Romans 8:26-39, Matthew 13:31-52
In today’s Epistle lesson Paul writes to the Romans, you, and me – about the “LOVE of GOD”. It reads: 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”[b]
37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[c] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NIV)
It is a love that was very difficult for the new Christian Romans to understand. If we would admit to it; it is sometimes difficult for us to understand as well. That is because it is a love that is difficult for us to accept, a love that is difficult for us to imagine, a love that never leaves us, a love that surrounds us in a very unique way.
This morning, the sermon is going to evolve around four pictures of God’s love. Each picture will point to a different aspect of God’s love, making God’s love for us, a very special love.
Jesus spread His arms on the cross.
In the first picture; I would like you to picture yourself standing before the throne of God, in his law court. God is the judge, Satan is the prosecutor, and you are the defendant waiting to be tried for the things you did or did not do in this life. Satan then calls witness after witness against you and your head sinks low in shame as you remember some of the things you have done, and some of the things you should have done but didn’t do. 1) Satan calls before you all those people you gossiped about, those people you thought were different than you, so you couldn’t accept them. 2) Satan calls before you, a hungry boy who needed food. But you were too busy to pay attention, too busy with your own needs, your own interests, your own little world.
3) Then comes a lonely widow that you were too busy to visit. 4) Then comes your parent, grandparent, teacher, or any person of authority in your life, that you disobeyed or disrespected in one way or another. The parade of witnesses goes on and on. Finally, all your sins of omission and commission have been vividly exposed before the court and you wish you could crawl into a hole somewhere and hide.
God asks you if you have anything to say on your own behalf. For a moment you think of all the excuses you might be able to give for your behavior, but then you realize how futile that would be before God.
You swallow hard and begin shaking your head, “No God I don’t have anything to say on my behalf.”
Just then the counsel for the defense, Jesus Christ, stands up and approaches the bench. He makes this one simple statement: “This is one of the few that trusted in me. I have paid the penalty for their sins.”
Without further comment the judge announces your acquittal and you walk out of the court into God’s everlasting kingdom.
This first picture shows us the love that Jesus has for us in that, He paid the price for our sins. Jesus went to the cross for our sins, those sins that we committed and those things we should have done but didn’t.
The second picture of God’s love is seen in the following:
A wife had a husband who had an alcoholic problem. He finally realized his problem, went to treatment, then came back to his wife asking for forgiveness, asking for a second chance to make a better life for them and their children.
She didn’t know what to do, so she went to her pastor. She said, “My family, my friends all tell me that I would be a fool to let him come back. What should I do?”
The pastor answered, “Do you love your husband?” “Oh Yes!!” she exclaimed.
Then the pastor said, “Just remember this then dear friend: you are not his judge, you are not his jury, you are not his executioner. You are the wife who loves him.”
“And remember this also,” said the pastor, “even though you do not wish it, or want it to be so, your husband will suffer more from your open love and your complete forgiveness than he would suffer from any punishment you might think of.”
This picture of God’s love shows us that God, through Jesus, accepts us as we are and gives us the ability to change, to turn away from our sins, and make a new life. God through Jesus allows us to repent, to change and then accepts that changed person with no questions asked.
And as we are accepted in an unconditional way by God through Christ, He asks us to do the same with the people around us. Love them first, then allow them to change. Love them as they are, and they will be willing to change.
The third picture of God’s love for us through Jesus Christ is seen in the following: This picture was written by Betty Van Dyke.
She tells of a blind girl meeting a clown for the first time. Since the girl had been blind from birth and never had seen a clown, she got to know him in the only way possible.
She tentatively traced his hair face, big ears, funny clothing, and large nose with her very sensitive and well-trained fingers. As she investigated, she asked him questions and he answered her.
In his own way, he explained to her that because of his funny face and crazy clothes, he often made children laugh and that made him happy.
After completing her finger-walking investigation of the clown, she suddenly threw her arms around the clown and hugging him tightly said, “I love you.”
Even though she could not see the clown, she could sense that he was a person who was loveable and in this modern parable of the blind girl and the clown, we see another side of God’s love for us through Jesus Christ. For in a sense, we are the blind girl, and the clown is God’s love shown us through Jesus Christ. We explore that love, but we do not quite fully understand it.
For as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:”12* “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.” (RSV)
We cannot fully understand or fully appreciate the love that God has for us through Jesus. We see in a mirror dimly, but one day we will see clearly. One day, we will fully understand and see that gracious love He has for us. We see signs of God’s love through Jesus in the Word, in the sacraments, in the love others have for us. For in a sense, we are like that blind girl, we trace our fingers all around Jesus, but we do not quite fully see or understand. But like that blind girl, we have seen enough, we have felt enough, we have understood enough to want to throw our arms around Jesus and hug Him and say as loudly as we can, “I love you, Jesus!” As the girl sensed that the clown was very loveable, we sense, we understand through Jesus’ love for us, that He is very loveable. We love him because He first loved us.
The final picture of God’s love for us through Jesus Christ comes for a story told by the late Pastor Louis Val Bracht as he relates an event in his life. He says:
I remember when I returned from overseas at the end of W.W. II, I was met by a nearly-three-year-old daughter whom I hadn’t seen since she was 3 months old. She knew nothing of her father, A) except for a picture on her mother’s dresser and B) the things that mother told her about her father.
But Daddy wasn’t a person. Daddy was just a picture and some stories. How was my daughter to know that I loved her? She was not old enough, to understand that I could love her even though I had been away from her for 2 1/2 years. She didn’t know the relationship between a father and a daughter.
As men went, the only person she knew was her grandfather, and he died while I was gone. I had to find a way to develop the relationship between us.
I would stoop down, reach out my arms to her, if she was on the other side of the room, and say, “Where is the little girl that Daddy loves?” And she learned to come running into my arms and she knew that I would clasp her to my heart. In that way, the little girl learned to know the love her Daddy had for her.
Conclusion: In the same way, Jesus wants us to run into his arms so that he might assure us of his love. I remember a plaque on my grandparent’s living room wall which red, “I asked Jesus, “how much do you love me”, and Jesus said, “this much and spread his arms and died on a cross.”.
And from that cross, Jesus is asking each of us to run into his arms, where he will encircle us with his love. A love which was willing to sacrifice, willing to give; so that we might live.
God’s special love has been seen in four different pictures this morning; The first is a court of law where because of Jesus we have been declared not guilty of our sins. In the second picture, we have seen that Jesus accepts us as we are so that we might repent and be willing to change. In another picture we saw that we cannot fully understand or appreciate the love God has for us through Jesus, but we have seen enough to cry out, “I love you Jesus”. In the final picture of God’s love for us through Jesus; Jesus spread His arms on the cross and asks us to run into those arms of love so that we might live for eternity.
God’s special love is indeed very special.
Amen.
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