LOVE IN ACTION SUNDAY
DR. JIM DIXON
MAY 5, 2013
JOHN 15:12-17
There are five relics from the crucifixion that have appeared and disappeared throughout church history, five relics that have been controversial throughout church history. The first is the sword of Longinus, sometimes called the spear of Longinus. This is the spear that was thrust into the side of Christ after His crucifixion as recorded in John chapter 19. And when the spear was thrust into His side, water and blood poured forth. That spear, which belonged allegedly to the Roman soldier Longinus, has appeared in various parts of the Christian world throughout history and then disappeared. Most recently, it has been at the Habsberg Museum and also the Hofburg Palace in Vienna, Austria. And you might recall that Adolf Hitler, who was not a Christian and in fact hated Christians, wanted the spear of Longinus because he was an occultist. Adolf Hitler was an occultist, and he wanted talismans, objects that he thought might give him power. One of the more bizarre episodes of World War II was the quest of Adolf Hitler for the spear of long Guinness.
Then the second relic associated with a crucifixion is the trilingual inscription. This was the inscription that was placed on the cross with Christ: “Jesus of Nazareth, king of the Jews.” This was the charge laid against Him, that He claimed to be king and therefore was in defiance of Roman authority. The inscription was trilingual. It was in Latin because that was the official language of the empire, it was in Greek because that was the common language of the Hellenized world, and it was in Hebrew because that was the official language of the Jews (although most Jews in the time of Christ actually spoke Aramaic). And in the year 325 AD Saint Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great, went to Jerusalem on a pilgrimage. It has said that there she located the tomb of Christ, which had been preserved and marked, and ultimately the Church of the Holy Seuplchre was built on that site. It is said that she went down into the tomb and she found the cross and the trilingual inscription, and it’s been exhibited in various parts of the Christian world and venerated.
The third relic from the crucifixion is the crown of thorns. The crown of thorns was the crown that was placed in mockery upon the head and the brow of Christ. The crown of thorns was at least allegedly preserved from the earliest days, and Saint Chappelle in Paris is an edifice, a beautiful church built for the purpose of holding the crown of thorns. Isn’t that incredible? It is said that throughout church history the church has given thorns from the crown to people of significance and royal monarchs, people of great accomplishment—enough thorns, perhaps, to create a rose garden. But in any event, it is said the crown of thorns remains as Saint Chappelle in the city of Paris. This is the third relic.
The fourth relic is the robe. Of course, Hollywood has made a movie about the robe, but the robe really relates to the garments placed on Christ in burial. There is the Sudarium de Oviedo, which covered his face, and the Shroud of Turin, which is the relic that is preserved and protected by the Roman Catholic Church. It was carbon dated some years ago and it did not date back to the first century. But now they have done more recent tests allowing for certain features of the garment, and it does date back to the first century. Whether or not it’s the actual robe of Christ, we do not know, but it is venerated as a relic from the crucifixion. The robe of Christ.
Then the fifth relic is of course the cross itself, which St. Helena allegedly found as she went down under what is now the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. When she found the trilingual inscription, she also found the cross and then two smaller crosses upon which the two thieves, including the penitent thief, were also crucified. And part of the cross of Christ was left in Jerusalem. Part of it was taken to Byzantium, or to Constantinople, and part of it was taken to Rome. Then other parts were given to churches. Little pieces were given to churches that would be called the churches of the Holy Cross. But of course, both the Orthodox and Catholic churches claim that there’s been this miracle with regard to the cross called the multiplication of the cross, so that no matter how many pieces are given away, the cross still remains.
You might be thinking, well, what’s this all about? And of course, there’s actually a sixth relic, and that’s the nails. Because when St. Helena went down into that tomb, she found four nails, we are told. And one of those was lost at sea, one of those was melted into the crown of the king of the Lombards (the king of northern Italy), one was taken to Milan and preserved as a relic, and one was taken to Trier, the most ancient city in Germany, and also exhibited as a relic. So there are the nails as well.
You might be thinking, well, how weird. And what are all these relics about? What’s all the veneration about? And do we really believe that if we just touch something that once touched Christ, His power would be released in us? Do we really believe that if we touched something that once touched Jesus, we might be healed or blessed? Do we believe that if we just got near to it and prayed in close proximity to it, that that relic might somehow bless us? Are relics talismans? Does God endow them with power?
And of course, God has all power and God is sovereign. God can do whatever He wants to do. If He wants to bless a relic in that way, He can. But the Bible gives us very little evidence that He has. And I can tell you this with confidence: the crucifixion of Jesus Christ is not about relics. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is not about talismans. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is about sacrificial love. That’s what the cross is about. It’s about sacrificial love.
By that sacrificial love, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has atoned for the sin of the world, and all who now believe in Him will find their sins forgiven and their souls saved. That’s what the cross is about, sacrificial love. There’s a sense in which the cross was meant to be an example for us that we who would follow Christ might take up our cross. So when you look at Matthew 10 and Mark chapter eight and Luke chapter nine, we have this same message again and again. “He who would come after Me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me. So there’s a sense in which we’re to take up our cross. And in Luke chapter nine, it actually says to take up your cross daily.
It’s a choice you have to make to take up your cross, we who follow Christ. And so He’s called us to sacrificial love as He has demonstrated the ultimate sacrificial love for us. Now, He has called us to sacrificial love, and we have to choose that every day. You have to choose sacrificial love every day. What I’d like us to do very briefly is look at two types of sacrificial love.
The first is sacrificial love for people. Do you have a sacrificial love for human beings? Do you have this kind of love for people? And of course, Christ exhibits sacrificial love for people on the cross. You’ve heard of those seven last words—or maybe you haven’t, but I think you have. I know I have preached on it in the past. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but there is the seven last words of Christ that he spoke from the cross, and they’re really seven last phrases. The first is, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” The last is, “Father, into Thy hands I commit My Spirit.” So from “Father” to “Father,” these are the seven last words of Christ.
Two of the seven last words of Christ have special significance in seeing the sacrificial love of Jesus for people. One is the fourth word from the cross. The fourth word from the cross is, “My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?” And of course, in Matthew 27, these words are given in Hebrew, “Eli, Eli,” My God, My God, “Lama, Sabachthani,” why has Thou forsaken Me? But then you come to Mark’s Gospel, and in Mark’s Gospel the words are given in Aramaic, “Eloi Eloi,” instead of “Eli, Eli.” My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?”
Some of the crowd we’re confused, we’re told, and Jesus probably spoke Galilean Aramaic and some of the people in Jerusalem were confused. But we know what He was saying. We know what He was crying out. “Why has Thou forsaken Me?” And have you ever marveled at that? Have you ever wondered about that? Have you ever wondered what was in the mind and the heart of Christ when He said that, when He said those words to the Father? “My God, My God.” I don’t think it was just the physical pain of crucifixion, which was incomprehensible agony. I think the slow death and the slow agony of crucifixion would have been impossible to bear. And yet I think there was a deeper pain. And it was the sin of the world. It was my sin, your sin, all the sin of all the people who’ve ever lived vested on Him as He came to die for the sin of the world. He took it all upon himself.
If you read John 17, the night before Jesus went to the cross, you see His high priestly prayer. And the disciples heard it. They recorded it. In his high priestly prayer, the night before the cross, Jesus spoke of the love that He shared with the Father before the creation of the universe, the love that He shared with the Father from before the foundation of the world. And yet, somehow, on the cross, it felt to Him like that love for the first time in eternity was broken, as the sin of the world was placed upon Him. And He felt what Sin feels like. “My God, My God, why has Thou forsaken Me?” When you understand that He did it for you, when you understand that He went through that physical and spiritual pain for you, you see the sacrificial love of Christ.
Then you have the sixth word from the cross, which was one word in Greek. And of course, as you look at the synoptics and the gospel of John, as you look at the biblical account of the crucifixion, you have Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek as the words are spoken. But this is a Greek word, the sixth word. Jesus shouts out, “It is finished.” And the Greek word is “tetelestai.” It is just one Greek word. It’s three words in English, but in Greek it’s one word, tetelestai, which comes from “telos,” which means end, or finish. And so he cried, “It is finished,” and yet this word also means completed, made perfect.
So there’s a sense in which Jesus may have been saying, “It is completed, it is finished, it is accomplished.” And in fact, archeologists and historians have found this word stamped in parchment on debts that have been paid, and it means “paid in full.” So it’s very possible that what Christ was shouting from the cross is, “Paid in full.” But again, it’s His sacrificial love for us. That’s why He came into the world, so that He might pay in full my debt, your debt, and the debt of the world. That’s how He loves us. This is the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. We see it on the cross.
And of course, He’s called us to exhibit some of this sacrificial love as we live out our days, that we would choose every day to take up our cross and show some sacrificial love towards others. This is even what the parable of the good Samaritan is about. You know, as Jesus tells the story, you know that the priest and the Levite, as they walked down that Jericho Road, did not have sacrificial love. They weren’t willing to sacrifice, and they didn’t have a bunch of love for even a fellow Jew who was wounded by the side of the road. But Jesus tells us about the Samaritan. Jesus tells us he was moved with compassion. Compassion is a love word. It’s the word “eusplanchnos” in the Greek, but it’s a love word. It means moved to action. And you see, you have to be careful with compassion. The reason some people kind of don’t want to feel compassion—they kind of close themselves down, kind of shut themselves off—is because they know that compassion might make you sacrifice.
If you really feel compassion, you might make a sacrifice. You might perform an act of love if you really feel compassion. Jesus tells us that the good Samaritan, seeing this wounded Jew by the side of the road, half dead, was moved with compassion, and took action and expressed sacrificial love. And he stopped his journey and he went to this wounded Jewish man, and he took out his medicinal supplies and he poured on oil and wine, and he bandaged his wounds. And there was a cost to that, we don’t know what. And we’re told that he lifted this wounded Jew onto his beast. And of course, we don’t know whether this wounded Jewish man could help, but he was probably unconscious. Jesus tells us he was half dead. So it was just like lifting dead weight—maybe 150, maybe 200 pounds—as he lifted this man, put him on his animal, and then took him to an inn.
The good Samaritan maybe wasn’t even going to an inn, but had to take care of this guy. So he took him to an inn, and there he ministered to him and took care of him. And he spent the night and he took care of him through the night. Into the next day he ministered to him, Jesus said. And then he went to the proprietor, and he said he took out two denarii and gave the money to the proprietor. That was two days’ wage. I don’t know what you make a day. If you make $26,000 a year—which, most people make more than that—that’s $100 a day. If you have a five-day work week, it’s a hundred dollars a day. If you make what the average household makes in Highlands Ranch, $115,000 a year, you make $450 a day. If you took out two days wage, you’d be taking out a couple of hundred dollars, maybe almost a thousand dollars. But you know, he was moved with compassion. He didn’t know the guy. He was a stranger. He wasn’t only a stranger, he was an enemy, because the Jews and the Samaritans hated each other and had no dealings with each other. But it was sacrificial love. Then he went to the innkeeper and he said, here’s the money. But he said, I have to go for a while. I want you to take care of this man. And whatever else you spend, I will repay you when I get back.
See, that’s how Jesus calls us to live out our days, giving sacrificial love, giving our time, giving our money, using our talents to love people. This is the call of Christ upon us. It’s why we do Love in Action Sunday. It’s not a big sacrifice. It’s just two hours. You don’t have to spend the night, you don’t have to take out medical supplies, you don’t have to give a couple of days’ wage. This is just two hours. God loves all of you. I know many people find it hard even to sacrifice two hours. I know many people are busy, and some people just want to relax. You know, after all, the Rockies play today at 2:10 and Chacin is back and he’s on the mound and there’s a golf tournament and Phil Mickelson is tied for the lead today. There’s always something, isn’t there? Or maybe you just want to take a nap or catch up on some work.
But Jesus is constantly saying, “Take up your cross. Follow Me.” So we have Love in Action day, and I hope it’s fun. I believe it will be fun, but maybe there’s a little sacrifice and hopefully a lot of love as we go out into the community with the love of Jesus Christ. He’s called us to sacrificial love for people.
Then secondly and finally, He’s called us to sacrificial love for God. This is the call of Christ, that we would have sacrificial love for God. He exhibits this, too, from the cross. I mean, He didn’t just die on the cross out of love for us. It also was love for the Father. And the night before the cross, as He was in agony in Gethsemane, you see him cry out, “If possible, Father, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Thy will be done.” You see His love for the Father. He did anything to please His Father. What a sacrificial love for us and for the Father.
We’re called, in some measure, to exhibit love of God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—and love of our neighbor. And we see the sacrificial love of God in the pages of holy scripture. One of my favorite passages has always been Mark chapter 12. In Mark chapter 12, we have the episode of the widow’s mite. I’ve preached a few sermons on this over the years. There’s a story that took place in the Jerusalem temple in the region of the treasury. Do you know where the treasury was inside of the great temple edifice? The treasury was in the court of women. There were various courts inside the Jerusalem temple. The Treasury was in the court of women. We know that, and Josephus tells us all about it. He tells us that within the treasury there was gold and silver bullion and there were 13 trumpets, which were like rams horns. They were receptacles into which people could come and put their money. As they put their money into the 13 trumpets, six of the trumpets were for general offerings, and seven had specific purposes. So some of the money went to the clergy—the priests, the Levites. Some went to the academics, the scribes. Some of the money went to the poor, some went to the oppressed, some went to the upkeep of the temple, and some went to the synagogual system.
So, all of this was required. The gifts of the people. And into the court of women, anyone could go. Man or woman, male or female, they could all go in there so they could all give their money, and that’s probably why the 13 trumpets were there. Jesus was there with His disciples, watching the people putting in their gifts. And He saw rich people bringing in their gifts. And he saw people poor bringing in their gifts. But he saw this one woman, this poor widow, and he had to divine this. I mean, there’s no way he could’ve known this without divine insight. So he saw this one poor widow, and she came in and she gave all that she had—two copper coins, the equivalent of a penny. It was all that she had. And she gave it.
Christ knew it was all that she had, and he marveled and he said to the disciples, did you see that? Did you observe that? I tell you, this woman has given more than all the others combined. All the others who gave money, she’s given more than them combined because what they gave, they gave out of their abundance, and what she gave in her poverty was all that she had. It’s hard to deny that sacrificial love for God that this woman had. And I think God’s looking for a little bit of that in me or maybe a lot. And He’s looking for a little bit of that in you some sacrificial love for God that we might adore Him and so love him.
I love the story of Mary of Bethany, and it’s in Matthew 26 and Mark 14 and John chapter 12 how Jesus came to Bethany, to the home of Simon the leper. And somehow Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus, was there. And Jesus came with His disciples. Somehow inside that home, Mary felt moved to express love for Jesus sacrificially. And so she had this alabaster jar of costly ointment that she had treasured, and she thought, I’m going to pour it out on the feet of my Savior. This was worth one year’s salary. That’s what we’re told in the gospel accounts. You might say, wow, how did Mary of Bethany get something so valuable? And she knew how she wanted to use it. And so she knelt and she poured it out on the feet of Christ, as she washed his feet in love. And some of the disciples begin to complain, hey, this is a waste. Particularly Judas Iscariot began to complain. He said, this could have gone to the poor. And then the comment is made by John in John chapter 12 that Judas didn’t even care about the poor, but that he was the keeper of the company purse and he wanted money in there so he could pilfer it. That’s not very complimentary with regard to Judas. And of course, Jesus looked at His disciples and said, “Mary has done a most beautiful thing.” That’s what Jesus says. She has done a beautiful thing.
“The poor you’ll always have with you, and you can help them whenever you want. But I will not be long with you, you, and she has prepared My body for burial. And I tell you,” He said, “That wherever the gospel is preached throughout the ages all over the world till the end of time, her story will be told. Her story will be told because of the love she has shown this day. Isn’t that incredible? The beauty of that sacrificial love.
Another story I love is the story of David in 1 Chronicles chapter 29 when David is trying to help the people get motivated. Sometimes kings have pastoral roles. So David was trying to get the people to be motivated and mobilized to build the temple and to build it to the glory of God so that it might be one of the most beautiful edifices in the world, overlaid with gold and silver. But he knew he would have a hard time getting them to give. And so he decided to show his own sacrificial love for God. So in 1 Chronicles 29, you see David coming with funds, with monies from the national treasury. But then he does something incredible. He takes his own segullah. The segullah was his personal property, his private treasure. His private treasure was for his retirement. It was for emergency; it was for special needs. It was his and his alone. And he brought the segullah and he gave it all to the building of the temple, which wouldn’t even bear his name. It would be Solomon’s temple because David had sinned. But he had this great love for God. And so he brought the segullah. And the segullah was 3,000 talents of gold and 7,000 talents of silver.
Theologians and scholars have marveled, and yet it fits because he was a great king. It was 10,000 talents, equaled to $17.285 billion. Incredible. But understand that’s by modern equivalency. And you look at the modern world, and there are still people today that are worth that. There are people in this world today worth more than $17.285 billion. It was rare back in David’s time by way of equivalency. It’s rare today, but times haven’t changed. So David, this great king, brought all of his wealth, $17.285 billion, and gave it all for the building of the temple. What an amazing, amazing moment. Talk about sacrificial love for God.
You might be thinking, well, Jim, these are all money stories. Why are you telling so many money stories? The widows mite, that’s a money story. Mary of Bethany, that’s kind of a money story. David and the segullah, that’s a money story. Why are you telling money stories? Well, there’s a method to my madness sometimes. And yeah, we need to do a little better in terms of our sacrificial love for God in the midst of a critical time. See, we’re coming to the end of our fiscal year. Did you know our church’s financial calendar runs July one through the end of June? This is our fiscal year and we’re coming to the end. And I can tell you with all confidence that we’ve never had a fiscal year more important than this year end. This is the most critical time in the history of our church, as we come to the end of this fiscal year, as we’re moving into transition. And we need to be strong. But we’re not.
We’re running behind. We’re behind budget. We cannot meet our expenses. And yet we have greater expenses because of the costs of doing this national search and everything associated with it. And we have lots of people praying that we have just the right person. But I can promise you this, I can tell you this. If we have to let some people go, just when we’re trying to hire a new leader, it’s not going to look very appealing. We need to finish this year strong and enter the next year strong. I need to finish strong. This next leader needs to start strong. I’m not going anywhere, but I won’t be in leadership anymore. I’m just going to serve. And in my heart, that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do.
And what’s on you is on me. So Barb and I have to look at how we can give more and dig deeper, because this is our church. And you know, there’s no season where we want to release staff. We don’t hire arbitrarily. We don’t hire capriciously. We hire with set goals and we establish strategies to attain those goals. We seek to get the right person for the right need. We seek to be frugal, good stewards, financially responsible. We don’t have fat we’re trying to cut. We just need to do better. So we need a little sacrificial love. It involves our time, it involves our treasure, it involves our talents, and it involves our lives.
As we close, I just want to remind you of a little story that I’ve always loved. It’s about Renoir. And you don’t even have to love art to have heard of him. I mean, maybe you’re not that much into the world of art. But you know Pierre-Auguste Renoir was the famous French painter and impressionist. He died in 1919 at the age of 78, and in his last 10 years his body was horribly riddled with arthritis so that he could no longer paint without excruciating pain.
His good friend, Henri Matisse, came up to him as he saw him trying to paint in the midst of horrible pain. And he said, Pierre, why? Why do you keep doing this? Why do you keep painting when it causes you so much pain? And Renoir said something great. He said, well, the beauty remains, but the pain passes. Isn’t that kind of cool? The beauty remains, but the pain passes. You can’t live life in a way that is pleasing to God unless you care about the beauty remaining and unless you’re willing to have a little pain that’ll pass.
I think when you give your time and when you give your talent, when you give your treasure, sometimes there’s pain, but it passes. But the beauty remains. You know, in our scripture for today, Jesus said, “you did not choose Me. I chose you and I appointed you to go and bear fruit, that your fruit would abide.” And the Greek word “meno” means, “to remain, a permanent dwelling, to remain forever.” This is the will of Christ. This is how He would bless us. The pain will pass, but the beauty will remain. So he could say of Mary of Bethany that wherever the gospel is preached all over the world, till the end of time, her story will be told. The beauty will remain.
The beauty will remain in this ministry, in this church, I believe, until Christ comes again. The beauty will remain. The pain will pass. Heading out into the community, I hope there’s very little pain today. I hope there’s a lot of beauty. And the beauty will remain because this is the will of Christ as we learn sacrificial love. Well, let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.