Love Who?

Text: Luke 7:27-38

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

          Right in the middle of our Gospel reading for today we have one of the most well-known passages in all of Scripture. Luke records Jesus words, “And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” The Golden Rule. Maybe you learned it in your youth as, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Either way, the premise of this teaching is the same. Treat other people the way you would want to be treated. And yet, our sinful nature tends to live by a different rule. More often than not our first inclination is to “treat others as they have treated us.”

Because revenge is sweet. We don’t get mad, we get even. It seems there’s nothing sweeter than getting even with someone who’s wronged you. There’s so much satisfaction in cutting down that bully on social media with a witty response in the comments section. We feel better somehow when we lay on the horn to let that guy who cut us off on the highway know that they’ve wronged us in such a tremendous way. And it’s oh so tempting to dig up the dirt from the past about someone who we’ve heard has been talking poorly about us. And how long do we hold on to these grudges? It’s not uncommon to hear about someone angry enough to write their spouse or child out of the will for the way they were treated. These things are so ingrained in us that we feel they’re our God-given rights. Someone disrespects you; you disrespect them back – that’s only fair. But what God has given as His command to us is far from what we’re so often tempted to do. As usual, Jesus turns our idea of fairness on its head, and He urges us to respond in ways no human mind ever would have conceived.

JESUS CALLS US TO RESPOND WITH LOVE.

Today’s Gospel continues Jesus’ sermon on the plain. It flows from the message we heard last week that those who are poor, hungry, sad, and hated are blessed and those who are rich, well fed, happy, and popular have woes pronounced against them. Jesus is speaking to people living in a society where “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” was the appropriate and expected reaction to personal conflict. But Jesus outlines for His hearers a very different method for dealing with enemies. He says, “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”

It’s clear here that Jesus is commanding that we respond to hate with love. That we offer blessings when cursed. Pray for those who mistreat us. And that if someone takes something from us, let them have it, and more. I think we read this and think that either Jesus can’t actually be serious about this, or that He can’t actually believe that we’d really do it. But He is serious, and He does actually expect us to live this way. Which is why it’s important for us to clarify what Jesus is not saying here as much as what He is saying.

He’s not saying that we can’t speak up in our own defense when we are wronged. He’s not saying that we can’t defend ourselves or our loved ones from harm. Just read our catechism’s explanation to the 5^th commandment and you’ll see that that’s not true. He’s not denying authorities the right to exact punishment as God’s representatives. And Jesus is also not requiring us to support free-loaders by our charity. That would be in contradiction to God’s Word, spoken by Paul to the Thessalonians, which says, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.” But what Jesus is telling us is that personal vengeance is sinful. Our response to the harsh and unloving treatment of others should be one that seeks justice, but does so through pointing the offender to the love of God in Christ Jesus.

What’s so hard is that this kind of love is only perfectly shown in the person of Jesus. And for those of us who realize that we can’t do this perfectly, the mere suggestion that we try seems overwhelming. Love your enemies seems as possible to us as building a time machine or turning lead into gold. But it’s what we’ve been called to do. And it is impossible…without the love that’s first been given to us.

Hear what Paul says in Romans about the love we’ve been given in Christ. “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

If you think there’s someone in your life who deserves your vengeance rather than your love, imagine how God must have felt about us. He created us, body and soul, gave us all we have, family and possessions – but we misuse and abuse those gifts, and we’re quick to question, doubt, and blame Him when he doesn’t give us what we want. He reveals himself to us in his Word and invites us to regularly receive his gifts of grace. But we despise his Word. We either don’t read it or we think we can redefine what it means. And we invent all kinds of excuses to avoid receiving his gifts. We treat God’s commands like suggestions, living as if we know better than God. For all this, how did God get even with us? He sent his Son to save us. And Jesus did just that by allowing humanity to do its very worst to Him – curse him, slap him, spit on him, strip him, nail him to a tree, and sit back as He died in front of their eyes. And how did Jesus respond? “Father, forgive them.” If you ever wonder how God should have treated us – look to the cross. That’s what we deserved. And if you ever wonder how God has treated us – look to the cross. It’s where you’ll see God’s Son hanging there in your place, suffering for your sins. That’s how God responded when we treat Him in the same way we’re treated by our enemies.

Even so, that doesn’t really make it any easier to do what Jesus is calling us to do. Because instead of looking at what our God has done for us, we tend to look at whether someone deserves our love or not. They don’t. But we don’t either. And the fact that God has given us love we don’t deserve is the only reason we can return love for hate, blessings for curses, and prayers for mistreatment. And it’s the only way we could ever hope to turn the other cheek. So, when you ask yourself, “why should I love my enemies?” It’s not because they deserve it, it’s because God loved you.

The way of the world is to do good to your friends and evil to your enemies. But Jesus says that His disciples are going to be different. You’re going to “love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.” These are the things that set us apart as children of God, who is kind and merciful even to “the ungrateful and evil.” We’re supposed to look and act differently than the world.

In a world that says judge and condemn those around you, Jesus says, “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” We hear it and we know that Jesus says what He means and means what He says, but our sinful nature keeps raising concerns, doesn’t it? “If I love and bless and pray for my enemies; if I turn the other cheek and give away my property, who’s going to watch out for me and my well-being? How do I know I’ll have enough to survive and provide for my family? How can I be sure that evildoers will be punished if I don’t see to it myself? How can I let myself be taken advantage of like that?” You’re not alone if those things concern you. Our sinful nature can invent thousands of reasonable, rational arguments for taking vengeance into our own hands. The answer to those concerns is the same as any concern we have about life in this world We’re to know, believe, and trust God’s promises.

And the greatest of those promises is that He has loved us “with an everlasting love.” John reminds us of this in his first epistle where he says, “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.

          As hard as it is for us to love like God and as hard as it is to not take justice into our own hands, we can take comfort in the fact that if vengeance is called for, God will take care of it. If not now through his representatives, then on Judgment Day. Let God worry about taking care of you now. And let God worry about taking care of your enemies as well. God’s love for you is unconditional, and that frees you to love your enemies, turn the other cheek, be generous with what he has given you because you know that your true reward is safe in heaven – purchased and won for you by Jesus Christ, your Savior. Who, by the way, is also the Savior of your enemies.

Our world is destroying itself in its quest for justice. Everywhere you turn, it seems, someone is trying to get even with someone else for something that was done or said – sometimes over things that happened decades, if not centuries ago. That’s the way of the world. But that’s not the way of Jesus’ disciples. We are to be different because, through faith in Jesus – as dearly loved children of God whose true reward is safe in heaven – we are different. And we’re called to treat each other in the way we’ve been treated by God in Christ Jesus. With love. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.