Love your Enemies – Part IV

Luke 6:32-36

In the Scriptures of Jesus’ day, what we now call the Old Testament, the mark of a devout follower of God was taking care of the poor and needy. But in this passage in Luke, Jesus declares that his followers are to go way beyond that.

They are to love their enemies. When the Mosaic code was written, outlining how special treatment was to be given to the widows, orphans and aliens or strangers, Israel was in the ascendency. The Israelites were in control of their own destiny and the aliens and strangers among them were weak and helpless.

But now, the children of Israel are under the heavy foot of Rome. The strangers in their midst are their hated enemy. And they chafe dearly at these their oppressors. So when Jesus calls them to love their enemies, it is not just the fellow villager that stole a melon from their fruit stand two decades ago and that they still don’t speak to at synagogue. It is these despised Roman conquerors that make them leave their fruit stand to carry a load of supplies for the Roman soldiers a whole blankety-blank mile.

Jesus points out that even “sinners” love those who love them. Even “sinners” do good to those who are good to them and lend to those who pay them back. Each time the word “sinners” is used in this context, it is put in quotes in the NIV, implying that Jesus is using the word with bit euphemistically. Even these so-called sinners know how to be nice to those who are nice to them.

In other words, as followers of Jesus, we are to go way beyond the social norms. In applying the “Golden Rule” Jesus has just laid out, we are to treat our enemies as we wish to be treated. So our enemy orders us to do some nasty chore, we are to love them, do good to them, give to them not expecting anything in return. We are to honor those who despise us.

Of all that Jesus says here, the “love them” is the hardest to swallow. I can find all kinds of ways to be nice to those who are not nice to me, all the while seething in anger or hatred inside. But loving someone is not just an act. It is an attitude. I can’t just DO something nice, I actually have to be motivated by something nice.

Jesus then helps us understand the “why” involved in all of this – why we are to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who mistreat us. For, he says, our reward will be great. Okay, profit motive. But it is no monetary profit. The reward is relational, in being heirs of “The Most High” – God Himself. When we love our enemies, we show that we are not just followers of Jesus, we are children, sons and daughters, of our Heavenly Father.

Children, for better or worse, are like their parents. “The nut doesn’t fall far from the tree.” “Like father, like son.” “Like mother, like daughter.” Every culture has its own sayings that remind us that children tend to take on the characteristics of their parents. And, for those of us who are sons and daughters of the Most High, what is our Heavenly Father like? What do we emulate?

God, Jesus says, is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. So, he says, be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

When I look at my enemy, I say “no way.” When I look at the God who has been so merciful and gracious and loving toward me who deserves no such goodness, I say, “at your service.” I cannot help but respond in kind to how God has treated me. So Jesus calls me to love and honor my enemies because God has loved and honored me.