Third Sunday of Easter May 3-4, 2025
“Loving God” John 21:15-19
Rev. John R. Larson Ascension Lutheran Church Littleton, Colorado
How do you know that you love someone or that someone loves you? Well – you smile when you are with them. You take the big step and hold their hand. You go out on a date.
Let me tell you how I found out that my daughter, Eden, had fallen in love with her husband to be – Larry. I started noticing that my phone bill had really increased. It was my long-distance bill that had jumped to “never seen before” levels. This was about 20 years ago when every out-of-state phone call was charged at its own special rate. One month I got the bill. Long distance from Greeley, Colorado, where my daughter went to school, to Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri, where my future son-in-law, went to school. 117 minutes. 156 minutes. 242 minutes!! I knew then that they must be in love. I think I encouraged them to get married quickly. It would be cheaper for me to pay for their wedding than to pay my phone bill!!
How do you know that someone loves you or that you love them? Dawn Munson, our Administrative Assistant, when asked about that question said, “I know they love me if they give me chocolate.”
Jesus asked Simon Peter, following His death and resurrection, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me more than these?”. Then Jesus asks him a second time, “Simon son of John, do you truly love me?” And Jesus asks him a third time, “Do you love me?” When Jesus asked the third time if he loved Jesus we read, “Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, ‘Do you love me’? (John 21:17)
Why three times? Peter three times, on Holy Thursday, said he didn’t even know who Jesus was and certainly by that denial was saying that he didn’t love Him. Peter, earlier, had said things like, “I will lay down my life for you.” (John 13:37) Peter was the one who boasted about his faithfulness to Jesus, “Even if all fall away, I will not.” (Mark 14:29) So now Jesus is asking him a simple question, “Peter, do you love me more than these?”
I would have loved to be there when Jesus asked that question. What did Jesus point at, when He said, ‘Do you love me more than these?’ Was He pointing at the other disciples? At one time Peter said that he was the strongest and most courageous disciple. Or was Jesus pointing at the nets and equipment for fishing, his boat, and everything he had for his work as a fisherman? William Barclay in his commentary says that Jesus may have been saying, “Simon, do you love me more than these things? Are you prepared to give them all up, to abandon all hope of a successful career, to give up a steady job and a reasonable comfort, in order to give yourself for ever to my people and to my work?” (Barclay, The Gospel of John, Volume II, Page 285)
And Peter answers Jesus each time with a strong word, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.” “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you.”
Do you know that loving God is the highest and greatest thing that we can do? Do you love God? One time Jesus was being questioned about the law of God. Matthew 22 says that an expert in the law confronted Jesus, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus said, “Love the Lord you God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. (See Matthew 22:34-38)
What does it mean to love God? What does it mean to love Jesus? It is the greatest thing that we can ever do. So how do we do it? If we don’t love Him, we will find ourselves quite far from Him.
When I do pre-marriage counselling, I ask the couple if they love each other. I always get a yes. They are quite enthusiastic about that. So we begin to investigate what an author called Gary Chapman says are the “Five Love Languages”. The five are:
1. Words of Affirmation (Compliments)
2. Quality Time (Focused Attention and Quality Conversation)
3. Receiving Gifts (Tangible gifts and physical symbols of love)
4. Acts of Service (Doing favors for one another)
5. Physical Touch (Holding hands, kissing, even making babies!!)
What I find interesting, and I think the couples do as well, is how much they differ with their love languages. One loves to give gifts to the other and they express their love in that way, but the most important way for the other person to receive love is not what the other person bought for them. No. They thirst for quality time with their partner. They want to know that they come first in all the demands of life. They say, “I don’t want things, I want you and your attention and your time and your listening ear.”
What does it mean to love God? You must have faith in Him. “Without faith it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6) Loving God means that you trust Him. In John 6 we read, “Then they (The crowds) asked him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.” (Verses 28-29) Loving God means trusting in Jesus. Loving God means trusting in His answer for our sins and the problem of our mortality. Jesus is the one we trust in, we rely upon, we boast about, we rest in. He is the one we follow in a path of right living. You can’t have love with anyone or anything unless you have a reliance on them.
Loving God is not one dimensional. St. John writes in his epistle, “We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this commandment: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.” (I John 4:19-21)
Do you love God? If you do then you must love the people in your household, and at work, and at school, and in your neighborhood and even when you’re in your car. One of our folks said to me, “The older I get the more I desire to be obedient to God.” They had lived too many years not caring about being obedient to God and His will, nor loving others as God would have us love them. Remember Paul’s description of love, “Love is patient and kind…it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs…it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.” (See I Corinthians 13:4-8)
When Jesus asks Peter if he loves Him, Peter says that he does. And what does Jesus tell him to do? “Feed my sheep.” “Feed my lambs.” “Take care of my sheep.” Peter would love Jesus by loving others. Little ones – the lambs. Bigger ones – the sheep. And He would fill their soul with the truth of God shown in Jesus.
Maybe I got this sermon turned around. I’ve been telling you that we need to really love God. It must be a priority in daily life. God cannot be forgotten, as He is, all too often. But our love has a source. It is God. He first loved us. Like John says, “This is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (I John 4:10) Like the hymn says, “Oh, how I love Jesus…Because He first loved me.”
I used to visit Jim and Millie Reeves, long-time members of this church. They had a sign over their couch that read, “I Love You More.” I guess showing love can be a competition – in a good way.
Love God but always know that He loves you more. Delight in that truth. Delight in Him. And love Him with all that you are and have. Amen!!
