Winning Christmas
Notes
Transcript
Jesus commands us to love and pray for our enemies. He uses the example of God’s common grace, actively loving His enemies. Jesus Himself is the example, incarnate and headed for the cross to die for enemies like us. The most Christmas-y thing we can do is actively love our enemies. Jesus gives us a spiritual discipline to help shape our heart: praying for those same enemies.
Winning Christmas
Winning Christmas
That’s what we all want to do, right? Win Christmas. Because it’s obviously a competition.
Several of our neighbors have put up their lights already… and it’s impressive. Slight road hazard driving by.
Maybe that’s the “most Christmas-y thing you can do?”
I think this is how you “win” Christmas lights. Look how hard the neighbor back there worked. Lights for days.
But the neighbor wins on style and funny. And winning is what it’s all about, right?
Today we are diving in one of the classic Christmas verses. Turn with me to Matthew 5, right at the end here.
Love Your Neighbor, Hate Your Enemy
Love Your Neighbor, Hate Your Enemy
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
Did God really say that?
The first part? Definitely. All over. Jesus didn’t make this part up.
18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.
The second? Not… exactly. But kind of, sometimes, a little bit. To specific enemies and times and places.
Like when Amalek attacked during the Exodus from Egypt:
19 Therefore when the Lord your God has given you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for an inheritance to possess, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.
So it doesn’t say “hate your enemies...” but it’s maybe not crazy that it’s a message they got.
After all, we talked about this when talking about anger. God does hate sin and sinners. Plenty of those verses. But love and hate are not opposites at all, and God can do both perfectly, to just the right amount, and still love completely.
We have a hard time with that. So there is no imperative in the Bible ever to hate others.
Jesus is very clear how we are to focus, what righteousness looks like in relationship to enemies.
Love.
Love Your Enemies
Love Your Enemies
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
The word here is “agape,” which is a general word for love that Jesus and the rest of the New Testament fill with meaning. Really redefining this word powerfully to mean this divine endless, unstoppable, unconditional kind of love.
We could say a lot about what Jesus means by “love.” It isn’t primarily a feeling, it is action. It is active. It is purposeful. It pursues.
It is patient, kind, keeps no record of wrongs, 1 Cor 13. It isn’t about romantic love, it is about this kind of love.
So… who are these enemies?
Who Is My Enemy?
Who Is My Enemy?
Let’s take some time to get literal here.
Some of y’all need no help with this. You have a list already. I said “enemy” and you said “that guy.” True story, the person (or long list of persons) who came to mind when you hear “enemy”… Jesus is absolutely talking about them.
But you may well have enemies you don’t even know are your enemies.
Gary
Last year, taking Dylan to school most days, we would drive by this one kid every day as he walked to school. Gary. For some reason, one day I decided Gary was my mortal enemy. So every time we drove by and Dylan said “there’s Gary” I would yell “GAAAAAARRRRYYY!!!”, shaking my fist in the air.
Gary didn’t know. Gary didn’t do anything to deserve it. But Gary is my archenemy.
There are people who hate you for no reason. Someone who has declared you to be their enemy for no reason. Or because of your politics. Or because of what they assume your politics probably are. Or because of something you did 20 years ago. Or because you are an American. Or because of the color of your skin. Or because you call yourself a Christian.
How about the one at work who wants your job. Or the kid at school that wants your friends, or your grades, or your face. (On a plaque D:)
You have enemies my friend, who are specifically or generally wishing for your downfall in one way or another.
What does righteousness look like?
Love them. Agape them. Unconditionally… because they certainly don’t deserve it. Actively, purposefully, thoughtfully, with intention… praying for them. And not in a passive aggressive way, I think.
Jesus gives a powerful example here. That of God, the Father.
The Example of the Father
The Example of the Father
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
This is what John Calvin called “common grace.”
Isn’t that a truly remarkable thing about God? That he “makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good?” Frustrating at times, for sure. But this is the inherent gift of free will. It is fundamental to our existence really, it is active and ongoing grace.
Note what it says, not God would the watch and it is ticking away and He doesn’t stop the sun from rising. These are active words, God actively makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good. Light propagates moment by moment by his ongoing purpose and intention. The consistent rules of physics are the consistency of God.
(Maybe this is why light is sometimes particle and sometimes wave? God’s having a bit of fun freaking us out).
God actively sustains free will, free choice, even when that choice is to be His enemy.
Some philosophers have used this as proof that God is all powerful and good.
For if there must be an all powerful Creator being, if he was evil he would not allow good to exist.
But if he was good, he could and does allow evil for a time… so that some could be rescued and redeemed and made good.
This is God’s ongoing and active love of people who hate Him, who deny Him, who worship others instead of Him, who actively seek His destruction, who are even now actively hurting His children.
Easy Love
Easy Love
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, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
It’s not too hard to love those you like. And it’s easiest to like and love those who like and love you.
“Even tax collectors” do that. Tax collectors were despised. Jews who essentially robbed their neighbors in the name of the Roman government. They handed the tax over to the occupying forces and got rich over the extra they kept off the top. Even those guys love those who love them.
Someone who loves you with agape, unconditional, unstoppable, next-step, let-me-be-awkward kind of love? Sure, it’s easy to love them like that.
And if you don’t like me, fine, you do you, forget you and stay away.
Or… well… maybe that’s not so much what Jesus is saying.
And that’s where Christmas comes is.
Christmas Enemies
Christmas Enemies
Jesus gave the example of God giving “common grace,” sun and rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. True story. But there, right in front of them, is a living breathing absolutely uncommon grace.
One of my favorite verses:
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Or here in v. 10 it makes it even clearer:
10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
We were enemies. Enemies? Enemies of God. Enemies of Jesus. And that makes sense, enemies of the Father, enemies of the Son.
All of God’s words about how Israel betrayed him like an unfaithful wife, betrayed him like a traitor, hurt and abused him… and hurt and abused those He loves.
If someone hurts my kids… yeah, that’s right on the enemy list.
And have we hurt God’s children? Yes, and we keep doing it. We were God’s enemies.
And “while we were enemies...” Jesus.
Here Paul focuses on Jesus’ death on the cross and resurrection, the culmination of the incarnation of Jesus. And that is true.
But the cross wasn’t a surprise to Jesus. Salvation wasn’t a happy accident Jesus encountered on the road. While he was at it.
It was the plan the whole time.
And so, while we were still enemies, Christ died for us.
And also, while we were still enemies, Jesus, the Word of God, eternally begotten Son of God in intimate union with the Father before time, through whom and for whom the Universe was created… He took on flesh, became incarnate, humbled (or humiliated) himself to be a servant.
To be a baby. While we were yet enemies, Jesus did all that for us.
So read this again:
44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Isn’t that what Jesus is doing, even in the very moment that he is teaching his disciples here?
Looking at a sea of his enemies, embracing them in the most profound literally incarnational way.
Loving them more than they can imagine.
And Jesus didn’t wait.
He didn’t wait for the enemy to come to him. He came to us.
He didn’t expect the enemy to look right, be right, act right first.
He took on the whole mess of it, the hard of it, the gross of it, the awkward of it… and just brought truth and grace and forgiveness and mercy and all of it with him.
He didn’t wait for us to say sorry or even realize we were sorry… He gave the sacrificial gift long before you and I knew we needed it.
Be Perfect
Be Perfect
There’s a verse we skipped.
Jesus ends all these contrasts, and this one in particular, with a ridiculous statement:
48 You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Wait, what??? How could we possibly be perfect? Clearly Jesus is now putting an impossible standard here in place now!
Our idea of “perfect” is usually focused in on “without flaw.” And that makes sense, but that’s only part of the picture.
The word here is τέλειος, and literally has the sense of “attaining a goal or purpose.”
And it different contexts, the goal is different. A sacrificial animal is to be unblemished, so in that context, perfection would refer to a lamb or goat without blemish. That would be “perfection.”
But the goal here is clear. Jesus just said it.
Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.
That is the goal, and it is achievable! In fact, the love, the fruit of the Holy Spirit in you, it already loves those enemies. It already longs to pray for those who persecute you.
The 1 Cor 13. kind of love, patient kind… the one that has no record of wrongs… all that good stuff. The kind that loves enemies… that is what love does, the love that the Holy Spirit is producing in you, the righteousness of Jesus already in you.
You may silence it, you may ignore it… but God has placed that kind of love in you.
Live it. Do it. Crucify the flesh in you that holds on to anger and contempt, that continues to hate your enemy, that seeks their destruction. The love of the Father, the love of Jesus in you loves them and prays for them.
The Most “Christmas” Thing You Can Do
The Most “Christmas” Thing You Can Do
So, it’s Christmas. And I hope that you are going to have beautiful time with friends and family. I hope there will be gifts and lights and ALL the things. Those are blessing from God, that time is a blessing from God, treasure all the moments. This isn’t about feeling guilty about any of that. Jesus doesn’t ever say that’s a bad thing.
But no matter what Hallmark might tell you, Christmas is not “all about” family and home and hugs.
The most “Christmas” thing you can do is to find a way to radically love someone the way that Jesus loves you.
In fact, to find an enemy and find a way to love them.
That might mean sending a card… and working real hard to not be sarcastic or passive aggressive.
That might mean giving sacrificially of your time to serve someone who has hurt you. Or someone who doesn’t like you. Or someone who has declared you in one way or another to be their enemy.
Maybe I need to send a Christmas gift to Gary?
I encourage you to get creative and find some practical and active ways to love on your enemies.
But look, all throughout Jesus’ illustrations of new Kingdom righteousness, we have seen how spiritual disciplines can help up grow.
Worshiping God as a new habit in response to anger.
Serving others instead of practicing possessive fantasized desire.
Silence and Solitude, learning to be “enough” before God so we don’t need to manipulate others… we are enough in His eyes.
Here Jesus gives us the perfect spiritual discipline to practice loving our enemies.
Pray for those who persecute you. Intercessory prayer. Seeking their good before God, and may He change our hearts so that we seek their good in action too.
In the morning sunrise, we see God love His enemies.
In the rain, we see God love His enemies.
In the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus, we see God love His enemies… that we might become His beloved and rescued and redeemed children.
So let us love as He has first loved us. Merry Christmas.