Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany (Year C)
27“But I say to you who are willing to hear: Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. 28Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. 29If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other one as well. If someone takes your coat, don’t withhold your shirt either. 30Give to everyone who asks and don’t demand your things back from those who take them. 31Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you.
32“If you love those who love you, why should you be commended? Even sinners love those who love them. 33If you do good to those who do good to you, why should you be commended? Even sinners do that. 34If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, why should you be commended? Even sinners lend to sinners expecting to be paid back in full. 35Instead, love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return. If you do, you will have a great reward. You’ll be acting the way children of the Most High act, for God is kind to ungrateful and wicked people. 36Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.
37“Don’t judge, and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn, and you won’t be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38Give, and it will be given to you. A good portion — packed down, firmly shaken, and overflowing — will fall into your lap. The portion you give will determine the portion you receive in return.”
Collect:
O God, you have taught us that without love whatever we do is worth nothing: Send your Holy Spirit and pour into our hearts your greatest gift, which is love, the true bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoever lives is accounted dead before you. Grant this for the sake of your only Child Jesus the Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
When I was leading a men’s group ages ago, this passage was under discussion (actually, it was Matthew’s telling of the story). As we went around the room, we had some different views on this passage.
One view was that these are things to strive for but we won’t be able to do them until “we get to heaven.” Of course, upon further reflection and conversation, we understood there won’t be someone cursing another person or slapping another person “in heaven.” No. These were very “worldly” things.
This led to another view; Jesus was talking about sharing the Gospel. But a quick look at the context proved fruitless — there was nothing in the context that referred to someone sharing the Gospel.
After circling around the table some more, the consensus ended up being that these statements of Jesus are unattainable in this life; these are things we should strive for but we’d never achieve them.
Is that honestly what we think? That Jesus was setting before the people unattainable goals? I’m sorry but I think this is a terrible view. It’s shrouded in the old lie of “original sin” (as the West understands it). That is, we can do nothing good because, at the deepest level of our being, we’re nothing but sin and death, even after Jesus. “Enemies of God,” as Saint Paul said (Romans 5.10; Colossians 1.21).
But here’s the thing: that status of humanity was before Christ’s death and resurrection. Paul goes on to say that, while we were still God’s enemies, “we were reconciled to God through the death of the Son” (Romans 5.10). And in another place, Paul said when we were God’s enemies, “God was reconciling the world to Godself through Christ, by not counting people’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5.19; emphasis added). And Saint John wrote that God’s light, buried deep in the heart of all life, can never be extinguished (John 1.5). So, even when we were God’s enemies, God’s light was still there buried underneath layers and layers of falseness.
But when Christ came — through his life, death, and resurrection — we were reconciled back to God! We’re now at a place where we can be like Christ through the power of the Spirit!
As we saw last week, Jesus is shown to be the New Moses leading the people into New Life. In the “Sermon on the Plain” Jesus is giving the New Law — not on how to get into God’s Realm, but how to live in God’s Realm. In other words, this is what’s expected from people now living the Life of the Ages because of the work of Christ.
Think of it as moving to a new country. The laws of your new home are not about how to get into that country but what’s expected of the citizens already living there. It’s the same with Jesus’ “Sermon on the Plain.”
So what is he telling us to do? He starts out by telling us to love our enemies. Now, personally, I don’t really have “enemies” and I don’t know many people who do. I mean, we’re not Natasha Romanoff or James Bond. But in Jesus’ day, Israel was under Roman occupation. That means Roman officials, and, more importantly, Roman soldiers were everywhere. I’m pretty sure there were more than one or two close by when Jesus was giving this message. When he told the crowd to “love your enemies,” there were probably soldiers within earshot.
While we might not have personal enemies, collectively, I think we could all name an enemy or two. And the first “law” of living in God’s Realm applies to us, too — “Love your enemies.” And not just love in general. No. As we’ve seen before, we’re supposed to love self-sacrificially even those people who are our “enemies.” And as we saw above, this is at the heart of God. While it’s been said, “No one has greater love than to give up one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15.13); Christ showed love for us but giving up his life when we were still “enemies.” This, he tells us, in the first Law of God’s Realm.
But what does that look like? How does one love one’s enemies? What I like about Jesus’ message is he goes from preaching to teaching. He answers the question of what loving one’s enemies looks like. He said —
Do good to those who hate you.
Bless those who curse you.
Pray for those who mistreat you.
This, too, is a general list. A wide brush. Do good. Bless people. Pray for them. Those are supposed to be the actions of every Christian, in every age, and in every circumstance. Enemy or friend. If we do that, my friends, we will be doing very well, indeed.
But then Jesus gets even more specific:
If someone slaps you on the cheek, offer the other one as well.
If someone takes your coat, don’t withhold your shirt either.
Give to everyone who asks and don’t demand your things back from
those who take them.
Treat people in the same way that you want them to treat you.
Here Jesus gives very practical “next steps” about loving others, not just one’s enemies. How does one apply “loving your enemies” in the real world? By doing the things on that list. Can you imagine? Suppose a Roman centurion came up to one of Jesus’ followers — say, Mary — and demanded her coat, and she takes off her shirt, too! The community would be in an outrage. The “shame” would be on the soldier and not Mary.
What Jesus is saying here is that Loving others is a form of nonviolent protest against the dehumanizing systems of the world. It’s a way — the Way — of putting the world right-side-up and implementing God’s Realm “on earth as it is in heaven.”
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In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
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[1] Scripture quotations marked (CEB) are taken from The Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible.
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