This past week, we celebrated Valentine’s Day. This day has
become of symbol of love filled with red hearts, candy, flowers and gifts. From
the time we are little kids, we get in on the action by taking the “Be Mine”
valentines to hand out to our classmates. I still remember getting excited
about Valentine’s Day in elementary school because I would get that little slip
of paper from the popular kids, who otherwise never gave me the time of day,
and, for just a moment, I could feel wanted. “Be mine” – as a child that was
all it took to give me hope.
The invitation to belong – to be loved – is something we all
strive for but as we get older we realize love is never as easy as we’d like to
think. Jesus spent much of his time issuing an invitation to “be mine” as he
sought to show us that we are loved and wanted by God. Jesus also taught
us that love is essential to who we are as Christians…
We find our call to be love in scripture
For God so loved the world…(John 3:16)
1 Corinthians 13 Love is patient. Love is King. Love is not
boastful, envious or rude.
We find our call to be love in song
“For they’ll know we are Christians by our love, by our
love. Yes, they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”
(Our Faith We Sing 2223)
We find it in our missions and ministries
We name our churches Love’s Chapel, or our missions
Agape Ministries
Love is supposed to be who we are so we must follow Jesus in
such a way as to reflect the love of Jesus to the world around us. Jesus
reminds us, however, in the Sermon on the Mount, that love is never as easy as
we’d like to think.
Matthew 5:38 "You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and
a tooth for a tooth.' 39 But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer.
But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; 40
and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; 41
and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. 42
Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to
borrow from you. 43 "You have heard that it was said, "You
shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' 44 But I say to you, Love
your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be
children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on
the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. 46 For
if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax
collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and
sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the
same? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
I think we can all admit to the first question that pops into
our head here…. “Is he serious?” Is Jesus truly serious about not retaliating
when we are abused, assaulted, and oppressed? Maybe for just a moment, your
mind flashed a picture of Jesus in Pilate’s courtyard. He is battered,
bleeding, humiliated, and stands silently as false witness is given and he is
condemned to die. Is Jesus serious about the kind of love he just preached? I
think it is safe to say he is. He is serious enough to die on love's
behalf.
Our mind may still reel for a way out. After all, we are not the
Messiah so surely he isn’t calling us to do the same. He can’t really be
calling us to be run over by the world, give away all our possessions and be
seen as weak? Well, it is kind of a yes and no answer. No, he doesn’t expect us
to be weak, run over, and passive. Yes, he does expect us to love in ways that
are radically different than what the world teaches.
See, I don’t think Jesus intends for us to take this teaching
literally; he doesn’t expect us to go around naked, abused, and penniless. He
does, however, want us to take love serious in terms of how we respond to a
world that is always out to serve self rather than other.
Let’s look at it this way…
“The first 10 amendments to the Constitution make up the Bill of Rights.
Written by James Madison in response to
calls from several states for greater constitutional protection for individual
liberties, the Bill of Rights lists specific prohibitions on governmental
power.” (Bill of Rights)
As Americans, we understand and highly value our rights as
citizens of this nation. So, let’s step back to look at the nation of Israel.
The nation of Israel had laws that we could say served as a version of a bill
of rights. The glaring difference being that Moses, not Madison, declared these
laws on God’s bequest. Nevertheless, there were laws that were set in place
that established a person’s rights and placed limits on their ability to exceed
those rights in ways that were unjust.
For example: You had the right to retaliate against someone for
harming you. “You have heard it said an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.”
The limitation being if someone caused you to lose an eye you weren’t allowed
to then take both their eyes or their life, you could only take one eye.
Equality.
You had the right to seek justice. You could certainly take
someone to court and demand payment for a wrong.
You had the right to a limitation of government interference.
This of course was not a law from Moses but it was a law in effect during
Jesus’ life. For example, a Roman-occupying soldier had the right to demand of
any citizen that they carry the soldiers heavy equipment for them as a service.
The law, however, limited that service to no more than one mile. In that way
the citizen couldn’t be enslaved or abused.
Jesus has laid out for his disciples examples of the “rights”
afforded to them by the law. Then he drops the bombshell of the toughest love
requirements we can imagine: Give up those rights for the sake of love.
You have the right to retaliate a slap in the face, I say, give
up that right and turn the other cheek.
You have a right to limitations on justice and not lose
everything in court but I say, offer everything anyway.
You have a right to limit what you do for others, but I say, go
the extra mile for those who seek to control you.
On the surface this loves doesn’t sound so attractive does it?
It sounds like it is calling us to be weak, but look again.
In truth, what Jesus is asking of his disciples is a radical,
confident boldness that defies anything the world has ever seen. What he is
actually saying is stand tall and confident as Children of God who live under
the authority of God, an authority that exceeds all authority of man or
government.
Let’s look at it this way…
Jesus specifies a slap to the right cheek is not to be
retaliated, but instead we offer the left check as well. If you are facing
someone and intend to strike them most of us would be hitting the person’s left
cheek. The only way to strike the right cheek is to backhand them, which is not
intended to injure but to demean or insult. Someone who thinks they have
authority and power over you would strike you this way. Jesus says, however, to
turn the left cheek to them as if to say, “Go ahead and hit me but hit me like
an equal.”
If someone wants to take you to court and take what is yours
say, “Take it all, I don’t need anything beyond what my God provides.”
If someone says they have the authority to force you to walk a
mile? Say, “I will walk on my own terms, let’s walk two.”
Is Jesus calling us to be rebels? In a way, but his is also
teaching us about loving resistance to abuses of power. How do we know this? He
says so in verses 43-44: "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love
your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and
pray for those who persecute you,’”
Loving resistance that benefits the very enemy we are standing
up to. Wow. How radically brilliant! Lest we be tempted to say, “but Jesus
doesn’t get our enemy today…or Jesus doesn’t understand how undeserving my
enemy is.” Well, let’s stop and remember that we don’t really deserve Jesus’
love and grace either but he loves us enough to bless us with both no matter
how hard hearted we are.
Look what Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who
persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he
makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous
and on the unrighteous.”
Here is another hard teaching but hear it anyway – Jesus loves
your enemy as much as he loves you. Fact. He said it. If we are to love as our
Christ we too must love our enemy as much as we love our self.
Jesus says, be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. This
is our last bit of teaching, and this is important: Perfect doesn’t mean
without blemish or mistake or fault. It is too easy to dismiss the call to
“perfection” by saying no one can be perfect but Jesus. So, we must remember
Jesus spoke a different language and sometimes meanings are lost in
translation.
The word for “perfect” in the Greek language of the Gospels is
telos and it means: to reach your intended outcome. I love how Dr. David Lose explains it, “The
telos of an archers arrow is to reach its target…the telos of a peach tree is
to bear a peach. What Jesus is saying is, be who God created you to be. Be the
person for whom Christ died. Be Christ’s love for all the world, neighbors and
enemies alike.”
The invitation to love is beautiful but as Jesus shows us,
it is a lot tougher than we’d like to think.
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