230430 What is an abundant life? (Easter 4) April 30, 2023

 Audio recording

Sermon manuscript:

Jesus said, “I came that they may
have life and have it abundantly.”

What is an abundant life? This is a big question. What is an
abundant life immediately brings up other questions: What is life for? How
should we live our lives? Big questions like these have been asked and answered
in countless ways. Philosophy and religion are two enormous fields of study that
work with questions like these. Countless lifetimes could be spent reading the
books that have been written to answer the questions of what life is for, how
we should live it, what is an abundant life?

Jesus, though, seems to be quite certain despite all the
books. You heard what he said: “I came that they may
have life and have it abundantly.” Jesus knows what life is. He knows
how it is to be had abundantly. He is talking about these things when he says,
for example, in our reading: “Truly, truly, I say to
you, I am the door of the sheep… if anyone enters by me, he will be saved and
will go in and out and find pasture.”

Jesus says similar things elsewhere. He says, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger
and he who believes in me will never thirst.” In that same place he also
says, “My flesh is true food. My blood is true drink.
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.”
Eating and drinking and living—this is to be had in Jesus. He says that he is
the bread of life, he is the light of the world, he is the door, he is the
resurrection and the life. Jesus doesn’t mumble when he says these things. He
says them very plainly and with authority.

Although Jesus is very confident that he brings life, and
even an abundant life, that doesn’t mean that everybody is going to believe
him. We know this, if nothing else, just by reading the Gospels. That time that
I just mentioned—where Jesus talked about his flesh as true food and his blood
as true drink—that didn’t go over very well. Many thousands had been following
him because he had fed 5,000 of them with bread, but when they heard Jesus say
that he himself is the bread, that they should eat his flesh and drink his
blood—all of a sudden they weren’t so interested anymore. “This is a hard saying,” they said, “who can accept it?” The falling away was so bad that
Jesus even asked his disciples, “Are you going to go
away too?” To which Peter responded, “Lord, to
whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” We sing those
words in the Alleluia before the Gospel reading.

So Jesus is clear and assertive. In him is life and abundant
life. There’s your answer for what is the abundant life—it’s in Jesus. But you
should not expect that Jesus’s words are going to be persuasive to everyone who
hears them. Some are going to believe that Jesus is their Lord and the Christ—that
in him is abundant life; some are not. Jesus says, “My
sheep hear my voice and they follow me.” 

But even for those of us who hear his voice and want to
follow him his words can be a little puzzling: “I am
the door; I am the bread; I am the light”—what does stuff like that mean
exactly? And when he says “I have come so that they may
have life and have it abundantly,” what does that mean? It’s hard
because we already have our own ideas about what an abundant life should look
like. Maybe all I need to do to find out what you believe is an abundant life is
to ask you: “What do you want?”

I want to be popular. I want prestige. I want money. I want
looks. I want never to get sick, never to grow old, never to die. I want to
have the most and be the best—aren’t these and similar thoughts what we can’t
help but think when we hear about abundant life?

If that’s what we think an abundant life is (and we probably
do), then we can’t help but wonder how we can use Jesus to accomplish these plans
of ours. But then, what Jesus says, doesn’t seem like it’s going to work at all
for getting what we want (“I am the door. I am the
bread of life,”—how can these things help?) so our mental cogs kind of
get jammed up.

But there is an assumption here that we know what is good.
We know what life is. We know how to have it abundantly. It’s not very profound
or subtle. We can easily sum it up by saying that whatever is good for me must
be the abundant life. What Jesus has in mind is something different. We can see
that in Jesus’s cross.

In a way the cross looks like it is the very opposite of
life. Suffering. Death. Who wants that? Think of Jesus even. He doesn’t seem to
want it even. In his prayer in the garden he prayed that if it were possible
that this cup would pass from him. Think about what actually happened though.
By Jesus’s death and resurrection a new life dawned. Death and decay were
defeated—something utterly unheard of. More life than we have ever known or
ever can know—an abundance of life—arose. Jesus fell into the earth like a
grain of wheat and died, but then he sprang up and bears much fruit.

Jesus’s words, “I have come so that
they may have life and have it abundantly,” are true, but we must learn
almost a new vocabulary to understand what he means. He doesn’t mean that we
should have everything and that everybody else should have nothing. He doesn’t
mean that we should be the greatest and everybody else should be the least.
Jesus turns these things on their heads.

One time the disciples were arguing with one another over
which of them was the greatest. Jesus said to them: “In
this world the kings and great men lord it over other people. It is not to be
so among you. Those who are to be great among you should take the lowest rank,
and the leader should be like a slave. Who is more important, the one who sits
at the table or the one who serves? It’s the one who sits at the table, not the
one who is serving. But look at me! I am among you as one who serves.”

Or take another saying of Jesus. He said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” Whenever
you see or hear that word “blessed” in the Scriptures, you should think of the
word “happy.” Everybody wants to be happy right? So how can you be happy? Jesus
says you will be happier when you give than when you receive. This is not just
money. It’s also forgiveness, care, effort, and so on. You will be happier when
you give than when you receive. Don’t we all have a lot to learn with just that
one simple statement? Jesus says this so it must be true. You’ll be happier if
you give than if you receive. That’s a promise that Jesus give us. “Lord I believe, help Thou my unbelief!”

And that’s how it must go as we learn from the voice of the
Good Shepherd what life and an abundant life is. It requires faith. Faith is
required to believe that him being the bread of life, the door, the
resurrection and the life, and so on is what we need the most. If we don’t feel
like we need him to be the bread, the door, and so on, that’s because our feelings
are wrong. Our desires are not directed towards life. What comes naturally to
us is to live for ourselves and for what is best for us. We don’t care too much
about others so long as we have as much as we can get for ourselves.

Christ and the way of life that Jesus brings about is very
different from this. You can see this from our first two readings that we heard
this morning.

In our reading from Acts you heard about the Christian
congregation that came about right after Pentecost. The members sold their
property, held it in common, and gave to whomever was in need. They did this,
not because they were forced to, but because they were free. They were set free
from the compulsion to always get more and be the best. They learned that it
made them happier to give than to receive.

And notice how they received their food. It says they
received simply their food “with glad and generous
hearts.” They didn’t need Cadillacs and Ferraris to give them a bump. They
had joy at the humble dinner table. The Lord opens his hand and satisfies the
desires of every living thing.

And notice the advice that Peter gives in our second
reading. He says, “This is a gracious thing, when,
mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.” It is
good when you suffer unjustly, when you suffer patiently and with kindness. Whenever
someone else is suffering unjustly we must immediately come to their aid. Love
requires that we look out for our neighbor. But when it comes to us, it is a
gracious thing if we endure sorrows even though we don’t deserve it. This means
that you don’t have to get back at everyone who does you wrong. You can forgive
them. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

So when Jesus talks the way that he does about life, and an
abundant life, we should not have the expectation that we will immediately
understand him perfectly. Our thoughts are not God’s thoughts, and our ways are
not his ways. What we think is good, especially what we think is good for
ourselves, may very well not be good, because none of us are as loving as we
should be.

Jesus’s understanding of an abundant life is full of love.
It is full of God’s love toward us. We, as a consequence of God’s love toward
us, are also to have love for one another.

It can be scary, it can be painful, it can be hard for us to
love, to forgive, to suffer unjustly. Therefore it is good for us to listen to
the voice of our Good Shepherd. Jesus always speaks the truth. So if he says we
will be happier if we give than if we receive, we should believe that. We
should believe that even if our feelings tell us something totally different.

I challenge you: Try it out. Try it out, with faith in our
Good Shepherd’s words. It is the way to have life, and to have it abundantly.