The Gospel According to Luke - Week 5: "Love Your Enemies"

It’s the Seventh Sunday of Epiphany and the fifth installment of our sermon series, "The Gospel According to Luke."  

Epiphany - a realization, a sudden revelation that changes everything.  

We've been learning some surprising and transformative things from the teachings of Jesus over the course of this series, and today is probably one of the most surprising things we're going to learn yet.  

Today, we will dig into one of Jesus's most challenging teachings: What it means to love your enemies. 

Returning Evil with Good 

A couple of stories that exemplify loving the enemy. 

    A Lebanese pastor whose brother was killed by Syrians. 

His church reached out to Syrian refugees and grew from 60 to 900, mostly Syrians. 

    A woman who held her child while Syrians pointed their guns at her. 

Her church started working with Syrian refugees and now has 500 families it helps to care for.  

    A church in a town that was under siege by Syrians for 100 days.  

Started a school for Syrian refugee children, and runs day camps every day.  

So, do we never speak out against injustice?  Absolutely not.  But we can work to end cycles of violence, abuse and injustice by refusing to use the same weapons used against us to combat it.

What it means to put an end to the cycles of violence.   

If we want to follow Jesus, we need to learn more fully what it means to love like Jesus. 

THE LOVE OF JESUS HAS NO CONDITIONS

Luke 6:27-38

Love for Enemies

27 “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; 28 bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. 30 Give to everyone who asks of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

Jesus starts this off with a bang - the cycle of violence needs to end with us. 

The cultural meaning of “turning the other cheek” and “giving your shirt.”

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. 35 Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.[a] Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Live freely from the constraints of what is “yours,” seeing it as a gift. 

Living mercifully just as God acts mercifully—the more profound meaning.  

37 “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; 38 give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap, for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

Jesus exhorts us to live judgment-free and with a generous spirit.  

In the world’s economy, what we do is directed by the actions of others. In God’s economy, what we do is directed to God alone.  

Loving enemies is a two-way mirror.  

"What I see in you, I see in me." When we refuse to react with vengeance, retaliation, or tit-for-tat, we hold up a mirror to those who have wounded us, but that same mirror offers us a reflection of our own.  

What does this say about Christianity in our current culture?

We've lost our ability to love like Jesus loved.  Christianity is a shadow of itself. 

What Do We Learn From This?

1. We ought to live in love in community—we are not alone.  When we are aligned with others committed to love there is power in that beyond anything that we can muster on our own. 

2. There is an ethic of resistance in Jesus’ words.  This resistance is against becoming the hater as a response to hatred.  

"That’s why Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption." - MLK

3. The truest way to love is by living in a self-giving way in all we do.  Jesus' kind of love was exemplified on the cross.  "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." 

THE LOVE OF JESUS HAS NO CONDITIONS