The Seventh Sunday of Easter, Year B

1 John 5:9-13

Pastor Gayle M. Pope

Do You Have the Son?

There was a man who had two sons.

One son was the apple of his eye. The other was a great disappointment to him. But the father loved both sons with all his heart.

Why, you might ask, was there this difference in the two boys? It all comes down to their hearts.

It wasn’t that the father loved one more and the other less. But that each son responded to the Father’s love in a different way – one with trust and joy, the other with fear and resistance.

The first son, the apple of his father’s eye, loved the father back. The second son loved himself the more. And in that way, he put a stop to the love he could have known from the father. The father WANTED to give his son all the love he had, but the son pushed away.

“I don’t want my father’s love,” the son thought. “Because I know that, if I let him love me, he will try to control me. My life won’t be my own anymore. I’ll have to do whatever he wants. I will lose all my rights – all my independence. I’d rather be on my own.”

And so he grew hard, resisting his father at every turn … wanting nothing of his love … afraid of it, really … afraid of losing himself.

But is that what happened to the first son? Had HE lost himself? Was he trapped in his father’s love, unable to move -- like a fly in a spider web? No! Not at all! He was free as a bird. He soared like an eagle because he rested and trusted the wind of his father’s love to lift him and bear him.

“Father, the boy would say. What should we do today? Where should we go? What should we see?” “Well, Son,” the Father would say. “What do YOU want to do? What looks interesting? YOU choose and I’ll come along.”

So, off they would go, the son saying, “Look there! What’s that? That is so interesting!” And the father would teach him. Or the son would say, “Look, father – there’s someone who has fallen, let’s go pick her up.” And they would stop and help, working together until the deed was done, enjoying each other’s company and taking satisfaction in what was accomplished.

The second son would see his father coming and turn the other way. “Here he comes,” he would say. “He’s looking for me again. Why doesn’t he leave me alone? I don’t need him – at least not now. As long as I have my inheritance, I’ll be fine.”

This son did whatever he THOUGHT he wanted to do each day, but he took no joy in it because he was always looking over his shoulder trying to avoid his father. He was pleased with himself, but in truth, his world was very small.

It was HE who was trapped like a fly in a web – fearing the freedom his father wanted for him .. unaware that the spider was making its way to devour him.

The disappointment the father felt for that son was not because of what the son was or wasn’t doing. It was the disappointment of rejection, and the utter sadness of watching the son’s empty life, knowing all the gifts and joys and wonders out there for his son to enjoy if he would only trust the father’s love to set him free.

In the reading we heard from First John this morning, the writer says, “God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”

Do you have the Son? Do you have life?

If, in your heart, you hear that question and respond with joy, saying, “Yes, I do have Jesus and I do have life in him!” Then, praise the Lord.

If you hear that question and have a sense of doubt or uncertainty or resistance or fear, or discomfort, then something is missing in your relationship with God.

The question that arises from this reading is not, “Are you Baptized?” Nor is the question, “Are you going to heaven?” The question is not even, “Do you believe that Jesus died for your sins?”

The question is, “Do you have the Son?” It’s a heart question, not a head question. It’s a NOW question, not a question about the past or the future.

The writer says, “I write these things to you WHO BELIEVE in the name of the Son of God, so that you may KNOW that you HAVE eternal life.”

This eternal life is not something we get after we die, it is the life of Jesus within us NOW by the power of the Holy Spirit.

As Lutherans, we believe this eternal life is given to us in Baptism. Most of us have grown up in the faith and would say, if someone asked, that we believe Jesus died for our sins. Even those who never come to church would likely say that.

Other Christians believe this life comes to us when we make a decision at an “age of accountability” to give our hearts to Jesus and trust him as our Lord and Savior. At the point of that decision, they would say, their salvation is assured and they know they are going to heaven.

It’s easy to get side tracked by the question of when and how salvation happens and who has it and who doesn’t. That is not the question for today, though. The question for today is, “Do you HAVE the Son?”

What good is our Baptism OR a decision we made once upon a time for Christ if we don’t LIVE in the intimate, right-now relationship we HAVE with God in Christ? What’s good is believing Jesus died for us and we’re going to heaven, if that belief doesn’t make a whit of difference in what we do and how we live on earth?

In the little story of the two sons, both were children of their father. Both had the father’s love, but one feared it and resisted it and lived dead. The other embraced the relationship and lived alive.

When you say yes to God’s love for you in Christ by faith … when you believe in the Son of God ... you have the testimony of God in your heart. That’s what the Bible says. What testimony? “This is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.”

If you have the Son, you have life. Do you have the Son? Do you WANT to have the Son? Do you believe you have the Son? Do you believe God sent the Son to die for your sins so that you may have eternal life? Do you believe that without the Son you do not have life?

Then you HAVE life. Praise the Lord! Rejoice!

Live in God’s love by obeying his command to love, thereby keeping your heart open to his Spirit.

If you have rejected or turned away from God’s love, repent and receive God’s forgiveness and return to God’s loving embrace.

God delights in you. You are the apple of God’s eye. God doesn’t want you to lose your life to death. God wants you to FIND your life in Him through repentance and faith in Christ. He wants you to be all you have been created to be and do.

God wants you to be free of the burden of sin and the fear of death and live the abundant life of joy in the knowledge of Jesus Christ – right now!

Do you have the Son? Just say, Yes.