The Summit of the Sermon | Summer on the Mount | Trinity Sermons

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity

Sermons. This week we are continuing our sermon

series, Summer on the Mount, where we are diving

deep into Jesus' Sermon on the Mount. The Sermon

on the Mount is a collection of Jesus' most challenging

teachings that teach us to turn the other cheek,

to go the extra mile, and perhaps most challengingly,

to love our enemies. But is loving our enemies

even possible? And does Jesus really have my

enemies in mind? These are just some of the questions

that we're going to unpack as we think about

this really challenging command and how we can

live it out today. Today's reading is from the

Gospel of Matthew, chapter 5, verses 43 to 48.

Matthew 5:43–48

You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor

and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your

enemies and pray for those who persecute you

that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

He causes his Son to rise on the evil and the

good and sends rain on the righteous and the

unrighteous. If you love those who love you,

what reward will you get? Are not even tax collectors

doing that? And if you greet only your own people,

what are you doing more than others? Do not even

pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your

heavenly Father is perfect. The word of the Lord.

I want to share a little bit of a story. It was

in March of 2020 that it was right when the pandemic

was getting kind of scary. Our family decided

to take a trip to Europe. It was kind of a dumb

idea, but we had planned this for months and

we had tickets that weren't refundable. So we

said, what the heck, we're just going to go for

it. And so began our European pandemic holiday.

And it was actually scary at points. There were

moments. when we nearly got ourselves into trouble.

But the good part about the trip was that there

was, like, nobody else there. So all the hot

tourist destinations were, like, empty, and we

had a place to ourselves we felt over and over

again. The highlight for me for that trip, though,

was when we spent a few days in Switzerland,

and we were at this town called Interlaken, and

there is a big mountain there. And the mountain

is called Jungfrau. And it's called, well, it's

one of the highest mountains in Europe. It's

called the top of Europe, this mountain. And

we decided to take the trip to the top of this

mountain. Now, to get to the top, you have to

take these special trains. They're not ordinary

trains. They're called cogwheel trains. So they

have these like little clickety, clickety, clickety

things that kind of help them go up the tracks

because it's so steep, right? And I have to say

that on most of these trains, we were like the

only people in the car, right? There was nobody

else. Very few people were taking this trip.

And this little map here kind of shows you, you

have to actually take four trains to get to the

top. So one, you can get off and do a little

touring, get off and get back on until you get

right to that saddle right at the top of the

mountain. Now, we did get out at some of those

other towns and look at some of the cheese shops

and visit around. But for me, the real goal was

to get to the top. was to get to the summit and

take that last train. The last train is called

the Jungfrau Railway. And it is the steepest

of all the trains. And you know it's that way

because if you've ever ridden like a roller coaster

at Canada's Wonderland, you know when you're

going up the hill, you hear that as you're getting

to the top of the hill. Well, imagine that for

like 30 or 40 minutes. It's just going up and

up and up and up until you get to this, what

looks like a moon base. on the top, and you could

tour the observation center when you were there,

and you could go outside, and we went outside,

and we had our family photo taken by this Swiss

flag. The air was like so, so thin, but the view

was absolutely amazing. And perhaps the sweetest

part of all is that at the top, there is this

lint store, right? And it's full of lindors.

Like, I've never seen so many lindors in my life.

So we loaded up on the lindors, and we headed

back down four trains to civilization. Which

leads me to saying this statement. The summit

is the hardest part of the journey, for sure.

But it is also the sweetest part. It's the most

difficult part to climb, but the view, I mean,

it gives you the absolute best view from the

top. Today, we are in this teaching series called...

Summer on the Mount where we're looking at the

greatest teaching ever, Jesus' Sermon on the

Mount, by the greatest teacher ever, Jesus of

Nazareth. And we're working our way up the mountain.

And in some ways you could say we've already

taken three trains. We started three weeks ago,

Matthew 5, 1 to 12, the Beatitudes. That first

train got us started and showed us how to enter

into the kingdom of God, how to enter into this

new way of life. That Jesus has for us. And then

the second train. That's when Pete Blundell was

here. He was speaking to us. No. Was I doing

the second week? Or did he do the second week?

He did. What happened? I'm confused. Anyways,

no, he did Matthew 5, 13 to 16. Yes, he did how

we're supposed to be salty. And as followers

of Jesus, we're supposed to add flavor and healing

to our world. And then last week, yeah, last

week I talked to you about how this third train

that we take up is all about Jesus teaching on

adultery and divorce and, you know, oaths and

all this stuff, which wasn't just a bunch of

new rules for us to follow. It was actually Jesus

calling us to be a new kind of person. But anyways.

That brings us to today. Guys, today is the fourth

train. There's going to be more trains. We got

to get around the mountain and back down. But

today is the Jungfrau Railway. It is the summit.

It is the steepest train. This one today is the

one that takes us right to the top. It's the

hardest part of the whole journey. I would say

it's the hardest teaching you are ever going

to come across. This is what I mean. Jesus says.

If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with

them two miles. Jesus then goes on to say, he

says, But Jesus says, your enemies. Now that

is the hardest teaching you're ever going to

come across. In fact, John Stott says that nowhere

is the challenge of the sermon greater than in

this command to love our enemies. This is the

supreme demand. It is the summit of the sermon

on the mountain. So today we're going to take

the Jungfrau railway. We are going to take the

fourth train and we are going to go right to

the top. and see what we can learn about loving

our enemies. I'm going to do this in kind of

three steps. First, we're going to consider the

climb. We're going to take a look at this imposing

mountain in front of us and see why this is so

hard. Then we're going to get on board. We're

going to try to get on board with Jesus' teaching.

And then thirdly, we're going to reach the summit

and we're going to see how sweet. And how beautiful

it is. Now, there are sermon notes here that

you can follow along. And actually, today we're

introducing something new. If you have the Church

Center app, you can access fillable online sermon

notes, especially for those who are viewing at

home. We'd encourage you to go to the app, click

on Other. You'll find sermon notes as an option

there, and you can follow along at home as well.

But let's begin. By considering the climb. I

remember when we were getting on that very first

train in Switzerland. You were waiting at the

platform. You were just looking up at that mountain.

You were like, there is no way. There is no way

we are going to end up up there. It just seemed

impossible. Seemed insurmountable. That's what

loving our enemies feels like. It feels impossible.

It feels impossible. It feels impossible in your

personal relationships. When you hear Jesus say,

turn the other cheek. Or love your enemies. Maybe

someone comes to mind, right? A friend who betrayed

you. A colleague who used you. A family member

who abandoned you and you say, no, no, Jesus,

I will not be loving my enemies anytime soon.

I'm quite happy hating my enemies. I want to

make my enemies pay for what they did to me.

Do you know what they did to me, Jesus? And so

we cling to that pain and we just say, I cannot

climb that mountain. I cannot love that person.

R .T. France says, loving our enemies cuts across

all instinct. It is a standard which, humanly

speaking, is... But step back from that and take

a look at the international conflict that goes

on around us. Geopolitical conflict. Gaza, Israel,

Ukraine, Russia. Now it's Thailand and Cambodia,

right? These old tensions. New violence. I mean,

how can we possibly get to this place where we

love our enemies when we can't? agree to get

aid in to innocent people, when we can't agree

to release hostages, right? When we can't get

ceasefires to even hold, right? Instead of turning

cheeks, we turn to missiles. Instead of going

the extra mile, we go in with extra drones, right?

Loving your enemy seems absurd. It seems impossible.

Again, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died in a Nazi

concentration camp in World War II, he struggled

with enemy love. This commandment, he said, is

the most difficult one of all. Yet, he said,

it's the climax of discipleship. Who can get

up there? Enemy love, yeah, it's been difficult

out there in the world, but the saddest part

is it's been difficult in here, right here in

the church. That's the hardest truth, I think,

to admit. Christians themselves have excluded

and persecuted. And yes, even killed other Christians.

In the 16th century, Anabaptist Christians decided

they wanted to live out the Sermon on the Mount.

They said, yes, let's love our enemies. And Catholics

and Protestants were so upset about that that

they responded by drowning and burning and beheading

them. Christians killing other Christians. Or

how about this one? On August 9th in 1945, a

B -29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb on Nagasaki.

75 ,000 people died instantly. Another 75 ,000

people died in the weeks that followed. But what

most people don't realize is, you know, Japan

was not a very Christian nation. But the most

Christian city in all of Japan was Nagasaki.

And ground zero for that bomb was the Catholic

cathedral filled with worshipers in Nagasaki.

And when the bomb exploded, it instantly wiped

out 10 ,000 Christians. It instantly wiped out

four orders of Catholic nuns. But the bomber

was a practicing Catholic. And the chaplain gave

communion to the bomber and the crew right before

their mission. Man, when Christians bomb other

Christians, well, forget even the bombs. When

we can't figure out how to live at peace with

ourselves, even in churches, man, that summit

seems so out of reach. But Jesus' teaching doesn't

just sound impossible to us. It was even more

impossible in Jesus' day. Jesus, I want you to

imagine for a moment, you're there, you're living

in Galilee. It's the first century. You're just

trying to get by. Food, there's not much food.

It's scarce. Taxes are sky high. The Romans take

80 or 90 % of what you earn. There are soldiers

patrolling the streets, patrolling the marketplaces,

on every road. Your family's land, by the way,

has been stolen, mostly, again, by the elites.

And your people, they are humiliated and degraded.

And they are abused. And your people are crucified.

Literally, every few decades, a messiah would

rise up and try to rally people, an army. They

would go to war against the Romans. And they

would be crushed. By the Romans. And you're sitting

there 2 ,000 years ago. And you're remembering

the last time Rome crucified 6 ,000 of your fellow

Jews along that road leading right into Jerusalem.

And then, oh, you hear one day there's a new

teacher. Oh, some people are saying that maybe

he's the Messiah. This guy, Jesus of Nazareth.

And you show up. There's thousands of people

there. He's up. He's preaching on some mountaintop.

And he's teaching. And you listen in and you

hear him say, love your enemies. And you are

like flabbergasted and so confused. John Stott

says, in the context of a people under brutal

Roman occupation, to love one's enemies was a

demand that must have sounded ludicrous, if not

traitorous. What this guy was asking, was a path

that they could not walk. It was a mountain that

they could not climb. So there you have these

four really... Difficult problems when it comes

to enemy love. I should say that actually some

of us think, oh, Jesus actually wasn't talking

about all these, Rob. He was only talking about

love in the church, not in the world. Or he was

only talking about 2 ,000 years ago. He wasn't

talking about today. Or he was only talking about

personal relationships and not loving our enemies

in a geopolitical sense. And so what we do is

we try to avoid the steep climb that Jesus offers

us by trying to reduce Jesus' teaching into a

category that we feel comfortable with. But I

don't think Jesus... lets us off the hook and

in verse 43 jesus says you have heard hate your

enemy now that's singular but then jesus replies

but i say to you love your enemies plural not

just one all of them not just one type all of

them all of them enemy love is the whole enchilada

it stretches from that person who hurt you to

the politician who enrages you, to the foreign

nation that you've been taught to fear, even

to your fellow Christians that you disagree with.

Which again, I know I keep throwing a lot of

quotes up here, but Jesus' command to love enemies

has been recognized from the very beginning as

one of the most radical and unrealistic demands

of his teaching. That's why the trains. going

to the top, are empty. Now, before we walk away

from the platform, let's just listen in a little

bit, right? Let's listen in to what Jesus is

actually saying, line by line, a few of these

verses. And we may yet be able to get on board

with Jesus' teaching. We may be able to begin

to ascend this mountain after all. Now, I've

tried to kind of summarize what I think Jesus'

main argument is here. It's a paragraph. It's

got about five sentences. Let's look at what

he says. First sentence, Jesus says this. Jesus

points out, the Bible never says hate your enemy,

right? When Jesus says, you have heard it said,

you are to love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

One of those is biblical and the other is not.

Love your neighbor, of course. Everyone who's

hearing them would have said, yeah, that's biblical.

But hate your enemy. That is nowhere to be found

in the Bible. You can search your Bibles from

beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation.

You will not. Or Genesis to Malachi. You will

not find it. It's not there. Now, a leading theory

is that this had just become some kind of phrase.

It had entered into, you know, first century

chit -chat. You know what they say. You should,

you know, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

And I think we can relate. to that a bit too

because in some ways that's in our own kind of

language too. If somebody wrongs you, you've

got permission to retaliate against them. You've

got permission to hate them. You've got permission

to cancel them. But the first thing Jesus says

is error, error. He is exposing this falsehood.

It is not biblical to hate your enemy. And then

in the same breath, Jesus reminds us what is

the biblical part? He says, right, the Bible

never says hate your enemy. But he says it does

say love your neighbor. And most of his Jewish

listeners would say 100 % Jesus. That's in the

Bible. Leviticus 19 .18 says you shall love your

neighbor as yourself. This was one of Jesus'

favorite teachings in all his ministry. In fact,

you remember many times Jesus would go around

and he would say, these are the two great commandments.

You're to love the Lord your God with what? All

your heart and mind and soul and strength. And

that's the first commandment. And the second

commandment is like, you are to love your neighbor

as yourself. Jesus quoting from the Bible, from

Leviticus 19, 18. So Jesus' argument, I think

so far, everyone would probably agree, yes, it's

true, Jesus. The Bible doesn't actually say we

should hate our enemies. And the Bible does say

that we should love our neighbors. But here's

the problem. Here's the problem. In Jesus' day,

neighbor was very narrowly defined. And it was

really just interpreted as your fellow Jewish

brother or sister. A neighbor was someone in

your tribe, in your group. Someone who thought

like you, who looked like you. Someone who lived

near you. But, and this is where the train is

going to start to go clickety -clickety -click

because it's getting really steep. Jesus is going

to expand the definition of neighbor. For Jesus,

neighbors include neighbors. enemies. He says,

listen, your neighbors are not just the insiders,

they're the outsiders too. They aren't just people

like you, people very different from you. They

might not just be people that you like, it might

be people that you don't like. And neighbors

actually are not just your friends, but your

neighbors include your enemies. Wait, wait, wait,

Jesus, Jesus. So I am supposed to love my neighbors.

Yes, Jesus says. But you're saying my enemies

are my neighbors. Yes, Jesus says. So ergo, you

are saying I have to love my enemies too? Boom,

you got it, Jesus says. And do you remember that

really infuriating parable Jesus told once? Where

it was called the Good Samaritan. Where he makes

this bad guy the hero. Where he makes the enemy

into the neighbor. And Jesus says, look, you

guys want to follow the law of Moses properly?

You want to truly live out what the Bible means

when it says love your neighbor? Don't you? Yes,

Jesus, we do. We do. Well, I'm just telling you

that by definition, by my definition, your neighbors

include... Outsiders, adversaries, and even your

enemies. That is a major reinterpretation that

Jesus adds to this. But he's not done there.

Jesus doesn't just talk about any kind of love

with which we are supposed to love our neighbors.

He speaks about a specific kind of love, which

in Greek is agape love. Agape love, it's not

just feelings. It's certainly not romantic love.

It's not even friendship love. It's not even

family love. It is a rugged love. It is a sacrificial,

stubborn love. It is a cogwheel train kind of

love that refuses to give up. Click, click, click.

Click, keeps going forward. It doesn't mean you

feel affection for this person. It just means

that you are going to continue, click, click,

click, to will that person's good, even when

it hurts. Now again, just to be clear, agape

love does not mean approving of evil. It doesn't

mean tolerating abuse. It doesn't mean denying

justice or it doesn't mean staying in a dangerous

situation. To love someone this way does not

mean you let them hurt you over and over and

over and over again. Agape love actually might

involve boundaries. It might involve tough conversations.

It might involve confrontations of sorts. But

always without hatred. And always without revenge.

And I would say always without violence. always

instead with a desire, even if it's just a silent

prayer under your breath for their good and for

their redemption. And that brings us to the final

part of Jesus' argument. This is the icing on

the cake. The Bible never says hate your enemy.

It says love your neighbor. And really, neighbors

include our enemies, and we're called to love

those neighbors with this agape love. Why? Because

that's how God loves them. God loves them just

like that. We love our enemies because God loves

our enemies. In verse 45, Jesus says, God causes

his son to rise on the evil and the good. He

sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

In other words, if God doesn't withhold goodness

from bad people, why should you? And if God doesn't

discriminate, how can we? We're supposed to be

children. of our Father in heaven. We're supposed

to reflect his character. And if that's so, then

we will show the same love to our enemies as

God does. Do you see how every part... of Jesus'

argument draws us higher and higher and higher

toward the summit. The Bible doesn't say, hate

your enemies. Oh, it says, love your neighbors.

Right. And neighbors include enemies. Really?

And the love we're supposed to show is agape

love. Wow. And see how God loves all of us, including

your enemies? True. True. Now, if we can track

with Jesus up that mountainside, then I want

to say, Take a deep breath and look around you.

Because you're not standing at the base anymore.

You are near the top. And the air is a lot thinner

up here. And it is a lot riskier up here. But

the view is way more beautiful. And if you want

to see what it looks like to live life on the

summit, then Jesus tells us, and he actually

shows us, I want to just end by giving you four

ways that you can put this kind of teaching into

practice in your own life. in your own prayer

life. First, apply enemy love to your relationships.

Sometimes it's so much easier to talk about global

conflicts and geopolitics when we're talking

about enemy love and war and activism. But Jesus

doesn't let us off that easy. We've got to start

with our enemies closer to home. That estranged

sibling of yours who refused to apologize. That

church member who wounded you, that ex of yours

who still makes life difficult, the person in

your small group who talks too much. Thinking

too big about this can actually be a subtle form

of avoidance. John Mark Comer, he says, you can

advocate for world peace all day long, but if

you're still harboring bitterness toward your

mom or your sister or your friend, or your workmates,

you haven't yet learned love. Jesus always wants

to draw us into the personal before the political.

We start where we are. And if we can't practice

enemy love with the people in our own lives,

we will never be able to embody it in the wider

world. So, question, who's your enemy? Could

the next step maybe be just to pray for them?

To bless them somehow? Maybe it's to set a healthy

boundary with them, but also to wish them well

somehow. That's one step. Another step I would

like to suggest to you is that we should begin

to practice and promote what is known as creative

nonviolence. Now, nonviolence isn't weakness.

It's actually a spiritual form of power. It's

what theologians call a third way. It's not violent

retaliation. And it's not cowardly retreat. But

it's a bold, loving confrontation with someone.

that doesn't involve hate, right? Jesus wasn't

saying we all ought to be doormats. He was actually

showing us this new way to be strong. That's

why when Jesus says, when someone strikes you

on one cheek, you go and you turn the other cheek

to them, not so that they can just beat you to

a pulp, but by doing that, you actually disrupt

the whole cycle of retaliation. You force them

to confront their own violence. That is creative.

non -violence. Walter Wink said, Jesus' teaching

on non -violence is not non -resistance. It's

actually active non -violent resistance to evil.

Jesus isn't telling us to submit to evil, but

to outwit evil through creative resistance. Now,

I know there's so many questions with this. What

about Hitler, right? What about abuse? What about

self -defense? There are definitely hard questions.

But, hypothetically speaking, let's say Jesus

did want us to be people of nonviolence. What

more could he have said to tell us that? He says,

love your enemies. He says, turn the other cheek.

He says, go the second mile. He says, don't return

evil for evil. It's a difficult teaching, but

I don't think it's unclear. Jesus seems pretty

clear about it, and he gets really clear, not

just through his teaching, but by what he says.

This Sermon on the Mount, it's not theoretical.

It is autobiographical for Jesus. This is what

Jesus did. He didn't just talk about enemy love.

He embodied it. He healed the servant of the

Roman centurion. He ate dinner with Judas even

when he knew he was going to betray him. He called

him a friend. And he prayed for the people who

were nailing him to the cross, saying, Father,

forgive them. While we were still enemies, Paul

says, Christ died for us. Yes, Jesus practiced

what he preached. He went all the way to the

cross loving his enemies. And in so doing, Jesus

shows us not how to use the sword, but how to

refuse the sword. And Jesus shows us not how

to fight well, but actually how to die well.

And how do we do that? Jesus died with love in

his heart, prayer on his lips, and forgiveness

in his eyes. This is the summit of divine love.

To summit this mountain, you're gonna have to

follow in the footsteps of Jesus and ride that

train all the way to the top. And if we do, let's

just end with this. Man, what a view that would

be. Imagine what the world would look like if

all, even just Christians, practiced. Enemy love.

If agape love really took hold within the church,

right? And there was no more bloodshed. And imagine

a world with no more drones or no more hate speech

or no more revenge. I told you before, the summit

is the hardest part of the journey, but it is

the sweetest part, the part with the best view.

Enemy love is the beating heart of the kingdom.

It's what makes us different. It's the revolution

Jesus launched one act of forgiveness at a time.

The Bible promises that one day we will all reach

the summit of that mountain. One day all our

enemies will be neighbors and all our neighbors

will be friends. That's the view. Until then,

let's get on board and let's take this journey

together. Thanks be to God. Amen.