[AI translation] It would be difficult to summarise practical Christianity in such a concise and yet richly worded way as the Apostle Paul does in this Word. It is about the most elementary requirement of Christian love of neighbour, of helping one another, so often heard. It is the fundamental law of the whole Christian life. Perhaps that is why Paul calls it the law of Christ. But for other reasons too. It has a very deep meaning. I would like to talk now in particular about why it is the law of Christ to help one another to bear one another's burdens. For it could simply be a humane act. The requirement to help one another is valid without Christ. What is different, what is special, what is extra that makes this for us the law of Christ?1) First, that for us as believers in Christ, helping others is not primarily a "purpose" but a reason! First of all, it is not a matter of looking at how much spiritual or material misery and suffering is weighing on the shoulders of one or another of your fellow human beings, and then helping to carry those burdens, taking on some of it, so that it may be easier for them! So it's not a question of setting a lofty goal and, touchingly recounting the suffering, urging ourselves to get our hearts going and come and help. God must first give us something, some great good deed, and this is the reason for our helpfulness towards others, the reason for our willingness and ability to bear one another's burdens.
And do you know that good deed, the good deed of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He became poor for you, being rich, so that you might become rich through His poverty? He was rich, for He was God, equal in power and dignity with the Father, rich in all the glory and blessedness of heaven. But he became poor, not only a man, but a poor man, forsaken, despised, mocked, humiliated, cursed! Executed as a villain! And all for us! So that we might get rich. We are rich in the grace of God, the blessings and promises of the New Testament, the hope of eternal life. Let us abound in the love of God, in the assurance of forgiveness of sins, in the experience of God's compassionate goodness. So that God has helped me in this way, that God has loved me in this way, that God has made such a sacrifice, that God has so truly taken away the burden of my sins: this is the reason for a spirit that wants to repay this goodness in any case. And it cannot repay it in any other way than by trying to give something of this immeasurable goodness to others, which it can and where it can, where it is needed, because it has something to give, since it has been enriched by the poverty of Christ! He rejoices when he has the opportunity to express his great, deep, indebted gratitude. It is as if one were given a field of wheat as a gift, and from the wheat that grows gave to another a bushel a day; - or as if one were given a beautiful meadow of flowers, and from the sea of flowers gave to another a bushel a day! Of course he would! Gladly! Happily! There is no other way to understand the spirit of bearing one another's burdens but from here!
I once visited a deaconess at the old Bethesda Hospital. It was incredible the patience, the tenderness, the love, the willingness to serve, with which she cared for so many fussy patients in a self-sacrificing way. And when I asked him once how he had the strength to take so much trouble with so many patients, he smiled and said only this: "How much trouble did and still does Jesus take with me?! Well, he who has such an experience can fulfil the law of Christ. This is the reason for us to help others!
2) Then, secondly, bearing one another's burdens is also the law of Christ, because for us it expresses the livingness of our faith in Christ. Do you know what is the surest way to tell if a person is living a truly faithful life? By how much love he has, by how much of Christ's law of bearing one another's burdens is put into practice. The surest measure of how much of a believer one is is how much he can love others. Samaritan service is to the Christian man what inhalation is to exhalation in the human body. If the lungs were always inhaling, they would burst. It would die. It is not necessary to tell the lungs to breathe out, because they do it by themselves, as a natural life activity. Well then, God's Word is the life-giving air we breathe into ourselves by listening to the Word and praying here in church or at home in quiet hours. But this inhaled Word must be transformed into love in our hearts and breathed out again as a helpful, active ministry of love. This is the healthy life function of the soul of every believer. Breathing in is a natural condition for breathing out, but if this is done, it must be a natural consequence of breathing out. And if the warmth of this is not felt around you, then the inhalation has not really taken place! Because the two are inseparable. You know, if there is one thing that gives the Church respect, authority and credibility in the eyes of the world, it is not words - it is easy to recite - but kindness, love and helpfulness in action. The Church has long since lost its great medieval authority in the eyes of the world, it no longer has any authority in the worldly sense, it stands poor and despised in the eyes of the world. If the world still cares about the Church at all, it only cares enough to ask the question: is what it preaches true, does it take seriously what it teaches about love? Or is the Church just talking big, fine words like everyone else? Is the Word preached by the Church of Christ just a good or just a bunch of hollow words, or is it just the same old holy church or is it just a bunch of words?
A convinced atheist once said to Matild Wrede, the apostle of love in Finland: 'We believe you, Matild, even though you are a Christian, you live as you believe! What good is it if the Church, however beautifully it may proclaim: 'Bear one another's burdens', 'Love your enemies', 'Do good to all', if this love and good deeds are not experienced in a tangible way by those in need? If a congregation such as ours does not radiate into the world the warmth of love that bears one another's burdens, it loses not only the credibility of its faith before the world, but even its very raison d'être! So the practice of bearing one another's burdens is the test of our faith in Jesus. We do it voluntarily, but we are commanded to do it! This is the law of Christ! For the believer it is also obligatory! In school, not only can we learn, but we must. If you are a disciple of Jesus, if you go to Jesus' school, then helping others is a must here!
3) Then, thirdly, it is the law of Christ because, miraculously, it is only the law, it is only a requirement as long as we feel we have to. But it becomes a gift of grace as soon as we understand that: free! I have already realised: there is nothing in the world that enriches our lives spiritually like taking responsibility for one another. Is it not because we are so poor and powerless in our whole life of faith that we do not practice the Christlike way of enrichment and empowerment, the secret of which is: give? Give of your time, give of your good cheer, give of the peace that is in you, give of your faith, give of your hope, give of your money, give of your prayer, give of your heart... Give to someone who lacks something that you have! Well, believe me: it is one of the peculiarities of this law of Christ that our own burden is only unbearably heavy as long as we carry it, but it becomes lighter as soon as we can carry someone else's burden! Try for once to really help someone more miserable than yourself: you'll feel you have less reason to complain and moan about your own misery. The practice of charity gives you a lot of strength, and many people cannot bear their own burdens because they have no love for others to increase their strength!
Here is a very concrete example of the practice of Christ's law of bearing one another's burdens. Who could be more sympathetic to such a plea for help than someone who knows what the devastation of war means? Remember how happy we were in '44, '45 to receive a parcel containing perhaps a small potato and half a kilo of beans! Or what it meant to have a painkilling medicine, a medical instrument for an operation, or a basket of firewood! Maybe your donation will bring a smile to a child's face somewhere far away that has seen so much horror?
4) Lastly, it is a Christian law to bear one another's burdens because it is a privilege for the one who does it! Is it not a privilege and an honour for you to be the blessed instrument whose helpfulness makes God's providential love a tangible reality in the life of another? Do you see the grace in God's desire to help another person, to bring joy, to wipe away a tear, or to lift up a fallen soul, through your word or your gift or your hand? In every good word, in every kind gesture, in every visible form of love that you do in the name of Jesus, God's thought, his blessing, his love, goes on in the world and shines, warms, exactly where someone is waiting for it most. You can be the instrument of the outpouring of God's blessed love! Whoever has thus tasted the sweetness of bearing one another's burdens knows that the gift of good is not primarily bestowed on the one with whom we have done something good, but a far greater gift is given to the one who has been free to do good!
So if you can help someone in any way, consider it a precious opportunity to meet Jesus Himself through Him, for He said, "I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; I was naked and you clothed me; I was sick and you visited me; I was a prisoner and you came to me. ...Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me" (Mt 25,35-36. 40) So then, Jesus is served by him who helps men, who serves men. Believe me: what makes you happy is to be able to give! It is also the joy of God to be able to give, - if there is someone who accepts what He gives in Jesus Christ! That's how wonderful the law of Christ is! So bear one another's burdens and so fulfil this wonderful law of Christ!
Together in love,
Members of one body,
We can fight for each other,
Shed blood if we must.
He loved his earthly flock
And died for us our good Lord;
He would be grieved to see us,
That we cannot love.
(Song 395, verse 2)
Amen
Date: 21 April 1968.
Lesson
2Kor 8,1-14