LOVING OUR ENEMIES
Text: Luke 6: 26-38
Luk 6:27-38 "But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, (28) bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. (29) If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. (30) Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. (31) Do to others as you would have them do to you. (32) "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. (33) If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. (34) If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. (35) But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. (36) Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (37) "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; (38) give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back."
Nikita Kruschev, a WWII vet and leader of the Soviet Union from 1953 - 1964 is on record in his response about “turning the other cheek”. He said, "If a man strikes me on one cheek, I'll hit him back on the other one and knock his head off!” (Wallace T. Viets. Seven Days That Changed The World. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962, pp. 21-22). Nikita was certainly not all by himself in that sentiment. How easy is it for you to “turn the other cheek” after someone has used you, insulted, struck on the jaw or slandered you? How many of us would like to agree with Nikita when Jesus calls us to forgive? Is it easier to be vengeful, judgmental, unforgiving and indifferent to our enemies? Is it harder to turn the other cheek, to offer something else when someone has taken something from us, to be generous, to be merciful and to go the extra mile?
Two things we can pull from today’s text are opposition and going the extra mile.
HOW DO WE HANDLE OPPOSITION?
Is vengeance an option?
1) The law of retribution: There are undoubtedly some who like Old Testament idea of practicing an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Leviticus 24:19-20 says, “If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, (20) fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him” (ESV). If we all practiced this ideal without any boundaries would we not all eventually be blind and toothless?
2) Boundaries: Some might take that to mean that vengeance is justifiable, but it actually meant that vengeance had limits. There is no question that Kruschev is someone who would have gone beyond what was proper.
"A chilling Jewish folk tale tells of two merchants who owned shops across the street form one another. Each judged the day successful not on the basis of total sales, but on whether he made more than the other. Upon the completion of a sale, each would look across the street mock the other. God decided to put an end to this nasty rivalry and sent an angel to visit one of the merchants.
"You can have anything you want in the world," the angel said. "It can riches, wisdom, a long life, many children. Just know that whatever you ask, your competitor will get twice as much. Thus, if you ask for $20,000, he will get $40,000. What is your wish?"
"The merchant thought for a while before he answered, "Make me blind in one eye." Envy is as senseless as that" (William R. White. Fatal Attractions: Sermons On The Seven Deadly Sins. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1992, p. 30). This story is allegorical because the characters are symbolic of human nature.
Do you think God would use you like He used Jonah and go into enemy territory to share his love?
1) Missionaries: Have you ever thought of yourself as a missionary? Have you ever thought of yourself doing God’s work behind enemy lines? Isn’t the world we live in a spiritual battle ground? Romans 10:14 - 15 says, “What if that is precisely where God sends us? How can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? (NIV).
2) Love your enemies: There will be times when we like Jonah would rather run the other way because we just simply do not want to have anything to do with our enemies. There are times when we would rather see them get what we think that they deserve. If we are honest with ourselves don’t we have to admit that we share that tendency to let our enemies get what is coming to them? What did Jesus say about this?
Luke 6::27 - 32: “…. listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, (28) bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. (29) If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. (30) Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. (31) Do to others as you would have them do to you. (32) "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them” (NRSV). Jesus calls us to love others even if they are unlovable when we would rather walk by on the other side and pretend we don’t see them!
Do people sometimes take disagreements too far?
1) God’s love goes the distance: Before we answer that lets’ ask how far does God’s love go? Jesus tells us about turning the other cheek because He truly practiced what He preached. He could have called on the angels but He took the cross and paid the price for our sins, the sin of our enemies and the sin of every generation. Jesus died on the cross for both His enemies and His friends because God is not willing that anyone should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9) . In John 15:13, Jesus said that there is no greater love that a man lay down his life for his friends. Paul reminds us of how that love even extended to God’s enemies: “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 ESV).
2) Does our love go the distance? Does our love resemble the love of Jesus? Consider the Spanish patriot.
“When Narvaez, the Spanish patriot, lay dying, his father-confessor asked him whether he had forgiven all his enemies. Narvaez looked astonished and said, “Father, I have no enemies, I have shot them all.”” Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. This patriot went in the totally opposite direction of what Jesus was talking about. How can our love ever go the distance if we choose vengeance over love? How can our love ever go the distance if we refuse to pray for our enemy?
GOING THE EXTRA MILE
Does your forgiveness go the extra mile?
1) Seeds for change: Jesus teaches us to forgive enemies who sin against us, and to turn the other cheek and pray for our enemies because these things plant seeds for change.
2) Don’t recycle: We live in a world where we recycle a lot of things, but retaliation is not supposed to be on the list. Retaliation recycles injuries, insults and hostility. Like a merry-go-round, retaliation travels in a circle. Moving beyond conflict: Genuine forgiveness invites others to go beyond the transgressions. As John Wesley said, “loving our enemies could melt them into repentance”. (John Wesley’s Notes On the Bible.)
What good is love that is conditional? Doesn’t conditional love set boundaries that are very unforgiving?
ILLUSTRATION: A Scandinavian author once wrote a book entitled the Great Hunger, that had a profound story about forgiveness and turning the other cheek. There was a farmer who had a beautiful daughter who was playing in her own back yard. The neighbor’s dog attacked and killed her. Naturally, the girl’s father was bitter against his neighbor. Then one day famine struck. The farmer’s neighbor whose dog attacked and killed his daughter was poor. One sleepless night, the farmer got dressed and sowed some grain in his neighbor’s field. When asked why he helped his neighbor he said, “So that God might live.” (Herb Miller. Actions Speak Louder Than Verbs. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1988, p. 81). II John 2:9 - 10 says “Whoever says, “I am in the light,” while hating a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling” (NRSV).
1) Litmus test 1: Could you forgive someone who worked in a concentration camp during the Holocaust?
ILLUSTRATION: Put to the test: Imagine you are the person in this next story: “Years after her concentration camp experiences in Nazi Germany, Corrie ten Boom met face to face one of the most cruel and heartless German guards that she had ever contacted. He had humiliated and degraded her and her sister. He had jeered and visually raped them as they stood in the delousing shower. Now he stood before her with hand outstretched and said, “Will you forgive me?” She writes: “I stood there with coldness clutching at my heart, but I know that the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart. I prayed, Jesus, help me! Woodenly, mechanically I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me and I experienced an incredible thing. The current started in my shoulder, raced down into my arms and sprang into our clutched hands. Then this warm reconciliation seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes. ‘I forgive you, brother,’ I cried with my whole heart. For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard, the former prisoner. I have never known the love of God so intensely as I did in that moment!” To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you. (James S. Hewett. Illustrations Unlimited. Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1988). How many live in their self-made prison trapped by our resentment of our enemy?
2) Litmus test 2: Consider this letter, where it was found in the pocket of a dead concentration camp victim and its message. O Lord, remember not only the men and woman of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all of the suffering they have inflicted upon us: Instead remember the fruits we have borne because of this suffering—our fellowship, our loyalty to one another, our humility, our courage, our generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown from this trouble. When our persecutors come to be judged by you, let all of these fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness. (Found in the clothing of a dead child at Ravensbruck concentration camp.) Galaxie Software. (2002). 10,000 Sermon Illustrations. Biblical Studies Press. Could we ever write the same kind of letter if we were ever in the same circumstances?
3) Following in Christ’s footsteps: As we mentioned earlier in John 15:13 and Romans 5:8 Jesus laid down His life for His friends as well as His enemies! Jesus is telling us that we are to reflect God’s character even in our dealings with our enemies. As someone (George Herbert) once said, “He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass.” (T. T. Crabtree. Ed. The Zondervan 2001Pastor’s Annual. Howard S. Kalb. “Forgiveness.” Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 2001, p. 306). The question that no one can escape answering is this: “How is your view from the bridge?” “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth” (I John 3:18 NIV).
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
