A Two-Way Street

Below is the message given in the Wheatland Parish Sunday, June 23, 2013.  The Bible verses used are John 14:15-31.

Today we're starting our Hymn Hysteria sermon series. We're going to look at the top eight hymns in our bracket contest and think about why we like them and what they have to say to us.

The one for today is the one we just sang: “Oh, How I Love Jesus”. It got to the Elite Eight of our contest. Along the way it defeated “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”, “Precious Name”, and “I Surrender All.”

“Oh, How I Love Jesus” was written by Frederick Whitfield in 1855. Frederick Whitfield was born in 1829 in England. He was a clergyman in the Church of England. His biography says that the most famous hymn he wrote is called “I Need Thee Precious Jesus”, which is sometimes sung to the tune we know as “The Church's One Foundation”. That one's not in our hymnal, though. In fact, “Oh, How I Love Jesus” is the only hymn Whitfield wrote that is in our hymnal.

We don't know what the original tune was. It's probably not the tune we sing it to now. That's a nineteenth century American tune. The chorus was not part of the original poem Whitfield wrote. It was common in the nineteenth century to add a chorus to revival songs, and they think that's probably what happened here.

The song has been popular for some time. It's been recorded by a lot of people, including Elvis Presley and Randy Travis. It originally had eight verses. Now, of course, we only sing three. This three-verse version, with the chorus we're familiar with and sung to the tune we sang it to today, is the one we're all familiar with, and it's the one that you voted for when you put it into the top eight.

But why? What is it about this hymn that makes it one of our favorites?

One reason might be that it's a very simple song. The chorus is especially simple. “Oh, how I love Jesus, Oh, how I love Jesus, Oh, how I love Jesus, because he first loved me.” Don't take that the wrong way. Calling it simple is not a criticism. Simplicity in a song can be a virtue, especially a song you want people to remember and sing along to. It takes very little time to memorize that chorus, and that's a good thing for a hymn.

And it does tell us some things about Jesus. Why do we love Jesus? Because he first loved us. And that's true. Jesus' love for us comes before our love for him. In fact, we would not know Jesus at all if he did not love us. The Son of God only came to earth out of love. Jesus' love for us started at the beginning of creation and will be there until the end of time. Jesus' love for us is far deeper and stronger and more powerful than our love for him could ever be.

How do we know Jesus loves us? The verses tell us. Jesus died to set us free. Jesus feels our deepest woe. He shares our sorrows, and helps us bear them, because we would not be able to handle them by ourselves.

That's all true. It's good for us to know all that. Jesus does love us. Jesus did die to set us free. Jesus does help us through all the sadness and the pain and the problems that can come from life. It's important for us to know that. Those are all things we need to know about Jesus.

But if you think about it—and quite frankly, I never did before I started writing this message—if you think about it, when we sing this song, what are we saying? We're saying that the only reason we love Jesus is because of the things Jesus did for us. Maybe that's why we like the song so much. The only thing it talks about is what Jesus does for us. The song does not require anything from us. It does not ask us to do anything for Jesus. The song portrays our love for Jesus as a completely one-sided deal.

But of course, real love cannot be one-sided, can it? Think of the people you love—your spouse, your kids, your parents, your siblings, your friends, whoever. Do you just love them for the things they do for you? No. At least, I sure hope not. I mean, that's part of it. It's hard to love someone who never does anything for us. But we don't just love people because of what they do for us. If we do, that's not really love. Real love makes demands on us. Real love requires things of us. Real love cannot be a one-way street. Real love has to go two ways.

The bottom line is that real love is never free. It comes with a cost. It requires us to give up some things. It requires us, sometimes, to do things we'd rather not do. It makes us, sometimes, go places we'd rather not go. Real love means putting the wants and needs of others ahead of our own.

The thing about that, though, is that if we really love someone, we don't really look at those things as demands. We don't look at it as a cost. When we really love someone, we want to do things for them. Not always, maybe. After all, we're still human. We still get selfish sometimes, and we still get lazy sometimes. When we do, we may need to apologize and ask for forgiveness. Still, though, there are a lot of times when we're happy to do things for the people we love. We do those things because we love them and we want them to be happy, and for no other reason. And we feel joy when we do it. That's what love does.

And that's how it is in our relationship with Jesus. In our reading for today, Jesus said that if we love him, we need to do certain things. He says it three times in our verses for today. “If you love me, keep my commands.” “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me.” “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.” Jesus seems to be pretty clear on this point. If we love Jesus, we're supposed to do the things Jesus told us to do. That means we're supposed to love God and love other people. That means we're supposed to go and make disciples of all nations. That means we're supposed to baptize them and teach them to do follow Jesus, too. Those are the things Jesus told us to do, so if we love Jesus, we need to do them.

Now, I want to make clear that we are not getting into works-based salvation here. We don't earn our way into heaven. We don't get to heaven because we're so good. We get there by God's love and mercy and through our faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior.

The thing is that if we really do have faith in Jesus Christ as our Savior, then we will love him, right? That gets back to our song. If we truly believe Jesus did those things for us, how could we not love him? We'd have to be the most ungrateful creatures imaginable to believe that Jesus did those things for us and not love him for it. And again, that love needs to go two ways.

The thing is, though, that if we do love Jesus, we won't look at the things Jesus tells us to do as demands. We won't look at them as legalistic requirements. We won't look at them as things we have to do so we can go to heaven. We'll want to do those things for Jesus, just because we love him. Not always, maybe. Again, we're still human. We'll still get selfish sometimes, and we'll still get lazy sometimes. When we do, we need to apologize and ask for God's forgiveness. Still, though, if we love Jesus, there are times when we'll be happy to do the things he told us to do. We'll do those things just because we love him and because we want to make him happy, and for no other reason. And we'll feel joy when we do it. That's what love does.

Real love always comes at a cost. Jesus' love for us came at a cost. It meant that Jesus put us ahead of himself. It cost Jesus pain, suffering, humiliation, and ultimately death on the earth. Jesus willingly paid that cost, because Jesus loves us that much. The reason we love to hear the name of Jesus, the reason it sounds like music in our ears, is because of what Jesus did for us. It's because Jesus first loved us.

Our love for Jesus comes at a cost, too. It's easy to say, “Oh, How I Love Jesus.” But it's not enough just to say the words. Jesus said that if we love him, we'll keep his commands and obey his teaching. So, the next time we say we love Jesus, let's remember that. Let's make our love for Jesus real love. And let's feel joy when we do.