One of the central themes of the New Testament is love, and love is quite literally at the center of the Sermon on the Level Place. Coming immediately after the introductory "blessings and woes," Jesus goes on to spell out a new boundary-destroying definition of whom his followers are to love. (Luke 5:27-36)
It is expected that anyone would love those who love them, but Jesus challenges his disciples to extend the boundaries well beyond that rather limited cohort (probably comprising family members and perhaps a few lucky friends). In calling his followers to love even their enemies he has broken down the last possible limiting-factor on love.
And he had only just before this spoken of enemies, mind you.
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! (verse 22)
And now he says:
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. (verses 27. 28)
I think it's safe to say that Jesus calls his disciples to walk in love, period. Making no distinction, giving no thought to who is and isn't deserving, but simply maintaining an attitude of love in all one's interactions with others.
If you're like me, you can probably think of an example of your own failure to do this only yesterday (for instance).
Let's step back for a moment. I said at the start that love was a central theme of the New Testament. One could marshal a long list of quotations to support that claim. But the problem is, we humans are damaged by sin, so that our ability to love in this New Testament way is effectively stymied. We may profess our undying allegiance to the concept, but in the act we fall woefully short. And this is not simply a failure to live up to an ideal, but a willful decision to avoid living up to it. If we are honest, we are all absolutely guilty of this.
Looming behind much of the Bible is an idea about what constitutes the good life. In fact, the good life is one way of describing the life of the kingdom of God. This idea has an eschatological aspect, and a real-time live-it-now aspect. That real-time aspect, people living the good life of Jesus in the here and now, is where we fall short, I'm afraid.
In real-time, people only love their friends, not their enemies, just as they do favors only for those from whom they can expect favors in return, or only lend to those who will be able to repay (I scratch your back, you scratch mine). Into such a world comes Jesus:
But love your enemies, and do good, expecting nothing in return, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. (Luke 6:35)
This is so not going to happen! And yet, it is the standard to which Jesus calls his disciples. If we too are disciples, this must be reckoned with. We can't talk our way around it with theological qualifiers and yes-buts. If we are hearing the words of Jesus, this is where we stand, under this call, and not only feeling inadequate to answer, but unwilling as well.
This is not meant to be a comfortably self-satisfied moment for us. All we can do at this point is follow on, hoping that Jesus can somehow enable us to do what we cannot do in our own nature. Here on the Level Place, we are beginners. We say, this is hard Jesus. I don't know if I can do it. But to whom shall I go, other than to you, Jesus, for truth and life? Lead on.
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