Ash Wednesday
02 March 2022
1 John 4:18-21
"Don't Be Afraid…To Love"
On this Ash
Wednesday evening, we set our sights towards Jesus' trip to the cross. During
these next 40 days, we will be looking at exactly what Jesus had done for us to
redeem us.
For our mid-week Lenten services,
we will turn to the theme "Don't Be Afraid." What
a fitting theme this is for us to consider for there are so many people in our
world who are living their lives in fear. Some live in fear of what tomorrow
will bring. Then, there are those who are afraid of losing a job due to downsizing
or a losing family member or a friend due to serious injury or death. During
these forty days of Lent, we will be looking squarely at our fears.
Tonight, we look at the fear of
offering and obligating ourselves to love. Some are simply afraid to love
because of what has happened to them in the past when they have opened
themselves up to others and found themselves misunderstood, and in some cases
rejected.
Our text for this evening tells us
simply that we don't have to be afraid to love. The reason for this is that God
in Christ was not afraid to love. If we look at the life of Jesus, we will
quickly see that He showed love to all men. Christ showed His love to those who
were considered to be "unlovable."
It is quite interesting to see
that Jesus was criticized for loving those who were rejected and forgotten by
others. The Pharisees, who were always trying to fault Jesus, who, on
more than one occasion, criticized Jesus for eating with and associating with
tax collectors and sinners.
Yet Jesus' love was never
selective, or circumstantial, as our love tends to be when we put limitations
on our love saying, in essence, "I will love you if you do certain things
for me "or" I will love you if you love me
first". Contrary to our often-circumstantial love Jesus showed
love even to those who rejected Him and nailed Him to a cross.
This is the first reason why we do
not have to be afraid to love for we see that while even Jesus' disciples were
often self-seeking and loveless Jesus loved them to the end. Jesus never once
refused to love, even when His disciples forsook Him, turned their backs, and
ran from the Garden. Jesus continued to love.
While we were yet sinners,
separated by guilt and the shame of sin, Christ Jesus loved us. Even
before we loved Him, Christ was intent on expressing His love for us by going
the way of the cross to suffer and die for us. Even before we loved
Him, Christ was intent on expressing His love for us by going the way of the
cross to suffer and die for us.
Jesus loved you so much that He
sacrificed Himself for you. He died in your place. Recall, once again, the
words of our text for this night "We love because He first loved
us". What that simply means is that Jesus is the one who
initiates us to love. Because He moves and directs us, He enables us to
love. Jesus' pattern of love becomes our pattern to love. Because
Jesus loved, we are able to love.
It is at this precise point where
fear enters our minds and when we so often fall short. There are
some people in our lives that, frankly, just rub us the wrong way. Possibly,
they have hurt us in the past. There may be some that we have tried
to love, but we could not get through. To those who have hurt us, to those who
have ignored us, to those who seem indifferent, we simply say, “I am unable to
love you!"
Then fear comes! We become afraid
of opening ourselves to others and letting them know just how we really feel.
Will they listen? Will they understand? Will they close themselves off when
they see what I'm really like?
What do we do? Moved out of fear
of not being loved we can quickly become phony and plastic where we paint a
picture of ourselves that really isn't true because we're afraid we won't be
loved.
We see this in relationships where
people break and drift apart because one or both people were not completely
honest with each other. How many times have we found ourselves disappointed
because we were acting and playing a role in the hopes that the other person
would accept us but the acceptance did not come, or, if it came, it did not
last?
While all of us have been afraid
to love, or have failed to love out of fear that we would not be loved in return
wed can find reassurance and hope in our text on this Ash Wednesday night.
If God was not timid about opening
His heart to us in love, then we do not have to be timid about showing love to
others, for there is no fear in love.
What John is saying is that the
more we love the less we will have to fear. One of the purposes of
God's love is to free us from the fear of the judgment that is to come.
That is why Jesus came, to suffer
and die for us so that we could be freed from our fears and made able to love,
as we ought. Jesus Christ came into this world to die on the cross. There, at
the cross, He hailed all of our fears to the cross finally.
As we begin then to reflect on
Christ's suffering and death, we remember that because of God's love for us we
really have nothing to fear. As Jesus Christ came and conquered all,
you and I can remain confident in the love of God that we are free even in our
relationship with others.
The love that we show to people is
actually the love of God acting in us. It is Christ living in us that enables
us to love, even those who we often find difficult to love. What's
more, the love of God in us enables us to love openly and freely and in a
genuine way without any worry of our rights and privileges being taken for
granted.
What this simply means is that the
love of Christ dwelling in us will be able to stand and bear up to the
criticisms of other people. As Jesus Christ lives in us, each day of
our lives, the love of God, which was demonstrated through the life and death
of His Son, is being perfected in us.
What that means for you and me is
that if God has shown His love toward us by sending us His Son, and if the love
of God dwells in us, then what else can we do but love?
Sure, it will sometimes be
difficult to love. Love is not always nice or pleasant. Sometimes
love has to be firm and tough. Sometimes it is not easy to condemn
that which is wrong in the sight of God. Speaking in love might make
us feel at times uneasy and sometimes some people become angry at that
expression of love. However, words that are spoken in love, and
deeds that are performed out of love will always prevail. St. Paul
quite possibly put it best when he wrote to the Corinthian congregation:
"These three will always remain…faith, hope, and love and the greatest of
these is love"
Don't be afraid to love!
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