“This is Extremely Difficult”
Luke 6:27-36
A colleague of mine told me about a time a certain person in the church came to his office and told him: “I don’t like you.”
Months later, she came up to him and said, “I get the feeling you don’t like me.”
His response was, “Honestly, you make it kind of difficult.”
(pause)
The Kingdom of God that Jesus preached and lived was about glorious unrestrained and absurd generosity.
It’s like, think of the best thing you can do for the worst person, and go ahead and do it.
Think of what you’d really like someone to do for you, and go ahead and do it for them.
Think of the people who have been nasty to you and lavish generosity on them.
These instructions have a fresh, spring-like quality to them.
They are all about new life bursting out energetically like flowers growing through concrete and startling everyone with their beauty and strength.
But are they possible?
Are they realistic?
If I’m honest with you, I have a hard time with what Jesus says here.
Is this the best way to live?
No doubt about it.
Do I live this way on a normal basis?
Not a chance.
How about you?
The world just doesn’t seem to work like this; even the church doesn’t seem to work like this.
In seminary, I was taking a course taught by a retired United Methodist Bishop, and he said something in class that I disagreed with…
…and I made it clear I disagreed with it…
…I was even kind of rude about it…
…whatever he had said went against what I believed and it made me angry.
After class, the Bishop invited me to join him for lunch.
We went and ate in the posh dining area reserved only for professors and perhaps dignitaries who might be visiting the University.
He didn’t return my anger with anger; instead, he paid for my lunch.
And he made a friend.
And I have great respect for him to this day.
Fairly recently, a colleague angered me, and I let him know it.
A week or so later, he called and invited me to lunch.
I was very humbled and felt guilty for tying up a burden and putting it on his back.
When my colleague called, immediately my frustration with his actions melted away and I felt embarrassed.
I forgot about all the anger which had built up in me for the past couple of weeks.
Suddenly, I had a new respect for this man.
I didn’t even have to try to forgive him; it came naturally.
And a few weeks later, we hung out at Annual Conference.
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you…
…Do unto others as you would have them do unto you…
…be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
It makes good sense.
It is, indeed, the way to live.
In Matthew, Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.”
And right here in our passage for this morning, Jesus is telling us the hard truth about how the children of God are supposed to live.
And, oh, how I fail to measure up to this.
But before I become too hard on myself, before you become too hard on yourself, let’s remember that Jesus’ point is not to provide us with a new rule book, a list of dos and don’ts that are designed to frustrate us and make us feel bad about ourselves because we can’t measure up to these standards.
Jesus is not asking us to be perfect in today’s Gospel Lesson, He is explaining what the Kingdom of God is about; He’s showing us what it is like to truly live in the image of God for which we are created.
And He knows we will not get it right every time or even most of the time.
But one thing is for sure—this is how Jesus lived.
And a good leader will never ask His followers, His learners or disciples to do anything He is not willing to do Himself.
Do you want to be like Jesus?
Here it is.
Live like this!
Jesus is explaining to us what God is like, and inviting us into a relationship with this God where we learn to rely more and more on Him and less and less on our own strength and understanding.
Jesus says, “love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back.
…and you will be children of the Most High, because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
One theologian has said, “Too often, we play at being God rather than being like God.
We tend to forget that playing God, if we took it seriously, involves a love so great that it accepts the cross….”
I think too often, when we come to passages like this in our Bible, we tend to throw up our hands, say that they ask the impossible, and then ignore that they even exist.
We tend to say that what these types of texts ask of us is too difficult for us to live out and instead go about our own business without allowing them to push us or challenge us into becoming the people God created and calls us to be.
Subconsciously, we might even cynically tell Jesus that He has lost touch with reality, that He is too naïve, or that He is telling us things that are outdated.
But Jesus is not naïve nor is He crazy for asking the impossible.
We are, after all, the ones who proclaim a Risen Savior, proclaim the foolishness of the Cross and say that light and love will always overcome darkness.
No, this turning the other cheek stuff, this loving our enemies talk, is for real.
God truly is astonishingly merciful.
Anyone who knows their own heart and still goes on experiencing God’s grace and love will have to agree with this.
This love and mercy stuff IS REALITY.
The hate, revenge, violence, selfishness, and inability to forgive is THE COUNTERFEIT!
When we live like the devil, we aren’t being like the One Who created us to love.
We aren’t being who we are created to be.
A prominent Bishop is quoted as saying: “It’s funny isn’t it?
You can preach a judgmental and vengeful and angry God and nobody will mind.
But you start preaching a God that is too accepting, too loving, too forgiving, too merciful, too kind and you are IN TROUBLE.”
Is this because we think God is like us?
Could be.
But the God Jesus describes and embodies is the opposite of our natural inclinations.
And boy, isn’t that Good News?
Isn’t that the best news ever?
It’s been said that this list of instructions is all about which God we believe in—and about the way of life that follows as a result.
I must admit with shame that I often live as if I know little or nothing of the God Jesus is talking about.
God is not angry and gloomy, nor is He judgmental.
And He isn’t out to make our lives difficult and salvation nearly impossible.
He knows us much better than we know ourselves, and God loves us just the way we are, despite the mistakes, the sins, the times we treat others badly.
This being said, it’s not God’s desire that we stay the way we are.
That is why Jesus, in verse 35, tells us that if we live like Luke Chapter 6 describes our reward will be great.
And what is this reward?
It’s not a better seat in heaven.
It’s not that we will be more saved than others, or better than others, or more prosperous or more loved.
The reward is that we will get more out of life than if we lived according to our own motives, and, Lord willing, others will be blessed as well.
And we will experience a peace which transcends all understanding no matter what people might say or try and do to us.
That is the reward of living in the image of the Most High.
I haven’t gotten there, but I’ve tasted just enough to know it is true.
God is so different from us and the world.
He’s the exact opposite, really.
Earlier this week, I was having a conversation with someone from another denomination.
He was telling me about when he was the worship leader for a church in Birmingham, Alabama.
He told me about a member of that church who gave him a hard time and stirred up a lot of trouble for him.
Anyone in ministry can relate.
It hurts.
And it’s hard to love someone who hurts us.
It’s hard to love someone who doesn’t love us in return.
One day, this new friend felt God calling him to buy this woman a cake, and he was like, “I don’t want to buy this lady a cake. She’s hateful to me.
I don’t like her.
I don’t want to have anything to do with her.”
But God persisted.
So, he went to the best bakery in town, bought the most expensive cake they had, took it to her home, and offered it to her.
And you know what?
She broke down, cried, and apologized for how she had been treating him.
It says in Romans Chapter 12:
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
It is one of the hardest things to do, but it is also the most worthwhile.
Jesus knows that what He is asking us is not how the world works.
By nature, we tend to be reciprocal.
What I mean by that is that we normally treat others the way they treat us.
If they have humiliated us or hurt us or robbed us, our normal human response is to try and get even, and if they are higher on the totem pole than we are, like a boss, we might kiss up to them when they are around and talk behind their backs when they are not—trying to destroy them with our words.
But to truly love them…
…how can we do that?
It’s hard enough for us to love someone who thinks differently than we do or lives differently.
That’s why it is only possible to begin living like this with God’s help.
In John, Jesus said, “without me, you can do nothing.”
And when the rich young ruler turned away from following Jesus because he loved his money more than God…
…the disciples asked Jesus, “Who, then, can be saved?”
And Jesus said, “With people, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible.”
Imagine living in a society or in a Church where everyone lived like Jesus.
There wouldn’t be any violence.
There wouldn’t be any revenge.
There wouldn’t be any church splits or divisions based on class or color or anything else.
Property and possessions wouldn’t be nearly as important as making sure your neighbor is all right.
Life in the Church would be exuberant, completely different, astonishing.
People would stare, and people would want to know about the God of mercy and love that we serve.
Think of how contagious it was when Jesus did this Himself.
The reasons why the crowds followed Him was because this power of love was flowing out of Jesus and people were being healed.
His whole life was one of unrestrained generosity, giving all He had to give to everyone who needed it.
And when He spoke, He was talking about what He knew: the extravagant love of His Father and the call for us to live like this in response.
And finally, when they struck Him on the cheek and ripped the coat and shirt off His back, He went on loving and forgiving; as Luke later tells us in Chapter 23, He prayed from the Cross: “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Jesus didn’t show love only to His friends, but to His enemies.
He is the true embodiment of the Words He spoke and is alive and well.
He loves you, and He loves me.
And He is merciful, loving and forgiving.
And He has called us to follow Him.
He has offered us the gift of faith and salvation through that faith.
May we strive to take hold of that for which God has taken hold of us.
Let us pray:
Lord God, the Words of Jesus today are particularly challenging and difficult for us.
Although most of us are familiar with them, trying to live them can feel impossible for most of us, most of the time.
As we think about this challenging passage, may we always have in the back of our minds that You are always by our side and your Holy Spirit lives in us.
You promised at the Ascension to be with us always to the end of time.
Lord, help us believe that we can do all things through You, Who gives us strength.
Let us follow You confidently, courageously, and joyfully.
In Jesus’ name and for His sake we pray.
Amen.
