C, Easter 6 - John 14:27 "God's Holy Peace"
Lutherans are people
of the Word. Our forefathers led us away
from placing our trust in others telling us what to believe about the Word of
God, by taking out submission to a middleman and directly placing ourselves at Jesus’
feet to hear, digest, and have his Word enacted in our lives.
However, for many today,
being people of the Word amounts to reading a devotion, which begins with a bible
text, then a few thoughts from the author, and a brief prayer to end the
devotion. Once that is done then the box
has been ticked for us to go off and do something else.
How often is the devotion
done in haste? As if God’s Word and a
prayer is a legal warrant or a gate through which to get, so you can do,
perhaps something, “more interesting or important”!
Don’t get me
wrong. There’s nothing wrong with this
type of devotion, but it’s meant to lead to something more than the “set and
forget” practice we’ve made it! God
calls his believing children to be keepers of his Word, to be kept in his Word. He wants us to take hold of it and let it do things
within us. We dwell in the Word, so it abides
or remains in us. So, it can change our
thinking and our ways, into God’s thinking and God’s way. After reading a devotion, God wants you to
take his Word with you into your day. So, his love can work, in your work, throughout
your day.
We are told by Jesus,
“If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me
does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s
who sent me.” (John 14:23–24
ESV)
First, we hear, “If
anyone loves me…” This “If” contains
the law and gospel of God’s Word. If you
love me, you will keep my word, if you don’t you won’t keep my Word. And he says, “by the way, my Word is God’s Word, I
am sent by him to speak his Word, and the Father and I will come and live with
the keeper’s of my Word.”
When we hear this, it
will do one or more of the following: Having
heard Jesus I might ponder to myself “Yeah, I keep God’s Word. I read my devotion;
I tick the box. It’s all good!” To those who do this, Jesus looks at in loves
and says, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the
poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” (Mark
10:21 ESV)
Then there are the scoffers
of God’s Word. Authorities unto themselves
they don’t believe they need to sit under God’s Word, they don’t need to keep God’s
word, nor do they have to love or be loved by God.
However, most of us I
suspect, will be challenged by Jesus in his Word. You wrestle with thoughts like, “I want to
love God, I want to keep his Word! But
reading it is one thing! Keeping it is
another! And allowing it to work within
me, within my day, is a struggle, in which I fear I’m failing!
This is not bad news! This is how God’s Word of Law is meant to
function in those who know the reality of sin that leads to death. The challenge of Jesus may be uncomfortable, but
it’s for a good reason. It’s the same
reason he said to his disciples, “If you loved me, you would have rejoiced,
because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. And now I
have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may
believe.” (John 14:28b–29 ESV)
The disciples did not
believe nor rejoice because they too did not know how to love God, they did not
know how to keep Jesus’ Word, let alone understand it and pass it onto others, as
Jesus knew they were going to after his ascension.
This is why he promises
his disciples, of which we are his disciples too, saying, “These
things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your
remembrance all that I have said to you.” (John 14:25-26 ESV)
All of us, beginning
with the disciples, need to be helped by the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit the ways of
destruction are wide and varied through which the narrowness of your heart is deceived
for disaster and demolition within the world.
The Holy Spirit takes
the truth and love of God in his Word and funnels it into each of us, so we can
be conduits of God’s Word in the world. We
are God’s tubes attached to a funnel, and the funnel is the Holy Spirit, who selectively
takes God’s, truth and love, filling our being and flushing out our worldly ways.
So, as Jesus promises, we can be brought
to remembrance and taught by the Word he has spoken and lived.
People think they are
attacking Christians when they say we are narrow minded, but they unwittingly
are testifying to the truth of our faith, which guided by the Holy Spirit’s narrow
way in God’s Word alone, leads to life.
Jesus says, “Enter
by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to
destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the
way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.” (Matthew
7:13–14 ESV)
Those who find the
narrow way, find it only by the Holy Spirit.
The gift of the Holy Spirit, the gift of faith that he gives, is just as
much the gospel gift as Jesus’ death and resurrection. In fact, it’s all a package deal from God the
Father to us and it’s the gift of peace he gives to believers who want to love him
and be kept in his Word. The Holy Spirit
calls us by the Word of God. He gathers us
in God’s Word, he enlightens us in God’s Word, and he makes us holy in God’s
Word. The Holy Spirit is sent by Jesus and
the Father, to keep us in Jesus; the living, risen, Word of God.
Therefore, the Holy Spirit
funnels the Word of Law and Gospel into and through us. With the Law, he convicts us to keep the Word
of God, to be kept by the Word of God, to love God, to be loved by God. But the Holy Spirit also nurtures and assists us,
by reminding and teaching us with the Word of God to remain in it, giving us faith
to be loved by God, and the desire to love God.
This is all part of Jesus’ gospel plan that gives us peace.
Jesus says, “Peace
I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to
you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27 ESV)
With the wideness of
the world, we all know in our heart of hearts, there’s no peace to be found. The easy way the world promotes—what the mob wants—ends
in trouble and fear, riots and destruction.
The well-worn path of believers is well worn because it’s narrow, not because
it’s easy or traversed by many. In fact,
the easy path without obstacles is desolate, and proves itself to be a desert in
which the devil dwells.
But for those carried
by the Holy Spirit, we are shown God’s glorious heaven where his church lives with
God in peace, this is the heavenly city shown to John in his Revelation.
We hear, “And he
(the angelic messenger) carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high
mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from
God, having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a
jasper, clear as crystal. But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone
who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the
Lamb’s book of life.” (Revelation
21:10–11, 22 ESV)
You with the
disciples who need the Holy Spirit to believe, to remain in the Word of God, to
love God and be loved by God are a part of this holy Jerusalem congregation. Even though we believe, yet know we are
sinners and still struggle with sin, we have peace because Jesus has given us a
holy helper in the Holy Spirit, who gives us the will and the way to hold onto
God’s Word; to know we are loved by God through his Word of Law and Gospel. So, we can love God and each other. Amen.
Let us pray. Spirit of our God, descending, fill our hearts with heavenly joy. The Father’s love, the love of Jesus Christ, your holy love, transcends all things. Your love is holy pleasure that never becomes sickening nor sour. Holy Spirit, with you provided, we are pardoned and guided. Nothing can your peace—our peace—destroy. Amen.
