SERMON SERIES WEEK 4: LENT—A TIME FOR LOVE. LOVE DOES NOT DISHONOUR OTHERS; IT IS NOT SELF-SEEKING
Some years ago, a television station interviewed a family with twin boys, around 8 years old. One previously had a diseased kidney. He had once been weak and ill, but now had enjoyed a huge improvement in his heath, and in front of the cameras played and chatted away. His brother had given him his own kidney which saved his life. In the interview, the parents said that it was their son’s own idea to donate his kidney to his brother. When the interviewer asked the boy which kidney he gave, he answered: “My right one…because I am right-handed, and I figured that my right kidney was my best kidney.”
As we continue our midweek Lenten series Lent a time for love, let’s read together the progression of the 1 Corinthians 13 theme verse: “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others; it is not self-seeking…” (1 Corinthians 13:4-5). It’s hard to find a better human illustration of love than the little boy who truly loved and sought the good of his brother.
To love someone truly is to honour them. To honour someone means to respect them, not only in public but in our personal and private lives. To dishonour someone means to say or do something that would damage the other person’s good reputation. Ironically, when we seek to honour ourselves—aiming to make ourselves look better in the pursuit of popularity, promotion, financial gain, or self-protection from having our own reputation harmed—we dishonour others.
The Bible calls us to honour God above anyone else. We do that when we live by God’s word and so “fear love and trust God above all else” as Luther explained the First Commandment to mean. Loving God also means loving all his commandments that follow. We are to honour God by honouring our father and mother, and all those in authority—because there is no authority except that which God has established. And so God demands us to honour our teachers, the Government, and all who hold public office of responsibility, and those who have been appointed to carry out good public order, like police and security staff. For Christians, we are to honour our leaders in the Church, those who we serve with in ministry teams, and everyone in the congregation. As Christians we honour God by honouring others in authority when we do what they ask us to do to the best of our ability.
The Commandments give us the shape of honour…and of love. We honour God by honouring others when we protect them from harm (even in our secret thoughts) but help them in their physical needs, like the little boy who even gave his right kidney for his brother’s well-being. Husbands and wives honour each other by remaining faithful to each other and in matters of sex our words and actions are pure. We honour others by not coveting what they have, or stealing from them, but helping them maintain their property and goods and even increasing their property and possessions. The eighth commandment probably has the greatest connection with honour—we honour others by our honesty and integrity. Rather than say nothing or share half the story, we are to defend others by speaking well of them and explaining their actions in the kindest way possible. Rather than make assumptions about particular matters, gossiping, or spreading rumours, we honour others when we seek clarification with them and check the accuracy of our understanding. We honour others when our words and actions are no different behind people’s backs as they would be in front of their faces.
When Paul first gave these words on love, he wrote to a church community who were not loving. They were splintered into factions, abusive, seeking personal gratification, glory, and gain, had corrupted the Lord’s Supper, and—like the disciples who argued amongst themselves about who of them should be considered the greatest—the Corinthians were putting themselves in places of distinction, seeing their spiritual gifts as a sign of their self-importance and rank, rather than building up the congregation for the common good, as children of God.
From a personal standpoint, true honour is never something we can create, but always bestowed; always given. Jesus explained this with a parable in Luke 14:
“When Jesus noticed how the guests picked the places of honour at the table, he told them this parable: “When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take the place of honour, for a person more distinguished than you may have been invited. If so, the host who invited both of you will come and say to you, ‘Give this person your seat.’ Then, humiliated, you will have to take the least important place. But when you are invited, take the lowest place, so that when your host comes, he will say to you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’ Then you will be honoured in the presence of all the other guests. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Luke 14:7-11).
We don’t find respect or esteem by scrambling to be in the most important positions. In Jesus’ economy, honour has a place-but it should be bestowed and never assumed Honour is to be received, not manipulated. God bestows honour on those who choose humility.
Isn’t this the way of Jesus himself? The scriptural appeal for us to look not to self-interest but the interests of others and honour them is grounded in the life, suffering and death of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross! (Philippians 2:6-8).
In tonight’s Passion Narrative, there is no one who seeks to honour Jesus. He has been betrayed by Judas, one of his own disciples, who sought his own interest: a bag of money. Jesus is seized and led away to the house of the High Priest. Things look ominous for Jesus now…yet Peter does not honour Jesus. He does not publicly defend Jesus or speak well of him. He has three occasions to do so, yet he also acts in self-interest. Rather than protecting Jesus’ reputation, Peter denies him, so all might instead be well for him. The men guarding Jesus didn’t honour him. They dishonoured him, mocking and beating him, and said many other insulting things to him. A classic case of bullying; making themselves feel better by putting someone else down—who so happens to be the Son of God.
Yet Jesus did not dishonour these people. He loved them. He loved them by not seeking his own interests, but the interests of others. He did not just give his right kidney. He didn’t even give an arm and a leg. The price necessary for Jesus to pay to redeem the world, was his very life.
God did this to honour you! God did not seek self-interest but chose your interest. This was his will for you before the very foundation of the world, that you should know his Son, not to be condemned, but saved for the life he gives. Jesus has honoured you by doing as he promised: he reconciled you to God by the Cross, to give you in a place of honour and distinction in his kingdom, with the right to be called a child of God—though none of us have deserved it. He honours you—not by bringing public disgrace on you as he himself once suffered—but by making you holy, washing all your sin and guilt away by his precious blood, hiding all your shame in his holy wounds. Although Satan brings accusation against God’s people day and night (Revelation 12:10), Jesus has honoured you, having taken the law and its condemnation upon himself, so that it would be nailed to the Cross, crucified with him. Jesus has never said anything to dishonour or disgrace you—but only speaks the words of life, and truth, by which the Holy Spirit has brought you to know the truth, and enter life—as one of the little lambs of the Good Shepherd. He has walked before you through the valley of the shadow of death, to bring you into the light of his glorious kingdom. Jesus honours you by bringing you into a completely different relationship before God; one in which his Father in heaven is also now your Father in heaven, through faith in Christ.
Jesus defends you publicly—before his Father who is the righteous judge, and all the company of heaven, for he has said: “Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven” (Matthew 10:32). Because of Jesus, you can be sure that your Heavenly Father will not seek his own interests, but honour you too, blessing you, looking upon you with his favour to provide all your needs, and keeping you as his own, alone, forever.
During this Lenten season, as we journey even closer to the Cross on which the Son of God died, might we consider just what it means for us, to live in faith and obedience to the word of God, as those honoured by Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
