The Sermon on the Level Place (5): Loving Your Enemies

Christianity is not a moral system, a plan for being good so that we can win the prize of heaven, but it should come as no surprise that many people do seem to think that's exactly what it is. That's how we (we Christians) talk about it among ourselves and often how we preach about it. In other words, though it's a mistaken notion, it's one that we ourselves are responsible for.

In our walk through the Sermon on the Level Place we come now to a set of imperatives that follow from the Blessings and Woes of the previous section. One may sum it all up this way: "Given what I've just told you, love your enemies."

Now there's a hard-to-obey imperative for you! We Christians have a couple of strategies for dealing with these difficult imperatives of Jesus. First choice: ignore them completely, and if someone brings them up, forget about it s soon as you can. Second choice: figure out a theological explanation for why we don't really have to obey the imperative at all (which simply provides a rationalization for Choice 1).

Let's get to the passage. Jesus has just been speaking of the kingdom of God. This "kingdom" is in fact the subject of all his early teaching. The reign of God has entered into the old order of things. It's a kind of new reality wherein you are likely to see the poor and the weeping and the hungry filled with joy, even though this very reality, this blessing, also sets them on a path toward persecution.

I tend to use the word that Jesus used for this new reality, kingdom, but admittedly that is a somewhat problematic word in our time. Michael Frost explains the term nicely here. Brian McLaren calls it "the ecosystem of God." And then there's N. T. Wright's explanation of the term:

The phrase "the kingdom of God" translates out as "how God is now taking charge of the world."

You can fill a whole library with books on this subject, but Jesus didn't provide a reading-list to his followers, he simply spoke of this "new reality," announced it and told stories about it. And it is in the context of this new reality that we set his many imperatives (how to live). We see that clearly in the 4th and final beatitude (Luke 6:22-23):

Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.

See that imperative? "Rejoice!" And see on what it is based? In following Jesus, you have joined in a heavenly project that the prophets of old were also a part of.  You're a part of God's kingdom project! 

All this is the "given" behind the imperatives (I would venture to say, all the imperatives) of Jesus. In other words, the command of Jesus follows from and is rooted in the new reality that he has announced.  To attempt to obey the command apart from that reality is simply to engage in a particularly fruitless kinds of moralism.

And so let's at last take a look at the "love your enemies" passage (Luke 6:27-31):

But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.

First, note that the enemiles of which Jesus speaks are the enemies of the kingdom. Those who are being hated and  reviled (6:22) are being hated and reviled "because of the Son of Man!" In other words, they are hated because they follow Jesus. Because they are a part of God's new kingdom reality. Those who are treating the Jesus followers with such disdain are enemies of that kingdom. 

These are the enemies that Jesus is talking about when he says, "Love your enemies." In other words, their is a power struggle going on between God's kingdom and the kingdoms (the power centers) of this world. And if you opt in for Jesus, you become a part of that struggle. The other side is going to hate and exclude and revile you, abuse you, steal from you, and perhaps even kill you in the end. Love them anyway. Remember, your reward is great in heaven!

Note: the call of Jesus on our lives as Jesus-followers is to love people. Everybody. But here he is speaking specifically about those whom it is not only hard to love, but who don't seem to deserve it. The very enemies of Jesus and his message! But Jesus is not talking about deserving, or about your carefully calibrated measurement as to who should and shouldn't be loved. You can just toss those calibrations in the trash where they belong!

So far in this "sermon on the level place" we have had two imperatives:

1. Rejoice when people persecute you because of Jesus.
2. Love those who are doing the persecuting.

But please note: you are simply not in this picture if you are not following Jesus. God is on the move, his reign and rule is becoming manifest, and the powers of this world are reacting with enmity. If you belong to Jesus, the kingdom bringer, then rejoice, because great things are afoot, eternal things. Given this, walk in love.

This is one of those passages that leads into the deep things of God. I have done less than scratch the surface here, but I simply want to make a couple of points. First, put away notions of proving yourself to God by obedience to this commandment. One never loves to prove something, to get something back. That's calculation, not love. It will come to nothing.

Second, if you are a Jesus follower, you are blessed no matter how faulty and apparently inadequate all your following is. But just remember: Jesus is a teacher, and you are his student. Learning is a process. Learn at his feet, contemplate his words, and gradually get it deep in your knower that with Jesus the plan of God for his whole creation has been set in motion. This is nothing less that re-creation, and Jesus is at the center of it all. You're also blessed to be included in this. You're blessed to be excluded by those who like the ecosystem of this world as it is. So love the excluders, because come what may, you're blessed anyway.