kind, not His command but our desire to live in the love that gives us purpose and joy.
Here in John, Jesus says our love for Him is obvious if we keep His commands. Which ones? Well, we actually don’t get to pick and choose so let’s be encouraged to read all the Gospels. However, if we were to focus on Christ’s top priorities – for instance, His final and likely most crucial instructions to the disciples the night of His arrest – we’re back to love: “Love one another as I have loved you.” Is anyone else sensing a theme?
Jesus sets the bar with that last command and it’s a standard we can’t reach, or at least not consistently, not 24/7 with every person we meet & work & even live with. So He speaks of a Counselor to be with us forever; some translations say an Advocate or a Helper, which we understand to be God’s Holy Spirit. But that second phrase, the Spirit of truth, also refers to the Spirit of sincerity and genuineness of motive, and … wait for it … the Spirit of reality.
Hopefully we all know folks who are making it real, who strive, without any apparent effort, every day to follow Christ’s command to love with understanding and respect, without judgment or bias, without conditions on their caring attention, but simply accepting folks as they are - not labeling anyone either good or bad [only Christ has the responsibility for that level of judgment] but merely flawed like everyone else and needing grace & wise, patient correction to find a better path. When you find those folks, stay close because they are gifted to guide the rest of us to become our better selves without inflicting guilt. They encourage with love - the love they accept for themselves from God and allow to pour through them to everyone else.
This is how Jesus knows we love Him, because we keep trying to be our best selves by following His commands. We know that God can do no other – our Creator Parent adores us and always will. The only thing God can’t do is turn it off. And every day, we have the choice of being merely recipients of God’s love for ourselves, or participants in a relationship with God through Christ. How does He know we love Him? Do we allow His Spirit space to live in us so we may be united with Christ? He offers us everything [indicate the Table] and then makes every morning new. How will we love our Lord today? With thanks to God, Amen.