[Jesus said:] "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you..." (Luke 6:27-28)
Before we even get to the scandalous notion of loving our enemies and returning hatred with good, Jesus issues another challenge first. Will we listen to him? As in, will we actually let Jesus speak on his own terms, rather than us trying to fit our own words, wishes, and agendas into his mouth? Will we let Jesus say things that we do not expect... or do not like... or do not particularly want to follow? Will we let Jesus be our Lord, even if he says things that pull us out of our comfort zones, rather than trying to make him our personal mascot, trotted out to endorse what we want him to say? Will we actually listen to Jesus' words and worldview, even if it means a stretching of our ears, or will we tell ourselves that we already know what Jesus has to say, and never really hear him?
I ask these questions sincerely, because I know all too well in my own faith journey that sometimes the temptation is greatest for those of us who have been sitting in pews for decades and going to church all our lives to ignore Jesus while telling ourselves we are worshiping him. As they say, familiarity breeds contempt. It is easy to sing praises to Christ if we don't let him get a word in edgewise to say things that will turn our understanding upside down or question the things we took for granted about the world. But Jesus will not let us muzzle him or turn him into a mute messiah with an empty speech bubble we can fill in with our own wishes. Jesus insists on giving us his own alternative vision for living in the world, and it will unquestionably stretch us outside of our comfort zones.
This week we'll be taking a closer look at the words from Luke's Gospel that many of us heard this past Sunday in worship. And as we do, we should be ready in advance for Jesus to say things that may make us squirm, because we don't want to have to take him seriously. Our culture has been so thoroughly ingrained with a worldview that says, "We've gotta GET them before they GET us!" that we will look for any excuse to dismiss Jesus' undeniable directive for us to do the opposite. We have been so completely immersed in the kind of conventional wisdom that says, "We only help out those who will do something for us in return!" that we can hardly bear to hear Jesus calling us into his kind of non-transactional, unconditional love. So let this be a warning to us all: if we are not interested in letting Jesus overturn our old "Me and My Group First" thinking, we should probably not read any further in the Gospels. Because Jesus is determined to flip those tables.
Let's just say it out loud: a great many of the dominant voices in our day are trying to sell us a view of the world that runs completely counter to Jesus' way. They want us to see everything in the world as a deal to be leveraged, and that the only worthwhile relationships are the ones in which we "get" more from the other party than we put in. They think it's foolish, wasteful, or bad "business sense" to do good for people who might be seen as enemies, and instead want us to reduce everything to a transaction in which we are either "winners" or "losers." And in addition to being an embarrassingly immature and shortsighted way of seeing the world, that whole perspective is honestly the complete opposite of the Jesus way. Here in just these opening directives of this section of the Sermon on the Plain, Jesus rejects that self-centered thinking and calls us to break the old cycles of revenge and petty one-upmanship that we are all just tired of. If we are going to listen to Jesus, rather than trying to baptize our childish self-absorption, then we will have to unlearn what the world told us was "common sense" and to let Jesus teach us his way. And that will mean learning to say "No" to those dominant voices of our culture who think it's foolish to do good to someone without worrying about getting something in return.
So, what do you think? Are we brave enough to move forward through this section of Jesus' teaching? Are we willing to listen to Jesus on his own terms, and to stifle our impulse to make him say things we approve of? And if Jesus' view of the world takes our old perspective and stretches it wider so that love encompasses even those we wanted to hate, will we let him stretch us that way? Let's dare it together today. Let's offer our ears to hear Jesus, and then see together what he makes of us.
Lord Jesus, keep us from putting our words in your mouth, and instead let us hear what you have to tell us, even when that forces us to rethink everything.
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