"Johnny," said a teacher to one of her young pupils, "do you think you could explain to the class the difference between ˜like' and ˜love'?"
"Well," said Johnny, "I like my parents . . . but I love Milk Duds."
This is Mother's Day. It is a day when we show our mothers that they are at least as important to us as Milk Duds.
I must tell you, though, that one Mom had a most revealing experience on her birthday. Her two children ordered her to stay in bed. She lay there looking forward to being brought her breakfast, as the inviting smell of bacon floated up from the kitchen. At last the children called her downstairs. She found them sitting at the table, each with a large plate of bacon and eggs. "As a birthday surprise," one explained, "We've cooked our own breakfast." (1)
That says bundles, doesn't it? Who in this world does more for us than our Mom? And who is taken for granted more than our Mom? It is only right that we devote a day each year in honor of those women who have devoted their lives to their family, to their church and most importantly to their children.
Our text for the day could easily be about being a good mother, but actually it is aimed at the whole Christian family. Jesus is looking to the cross. There he will glorify God by his perfect obedience to God's plan. Now he is calling his disciples to perfect obedience as well. What is this perfect obedience to which he calls them? "A new commandment I give to you," he says to them, "that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
NOTICE, FIRST OF ALL, THAT LOVE IS NOT OPTIONAL FOR FOLLOWERS OF JESUS. Jesus says, "A new commandment I give to you . . ." Not a suggestion, not a recommendation. A commandment.
Why is it a commandment? Because there is a part of every one of us that rebels against the idea of pure, unconditional love. There is a part of us that says such love is out of place in the world in which we live. Sure, love is great up to a point, but we want to be sure that we still have some room for some of the baser emotions like anger, resentment and even hate.
We are like a woman who came to Ibn Saud, the man who ruled Saudi Arabia from 1932-1953. This woman had come to him to demand the death of a man who had killed her husband. This man had been picking dates from a palm tree when he accidentally fell, hitting the woman's husband and fatally injuring him. Although the king tried to persuade the woman not to pursue her rights, she insisted. Finally, the king said, "It is your right to ask for this man's life, but it is my right to decree how he shall die. You shall take this man with you immediately, and he shall be tied to the foot of a palm tree. Then you yourself shall climb to the top of the tree and cast yourself down upon him from that height. In that way you will take his life as he took your husband's." The woman quickly changed her mind, realizing that in satisfying her need for revenge, she would also be risking her life. (2)
We're like that woman, aren't we? Holding our grudges. Bearing our resentments. Making our spiteful remarks. Always trying to make certain that everybody gets what they deserve. How alien pure, sacrificial love is to our lives. And so Jesus gives us a commandment ” love one another.
But there is a second thing we need to note: LOVE IS THE CHRISTIAN'S PRIMARY WITNESS TO THE WORLD. How do people know that we are followers of Jesus? By our love. It doesn't matter how often we are in church. It doesn't matter how many crosses we wear around our neck. If we cannot love our families and our neighbors and people of every shape and size and color and background, our Christian faith is a fraud and we are misrepresenting Christ.
There was an article in the paper sometime back about a fake antenna that is on the market for cellular telephones. It costs nineteen dollars. This antenna gives the appearance of the real thing, but it is a fake. It's for people who can't afford a cellular telephone, but don't want their friends to know it, I guess. The amazing thing is that more than two hundred thousand people have bought these fake antennas.
When I read that I thought of a survey done by a psychology professor at DePaul University. The purpose of the survey was to find out what people think of those who wear eyeglasses. Shoppers in a mall were asked to look at pictures of men and women with and without glasses and rate them according to certain characteristics. The results were quite interesting. Men wearing glasses were considered more intelligent and more trustworthy than those without. In the rating of women for intelligence, however, glasses made no difference. But glasses did add an air of financial success to both sexes. Women with glasses were generally considered more competent than those without glasses. After the survey was completed, the professor bought himself a pair of fake eyeglass frames to wear at counseling sessions! He wanted to look competent, too, I suppose. (3)
Fake antennas, fake eyeglasses. What's next ” fake Christianity? Unfortunately, yes.
An old woman lay seriously ill in a hospital. Her closest friend read Isaiah 25"6-9 aloud to her. Wanting the comfort and support of faith, the sick woman asked her friend to hold her hand. On the other side of the bed, her husband, who considered himself a deeply religious man and who prided himself for his boldness in having a "Honk, if you love Jesus" bumper-sticker on his car, reached out to take her other hand. His wife withdrew it, saying with deep sadness, "Herbert, you are not a believer. Your cruelty and callousness throughout the forty years of our marriage tells me that your faith is an illusion." (4)
Ouch, that hurts. There are some things in life you cannot fake. How do people know that we are Christians? By our love. Love is our primary witness to our faith in Jesus Christ. How sad it is that so many who bear Christ's name have never reconciled themselves to that one basic principle. Are we giving an accurate witness to the love of Jesus Christ? Or are we sowing seeds of anger, resentment, hatred? Love is not optional for the follower of Jesus. This is the way people know to whom we belong ” by how much we love. Nothing else we do matters nearly as much. Love is our primary witness to the world. And this brings us to the final thing we note from our text: OUR ABILITY TO LOVE IS DERIVED FROM OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CHRIST. "A new commandment I give to you that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. . . ."
We love because he first loved us. This is so critical to our understanding of love. Love does not happen in a vacuum. Love is something that is passed from one person to another. This is one reason Christian parents and particularly Christian mothers are so important. A child who does not receive love, psychologists tell us, will not be able to give love. There will always be a void there ” a terrible void that can never be filled. On the other hand, a child who has received the proper amount of nurturing as an infant and as a toddler will have a sense of security and trust that will last them all their lives.
This is also true with regard to Christ's commandment to love. Many Christians try to keep Christ's commandment without first nurturing their relationship with him. They are doomed to fail. We draw our ability to love from our connection to him. Without that connection our faith is simply an exercise in noble living. It has no real power to draw us out of ourselves and center us in others.
Let me tell you about a woman who understood that kind of love. Her story is told in a book by Doug Peterson titled MANY ARE CALLED.
Her name is Gladys Aylward. Gladys was an English missionary in China many years ago. The Chinese ruler for that region, called a Mandarin, assigned Gladys to be the official foot inspector for the region. Now, I don't believe we have feet inspectors anymore ” although there may be some hidden away somewhere in the budget of the federal government. It wouldn't surprise me.
Gladys was to inspect the feet of young Chinese girls to make sure their feet were not bound. Foot binding ranks as one of the most severe traditions ever imposed on women. As recently as the middle of this century, the feet of many young Chinese girls were bound in ten-foot bandages wrapped in such a way that all toes except the big one were pulled underneath the foot. The bandage then was wrapped around the heel so tightly that the sole was drawn as close to the heel as possible. The overall effect was to create a considerably shorter foot.
Gladys was stunned. She wasn't Chinese. She was a missionary. How could she serve as foot inspector? People would never listen to her. Some of them called her a "foreign devil." But the Mandarin was determined. He explained the job. Gladys would travel throughout the countryside, with the protection of armed guards, and tell villagers that foot binding was now illegal.
Gladys initially resisted the assignment, but it suddenly occurred to her that traveling from village to village under the Mandarin's protection would give her the chance to tell more people about Jesus. Gladys responded to the Mandarin in this way: "You must realize, Excellency, that if I accept this position I shall try to convert the people of this province to Christianity wherever I go!" When the Mandarin fell silent, Gladys feared she had gone too far. But then he answered softly, "I care nothing for your religion or to whom you preach. This is a matter for the conscience of each individual. But it is important that you should do this work." She did.
At first people reacted to Gladys with a nervous wariness. With a crowd behind her, Gladys marched to the nearest house, where she found a girl of about three years. "That one," she commanded, pointing at the girl. "Unbind her feet!" With the bandages off, Gladys moved to her knees, pried the girl's toes away from the sole of her foot and massaged them. "Five little piggies all ready to go to market," smiled Gladys, and the atmosphere suddenly lightened. The little girl was delighted. Women of varying ages immediately pushed forward, all of them chattering about the pain they had endured for so many years. Gladys was quickly promoted from a "foreign devil" to a person of honor.
When the Japanese invaded China in 1941, Gladys Aylward helped more than one hundred children escape in a treacherous journey through the mountains. They made the journey on foot. Unbound feet. (5)
Gladys Aylward knew how to love. She had been commanded to love by the Lord who sent her into the mission fields. She had no other option. This was her witness to the world ” a witness to the love she had received from Christ. "A new commandment I give to you," said Jesus, "that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this will all men know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
1. Rusty Wright & Linda Raney Wright, 500 CLEAN JOKES AND HUMOROUS STORIES, (Uhrichsville, OH: Barbour and Company, 1980).
2. Haddon W. Robinson, WHAT JESUS SAID, (Grand Rapids, MI: Discovery House Publishers, 1991).
3. SALES UPBEAT
4. Brennan Manning, ABBA'S CHILD, (Colorado Springs, CO: NAVPRESS, 1994).
5. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1992).