Thursday, November 6, 2014

Luke 6:27-38: Love Your Enemies

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 09 November 2014 and Alberni Valley Ministries, 24 February 2009 by Captain Michael Ramsay. 
     
This is the original. To view the 2019 version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2019/02/luke-627-38-love-your-enemies.html
     
Of this passage of scripture Moffet S. Churn writes, “Commentaries often call it the Sermon on the Plain. You may prefer to think of it as ‘the sermon I don’t want to preach.’…Jesus tells them plainly, pointedly, repeatedly, ‘Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.”[1]

This is most certainly an interesting passage to look at in the days leading up to Remembrance Day. It is definitely an interesting one for the Lord to put on my heart as I am at the same time preparing a message on a very different text for our community’s Remembrance Day ceremonies as the local Royal Canadian Legion chaplain.[2]

That all being said, I think this passage is as important to our world and our community today as much as it ever has been in the history of civilization. I also think that it is incredibly poignant to examine this on the day prior to the eve of our country rightfully mourning those who were killed by our country’s enemies.

I was born during the Cold War. I grew up in an era where people were horrified by the crimes even the ‘good guys’ committed in the Vietnam War. I remember peace marches and my wife remembers friends and acquaintances who were even afraid of a nuclear holocaust. Remember the Doomsday Clock?

I always went to Remembrance Day ceremonies growing up well aware of my relatives who served in the armed forces, some of whom fought overseas. I remember hearing how our soldiers fought for peace. I remember the tone of the Remembrance Day ceremonies past, as well; it was always one of thankful remembrance for our soldiers who lived and died and I remember very much the implicit message included therein: if we kill the peace they fought for by rushing off to war then they will have died in vain.

In my own preparations for addresses to veterans and those who wish to pay them their much-deserved respect, I have often clung to the old ideas of remembrance. Many times I have preached the good news from John 15 - “greater love has no man than to lay down his life for his friends” - and I probably will again, at least at the cenotaph. Many times I have preached the miracle of reconciliation that arose from the Second World War: even though the world was torn apart in death and destruction, at the end of the day old foes became friends and close allies: Germany, France, and England all united in Europe. Canada and the United States – the only foreign power to ever invade us – are now each other’s closest trading partners. So many times I have preached on the glorious opportunities for reconciliation after these conflicts. Our service men and women lived, died and served for us. They sacrificed much for peace. I have a question though, in light of our text, how have we repaid them for that peace? Have we now sacrificed that peace for which they fought, lived and died?

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall the tide of military aggression has flown freely over the earth with nothing to impede its wave of innocent and other blood. Today we have many enemies in our world: Terrorists, extremists, ISIS, Muslim Brotherhood, Iraq, Lybia, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Hamas, Yugoslavia, Russia, China and others have all rightfully or wrongfully been villainized and listed as our enemies in recent years. Jesus tells us to love our enemies.

When Jesus told us to love our enemies it was the first century CE. His country was an occupied country. Many from his adoptive father’s or his legal grandfather’s generation had fought and died for political independence from one foreign occupation and now many people in his generation are dreaming and fighting and dying for political independence from another foreign occupation. Rome conquered Judea shortly before Jesus was born and many people were looking for ways to free themselves, their countrymen, their families from all the horrors of military occupation.[3]

The other week we spoke here about the Zealots, the Sicarii, the fourth philosophy[4]. This was a Judean terrorist movement that would use assassination, murder, and terror as a means to extricate their country from the grasp of their enemy. One of Jesus’ twelve closest disciples was identified as a zealot. Many of the common people wanted to rise up against their enemy and fight for the liberation of their homeland. Many of them were about to die doing just that and to these people who were longing for a violent fight for freedom from their enemies, Jesus says, Verse 27-31:

“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. If someone [hits you in the face] slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

This is how Jesus says we should treat our enemies and he says even more, Verses 37-38: “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you.”

This is hard teaching. Imagine telling this to occupied and oppressed people today. As we said off the top, “commentaries often call it the Sermon on the Plain. You may prefer to think of it as ‘the sermon I don’t want to preach.’…Jesus tells them plainly, pointedly, repeatedly, ‘Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.” Forgive as you want to be forgiven. Give, as you wish it to be given to you.

The longer I live, the more I realize that this is true. I spent a few years as a civilian contractor at CFB Esquimalt, working at Defence Research. I was there when Canada invaded Yugoslavia. I listened to service people who were being sent overseas. When they joined the forces, they did so as peacemakers and peacekeepers whose job was to protect civilians. Now they were being asked to do something different. This was very difficult for more than one of them.

I remember 9/11. I was at my Victoria office fuming because my marketing director was late. I hate it when my employees are late. I answer the phone. It is Glenn. He tells me to turn on the TV. I do and we watch the infamous events unfold before our eyes. I will never forget that moment. Glenn was an American. He was in shock. We were all in shock.

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you;” “commentaries often call it the Sermon on the Plain. You may prefer to think of it as ‘the sermon I don’t want to preach.’…Jesus tells them plainly, pointedly, repeatedly, ‘Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.” Forgive as you want to be forgiven. Give, as you wish it to be given to you.

This is tough teaching and believe me, I don’t think that Jesus in this text in disrespecting soldiers or service people in any regard. Like we said already, one of his closest disciples was a zealot and some of his earliest converts were members of the enemy, the occupying Roman forces. We know that a peaceful response solves problems a lot quicker and easier with less bloodshed and more success. Martin Luther King’s peaceful methods accomplished what Abraham Lincoln’s wars never could. Mandela’s forgiveness of De Klerk’s government ended Apartheid in a way that spared South Africa the horrors of civil war and unrest that their neighbours experienced during decolonization. Gandhi’s non-violent solution to occupation laid the framework for the world’s largest parliamentary democracy and unified a people who could have easily been torn apart forever. Where we extend peace, we receive peace. Do unto others and they will do unto you. Condemn and you will be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. As you give so it will be given unto you. We know that violence begets violence and peace begets peace. Jesus himself could have stood up to his attackers when they came for his arrest. However, his last recorded miracle before being led to the cross was quite different: it was to tell Peter to put away his sword as Jesus healed his attacker’s severed ear.[5]

In our world today Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers, whose actions saved many in killing the gunman on Parliament Hill, said of the shooting the attacker, “All I could think of was his mother.”

Even though we know all this to be true, it is hard teaching. “Commentaries often call [this passage] the Sermon on the Plain. You may prefer to think of it as ‘the sermon I don’t want to preach.’…Jesus tells them plainly, pointedly, repeatedly, ‘Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.” Forgive as you want to be forgiven. Give, as you want it to be given to you.

Now here is the part that makes this even more difficult. It is one thing for presidents and prime ministers to forgive each other and decide not to bomb one another’s country. It is a lot more difficult for you and I to forgive each other. But the truth is that that is a big part of what this pericope is speaking about.

You know what your sister did to you? You know what your father said to you? You remember your grade 5 teacher? You know how that person treated you at the office the other day? You remember that person who did that thing to you 25 years ago? Fifty years ago? Last month? Just the other day? You know that person who did that really horrible thing to you? N.T Wright writes, “Think of the best thing you can do for the worst person and then go ahead and do it.”[6] Jesus tells us plainly, pointedly, repeatedly, lovingly, ‘love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.” Forgive as you want to be forgiven. Give, as you want it to be given to you.

One more thing about forgiveness and this is important. When you refuse to forgive someone the only one you really hurt is yourself. A lack of forgiveness is not an act of aggression it is an act of self-condemnation. If I don’t forgive you for treating me the way you did, I become upset. I suffer the psychosomatic pains. The person I don’t forgive may never even know about my unforgiveness but I do; they may just wonder why I am acting so strange. I am the one who suffers. Unforgiveness is a self-inflicted wound.

Now I know that this is hard teaching and the scriptures say that many people left Jesus from some of his more difficult teaching but the truth is like with South Africa and India, so with each of us. As we forgive those who have harmed us, God will forgive us. As we forgive those who have harmed us and God forgives us, we will forgive ourselves. As we forgive, we will be liberated. There is no greater freedom than the freedom to love and the freedom to forgive and no one can take that from us.

And so with that in mind if there are any of us here today who are seeking forgiveness for an act or a thought against their brother or sister, someone else, themselves or even our Lord. If there is anyone here who has been suffering the pains of unforgiveness toward a friend, a neighbour, a relative, the Lord, or an enemy, there is another way. It is difficult and it is easy all at the same time, for as we cast all of our hurts and all of our burdens on Jesus, he will take them and he will heal us. As we forgive, we will be forgiven. So today I invite us all to love our enemies, to be forgiven and to forgive.

Let us pray


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[1] Moffet S. Chum, “Between Text and Sermon: Luke 6:27-36,” Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 68, no. 4 (2014): 428.
[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, 2 Kings 23:29-30: Lest We Forget. Presented on behalf of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch #56 to the Swift Current Community Remembrance Day Ceremonies, November 11, 2014.
[3] Cf. Leon Morris, Luke in Tyndale New Testament Commentary, ed. Leon Morris (Leicester, UK: IVP, 1999), 142 for a good discussion on this.
[4] Captain Michael Ramsay, Luke 2:21-39: Harold, Harold and Jesus. Presented to Swift Current Corps on October 26, 2014 and December 27, 2009 by Captain Michael Ramsay. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2014/10/luke-221-39-harold-harold-and-jesus.html
[5] Cf. Moffet S. Chum, “Between Text and Sermon: Luke 6:27-36,” Interpretation: A Journal of Bible and Theology 68, no. 4 (2014): 428.
[6] N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone (Louisville, Kentucky, USA: WJK, 2004), 73.