There’s No Greater Love
John 15:9-17
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t. Paul wrote, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the
greatest of these is love.” Of all the spiritual gifts that one could ask for, this one is
the most lovely, the most beautiful, the most noble. Love is the best. It conquers all. It
surpasses all. It is most desired by all. You know that. If you’ve ever had love, you know
how powerful it is. If you’ve given it, received it, experienced it, and felt it, then you would
agree with St. Paul. Love is supreme.
But there are different kinds of love, aren’t there? And these kinds of love are not all
the same. I love solving puzzles and making things work. I love fancy phones, computers,
and the internet. I love certain sports teams. I love certain kinds of food, even when that
food doesn’t love me back. I love you, the people of this congregation. I love those outside
this congregation. I love my family. I love my wife. These are not all the same kinds of love.
There’s one love that is greater than all the other kinds of love. Jesus says it.
“Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” It is the
greatest sort of love, for it gives the highest price and it does the ultimate good.
The Apostle John, the one who wrote this Gospel account, is often called the “disciple
of love.” His letters are filled with talk about love. So is his Gospel account. And it’s no
wonder, because his thoughts are consumed with Jesus, the Lord of Love. He taught His
disciples love. Better yet, He showed His disciples love. For several chapters leading up to
this point in the Gospel account Jesus has been with His disciples in the upper room. At the
start of chapter 13, John wrote, “Having loved his own who were in the world, he now
showed them the full extent of his love.” He proceeds to wash His disciples’ grubby feet.
He serves them. He instructs them in love, how to love, where love comes from. Then He
goes forward that night to model the highest love, willingly allowing Himself to go on the
path to the cross. This is the greatest love the world has ever seen. He gives up His life for
His friends.
I think you know that this is the greatest kind of love that there can be. But why is it
the greatest kind of love? One reason is because it gives the highest price. Think about it.
Why do people love? Love is risky business. But with great risk, there’s the potential for
great reward. Think about romantic love. You’re trying to find the right guy or gal to marry
and be with till death. You are promising to give up ever looking at or chasing after anyone
else. You are taking your heart, one of your most fragile, precious possessions, and you are
willingly placing it in someone else’s hands. They can protect that heart, honor it, cherish it,
be faithful to it, and make it beat a thousand times faster than anyone else ever will. Or they
can drop it, crush it, stomp on it, and kick it away. Love is risky. But the payoff is amazing.
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Ask anyone who has celebrated fifty years of marriage. There’s no way that their marriage
was perfect, but listen to them. They will tell you about the joy that they have felt and
shared. And if you ever doubt it, see the anguish in their faces when their beloved of so
many years dies. You risk going through that when you give your heart to another. But it’s
worth it to enjoy the fruits of that love.
Or think of the sacrifices it takes to put your kids through a Christian school. Let’s be
honest. It costs a lot of money. So why do it? It’s because, in love, you have seen that beyond
being ready to be a solid citizen with a good education, it is of immeasurable value to be
more firmly rooted in the Word of God. Daily they are exposed to the means of grace in
chapel, in the classroom, even in the locker room and on the court, surrounded by fellow
Christians who encourage one another in God. My family made those sacrifices out of love
for me and they shaped me into being the pastor who stands before you today. If only you
could have known the joy it brought my grandparents to see me the day I preached at their
church, knowing that I would be sharing God’s grace for a life’s living. That love by my
family reaped its rewards, and what a joy for them to taste its fruit!
These are high prices, but they are not the highest price. The kind of love Jesus is
talking about is higher than all the rest, giving up your life. What makes it higher and
greater? You don’t get to experience the fruit of that love. You sacrifice it all, and you get
nothing. You gave your life for another. You gave glory to God. But now you’re dead.
In the news these last several days a name has popped back up. James Holmes was
the man who, in 2012, left a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, came back with weapons,
and killed twelve people. He’s on trial now. You might recognize the name James Holmes,
but you might not recognize three other names. They are Jon Blunk, Matt McQuinn, and
Alex Teves. These young men had gone to that movie theater, each one with his girlfriend.
When the shooting began and the bullets started to fly, they shielded their girlfriends with
their own bodies. All three of them died. Why did they do it? Was it for glory or fame? Was
it because they were macho and needed to impress their sweethearts? Was it to get a spot
on the TV that night? No, it was out of love. Because of the wicked actions of an evil man,
they do not know the praise that they rightly received for their selfless actions. They are
not able to enjoy the fruit of their love, to see their beloved women still alive. That is the
greatest love a person can show for a friend, for that kind of love earns no reward we can
enjoy.
Now look at the love that Jesus shows to us. God does not sit in heaven and shout
down burdensome demands for the levels of love we should show and then sit back and
twiddle His thumbs. God is love, and so He showed us that love. Jesus became human and
entered into the misery we experience day after day. It was all with the purpose of dying
for us. And He didn’t do it because we were so great. No, while we were still sinners, Christ
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died for us. It wasn’t because we were His girlfriends, or children. No, we were not these
things yet when God chose to save us and set in motion His plan of redemption. He came for
enemies. He came for those who scorned Him, rejected Him, and killed Him. It is only by
this sacrifice that we become children of God. It is by Christ giving up His life that we
become better than God’s girlfriend, but God’s bride. It is a great sacrificial love that offered
up the most valuable, praiseworthy, costly thing in all of existence. It offered up the very
life of God. Can you fathom that? There’s no greater love than this.
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HERE’S NO GREATER LOVE BECAUSE IT GIVES THE ULTIMATE PRICE. I’ll tell you why else Jesus
says that there’s no greater love. Such love does the ultimate good.
If you had to make a list of the most important things that you have, I would hope
that you would include your soul, your salvation, your faith, and your life. Life is God’s gift
to you. Think about why God gave the 5th Commandment. You don’t want someone taking
your life. Why doesn’t God want you taking the life of someone else? It’s because someone
else’s life is God’s gift to them. And if you try to despise it, hurt it, or take it, you are abusing
the gift God gave them. But saving someone’s life, laying down your own life, means saving
that precious gift that God gave another.
The greatest love values the good of others over our own good. The greatest love
does what is best for someone else, not always what is best for us. The greatest love serves
another, just as Jesus showed service to His disciples that night.
And so Jesus has loved us. In this way, Jesus has saved us. Don’t you see what that
love has done for us? Beginning in that room that night, He served humbly, taught patiently,
went to suffer willingly, and died sacrificially. He did it, not because He thought it would be
a big joy ride or thrill, but to give us life. It was for our ultimate good, to bring us from being
hell-bound to hoping for heaven. What better good could He give to us? Money? A better
job? Romance? He might be pleased to give us these things too. But please! Salvation –
there’s no greater gift!
And so we love. That love takes on many different shapes and forms. You may never
be called upon to give up your life for another. But if you were, would you hold back? What
about everything short of that? For the sake of solid, Christian education for your children,
would you give up some money and all the nice things that it would buy? Would we give up
some “me time” for the sake of serving others, even when those people don’t behave like
people who deserve it? Won’t you give up that sin that is blocking the blossoming of love
that God wants to see in you, proof of the goodness and love that flows from vine to
branch? Won’t you let go of your pride so that you can forgive one another with the
forgiveness that Christ has placed into your hands? Would we not, should we not be willing
to give our all for the sake of loving one another?
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There’s different kinds of love. One’s greater than the rest. But that doesn’t make
there rest of those kinds of love bad. For whatever kind of love the occasion calls for, may
the Lord’s calling ring clear. He has loved us. Let us love one another.
Amen.
First preached by Pastor Jansen on May 7, 2015.
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