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
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
---
[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.
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