I want to spend a few minutes this morning thinking together about the gospel reading
that we just heard.
Because in a world of brutal invasions abroad and political strife here at home and even
profound divisions that exist within the church, if there is any section of the Bible that
wants to make us throw up our hands and say, this is impossible, it might be this morning's
passage where Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek and to love our enemies.
And it's not that it simply sounds impossible.
I think perhaps worse, it may sound a little bit naive.
It sounds like the kind of thing a person who is portrayed in movies like God's Spell
or The Last Temptation of Christ might say, a kind of trippy, confused Francis of Assisi
figure who's wandering through fields of wildflowers offering these kind of vague platitudes that
don't actually really apply to real life.
Here's the thing, however.
We have to ask ourselves, if Jesus' teaching in this passage is ill-suited to the real world,
what should guide us when dealing with people who are opposed to us or who hurt us or who
are in some way opposed to our well-being?
If we are being honest, it would seem much more reasonable to live by an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth.
And in fact, it is worth pointing out that even though Jesus is going to introduce an alternative,
he's not actually critiquing an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth per se, because we should
remember that the moral code behind an eye for an eye was actually a big improvement on what preceded it.
Moses taught the ethic of an eye for an eye to a people who had been enslaved in Egypt
where they had experienced harsh retribution for even the smallest of infractions.
And it is reasonable to expect that having escaped Egypt for the wilderness, the children of Israel
just imitated their captors.
And so Moses taught them a way to limit escalating violence.
If they knock out your tooth, Moses said, you don't burn their house down,
you limit yourself to that person losing their tooth.
In other words, Moses taught what was effectively a tribal culture, the virtue of a proportional response.
So let's pause for a moment and let's acknowledge the comparative good of an eye for an eye.
It actually moved human culture forward.
However, Jesus knows that there is an inherent problem that remains because with such a code,
the cycles of conflict just continue.
Perhaps those cycles are more self-contained, perhaps things escalate less.
But what was it Gandhi said?
An eye for an eye until the whole world is blind.
I recently read about a mom with two young children who were playing in the other room while she was fixing dinner.
One was a five-year-old little boy.
The other was a nine-year-old baby.
And all of a sudden, the mom hears this terrible scream.
She runs in.
She finds the five-year-old crying.
She says, what's going on?
The five-year-old says, the baby pulled my hair and it hurts.
Made me mad.
And the mom said, don't get mad.
The baby doesn't know how much it hurts.
A couple minutes later, there's a second scream and the mom runs back in the other room.
What happened this time?
She said, the five-year-old says, now the baby knows.
We are not unlike that five-year-old.
In an eye for an eye world, when we get hurt, we want to ensure the other person feels some hurt in return.
Sometimes we let them know outwardly and we respond in kind.
Sometimes we perhaps find more passive ways to let them know, such as withholding certain goods for a period of time.
So Jesus' words, don't resist the one who's evil.
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
In certain respects, it breaks that cycle.
It disrupts the never-ending back and forth wheel of retribution.
However, it also raises many questions as to what it would mean to practically apply this teaching.
So in order to grapple with this, I would like for us to do a little internal mental exercise.
I'd like you to bring to mind, for just a moment, somebody who represents an enemy in your life.
Okay?
Now, for some of us, somebody immediately springs to mind, right?
Perhaps it's someone at work or school who is a bully or someone from the past who has hurt us in some intentional way
or betrayed us or worked against our best interests.
For some of us, the person who comes to mind doesn't wear an official label enemy, right?
But it's someone in our life who we don't like very much or who bothers us in a certain way.
Or maybe they've hurt us unintentionally or unknowingly in ways that we might even be embarrassed to admit.
The writer Anne Lamott describes herself as a San Francisco hippie who found Jesus.
And in one of her books, she wrote about one particular incident in which she tried to love her enemy.
And she writes,
I had an enemy for a long time, the parent of one of the children in my son Sam's class.
She seemed so driven and unaware that it might have astounded her to learn that we were enemies.
But I can tell you that it's true.
I knew she was divorced and maybe lonely, but she also had mean eyes.
In the early weeks of first grade, she looked at me and my dreadlocks like I was a Rastafarian draft dodger
and then over time as if I were a dazed and confused space traveler.
It's true that I've had certain amounts of trouble adjusting since my son Sam started school two years ago.
There's too much to remember, too much to do.
But Sam's first grade teacher was so warm and forgiving that I just didn't trouble my pretty head about schedules,
homework, spelling lists, and other sundry unpleasantries.
However, there were all these other mothers who were always baking little holiday-themed treats for the class
and who also seemed to read all the papers the school sent home, which I think is actually a little show-offy.
Also, it gives them an unfair advantage.
They knew, for instance, from the first day of school last year that Wednesdays were shorter school days,
and they flaunted it, picking up their kids at just the right time, week after week.
I somehow managed to make it into October without figuring out this one scheduling peccadillo.
Finally, though, one Wednesday, I stopped by Sam's classroom and found him once again drawing with his teacher.
The teacher said gently, school gets out an hour early on Wednesdays.
Ah, I said, and smoked my own princess forehead.
Didn't you get the papers the school mailed to you this summer?
Sam sat there drawing with a grim stare.
Somehow, my enemy found out about this.
She showed up two days later all bundled up in a down jacket because it was cold
and she was driving the kids on a field trip.
Now, wearing a down jacket is not a crime against nature or me.
The crime is that below the down jacket, she was wearing latex bicycle shorts.
She wears latex bicycle shorts nearly every day.
And I will tell you why.
Because she can.
She weighs one pound.
She has gone to the gym almost every day since her divorce
and she does not have an ounce of fat on her live, aggressive body.
I completely hate that in a person.
I consider it an act of aggression against the rest of us mothers
who forgot to start working out after we had our kids.
The day of the field trip, she said to me,
sweet as some flight attendant,
I just want you to know that if you have any other questions
about how the classroom works,
I'd really love to be there for you.
I smiled back at her.
I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them aloud
because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of a cat dish.
But eventually, it drove me to my knees and I prayed about it.
I prayed because my son loves her son and my son is so kind
that it makes me want to be a better person.
A person who does not hate someone just because she wears latex bicycle shorts.
I prayed for a miracle.
I wrote her name down on a slip of paper
and I put it in a small box where I keep those things I'm especially praying for
and I said to God, here.
Now, you and I may not have particular challenges
with condescending people who wear latex bicycle shorts.
But we all have those people in our lives
that when we examine our hearts,
we struggle to will good things for.
These are people we find it hard to pray for even
because simply to pray for someone is one profound way
that we can seek another person's good.
And so, when we think about that person
and find ourselves struggling to want good things for them,
we might find ourselves kind of wilting
under the challenge of Jesus' words in this passage.
For some of us, it can almost feel like Jesus is dispensing with one law
to give us a new and harder law to follow in its place.
So Jesus says, it used to be an eye for an eye,
but now don't even resist an evil person.
The law of an eye for an eye is now being replaced by
the law of non-resistance.
No matter what this new law says,
if somebody does something bad to you,
you are simply to take it.
There have been Christians who have read it in this way,
and much damage has resulted as an effect.
Reading these verses as a new law has been used
to tell people who are in abusive relationships
or victims of domestic violence to remain in that situation,
or to someone who is being bullied or mistreated
to not protect themselves or to not seek justice.
But to interpret this passage in such a way
can only result from a profound misunderstanding
of the way that Jesus teaches.
As modern Westerners, the way that we think about teaching
is primarily focused on content.
We want to transfer certain content from the teacher's mind
into the minds of his or her students.
And in that model of teaching, you'll want to take notes
or even record the lectures just to make sure
that you haven't missed any of that content.
But the aim of the popular teacher in Jesus' time
was not only to impart information,
it was to make significant change in the lives of the hearers.
In Jesus' time, religious teachers taught in a way
that aimed to interrupt the life flow of the hearer,
to arrest their attention, to make an impression,
such that they would walk away thinking about this
and wrestling with it, struggling with it,
all without having written down a single note.
Let me give you a quick example.
Luke 14.
In Luke 14, Jesus is having Sunday dinner
in the house of a religious leader.
And in that story, Jesus notes that the host
had invited only his relatives and well-to-do neighbors.
And he remarks, when you have people in for a meal,
don't invite your relatives, friends, and wealthy neighbors
who will only pay you back by having you over.
Instead, when you have a feast,
invite the poor, the lame, and the blind
who cannot pay you back,
and you will be paid back
when the just are raised from the dead.
Right? You remember that story?
So, one way of understanding
what Jesus is teaching here
is that when you have people over for a meal,
don't invite your friends
or your neighbors or your relatives.
Now, depending on your relatives,
this might become your favorite verse in the Bible.
But this would be a mistaken interpretation.
We appropriately recognize that Jesus
is not forbidding us to take our mothers out
for brunch on Mother's Day.
Or to have our aunts or uncles
or our financially comfortable neighbors
over for dinner.
Jesus is teaching in such a way
as to get at a heart issue here.
He is trying to address the prevailing practice
of neglecting those in real need
while we share what we have
only with those who will reciprocate
by doing something for us.
And so, with our passage this morning,
Jesus is not making a new law.
Never resist.
Always turn the other cheek.
Never refuse anyone who asks you for something.
Rather, Jesus is getting at a heart issue
as he is throughout the Sermon on the Mount.
He says, you worship a God
who does not give people what they deserve.
Who causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
You worship a God who loves his enemies.
And so, Jesus is saying,
rather than dishing back what you have just received,
look for appropriate ways to be good,
even to those who have not been good to you.
To do this well
will require us
not to blindly follow some law,
but rather put the heart of Jesus' teaching
into practice
in intelligent and thoughtful ways.
If you are in a relationship
with someone who mistreats you,
that person's good is not being served
by allowing them to continue to do that.
This principle
applies to international relations too,
by the way,
but that's another sermon.
On the other hand,
in our various personal relationships,
there may be occasions
in which someone who has been opposed to you
needs something from you,
even though they don't deserve it,
and it would be appropriate to give it to them.
And then the question will be,
do we have the kind of hearts
who can do that?
And then,
how would we develop those kinds of hearts?
Perhaps that's the question
lurking behind this passage,
and I don't want to leave this
in the realm of theory,
so let's just spend these final few moments
thinking about how we might practically
move in the direction
of loving our enemies.
And in particular,
there's two things
that I'd like for us to consider.
First,
it's important to notice
that Jesus does not start
the Sermon on the Mount
by telling us to love our enemies.
This part of the sermon
only comes
after he has said
a lot of other things already.
And if you're so inclined,
go home and read
the entire Sermon on the Mount
in Matthew chapters 5 through 7,
and notice
how the Sermon on the Mount
is not just this hodgepodge
collection of sayings,
it is rather a sermon
with a logic
and a strategy
to it.
The arguments
and the situations
that Jesus discusses
throughout the sermon
are actually
stages
in a progression
towards a life
that is fully at home
in God's kingdom.
So we should take account
of what Jesus has said
prior to these words
about loving our enemies,
which includes instructions
that lay the groundwork
for putting this passage
into action.
So,
take,
for example,
anger.
The ability to love others
who oppose us
presumes
that we are
aiming to put into practice
Jesus' words
only a few
verses
before this passage
about not being
controlled by anger.
An enemy-like
relationship
is sometimes,
although certainly
not always,
preceded by anger
that we have
nursed
and carried around
with us.
Now,
understand,
this is not to say
that anger in itself
always,
is always
or necessarily
wrong.
In its simplest form,
anger is a spontaneous
response
to our wills
being obstructed,
to not getting
what we want.
Anger is a feeling
that seizes us,
a kind of primal
alert system
whenever we encounter
resistance.
The question is
whether,
after that initial response,
we have learned
to bring anger
under the control
of the Holy Spirit.
Have we taken note
of those instances
where we attempted
to give into
or to hold onto anger
and have we sought
to develop
practical strategies
to overcome it?
A book that I often
recommend to folks
that I have benefited from
and millions have
over the centuries
is An Introduction
to the Devout Life
by Francis de Sales
who was the Bishop
of Geneva
in the late 1500s
and a spiritual director
to many lay people.
And the book
is a collection
of letters
he wrote
to one of his directees.
One of his letters
on controlling anger
is just as relevant today
as it was
when he wrote it
400 years ago.
He writes,
it is better
to attempt
to find ways
to live without anger
than to pretend
to make a moderate
discrete use of it.
When we find ourselves
surprised into anger
through our own
imperfections
and frailty,
it is better
to drive it away quickly
than to start
a conversation with it.
Later, he writes,
when your mind
is tranquil
and without any cause
for anger,
build up a stock
of meekness
and mildness.
Speak all your words
and do all your actions
whether little or great
in the mildest way
that you can.
There's an enormous amount
of spiritual
and psychological
insight here.
Each of us will,
of course,
discover other strategies
for dealing with anger
in ways that are appropriate,
but we will find
that as we become
more habitually free
of anger,
there is more room
in our hearts
to love.
The second point
I want us to consider
about loving our enemies
is the challenge
of praying for them.
Because to pray for them
is not something
we do only after
we have figured out
how to love them,
but prayer is in fact
a means by which
we move towards love.
Prayer is the context
in which God can work
in our hearts
and begin to do things
in us
that we are deeply aware
we cannot do
for ourselves,
even if it takes
a long time.
Recently,
I was listening
to a lecture
by Father Nicanor
Austriaco,
a wonderful Dominican
priest who also teaches
at Providence College,
and in this lecture,
he was talking
to students at Harvard
about how they might
experience the good life.
And he was talking
about how the good life
is one in which
we are increasingly
free to love others,
even those who
are hard to love.
Towards the end
of his talk,
he told the Harvard
students about a confession
he had recently heard
from a young woman.
He didn't know
who the young woman was.
All he heard
was her voice
coming from the other
side of the screen
in the confessional booth.
She had come to him
because that morning
in church,
she had heard
the passage
that we just heard
this morning,
read about how
to treat your enemies.
She told Father Austriaco
that she was having
trouble forgiving
one of her enemies,
and he asked her,
who is this enemy?
And she said,
it was a family member
who did bad things
to me for many years.
She said,
is there something
wrong with me
that I can't forgive him?
And the priest said,
absolutely not.
It is entirely natural
for you to be wounded
and angry
and want to lash out.
He said,
Jesus calls you
to forgive your enemy,
but he's not demanding
that you do it
this instant.
It takes time
to get there.
So he said
to this young woman,
here's what I want you
to do.
For the next
10 years,
I want you to pray
just for family members
who do bad things
to other family members.
And then,
he said,
for the next 10 years
after that,
I want you to pray
for family members
who do the things
that were done to you.
And then,
he said,
after those 20 years,
you might begin
to pray specifically
for the family member
who treated you this way.
the priest
said that the young woman
was encouraged by this
and it gave her
a sense of hope.
But then,
right before she could leave,
the priest said,
hold on,
there's one more thing
you can do as well.
He said,
you can also pray
and ask Jesus
for the grace
to forgive this family member
right now.
And if that grace
is given,
he said,
you will find it
in your heart
to forgive him.
And the young woman
said,
really?
And the priest
said,
yes.
He said,
it doesn't mean
it will happen
right this instant,
but he said,
it does mean
that it is possible
for God
to do
supernatural
things
in our lives.
And that includes
enabling us
to love
in ways
that go beyond
our own
human capacity.
what Jesus
teaches us
in this morning's
passage
is not
a new
law
that aims
to weigh us
down
by our inability
to fulfill it.
Rather,
Jesus offers us
an invitation
into the very
heart
of God's
own life
with a freedom
to love
given to us
by grace.
Today is the
fourth Sunday
of Easter,
a season
in the church
calendar
in which we
continue to
celebrate the
resurrection
of Jesus
from the dead.
But let's
remember that
Jesus'
resurrection
came after
a journey.
It came
after Jesus'
own
long
journey
to Jerusalem
where he
ultimately
died on a
cross for his
enemies and
forgave those
who mistreated
him and
hated him.
God's
love.
We also
can experience
resurrection
in our own
lives.
It is
possible
for us
to experience
a deeper
capacity
to forgive
and a
wider
freedom
to love.
But it
requires
that we
go on a
journey
to get
there.
And the
question we
each have to
ask is,
what is the
journey that
Jesus is
inviting me
to go on?