1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word on this 4th Sunday in Lent is taken from John 3:14-21, it’s entitled, “True Love,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. Everyone enjoys a good love story. Crowds are drawn to movies like The Sound of Music and The Notebook and Gone with the Wind or to classic tales like Romeo and Juliet or TV shows like This Is Us. There’s something about a love story that makes everyone feel good about themselves.
3. Love is a wonderful gift, given at creation, from our heavenly Father. Love is something that we as human beings all desire. We want to feel the warmth, security, and tenderness that comes from being loved or being in love. We want to be loved by our parents, our spouse, our children, our friends, and our coworkers.
4. But no matter how great our love story is, it pales in comparison to the unconditional love that God the Father has shown to us through his only-begotten Son! “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life,” Jesus said (John 3:16).
5. Often, we think of love as an emotion, a good feeling, or sweet words. There’s nothing wrong with those things, and they certainly can be a legitimate part of love. But at some point, if love is to be a genuine love, it must be willing to be more than just words. True love needs to be willing to become tangible.
6. Sure, it’s easy to love that cute little baby or that little puppy in the window. But what about loving the unlovable? When was the last time you were confronted by a filthy homeless person, a pesky drug addict, someone you totally disagree with, or one of your enemies—and showed them true and genuine Christian love?
7. The opportunities for us to show love are not just circumstantial. True love is found in the people that God has intentionally put into our lives, that he has asked us to care for. God’s unconditional love now sets our agenda, guides our decisions, and determines our actions through the same kind of true love that he has first shown to us.
8. I want to remind you that most of the time true love is hard work. Love is not always romantic comedies, Hallmark cards, flowers, and Hershey’s chocolate kisses. True love does not always make us feel warm and fuzzy inside. Often, true love means rolling up our sleeves and giving up all that we have. It is important to note that when we give up our life in service to love others, this is not the end of our life. It is, instead, the beginning of a new life. A genuine life focused on and centered in Christ and the love he wants to share.
9. True love sometimes means saying, “I was wrong, and I am sorry.” Sometimes true love means that you love your neighbor enough to call them out on their sins and hold them accountable, reminding them that they, too, need to repent.
10. Not only is this kind of love hard work, but it can also be painful work. True love sometimes includes sleepless nights and uncontrolled anguish. How painful is it when your love is not returned? Friends, this is when you find out what true love is all about. For it is at those times when love is more than an emotion. It is an action. An action that requires you to give up yourself for the sake of others.
11. So, what does love have to do with Lent? Everything! God’s love for humanity became tangible in the actions of the life, death, and resurrection of his only-begotten Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This intimate, unconditional, true love that Jesus has for us is at the heart of Lent.
12. Today, we are inching closer to the day when Jesus shows the ultimate true love by dying on the cross to save us from our sins. I am sure you are familiar with John 3:16, but do you know John 3:17? “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” You see, no greater love can be expressed than what Jesus did for us. Jesus has not been sent into the world to condemn it. No, he has been sent to save the world. It is only through Jesus that we can truly know what this true love looks like.
13. Christ has shown the ultimate true love for you and me by fully giving himself up for us and to us. Jesus has not only given us his love, but he has also given us all that he is, in his very body and blood shed for us, on this very altar. He has given us all that he has and all that he is, so that we may love one another as he has first loved us.
14. Today, out of true love, Christ makes us his very own. That is the kind of true love we see in the waters of Holy Baptism, a love that is rich in grace and full of forgiveness. It is our Epistle for today: “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:4–5).
15. This love that our heavenly Father has for us did not come easy. His love for us cost him a great deal. Matter of fact, it cost him his only Son. It is in the triune God that we see the fulfillment of what true love looks like.
16. In God the Father, we see a true love that is modeled by Christ and his Bride, the Church. In God the Son, we see a true love that spreads out his arms and dies for us. In God the Holy Spirit, we see a genuine love that does not let us live apart from God but calls us back home into his holy house.
17. Now, if you think you deserve God’s love, you are wrong. Let’s be honest—most of the time, we really are not all that lovable. You and I are the rebellious children who have not returned our Father’s love but instead have chosen to love how and what we want to love. But, even in our sin, we are reminded that God is love (1 Jn 4:8b) and that he continues to love us unconditionally, even though we do not deserve it.
18. The problem with earthly love is that it is all over the place. One moment I love you, and the next I don’t because I’m mad at you. In effect, Jesus is saying, “Forget about yourself, what you think, how you feel, and don’t judge my love by the fickle ways that the world judges love. Instead, look to me, and I’ll show you true love.”
19. Here is your one takeaway: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him has eternal life.” What that means is, that Jesus put His true love into action for you by dying on the cross for your sins. Even though we offer him nothing in return, the Lord says, “This is not the end of your story: I want to write a new, true love story just for you.” He did just that for us by giving up his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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