What do you do when people do nasty things to you? What do you do when things happen like someone treating you like an enemy, hating you, cussing you out, abusing you or stealing your coat? That makes it harder to be a Christian, doesn’t it? Everyone here has had an encounter with someone who is just plain hard to be around. They show up in most every workplace, every neighborhood, and every family. They irritate you. They may really dislike you. What do you do? If someone attacks you, do you hit back? Do you just leave and let them get away with it? What do you do? You tell me. When someone is mean to you, what is your first impulse to do? What do you feel like doing when someone is mean to you?
I think we most often find ourselves choosing between two types of responses, passive and aggressive. The passive response is the avoidant response. Do nothing. Just get away. Don’t get involved. Maybe let someone trample over you, literally or figuratively. Just suck up and take it. Christians tend to favor this way. That may seem to work at times. But there are a lot of bullies out there who only get worse when you let them have their way.
The more you start telling yourself that you can’t do anything about it, the more you start to believe that you can’t do anything about it. You feel powerless, hopeless. And you often start to internalize it, saying, “If only I were a better person this wouldn’t happen.” Just giving in to abusive people all the time starts rotting you out inside. That’s no good. God doesn’t see you as inept or unlovable. You’ve got to do something. But what?
Then there’s the aggressive response, “fight fire with fire” has its problems, too. Things escalate all too easily. Once you let vengeance and retribution out of the bag it’s hard to put them back. In Iraq we are seeing every day how ancient tribal conflicts have been poisoned by the cycle of retaliation. Thousands of people have labeled everyone who isn’t in their religious sect as an enemy and as they fight it out, they are destroying their own country. Mohandas Gandhi said it very well, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.” Who gains in that? Many offices and school cafeterias have feuds brewing that do a lot of damage. Sometimes even churches.
Last week we looked at Jesus’ announcement of who are the prime candidates for the Kingdom of God. This week we begin a block of teaching on how citizens of the kingdom of God must live. And he begins with how Christians are to treat their enemies. This teaching has made true Christians stand out in the world for centuries. It makes our neighbors watch us and say, “God must be here. This is different. And it’s really good.”
So, what do you do when people are mean to you, when they treat you like an enemy? Our text is Luke 6:27-36. I encourage you to open your pew Bible to page 64 in the New Testament section so that you can see it for yourself. And there is no way that I can do justice to even these 9 verses in one morning, so, if you look carefully, so can see for yourself some things that I’ll have to skip over. Please stand for the reading of God’s word.
27 "`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.”
What do you do when somebody treats you like an enemy? This is a huge subject, but let’s just look at the four things that Jesus said to do in the face of your enemies. They are in the first two verses of our text, 27 and 28. Can you find them?
He said to love our enemies, do good to them, bless them and pray for them. Love them. Do good to them. Bless them. Pray for them.
Will any of these hurt anybody? No. Will they hurt you? Will they leave you weakened and humiliated? No. Think about someone who feels like an enemy to you today. Think how God might be guiding you to respond to them.
The first thing to do is to love your enemies. The Greek word for love here is agape. It doesn’t mean that you have to like people who mistreat you. You really can’t control your feelings towards other people. If you wait until you feel warm fuzzy feelings towards someone who is mean to you, you will be paralyzed for a very long time. Agape talks about what you choose to do, not what you feel like doing. And agape love chooses to do what is best for that other person. It is not passive. It is not avoidant. It is active and creative. Agape love chooses to do good things, even to your enemies.
When I was in college, I used to work in an all night Clark gas station. That was in the days when every pump was full service. The attendant was supposed to hurry out to the car, ask how much gas to pump, offer to check the oil, start the pump running, and then wash at least the windshield, but all the glass if there was time. And there were a few times that people came in who were having a really grumpy day. I’d come out to their car window and they’d just sort of snarl at me what they wanted. And what do your feelings tell you to do if someone snarls at you? The aggressive response might be to snarl back.
Or maybe do the passive aggressive routine, leave a big smear on their windshield, or open their hood and then go into the building and just stall for a few minutes as if you had forgotten something. But I would just try to give them the very best service I could do. And I washed all their glass and spoke to them as nicely as I could, and by the time I got back to take their money, twice I had people apologize to me for the grumpy way they had started out. My act of treating them with love reminded them that they had no cause to treat me as an enemy. And it probably changed their day.
Did I slash out to hurt them and only make matters worse? No. Did I feel powerless and demeaned when it was all done? Not at all. I felt God had empowered me to defuse something and may well have turned their whole day around. Love those who make themselves an enemy to you.
The second thing that Jesus said to do when people are mean to you is to do good to them. Don’t let them pull you down to their level. Don’t let them poison your heart with hate. Decide right away that you are going to be a Christian here and look for something good you can do for them.
After World War I the allies England, France and the US, made a big mistake. We defeated Germany, but we continued to treat them as enemies, we ground them into the dirt, stripping their industries and requiring very heavy reparations payments. And so, they continued as enemies and welcomed Adolph Hitler when he came with his solution for restoring the country so it could fight its enemies.
But after the Second World War we were smarter. We established the Marshall Plan to destroy our enemies by helping them rebuild. And we turned them into friends. Jesus said to love your enemies and do good to them.
If it’s someone at work, maybe one day you see them struggling with a job and you can just pop in and help them out for a minute. Ask God to open up an opportunity.
Maybe that person who is really bugging you is someone who has been bruised and battered by the world in ways you aren’t aware of. Maybe they have had experiences that have convinced them that everybody is out to get them, that they need to put on a prickly exterior to make sure nobody gets too close. Maybe doing something nice for them will be the encouragement they need to put down their guard a bit in hope that life can be better. I remember my mother used to say, “Troublesome people are people in trouble.” Maybe God has brought you into their life to help them break out of the destructive habits they have learned.
And then Jesus said to bless those who curse you. If someone cusses you out, what do you feel like doing? Something inside wants to cuss them right back. But does that ever improve a relationship? No
But sometimes even a few positive words, a few words of appreciation can go so far to diffuse a situation.
If you see them doing something well on another day, let them know that you noticed it and appreciate it. It might be as simple as “Good job.” They just might take that as a message that they don’t have to be on attack or even on guard against you. Take an opportunity to speak well of them to someone else you work with.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave our country one of the best lessons you’ll ever see on how to get rid of enemies. In spite of all the things that were said against him, Dr. King still prayed for his enemies. He spoke it out again and again that he meant no harm to anyone. He refused to fight back even when he was beaten and sprayed with fire hoses and thrown in jail. He held up a vision, not of defeating those who hated him, but of all races living together in harmony and respect. Words can be powerful tools to break down hostility. And he shook our nation by obeying these words of Jesus that we are looking at this morning. They aren’t words of weakness. They are words of power.
And the fourth thing that Jesus said to do is to pray for those who abuse you. Sometimes it’s those troublesome people who make trouble for you who also complain the loudest about all the problems they have. Why not answer very simply, “I’ll pray for God to help you get through that”?
The Associated Press ran a story in 1994 of Cindy Hartman of Conway, Arkansas. She walked into her house to answer the phone and was confronted by a burglar. He ripped the phone cord out of the wall and ordered her into a closet.
Hartman dropped to her knees and asked the burglar if she could pray for him. ‘I want you to know that God loves you and I forgive you,’ she said.
The burglar apologized for what he had done. Then he yelled out the door to a woman in a pickup truck: ‘We’ve got to unload all of this. This is a Christian home and a Christian family. We can’t do this to them.”
Then he took the bullets out of his gun, handed the gun to Hartman, and walked out the door.
Loving an enemy changed that enemy. And loving enemies can change us, too. When relationships are difficult, praying for one another is one of the most important things to do.
When it’s hard to love someone, let some of God’s love for them rub off on you. When you are feeling wounded, let God heal your heart and send you back out stronger for the next challenge. Maybe God will help you understand why that other person acts that way.
So, is there someone who feels like your enemy today? Here are four tools that just might turn them into a friend. Love them. Do good for them. Bless them. Pray for them.
And does God promise that this will “work?” Is there any guarantee that this will change them? No, there isn’t. And there are people who will continue to hate you and abuse you even when you do these things. Jesus ended up getting crucified. Martin Luther King was shot.
And there are times for more forceful responses. When the Pharisees attacked Jesus’ ministry, he very clearly told them where they were wrong. But I don’t believe he did it out of hate. He corrected them to give them an opportunity to learn and change. And he corrected them to warn the crowds not to listen to them.
The Apostle Paul was an incredibly patient man. But when people tried to cause divisions or taught false doctrines that tore apart his churches, he was very forceful and direct in dealing with them. And Paul was eventually executed for his faith also.
So there is no guarantee that what Jesus said will ‘work’ in the sense of solving your problems with some person. And often there are times when you look awfully inept and feel awful vulnerable trying to return good for evil, waiting to give God time to turn things around. So why do it?
Well, you might very well turn an enemy into a friend. You might very well demonstrate the depths of God love and patience for someone who has never understood it before and they might respond positively and make it possible to work out a reconciliation. That makes it worth giving it a shot. You just might be the one who sparks hope in their heart that God has a better way for them.
Jesus gave two more reasons for loving your enemies in verse 35. First he said that if you do, “your reward will be great.” Does he say your reward will come right away? No, but it will be great. No matter how frustrating a situation may be, hang on to this promise. God will reward you for your faithfulness and nobody can take that away from you. This is God’s action and nobody can touch it. When your day comes to hang in there in vulnerability with someone shooting at you while you are refusing to shoot back, find strength in Jesus’ words. Your reward will be great.
And the second reason that Jesus gave for loving your enemies is that that’s what Christian do. He said that when you love your enemies, “you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.”
We serve a God who has forgiven us over and over again, loved us when we have been unlovely, sent blessing after blessing our way, many more blessings than we deserve, who has always hoped the best for us. That love is the foundation of the universe. That kind of love is our calling, our family identity. Whether it “works” or not, love is what Christians do. It’s just the way that the family of God does things. It is who we are.
Who are your enemies today? How is God calling you to respond?
I invite you to pray with me the prayer of St. Francis, which is printed in your bulletin. Pray it especially with that one enemy in your mind. And let’s see if you can turn that enemy into a friend.
Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace;
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
To be understood, as to understand;
To be loved, as to love,
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. AMEN
