Not Your Love For Jesus, But His Love For You

Text: Matthew 22:34-36

In the name of Jesus. Amen.

When I was a youth, I attended a church retreat—hundreds of energetic teens gathered together, full of enthusiasm and religious excitement. One evening, during a session, the speaker stood on stage and shouted into the microphone, 

“I want to hear it loud and clear: who loves Jesus?” 

The room erupted with cheers. Hands shot into the air. Voices shouted. There was a buzz in the air. 

All of a sudden, one side of the room started a chant, 

“We love Jesus, yes, we do! We love Jesus, how about you?” 

Our side, clearly challenged, yelled back even louder, 

“We love Jesus, yes, we do! We love Jesus, how about you?” 

Then the other side answered with thunderous applause and voices even louder than before. The game was on. The goal: who could shout the loudest for their love of Jesus?

Right then, as we prepared for our next chant, a youth leader walked over and leaned in quietly, 

“Next time, don’t say ‘Jesus.’ Say, ‘Cheez-Its.’ I want to hear you shout, ‘We love Cheez-Its, yes we do, we love Cheez-Its, how about you?’” 

So we did. We shouted with all our might: 

“We love Cheez-Its, yes, we do! We love Cheez-Its, how about you?” 

The other side, not catching the change, responded with full enthusiasm, still shouting about Jesus, while we doubled down on our affection for a cheese cracker.

After the excitement faded, the youth leader turned to us and said something that has stuck with me ever since. He said, 

“The truth is, you really don’t love Jesus that much. That’s why I had you change the chant.”

It was a sobering moment. He wasn’t mocking our excitement. He wasn’t trying to shame us. He was being honest. Honest about something that very few people ever want to admit.

You see, dear friends, the truth of the matter is this: we cannot cheer that we love Jesus—not really, not in the way that the Bible describes love. We may say we love Him. We may sing it with our lips. We may even feel it emotionally from time to time. But do we love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind?

Some of you might push back. 

“But pastor, I do love Jesus. I pray. I come to church. I read His Word. I sing hymns and praise songs.”

Yes, of course. That may be true. But again, do you love the Lord with all your heart? With all your soul? With all your mind? Not just in moments of spiritual excitement. Not just when things are going well. But with the entirety of your will, emotions, thoughts, strength, intellect, and being?

Jesus says in our Gospel reading today that the greatest commandment is this: 

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” 

And the second, 

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 

Now, please sit up in your pew.  Mark this: these are not gentle suggestions. These are not ideals to aim at and fall short of with a shrug. These are divine demands; they are the standard of perfection.

Listen up!  If you are to love God, you must do so with every fiber of your being. Your entire life—your decisions, your desires, your time, your energy, your intellect, and even your affections—all of it is to be turned toward the Lord in full devotion. 

Furthermore, it is essential to note that your love must also be extended to your neighbor.  You are to love your neighbor in the same way you love yourself.  You must watch out for your neighbor’s needs, speak well of them, forgive them, help them, protect their reputation and property, and do so with the same urgency and concern that you naturally apply to yourself.

Let’s pause here for just a second.  It is important to remember that the Ten Commandments reveal to us what love is. In other words, the Ten Commandments are not just a set of arbitrary rules; instead, they are the very shape of love. That is to say, you are to love God in worship, reverence, and doctrine.  Furthermore, you are to love your neighbor by showing respect for authority, protecting your neighbor’s life, upholding fidelity in marriage, promoting honesty, charity, and contentment. 

And so, considering all of this, how are you doing in loving God and loving your neighbor?  Can you chant, 

“I love Jesus, yes I do, I love Jesus, how about you?”  

Dear friends, if we are honest, we must confess that our hearts are divided. When we look at the Ten Commandments, we see just how loveless we are.  We see how our souls are tainted with self-love and how our minds are cluttered with distractions. Indeed, the majority of our time, effort, and thoughts are not devoted to God, but to ourselves. And as for our neighbor—well, we may be polite, we may be civil, but we don’t truly love others the way we love ourselves. And sometimes, let’s be honest, we don't even love others very well at all. We get annoyed. We become bitter. We gossip. We envy. We curse under our breath. And sometimes, we even celebrate when others fail.

The reality is this: we don’t love God the way we ought to, and we don’t love our neighbor the way we should.  Don’t lie to yourself: don’t hide behind your emotional enthusiasm, cultural slogans, or religious zeal! At our core, you and I are self-serving sinners.  

But again, you might protest:

“Isn’t this a bit too harsh? Doesn’t God understand that we’re doing our best? Surely He’s not asking for that much. Who can love like this?”

Ah, but there’s the point. No one can love like this. Not on their own. Not you. Not me. Not the greatest saint or the most pious churchgoer. No one can love like this... except One.

Only Jesus.

Baptized Saints, listen up!  Jesus alone has loved God the Father with all His heart, soul, and mind. He never wavered. Never doubted. Never wandered. He loved the Father with a pure heart and perfect obedience. And He loved His neighbor—you—with perfect, self-giving love.

Baptized Saints, Jesus fulfilled the Law. He didn’t just talk about love. He was love in action. He didn’t chant about love in some emotional frenzy—He bled for love. He didn’t cheer with catchy slogans—He carried the cross with love for you. And on that cross, He took all of your lovelessness, all of your sin, all of your failure, and made it His own – so that you may be forgiven.  

Hear this: Christ, who loves sinners. Christ, who came not for the healthy but for the sick. Christ, who fulfills the Law you could not, Christ – this Christ - gives you forgiveness. He gives you His righteousness and calls you His own.

And so, listen up and hear this: in your baptism, the love that you can never grasp was given to you – it was poured out upon you. This is not a pretend or plastic cultural version of love. It is not a superficial feeling. But it is real love: the love of Christ is the bloody, sacrificial, eternal love of God. 

Again, listen up: in the Lord’s Supper, that love that we can never perfectly accomplish - is placed into your mouth—the body and blood of the One who died and rose for you. And in the Word of God, that love that we can never master is proclaimed again and again: 

“You are forgiven. You are mine. I have loved you with an everlasting love.”

Blessed Baptized Saints, it is His love that saves you—not your love for Him. It is His love that fulfills the Law—not your works or intentions or feelings. And it is His love that now begins to shape your heart anew.

And so, know this, the love of Christ will give you holy and good impulses.  The love of Christ received will compel you;  your acts of love towards your neighbor come not from a place of earning God’s favor, but from being already secure in it. 

And when you fail with this love—as you will—you do not need to despair. Instead, you can return again to the One who loves you still, whose mercy does not run out, and whose cross still stands as the banner of your salvation.

So, the next time someone asks, “Do you love Jesus?” you don’t need to chant louder than the next guy. You don’t need to prove it with feelings or shouts. You don’t need to convince yourself with slogans. Instead, confess this: 

“I do not love Jesus as I should. But thanks be to God, Jesus loves me. He gave Himself for me. He has forgiven me. He is enough.”

And in that love—His love—you can rest with assurance;  you can live; you can serve; and you can love, because He first loved you.  

In the name of Jesus. Amen.