Sunday, June 28, 2026, Fifth Sunday after Pentecost
“Who Do You Love?”
Psalm 119:153-160; Jeremiah 28:5-9; Romans 7:1-13; Matthew 10:34-42
Service Order: Order of Holy Matins, p. 219, Lutheran Service Book
Hymns: “Come Follow Me, the Savior Spake” #688; “O Savior, Precious Savior” #527; “All for Christ I Have Forsaken” #753; “See Ye First” #712
Dear Friends in Christ,
Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Who do you love most in this world? Who is dearest to you? Your spouse? Your children? Your dear friends? Jesus makes the astonishing statement in Matthew’s Gospel that whoever we love, we’re called to love Him more. And the promised attached to that most difficult commandment is that whatever we have to give up for His sake, we’ll receive back in the end, thirty or sixty or a hundred times more. Father in Heaven, help us to trust You for Your promise. Amen.
Jesus says in Matthew’s Gospel: "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” A sword is a biblical metaphor: “The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Scripture says God’s Word is like a sword that “cuts to the heart, dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow.” The Christian faith isn’t about peace at any price, or appeasement, or “giving in to get along.” It’s never been that way. Truth always has to come ahead of peace, and ahead of some ideal or dream of ecumenical unity. There are some things we Christians can all agree on, no matter what church we’re part of; and wherever we can work together, we will. But when it comes to God’s Word and the truth about Jesus? That we don’t dare compromise. St. Paul wrote, “As much as is possible for you, live at peace with everyone.” But he said that knowing peace wouldn’t always be possible.
Jesus says, “For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.” The good commandment says, “Honor your father and mother,” and we do need to do that. Respect and honor your elders, love your families and care for them. But precisely because you love and care for them, you can’t back down an inch on your faith and the truth of the Gospel just to make Thanksgiving Dinner go down a little better. If you love the ones you love, you are in fact obligated to tell them God’s truth. “Friends don’t let friends go to hell.”
“A man's enemies will be the members of his own household,” Jesus says. O Dear Lord, if You have to send me somewhere to talk about You, make it Borneo or India or the Philippines or something, but please don’t send me home! Jesus often told people for whom He’d done miracles, “Go home and tell your family what God has done for you.” Home is where our hearts are, where we have our most precious relationships, and where those nearest and dearest to us live. This “Gospel thing” can get very personal; it is quite literally “messing with people’s hearts and emotions.” It can get messy. Sometimes you hit a nerve.
Jesus says here, “Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me.” What does it mean to be “worthy of Christ?” How does one live a life worthy of Him? By loving Christ above all other things, and by loving others as He loves you. Can you claim to love Him and be His, if you aren’t willing to follow Him? Can you be “worthy of Christ,” and not be obedient to Him? Are you worthy of Him if you’ll only follow Him when it’s easy, and not when it’s hard? If He says, “You need to go have the Jesus talk with Joe or Jim or Fred or Mary or Bob,” and you answer, “O Lord, I don’t want to ruffle their feathers… I don’t want to hurt our relationship… I don’t want to start a family fight” - then we have to ask again, “Who do you love?”
Jesus says, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Oh, this gets difficult, doesn’t it? Jesus just won’t let us off the hook! If you’ve found a place in life that you’re comfortable with; if you find things tolerable the way they are; if “following the path of least resistance” seems to be keeping things on an even keel; if you’re content to stay right where you are, and stay as you are, because you kind of like it that way - what if your Lord should call you to do something uncomfortable or do something else? Will you choose to stay in your comfort zone, at the expense of finding yourself being disobedient to God? To find the life Jesus wants for you – and for the people you love - you have to love, obey, and follow after Him.
If He asked you to change your life, or rearrange your life, or even give up your life for His sake, would you do it? If Jesus showed up today and asked you for something dear to you - whether it’s a creature comfort, or house or home or security, or even your beloved husband or wife, or a dear child - if He held out His hand and said, “Give it to Me” - is there anything you wouldn’t give Him? And would you be able to trust His promise (like Father Abraham did with his son Isaac) that He’ll restore what you’ve lost, fifty or sixty or a hundred times more?
Jesus says, “He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me receives the One who sent Me. Anyone who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and anyone who receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man's reward.” If you bring someone the Word of Christ; if you take that big step and take that blessed opportunity that God has put before you to put the saving Gospel and the Good News into somebody’s ears - yes, they might laugh at you, they might get mad, they might say, “Don’t give me that ‘Jesus stuff,’ I don’t want to hear it.” We’ve all heard that before. And there’s always a chance it will turn out that way, and that you’ll have to wait another day to try again, as you pray for them with a broken heart as they’re walking away. But at least you’ve put the Word in their ear, and that’s a start. Sometimes that’s the best we can do.
But if they’re receptive (O Lord, please!) to what you have to say, it’s not you they’ll be receiving, but Jesus Christ Himself, and the Father in Heaven, and the blessed Holy Spirit that will find a place in their soul. You and I can’t “convert” anyone; that’s the Spirit’s work. (Believe me, I would if I could!) But what we can do, and what we must do, is speak when the Spirit compels us to speak. We can’t say “no” when God says “go”; that would be a sin. So, from my heart, to my mouth, to your ears; and by the Spirit’s grace, from your ears, to your heart; and then maybe from your heart, to your mouth, to someone else’s ears. If you’re looking for the world’s best and simplest evangelism program, if you’re looking to distill the mission of God’s Church down to the nubs, that’s it. From the lip, to the ear, to the life; from the lip, to the ear, to the life.
Jesus says here, “And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is My disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward."
The “cup of cold water” Jesus talks about is a divine symbol and another heavenly metaphor. A cup of cold water is kindness, grace, and mercy. It’s more than just saying you love someone; it’s showing them how much you love them - even if loving someone sometimes means having to tell them the truth they don’t want to hear.
St. Paul says in our Epistle reading that truth is a necessary thing. If someone is going to be freed from their sin and brought to saving faith, first they need to know and recognize what sin is, and what their own sin is doing to them and to the people around them. “I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, ‘Do not covet’,” Paul says. Martin Luther said that sin was like having an illness or a deadly disease, like diabetes or cancer or something. If you don’t know that something is wrong (and usually it’s pain that will tell you), then you’ll have no reason or desire to seek a physician or medicine or a cure. This is what we call in our Church “the law and the Gospel.” Or as they taught us in our Seminary classes, “First they need to hear the uh-oh, and then you give them the hallelujah.” (It’s good to be Lutheran!)
The “little ones” Jesus talks about are little children, of course. Moms, dads, aunts and uncles should be bringing the little ones to baptismal water, and putting Jesus into those little ears every chance we get. But the little ones aren’t just children. A little one is anyone whose faith is small or weak, anyone who’s struggling or hurting and wanting to give up, anyone who needs help but doesn’t know where to find it, or who doesn’t know the Savior we know just yet. Blessed are those with a heart for the little ones!
Our reward for doing as Jesus asks - for listening to the Spirit that’s in us and opening our mouths to speak, and saying what the Spirit moves us to say - will be here on earth, whenever we have the joyful blessing of seeing someone we love confess their sins and come to be baptized and come to faith and come to God’s Table. And our greater reward will be in heaven, when we get there, when we hear Jesus say, “Well done, My good and faithful servant,” and we walk through heaven and have the blessing of meeting the people we helped to get there. What a joyful thing that will be!
“Love one another as I have loved you,” Jesus says. We know how much He loves us. He loved us with more than just words. He didn’t just call out His love for us from some place far away. His love brought Him here, down to earth, to be with us and be one of us. And His love brought Him to a cross, to pay for the sin of the people He loves. If you asked Jesus, “Who do You love?” He’d say, “I love you.” And then He’d stretch out His arms and say, “I love all your brothers and sisters, too.”
Who do you love? How will you show them the love you have for them? How will you show them how much Jesus really loves them? “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise!” Lord Jesus, grant us the courage, faith, willingness and love to speak Your Name, until everyone we know knows who You are. In Jesus’ name; Amen.
Rev. Larry Sheppard, M.Div.
Trinity Lutheran Church, LCMS, Packwaukee, WI; St. John’s Lutheran Church, LCMS, Oxford, WI
pastorshepp@gmail.com