"His commandment is eternal life" Friday of Jubilate 2026

08. February 2026
Sexagesima
Luke 8:4–15

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Hear what Jesus says at the end of His public ministry, before He goes to the cross. Hear the last words He speaks to the crowds in John's Gospel: “And I know that His commandment is everlasting life” (John 12:50).

That should stop you. Commandment is not a word we put next to life. We put commandment next to demand. Commandment next to measure. Commandment next to judgment. We hear commandment, and we brace for what God will require of us. Jesus does the opposite today. Jesus says the Father's commandment to Him is eternal life. The Word the Father gave Him to speak, the very thing we expect to crush us, is the gift of life itself. His commandment is eternal life.

Listen to how Jesus describes His own preaching. “For I have not spoken on My own authority, but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak” (John 12:49). The Son speaks what the Father commanded Him to speak. He does not invent His message or soften it for a friendlier audience. When Jesus opens His mouth, you are not hearing a junior partner with His own opinion. You are hearing the Father.

That is why the rest of this Gospel matters. “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness” (John 12:46). The Father commanded the Son to come as light. “For I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (John 12:47). The Father commanded the Son to come and save. The Father commanded the Son to suffer, to be lifted up, to be raised on the third day, to send out the preaching of forgiveness in His name. The whole story of the Son is the Father's commandment, spoken through the Son: the manger, the cross, the empty tomb, the Word preached today in this place.

And His commandment is eternal life. Let me say that again because Lutherans get nervous when the word “commandment” shows up. We have been trained to hear Law. We expect to be measured. So when Jesus says commandment, our shoulders tighten. But hear Him out. The Father's commandment to His Son was this: Go and save them. Go and be their light. Go and die for them. Go and be raised. Go and feed them with My Word. That is the commandment Christ obeyed. That commandment, fulfilled in Him, is your eternal life.

So then, hear what Jesus also says about those who refuse this Word. “He who rejects Me, and does not receive My words, has that which judges him—the word that I have spoken will judge him in the last day” (John 12:48). The same Word that gives life will stand against the one who turned from it. Jesus says it plainly. He has not come to judge in this hour. He has come to save. But the day is coming when His Word, refused, will be the verdict against the one who refused it.

We cannot soften that. The world does not abide in darkness because the light failed. The world abides in darkness because it loved the darkness more than the light. You know this. You have known nights when the Word came to you in Scripture, in catechism, in the voice of a pastor or parent or friend, and you turned your face the other way. You have known mornings when the Word would have lifted you out of your weariness, and you preferred the weariness because it was familiar. The Word is offered. The Word is refused. The Word that was refused will speak on the last day. That is what your Lord says. Hear Him.

Hear also what comes before that warning. Hear it again, and let it sit. “I did not come to judge the world but to save the world” (John 12:47). His mission, in this hour, is rescue. In this hour, His Word is offered to you not to crush you but to raise you. In this hour, He stretches out the Father's commandment to you, and the Father's commandment is eternal life. His commandment is eternal life.

You have heard from the prophet that the everlasting God does not faint and does not grow weary, that He gives power to the faint, and to the one with no might He increases strength. That is what His Word does when it lands on you. That is not mere poetry. The young grow weary and fall exhausted. You grow weary. You fall exhausted. The Word of the Lord renews you. He spoke creation out of nothing. He speaks faith out of nothing. He speaks life out of the grave.

The psalmist said the Lord builds up Jerusalem, gathers the outcasts, heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds. How does He do it? With the Word. The same Word that the Father commanded the Son to speak. The Word that calls you out of darkness. The Word that says to a sinner, I forgive you. The Word that says over a font, I baptize you in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The Word that says over bread and cup, This is My body. This is My blood. Given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

His commandment is eternal life. He puts that commandment into your ears, onto your forehead, into your mouth.

The Father commanded the Son to suffer and enter His glory. The Son obeyed. The Father gave Him over for your trespasses and raised Him for your justification. Christ was raised by the Father, and that resurrection is the Father's seal on every word the Son ever spoke. The empty tomb says: this Word is true. This commandment is life. The grave could not hold the One who carried the Father's commandment, and the grave will not hold those to whom He has spoken it.

That is why the Church sings the way it sings in the days after Easter. Shout for joy to God. His deeds are awesome. He has kept your soul among the living. He has not let your feet slip. He has done it by His Word.

Hear the line one more time, “And I know that His commandment is everlasting life” (John 12:50). What we expected to be demand is gift. The Word that should crush us instead raises us. The Father commanded His Son to come as light into the darkness, to save the world, to die and be raised, to send out the preaching of forgiveness, and that whole commandment, fulfilled in Christ, is given to you as eternal life.

His commandment is eternal life. The Word that comes from this pulpit is not the pastor's idea. It is the Father's commandment, spoken through the Son, delivered to you. The Word that washed over you in your Baptism is the Father's commandment. The Word you receive in Absolution is the Father's commandment. The Word that places Christ's body and blood on your lips is the Father's commandment to Jesus, for you. That commandment is eternal life.

Christ did not come to judge you. He came to save you. He has saved you. He saves you still, through His Word. His commandment for you is eternal life.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin