Jesus Loves Me (Mark 10:13-16)

 Sermon for Milledgeville UMC...

Jesus Loves Me (Mark 10:13-16)

 

Anna Bartlett Warner
Author of Jesus Loves Me

As I looked over the favorite hymns you gave to me, I was surprised to see Jesus Loves Me, since it is a children’s Sunday School song. Its origin may surprise you. Jesus Loves Me didn’t have music when it was first published. Anna Bartlett Warner wrote the poem Jesus Loves Me for her sister’s novel, Say and Seal.

 

Anna Bartlett Warner was born on Long Island, New York, on August 31, 1824. Her father, Henry Warner, was a lawyer, originally from New England. He married Anna Bartlett, from a wealthy, fashionable family in New York's Hudson Square. Anna lived in New York City in their mansion until 1837. The nation suffered a massive economic depression known as the Panic of 1837. The depression lasted well into the mid-1840’s. The family lost their wealth and had to sell the mansion and move to Constitution Island in Putnam County, New York to a Revolutionary era house near West Point Military Academy. Because the family’s financial situation remained challenging, Anna and Susan turned to writing, hoping to gain some income.

 

Susan Warner (aka by her pen name Elizabeth Wetherell) is most remembered for her 1850 novel The Wide, Wide World. The novel was second only to Uncle Tom’s Cabin as the most popular book of the 19^th century. The famous poem "Jesus Loves Me" first appeared in Susan’s 1860 novel Say and Seal. In the novel, the character John Endecott Linden sings the verses written by Anna Bartlett Warner to comfort a dying child named, Johnny Fax. Over 40% of Children in the middle 1800s died before the age of ten. John Linden was little Johhny’s Sunday School teacher. Little Johnny asked his teacher to hold him and sing to him to ease his pain. John Linden did so. He held the boy tenderly in his arms and walked about the room softly singing.

 

The poem, as it appears in the novel:

 

 

Jesus loves me—this I know,

For the Bible tells me so;

Little ones to him belong,—

They are weak, but he is strong.

 

Jesus loves me, He who died

Heaven’s gates to open wide

He will wash away my sin

Let His little child come in

 

Jesus loves me—loves me still,

Though I'm very weak and ill;

From his shining throne on high,

Comes to watch me where I lie.

 

Jesus loves me—He will stay,

Close beside me all the way.

Then his little child will take,

Up to heaven for His dear sake.

 

Anna sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Amy Lothrop. She wrote over 30 novels and books of poetry, and co-authored more books with her sister, Susan.

 

Anna Warner and her sister, Susan, became devout Christians in the late 1830s. They were active members of the Mercer Street Presbyterian church. In the 1860s, Anna began to frequent Methodist circles.

 

In 1862, moved by the poem and the tender scene, William Batchelder Bradbury wrote a melody for Jesus Loves Me that has brought joy to countless Christians around the globe. He added the refrain, “Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible tells me so.”

 

William Batchelder Bradbury
Composer of the music and refrain for Jesus Loves Me

Bradbury, born in York, Maine in 1816, is responsible for the music to several favorite hymns including:

“He Leadeth Me”

“Just as I Am”

“Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us”

“Sweet Hour of Prayer”

“My Hope is Built” (On Christ The Solid Rock)

 

David R. McGuire, an Anglican priest in Ontario Canada, was involved in putting together a new hymnal for the Canadian Anglican and United Church entitled, Hymn Book (1971). McGuire wrote new lyrics for Jesus Loves Me to replace the original lyrical focus on illness and death towards a celebration of the loving presence of Jesus all through life. Only Anna Warner’s first verse appears in our United Methodist Hymnal. The rest are McGuire’s adapted lyrics.

 

The Warner sisters held Bible studies in their home for West Point cadets. The cadets would take a ferry or row across the Hudson River to visit the Warner sisters on Constitution Island. When they were on military duty, the cadets would sing "Jesus Loves Me." One of Anna Warner’s students was likely Dwight D. Eisenhower, the future commander of Allied forces in Europe during WW2 and president of the United States.

 

Anna Warner died at her home in Highland Falls, New York on January 22, 1915. The Warner sisters willed their home, called Good Crag, to West Point Academy. She was buried in the West Point cemetery with military honors in recognition for the spiritual guidance she offered to generations of young military officers. 

 

Her former family home is now a museum. The Constitution Island Association maintains the house and gardens so that they are similar to their appearance in Anna Warner's lifetime, following her month-by-month descriptions of life on Constitution Island, as written in her book Gardening by Myself.

  

In 1992, Whitney Houston released her recording of Jesus Loves Me from her soundtrack to the film The Bodyguard, in which she costarred with Kevin Costner. The song reached #3 on Billboard Dance Club Songs and #90 on the Billboard Hot 100. In 2014, Chris Tomlin had a hit with Jesus Loves Me charting at #8 on Billboard’s Christian Airplay chart. The Hymn Society of America rated Jesus Loves Me at #87 among the most popular hymns of the church. For children the song rates in the 30s. But some proclaim Jesus Loves Me is the greatest Christian song of all time because it is so simple a child can sing it and remember the words.

 

The popularity of Jesus Loves Me impacted another US President. When John F. Kennedy and his crew on the PT-109 were shipwrecked during WW2, they swam 3.5 miles to the Solomon Islands. They were found by two islander scouts working for Allied forces. These men were educated by Seventh Day Adventist missionaries. JFK and his crew broke the language barrier by singing Jesus Loves Me with their rescuers.

 

Swiss theologian and father of neo-orthodoxy, Karl Barth, is remembered for his 13-volume systematic theology, Church Dogmatics. In 1962, Barth spoke at the University of Chicago. He was asked, “If you could summarize your immense theological work in a single sentence, what would it be?” Barth simply answered,

 “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Jesus Loves Me is not just for children, for it speaks to a simple childlike faith in us all.

 

“Let the little children come to Me; do not forbid them; for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  I assure you most solemnly, whoever does not receive and welcome the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it at all. (Mark 10:14-15)

 

And what does it mean to enter the kingdom of God? We usually think of heaven. Is Jesus warning us that we must become like children to enter heaven? I doubt it. Remember Jesus was more about getting heaven into our hearts, and God’s love transforming our lives and behavior here and now. Every Sunday we pray the Lord’s Prayer, “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The Kingdom of heaven is where God’s will is done. Jesus wants us to enter the realm here on earth where God’s love reigns in our hearts and lives.

 

Consider the condition of the world. What would the world be like if every human heart knew the love of God through Jesus Christ? Consider how the love of Jesus has blessed your life and transformed you. What if the saving love of Jesus was ruling every human heart in your family, community, and nation? It’s a beautiful vision. It’s Christ’s vision. And it only takes a simple childlike faith to enter the kingdom of heaven. That simple childlike faith trusts the words, “Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.”

 

Do you trust those words? Do you trust God’s word in the Bible? Do you trust the message of the gospel that Jesus loves you and laid down his life for you? Plenty of people don’t know or don’t care to know. Why do you believe it? Why do you live by the love of Jesus?

 

All too often, we overcomplicate matters of faith. We fight over faith claims, and sometimes split churches over our beliefs. While we may have very good reasons for our disagreements in the Church, the simple message that Jesus loves us is something we all agree on. Even when we are sinful and rebellious, Jesus loves us.  Even when we are hiding in distraction and busyness, Jesus loves us and calls to us, like a Good Shepherd calling for His lost sheep. Even when our emotions speak louder than our faith in Christ, Jesus loves us, loves us still.