Read Luke 6:27-28
He is not
here. He is risen.
He has gone
ahead of you to Galilee.
Tell the
disciples and Peter to meet me in Galilee.
Why do you
look for the living among the dead.
He lives! He
lives! Christ Jesus lives today!
Up from the
grave he arose with a mighty triumph over his foes.
He arose the
victor over the dark domain and he lives forever with his saints to reign.
A week ago,
many of you arose early for a sunrise service. We couldn’t wait. We were
excited, plus there was breakfast.
Some of you,
most of you returned to worship this morning and Tom has the audacity to preach
love your enemies on the heels of Christ arose.
What’s up with
that?
Love your enemies.
Here is the escape
clause. Here is the golden parachute for
those who are not up for this whole love your enemies business.
What’s that?
Jesus didn’t
say this for everyone. He was not talking to everyone. Well, to whom was he speaking?
But to you
who are listening I say:
Really? That
seems a little flimsy.
Jesus said,
I’m really only talking to those who are actually listening. Who is listening? Those who profess Jesus is Lord and are ready
to put his words into practice. That’s who Jesus was speaking to—those who were
ready to hear his words and put them into practice.
Lord, I am READY to trust you
completely!
Those who
were listening wanted to understand more so they could do more.
But to you
who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless
those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
This is not
for the Christian tourist. It is not for the casual follower of God. It is not
for the slightly interested until something comes up.
This is for
those who have professed Jesus is Lord and who know and understand
what that means, and they embrace it. We embrace that profession. Jesus is
Lord!
Jesus is not an app that you go to when
things get tough. That’s too transactional.
We do go to
Jesus in times of trouble, but it is a short trip for he is our Lord and he is
already with us and we are already doing the things he told us to do. We are
walking with the Lord.
Let’s see
where this pericope lands us.
This chapter
tells us that Jesus is Lord
of the Sabbath. The religious
leaders were so fixed on the rules that they forgot the relationship with the
Lord was what was central. They followed the rules and missed God’s heart.
This chapter
tells us the names
of all the disciples.
This chapter
parallels the Sermon on the Mount and Beatitudes found in Matthew
5, at least as it concerns suffering and persecution.
This is the
chapter where we find love your enemies and most of us say, “You’ve got to be
kidding me.”
Life is hard
enough without loving those whom we are perfectly equipped to hate with all of
our hearts. What’s an enemy for if you can’t
hate ‘em.
Today, I
will tell you that loving your enemies is not really an impossible command. It is
overly practical. It blesses you as much as your enemies.
Sure. In the
eternal realm, I will be blessed for loving my enemies. Yeah, OK,
whatever. In the meantime, my enemy is
running all over me.
Really?
How many
times do you have to contend with an enemy?
I proffer that it is much less that we might think and surely less than
we advertise.
When is the
last time that you were face to face with someone who wanted to kill you?
When is the
last time that you had to check and see if you had enough ammunition to make it
through the night?
When is the
last time that you had to defend the perimeter of the school against all
enemies foreign and domestic?
Our troubles
do not lie in our enemies. Our Lord and Savior has overcome our enemies. Our
struggles lie in the heavenly realms. Our struggles are with evil as it has occupied
the world and has too many encampments in our own hearts.
Our struggle
is very seldom with an enemy
of flesh but with one of darkness in our own hearts.
Our struggles
are so often so close to home that we are blinded to them. Who can hurt us more—someone we don’t know
who would just as soon shoot me as speak to me or someone that matters to me?
Really, who
can hurt us the most?
The guy
or gal or kid who philosophically has been conditioned to hate you for being an
American or a Christian or someone who speaks up for good morals and ethics…
Or
Someone
close to you? Someone near and dear to you? Someone that you love very much?
Over the
past several years, I have proffered the following statement for your
consideration.
The law as
given for
our own good—that’s straightforward in writing stuff right there. But I also ask us to consider that the law
mitigated the evil in our hearts. To mitigate is to reduce the effects of something
and it doesn’t go far enough.
Jesus wants
us to cast aside our hearts of evil and stone and receive the divine heart of
our Lord, whom we know mostly through the Spirit.
Jesus uses
hyperbole on a recurring basis but this statement is not one that says pluck
out your eye is it offends you. It is one that says demonstrate love and
care and kindness for someone that we don’t know very well.
What does
that mean? It mostly means pray for
them. Pray
for those who hate you or persecute you or are otherwise lost in the ways
of the world.
Our direct
involvement with those whom we might lump into the enemy category is
minimal. We spend most of our time
sorting out our own hearts and minds as we deal with people that we say we
love.
Jesus
expands our thinking. If loving your enemy is even possible, how much more can
I love those that are flesh and blood?
Can we not
do a better job of caring for each other?
We do a lot
in that area, but what if we posed the question in this way.
How can I
take the time, money, energy, and effort that I currently expend on enemies
that I will never see and use these valuable resources to love my friends and
family?
And there
you have it. Tom managed to work in the Parable
of the Talents yet one more time.
What did you do with what God gave
you?
We have gone
from He arose the victor over the dark domain and he lives forever with his
saints to reign to Discipleship Time.
We are saved.
He is risen
and so too will we be risen.
We take the
good news to the world and along the way, we learn to love one another. Loving
your enemies seems absurd, but it actuality, it just practical.
Don’t
spend your time on that which does not profit you and your discipleship.
Where will your love produce the biggest return?
With you and
your demeanor and countenance and readiness to do what God tells you to do.
Imagine
taking your money—however much that is or isn’t—and going to a financial
institution to invest it. The fund manager says that 75% of your investment
will make great returns but 25% is just being thrown away on stuff that we know
is not profitable or productive.
Do you not
look elsewhere to invest what you had to work hard to get? Don’t you want a
return on your full investment?
Love your
enemies is practical. Hating them takes too much time and effort that could
produce good results at home.
That’s not
the case for everyone. Some are called to take the gospel into the heart of enemy
territory. If that is you, then love your enemies takes on a more personal
nature. But for most, we just need to
pray for our enemies from afar and love those who matter so much to us, who are likely much closer.
Does this
lessen the intensity of the command?
On the contrary.
Our best efforts for those who have declared us as enemies is to pray for them
and then be known by our love wherever we go.
Love your enemies. That’s an easy one.
Focus your
time and effort of loving, forgiving, blessing, and living this life to the
full with those whom you say you love.
If I am already
praying for my enemies, then loving those whom I really want to love becomes so
much easier. It begins to become our nature.
If I can
love those far away by praying for them, how much easier is it to help the kid
or the family or the traveler when we encounter them in our own neighborhoods.
How much
easier is it to forgive those whom I love and don’t want something brewing
between or among us? How much easier to forgive and love and embrace those whom
I love when my enemies don’t suck one iota of energy or life from me. I will
pray for them.
This is not
adopting the pagan
practices of loving those who will love you back. This is not tit-for-tat. This
is targeted love.
I will
target my enemies with prayer. I will be faithful in those prayers.
I will target
my friends and family and those who just happen to live on the same part of the
planet as me with very intentional or purposeful love. Yes, that will include
some prayers but it will also include the hugs and smiles and forgiveness and
assurance that we are a forgiven people.
To target my
love when I am led to deliver it is grace lived out in our lives.
Love your
enemies. Love those whom you want to love even more.
Jesus has
raised our sights. We pray for those whom we will likely never see and we pray
for, forgive, and rejoice with those whom se see almost every day.
Amen.
