“Keep My Words”

John 14:23-31

 It frustrates Heather, and I can’t blame her.  When I’m working in the kitchen, I often have the television or some music playing in the background.  She will come into the room and speak to me, but I won’t really hear her.  My mind is set on the action of the game or the story or on the melody of the song.  Of course, I’m too proud to admit that I’m not listening, so I put on a show of paying attention.  “Yes, dear…uh huh…mmm-hmmm…”, I mumble hoping that she won’t ask me a question that requires an intelligent response.  But I’m married to an intelligent person, and she sees right through my act.  “Martians are in the backyard, dear” she’ll sweetly say, waiting for me to fall into her good-natured trap.  And fall into it I will because I’ve got my mind tuned to the wrong voices.  Aren’t the thoughts and feelings conveyed to me by the words of my own wife more important to me than those of any TV program or piece of music?  Thanks be to God that Heather is patient with her distracted man. 

 I wonder if Jesus felt at all frustrated with His men, the disciples whom He had chosen, on that last night of His life with them.  Yes, they were all gathered with Him there that night.  They ate the Passover meal with Him.  They seemed to listen to what He knew to be the last words He would speak to them before He was crucified.  But Jesus also knew that one of them had his mind occupied with plans of fulfilling his part of a secret bargain he had made to betray Jesus into the hands of His enemies among the Jewish religious leaders.  Jesus also sensed that the words that He had spoken to them in the past and those He spoke this night concerning His imminent suffering and death completely confused and frightened His disciples, so that they could barely take in anything He was saying to them. 

 The disciples had cherished other hopes and dreams for Jesus their Master.  Like most Jews of the time, the disciples hoped that Jesus would fulfill the conventional dreams for the Christ.  They thought that He would be a revolutionary.  They wanted Him to right Israel’s wrongs by running Rome out of the country.  They wanted Jesus to be King of Israel, working His miracles forever, and establishing Israel as heaven on earth.  But on that fateful Thursday night, Jesus made it clear to His disciples that He would not be the Christ they were dreaming of.  He told them that He was about to leave them.  He said also that He would come back to them, but the disciples may not have even heard that promise.  They were crushed and crestfallen by the news of the death of their dreams. 

 You and I also know some of the disciples’ suffering from our own experience.  How often have we awakened to a new day, hoping to get out into the garden or head out to camp only to look into the sky and see dark clouds pouring down enough rain to wash away the possibility of us doing what we wanted for that day?  The weather is small thing really, but it certainly puts us in a surly mood doesn’t?  Why?  Because it has come in between us and our wishes.  There is a little boy who is new to my wife’s daycare room.  He is curious about his new surroundings, and so he roams about the room exploring it.  On one of his first days there, Heather noticed that he was attempting to open the gate that leads out of the room.  This is against the rules for the children, but since this young fellow was a newcomer, Heather simply told him that he was not allowed to leave the room.  The boy’s face registered shock, and he cried, “you can’t say that!”  Well of course she could, but that didn’t save the little boy from feeling wronged.  He was indignant.

 Aren’t we all indignant and upset when life doesn’t go the way we expect or desire it to?  It messes with our heartfelt conviction that we are gods and that life is our oyster shell ultimately existing for our pleasure.  The words Jesus spoke about His arrest, condemnation and death had the same confounding effect in the hearts of the disciples, showing them that their dreams for the Christ were vain.  Yet Jesus’ faithful words also hold the only help available to us when life fails to measure up to hopes that grow like weeds in our hearts because we imagine ourselves to be the ones in control of life. 

 Jesus said, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come and make our home with him.”  Heather knows the difference between her husband giving her his attention and his little masquerade, and you know which of my behaviors conveys to her my love.  I show her my love when I pay attention to what she says to me.  It’s the same with Jesus.  We show love for Him when we put aside our own plans and ambitions for our lives in order to keep His words as the guiding light of our lives.  “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path”; in fact, Jesus’ words are the only lamp and light that can guide us in the way of eternal life. 

 The first message Jesus’ words communicate to us is often a hard one for us to hear.  “The Son of Man is going to be arrested, condemned and crucified.”  “I have a different plan for your life now than the one you have always held dear.”  Jesus’ words are words that command us.  They expose our hearts, and if we trust in something other than Him, they will probably upset and frighten us.  They face us with the reality that God is in charge, not us, and so they call us to give up pretending otherwise.  They call us to repent of trying to be our own gods. “Let God be true though everyone else were a liar” (Romans 3:4). 

 The second message of Jesus’ words is the one our hearts truly need and even long to hear: “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.”  Though our Lord could condemn us for ignoring His words and pretending to be in charge of our lives, He came into this world to save us.  Christ’s crucifixion was not the triumph of evil over good.  The prince of this world, Satan, had no claim on Jesus; He went to His death because He loved His Father who loves us and planned for our salvation from the beginning of creation.  Jesus kept the word of His Father for our sakes, carrying our sins to the cross that He might suffer and die for us to spare us the fate of those who are God’s enemies.  Jesus died to make peace between us and God.  When He was raised from the dead, Jesus declared that His mission was fulfilled: “Peace be with you” He promises us.  You and I are freed by Jesus from the power that sin holds to keep us from paying attention to God’s words by distracting us with all of its vain promises of personal power and godhood.  Trusting in Jesus, we know that it is well with our souls.  Jesus’ sacrifice has secured eternal peace for us with God.  God is our loving Father forever.  How great is God’s love for us?  He calls us His dear children! 

 “Keep these words”, our Lord urges us.  Keep these words because they spare us the sorrow of struggling through life trying to look good to others, pretending to be gods when we can never be more than God’s creatures, fretting and fearing whenever life takes a turn other than the one we were expecting.  By these words we remain humble and repentant before God. 

Keep these words because they alone have the power to keep us from evil in this world of turmoil and trouble.  The peace Jesus has given to us, that peace He won for us on the cross, the promise that our sins our forgiven and God is with us to guide us to eternal life, is a gift above all others.  No one can take this hope from us.  With Luther, we sing: “God’s Word forever shall abide, no thanks to foes who fear it; for God Himself fights by our side with weapons of the Spirit.  Were they to take our house, goods, honor, child or spouse, though life be wrenched away, they cannot win the day.  The Kingdom’s ours forever”  (LW 297 “A Mighty Fortress is our God). 

When your life is troubled by cares for those you love, by hardships and disappointments, or by threats of danger and death, keep Jesus’ words to you.  None of these problems that you face can nullify what Jesus has promised to you.  “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.”  Come to the Lord’s Table to receive into your own hand and mouth the sacramental sign that you are safe in God’s hands.  Eat His body and drink the blood He shed for you to bind you to God in a covenant of peace forever.  Keep His words, say them to yourself, say them to God in prayer, tell them to each other to encourage yourselves, adjust your life to obey their guidance, and trust those words.  God loves you so much that He gave His Son for you.  Love Him by keeping His words. 

Keep the words of Jesus in your life.  Read the Scriptures each day.  Come to church to hear them read and preached.  Ask God to help you to live your life by them.  We can’t keep God’s words without God’s help.  No one knows that better than Jesus, and that’s why He has given us that help in the person of the Holy Spirit.  “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 remembrance all that I have said to you.”  Repentance, faith and love for Jesus aren’t virtues we work up in ourselves.  They come to us from the Holy Spirit.  He comes to us and teaches us to repent of our sins, to believe in Jesus, and to love and serve our Lord, as we listen to Jesus’ words. 

It was the coming of the Holy Spirit to the disciples at Pentecost that finally opened their ears to hear and their hearts to understand and believe Jesus’ words.  The Spirit helped them to know why Jesus’ message to them on that Thursday night could have caused them to rejoice.  For Jesus was going to the Father to offer Himself as the sacrifice to pay for all our sins.  He was preparing a place for us in our Father’s house.  In whatever trial or trouble you find yourself in today or tomorrow, keep your ears tuned to Jesus’ words.  Ask the Holy Spirit to help you, and rejoice that you are the Lord’s and that nothing in all creation can separate you from His love.  Alleluia!  Amen.