SINCE YOU LOVE ME
SERMON FOR MAY 10, 2026
YouTube video
EMMANUEL
Grace to and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ his Son. Amen. One of the key themes in Matthew’s Gospel is the idea that God is with us. This idea bookends Matthew’s Gospel, beginning with the revelation that Mary is carrying the promised Emmanuel, which means in Hebrew, God with us. Matthew then ends his gospel with Jesus giving the command to go out and to preach to all the world and remember, I am with you always to the end of the age.
HOW IS JESUS WITH US?
So again, this idea that God is with us is very, very important in Matthew’s Gospel. When Jesus ascended into heaven on the 40th day after Easter, we were promised he would come again. And yet here we are, nearly 2,000 years later.
So how is Jesus with us?
MOMENTS OF WONDER
That is a question many Christians wrestle with because there are moments in our lives when God seems far away. Moments of grief and loneliness, moments when prayers seem unanswered. Moments where we wonder where God is in the middle of suffering and pain.
So how does Jesus fulfill this promise to be with us always?
HOLY SPIRIT
For John, Jesus is present with us through the gift of the Holy Spirit, also called the advocate, the counselor.
Jesus tells us in our Gospel today that since we already love Jesus and are keeping his commandments, he will send us this companion to this counselor, our advocate, to be with us.
NOT MANIPULATION
Now it’s very easy to read this statement as a contractual statement. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. But this is not an attempt to manipulate the this is a statement because there is no question in Jesus mind that his disciples love him. And because they love him, they will keep his commandments.
BETTER READING OF GREEK
It was suggested to me that perhaps a better way to read the first verse in our Gospel is since you love me, you will keep my commandments.
Even more authentically, since you are already loving me, it’s ongoing, you will continue to keep my commandments. There’s that sense of this action that keeps moving.
Since you are already loving me, you will continue to keep my commandments.
LOVE ONE ANOTHER
So once again we are pointed back to the new commandment that Jesus gives to his disciples and to us. In John 13, verse 34, I give you a new commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. And Jesus will reiterate this statement In John chapter 15, verses 12 and 17, my command is this Love one another as I have loved you. And this is my Command that you love each other.
AGAPE LOVE
Love. This is not sentimental love. This is not the love that gives us warm fuzzies. The Greek word here is agape. Agape is unconditional, undeserved love.
How is it that the psalm said that?
PSALM 66:20
As we were singing it, it just struck me. Blessed be God who has not rejected my prayer nor withheld unfailing love from me. That is agape love. Unfailing love. And it is the same love that God has for each of us.
1 CORINTHIANS 13
It is the love that is described by St. Paul in First Corinthians, chapter 13. I know this gets read at weddings all the time. It was read at my own wedding. But the reality is, it’s not talking about romantic love. It is talking about agape love.
It is talking about the love that God has for us and the love which God calls us to have for one another.
Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way.
It is not irritable. It keeps no records of wrongs. It does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
NOT JUST A FEELING
This is the love to which we are called, the love that we are called to have for one another. Agape love is not simply a feeling. It is something that we do. It is checking on a neighbor who is sick. It is listening patiently to someone who is hurting.
It is forgiving someone who has wounded us. It is feeding the hungry, comforting the grieving, and standing beside those whom others reject or ignore.
Since you love me, since you are already loving me, you will love one another.
TRAGICALLY BAD AT LOVE
But let’s be honest. We are tragically bad at agape love. And I use that word tragically, quite intentionally. Because when we cannot love one another the way God has loved us, then people experience tragedy, pain, hurt, suffering. Because we are not patient, we are not kind, we are envious, we are boastful, we are arrogant, and we are rude.
FEAR AND DIVISION
Too often, fear shapes us more than love, and we become suspicious of one another.
We divide people into us and them, and we allow anger and resentment to harden our hearts.
This is the human condition.
And so we need to be reminded of this commandment every day. And sometimes we need to be reminded of it every hour.
And this is especially true at this time, when there is so much hate and anger in the world.
WE WILL LOVE ONE ANOTHER
Since Jesus loves us, we will love one another.
Since we love Jesus, we will love one another, Democrat or Republican, what are we called to do? Love them.
Muslim or Christian? What are we called to do? Love them. White or Asian, what are we called to do? Love them.
Black or Hispanic, rich or poor. We are called to love them just as Jesus loves us, just as Jesus loves them unconditionally with unfailing love.
TO DO OUR BEST
Since we love Jesus, we are called to do our best to love one another, respecting the dignity of all persons and looking after their welfare.
One pastor writes, love is not necessarily something we like to do or even want to do, but it is something that we do for the sake of the other person. And the example this pastor used in the next sentence was this is why parents change their babies diapers, right? Anybody here really want to change a diaper?
And yet we do that. We change diapers because it is in the best interest of the child whom we love.
I WILL GIVE YOU THE ADVOCATE
Since you love me, you will keep my commandments. And Jesus goes on to say, I will ask the Father and he will give you the advocate to be with you forever.
Our Father gives us the Holy Spirit. And through the Holy Spirit, Jesus will be with us always. Even if Jesus is not physically present with us. We have the promise that because the Holy Spirit has come, we have him. And through the Holy Spirit, Jesus speaks and Jesus guides us.
THE SPIRIT MOVES US
It is the Holy Spirit, this advocate, this counselor, this spirit of truth who stirs our hearts and moves us to compassion.
And there are moments in our lives when we experience that presentation, that presence, in ways difficult to explain. Perhaps you have experienced the Holy Spirit in that peace that comes in the midst of grief, in the strength that it takes to keep going when life feels overwhelming. Perhaps you have experienced the Holy Spirit in the kindness of another person, arriving at just the right moment, or in the quiet voice of your conscience nudging us towards mercy instead of anger.
GOD’S LOVE IS UNFAILING
Brothers and sisters, God’s love is here for us. It is unfailing, undeserved, unconditional, even when we cannot see it or feel it.
And yet in this passage, Jesus seems to say that when we act in love towards our neighbors, when we care for one another, God’s love becomes visible among us. That every act of compassion becomes a witness that Christ is still alive and active in the world.
LITTLE CHRISTS IN THE WORLD
Luther once said that we are called to be little Christs and in the world, to be going out into the world, to be the hands and feet of Jesus, sharing God’s unconditional love with all. So when we go out and do acts of love for one another, God’s love is made manifest to us. And to the world. Amen.