The Sermon on the Level Place (7): Love and Abundance

 Let's move on to the next passage in Jesus' Sermon on the Level Place, verses 6:37, 38.

Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.

 A couple of things to remember: Jesus is elucidating the good news about the kingdom of God. All of the imperatives of Jesus (such as the four in this passage: don't judge, don't condemn, forgive, and give) must be understood in this light. In other words, if the kingdom isn't real, the imperatives are merely gestures toward an unachievable good. 

Second, Jesus has been focusing on love. He has been calling his listeners, who are his disciples, people who at least for now are committed to learning at his feet and then following in his way, to a kind of love that busts down all the barriers and is extended even to our worst enemies. 

So we have to deal with two difficult and inextricably related truths: the long-anticipated reign of God (his kingdom) has in some real and yet not complete sense "come," and because it is a kingdom of love, the citizens of that kingdom are in an extraordinary sense love-people. 

These love-people resemble--live out--the heart of God. Because God is merciful, so are they (v.36). Because God is love, they are love-people. This is the inescapable logic of Jesus. 

Now, in verses 37 and 38, he is only further elucidating this call to love. To love, he has already made clear, is to have mercy. In my Bible verse 37 is separated from verse 36 by an inserted heading ("Judging Others"), but this is unhelpful. Verse 37 is closely-tied to the previous verse. To "judge not" is an extension of the imperative to "be merciful." And in fact "be merciful" is an extension of the previous imperative, "love your enemies" (v.35). One flows from the other. And this flowing continues on to verse 38's "forgive."

• Love your enemies (v.35)
• Be merciful to them (v.36)
• Don't judge them (v.37)
• Forgive them (v.37)
• Give (v.38)

There it is in a nutshell. This is Jesus showing, explaining, elucidating, the way of life to which he calls his followers. It's going to look like this. And if someone should ask, how many times should I forgive my enemies (as of course one of his most famous followers would did one day ask), Jesus answers, it's an unending imperative. There is no "for the last time." It's simply a way of being in the world, of being Jesus-y, as the follower of Jesus becomes more and more like him over time. For you to stop forgiving would be to stop being like Jesus, to become like salt without saltiness. 

And a final point about the "good measure" of verse 38. What a wonderful promise! If you live in this way, the passage seems to say, you will receive in return an overflowing measure of exactly what you have given. This is a kingdom promise. In the eschatological kingdom of God, the people of God live in true and unending abundance, the ever-flowing love of the Father, pouring forth as light from the sun, running over like flour from a measuring cup into which God simply keeps pouring more.

And so they are called to embody that vision even now. To be what they will become. To offer what they will one day receive. So that, as the Apostle Paul might say, the aroma of the kingdom might accompany them wherever they go.

That's a beautiful vision, both in its future aspect and its partial and yet still aromatic present realization.