April 22, 2018 - A life laid down
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Cute Kids Answer – What is love?
Love… it is not always easy to define! While love is often difficult to define it is even more difficult to live. Give. Share.
Which may explain why “love” is a four letter word for many people. Actually, love is literally a four letter word that is easy to spell, but often misunderstood, that is, until Jesus steps into the discussion. Here is the way Jesus spells love:
L stands for Loss. BECAUSE Love will always costs you something. Look at the life of Jesus. From the time He is conceived in Mary’s womb to the time of His burial in the tomb, all of His life is one of loss. Jesus lays down, the sets aside His equality with God the Father. He wears our humanity. Takes upon Himself our sin. Dies our death. His entire life in the flesh is one of loss. His Loss has become our gain. His loss reveals an extraordinary, divine love for us and for the world.
Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
If you’re following along with the handout, circle the phrase “laid down” 1 John 3:16, and “lay down” twice in John 10:11 & 17. The best way to understand that phrase, “lay down” or “laid down” is to give up ⇔ to lay aside a right or possession.
On the night before Jesus dies, while Jesus and the 12 are together in the Upper Room eating the Passover, Peter asks Jesus two questions and then makes Jesus ONE promise.
Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered him, “Where I am going you cannot follow me now, but you will follow afterward.” Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.” Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.
Of course, Peter did NOT end up laying down his life for Jesus, Jesus ended up laying down his life for Peter. And there is only one explanation for Christ’s actions. Love. Love is the only way to explain the “LOSS” Jesus willingly offered for the world. Love always costs you something!
LOSS was the price Jesus paid to love us. Loss is the price we pay to love. You can give without loving, but you can not love without giving.
In our gospel reading today, from John 10, Jesus calls all Himself the Good Shepherd. Then, he describes what makes Him good,
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
LOSS is what God the Father required of Himself and Jesus,
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
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This is the truth that makes sense of Good Friday. Love isn’t love until you give it way.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Then, Jesus says in verse 14,
I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
IN Jesus we discover that Love is always about OTHERS, it is never about me!
You may remember a parable Jesus once told, the story about a landowner who goes into the marketplace to "hire" the unemployed to work in his vineyard. After the landowner hires the first workers, He will lose money every time he hires someone else to work the remainder of the day as he pays them all the same wage, a full days pay. But he does because He see the need of others and in love, he hires them.
And about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing. And he said to them, ‘Why do you stand here idle all day?’
Out of compassion and love, the landowner takes on loss so that others may gain.
“So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Love’s object is always others. Love's eyes are always open to see the need of others, the hurt and pain of others. Loves hand is always open ready to give.
Thirdly, the “V” of love is VALUE – the price we place on people. Love is what we say and do to show others we value them. It is the price we willingly choose to pay.
It is always easy to love? Love is not easy. Paul reminds us of that the truth that love is not easy, when he writes of love’s attributes in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away.
That leads us to the last letter, the E of LOVE. Love goes the “extra mile” – love never quits. Even when Journey is uphill and requires a lot of effort, love doesn't quit.
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus says to the crowd
And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
That what loves is and what love does. Make makes the extra effort, it offers the greater sacrifice. Love continues even when life seems to be an uphill battle. Love persists until love prevails. And even when you meet resistance, when life gets hard, loves bears, believes, hopes and endures….because is eternal, and love never ends.
What you and I should realize by now is that Paul is not speaking about the imperfect love we have for Him and others. Paul is speaking of God’s perfect love for us, a love that we can only find, know and experience in Jesus. God our Father knows that we won’t love perfectly in this life, so when we fail to love like Christ, and
for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God;
Because of Christ, we never stop being His “beloved” in spite of our failure to always love, like Christ. The truth is,
We love because he first loved us.
He started it. He promises to always love us in Jesus’ name.
Something to think about…this coming week…
Since You live under the care of the Good Shepherd, think about How that makes you feel? Thank God the Father and the Good Shepherd Jesus for their love and the fact that you’ll never have to wonder about life outside of God’s care and love.
What new “steps” could you be taking as you follow the Good Shepherd.
Where will you strive to imitate Christ’s love more?
With whom could/should you lay down your life this week?
How will you lay down your life for them? Remember life is all about love.
video: That’s what Jesus did...
Let’s stand together in the love of God in Christ and confess our faith…