The Opposition Party
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Last week we talked about Luke’s version of beatitudes (which also include the woes) and how this is Jesus’ sermon to all the crowds that had gathered to hear him and be healed by him. Jesus took this opportunity to teach them about God’s will for them in this world and in the next. This week’s focus on his sermon series is about those who are considered ‘enemies’.
Now, I’m not sure about you, but I don’t typically go through my day talking or thinking about someone who is my enemy. What I mean by that is that I don’t ever really consider someone my enemy. I decided to do a little bit of a word study and it proved to be helpful for me and hopefully it is for you also. The word for enemy could also mean hated, or to oppose, or hostile to, and lastly someone who is an antagonist. For me it is much easier to wrap my head around the idea of people who are opposed to you or antagonize you than it is someone who is my enemy.
We see that Jesus talks about those who hate you and those who curse you and abuse you, which helps to reinforce this idea that they are people who for some reason have an unkind view of you. Here is what Jesus says about these kinds of people:
Love them
do good to them
bless them
pray for them
All of these are kind ways to treat people, but did you catch onto one of the words that we have been talking about lately? That’s right Jesus invites us to bless people who curse us. In other words, we are invited to speak well of, and praise from our mouth those who would you their mouth to speak ill of us. The last two weeks we have talked about counting our blessings that we receive and that even though traditionally the word blessed referred to an elect few God wants us to know that we are all blessed which is why we should count our blessings. Now this week Jesus is inviting us to take that blessed status that we have with God and use it to bless others.
A phrase that goes around churches is: Blessed to be a blessing. This is another way to talk about the blessings that we have in our lives. Because we have been blessed by God we then have the opportunity to share the abundant blessings that we have with others that we meet. Jesus very specifically invites us to bless or to be a blessing to those who oppose us.
He then goes on to tell us to do acts of kindness and care for those who hate us and to love them and to pray for those people who would abuse us or take advantage of us. And instead of speaking in general about things Jesus give us specific examples of what it means to do those things and act that way. Jesus tells us the ways in which we can be a blessing for others. He tells us to offer both cheeks if someone slaps us. He tells us to give not just our coat to someone who tries to take from us to but to give them even more.
What I believe Jesus is trying to teach us here is to reframe the way in which we typically respond to situations. Now I can’t speak to how girls are yet as mine are too young, but I can tell you that even though my brothers and I were usually pretty good there were times when we got into fights over different things. As we know fights escalate because one person antagonizes and the other person then retaliates. In our house growing up as well as every other house and school knows that the person who gets in trouble isn’t the person who started the fight but the person who got caught.
So we typically respond to situations like these by doing like for like, or an eye for an eye. Jesus as I mentioned reframes the ways we respond by telling to to do more good for the person, to be a blessing to that person instead of responding by escalating the situation. Perhaps by offering our other cheek when someone strikes us it will help them to understand what it is they are actually doing to us. And perhaps when we give to people who are trying to take advantage of us they will see the kindness of our actions instead of just a means to their end.
It’s easy to be nice to those who are nice to us and those who are our friends. It is easy to to help someone out who has helped you out in the past. It is easy to lend someone something when you know that that person is going to owe you later. It is easy to lend someone money when you know that you are going to get more back in return because of interest.
What’s not easy is doing all those things for a person or people who we don’t agree with. It’s not easy helping someone who doesn’t like us. But those are the exact kinds of things that Jesus calls us to do. We are called to be a blessing to others in all situations that we find ourselves in. We are called to go against our nature of returning evil for evil and escalating the situation and we are instead told to return evil with kindness or return evil by blessing that person with what they want.
That doesn’t mean that we are to be pushovers and give in to anyone who tries to take advantage of us, but pay attention to what Jesus says at the end of his sermon today. Jesus tells us that we will be children of the Most High. We are called to be more and do more than what our instinct tells us to do. We aren’t to fight or flight. We aren’t to respond as maybe civil law governs us, but we are called to be children of God. We are called to love and bless. We are called to be a blessing to others. We are called to rise above and share the love of God to all people so that they may see a different way. Perhaps that person only knows one way to live and interact and when you take the time to love and bless them, then you are showing them there is another way, a way that is merciful and kind.
God loves and cares for each and everyone one of us with an unfathomable amount of love and blesses and cares for us even when we stray. God loves us when we even when we forgot to love others. God sent us Jesus to end the cycle death so that we may always and forever experience God’s love and grace as seen and shared through his son Jesus Christ. May you share that love and those blessings and may you feel them as well each and every day of your lives.
Amen.