Say What? Love My Enemies?

All right, well good morning. Today we begin a new series that we're calling

Say What? And the tagline is What It Says That Jesus Says What He Says. That's just

me being trying to be clever. It's really just talking about things that Jesus

said. But you know, I didn't want it to just say say what right in the middle so

I thought, well let's add that too. But let's think about some of these things like for

instance we're gonna talk about today like love your enemies. What these there's

things that Jesus said that I find like deeply interesting. One of them is love

your enemies. The next one would be that there's no marriage in heaven. That we're

gonna talk about that. I find that that very interesting. Or that if someone

isn't against Jesus that they're almost by default for Jesus. That is kind of

antithetical to the way that some people think. Or what did Jesus mean when he

said that suddenly one person was gonna be gone from the field and the other one

would still be there. What? Say what? And so I think these are valuable things to

talk about and they don't always fit like into another series. So it's like

let's just lump all these together as things that we can just talk about here

for for a handful of weeks as we're actually, which is crazy, is like we're

moving towards the summer. And so everyone buckle buckle up for that. And

I'll just say in nine years most of these verses have been I have been

referenced but they've never gotten their own sermon. And so I'm looking

forward to doing that. So if you open your book to Luke chapter 6, your Bibles

Luke 6 · chapter mention

to Luke chapter 6, we're gonna start we're gonna do verses 27 to 31. If you

Luke 6 · chapter mention

don't have a Bible, we have free Bibles out on the bookshelf in the lobby. Feel

free to grab one of those on your way home or just download one of the digital

ones from any of the digital app stores. We're gonna be in Luke. It goes Matthew,

Mark, Luke, John, Acts. That's the neighborhood that it's in. It's in what's

called the New Testament or what some people call the Second Testament. And we

have a tradition of giving the scripture just our full attention when we read it

as part of the message. One of the ways we do that is by standing together. If

you would like to do that, you can join me in doing that now. Otherwise, give your

attention to the scriptures while you sit. We're gonna be in Luke chapter 6. 27

Luke 6 · chapter mention

to 31 says this, but to you who are listening I say love your enemies, do

good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who

mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other. Also if

someone takes your coat, do not hold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who

asks you and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do

to others as you would have them do to you. Let us pray. God of every tribe, every

tongue, every color, nation, we thank you for the scriptures that we still have

them, that they have persisted throughout the millennia. I pray that today whatever

you have to teach us, I pray that it would stick, that it would become a part

of the framework of our faith, that our faith would become stronger, that we

would be more like your son Jesus. Amen. Thanks y'all. You can have a seat. So the

first thing in this passage that I want to point out is is something that's

almost treated like a throwaway statement. If you've been here long

enough, you've probably heard me say things like, alright, okay, so now, or

sometimes I'll even go, so listen. You know, there's these little things

that you put into, and I always have them written down, those aren't like my verbal

tics. Those are the things that I say to indicate that something else is about to

be said that's important to hear. And this thing, it often gets treated like, oh,

it's just something that Jesus said just to get their attention, but it's

even deeper than that because the first thing Jesus says to you who are

listening, Jesus is recognizing that not everyone, not only did he not have

everyone's attention, but not everyone actually that hears is actually

listening. I'm guessing most of us know exactly how this feels, right? How many

times have we said something and wondered, did they really understand what

I said? Is anything actually gonna change? Jesus knows what this is like. The word

that Luke uses here for listening means attentively listening or submitting to

what you hear or obeying what you heard. Jesus is saying to those who are ready

to put what I say into practice, listen up. It's the kind of thing that would

cause people on the outer edge to go say, what? What did he just say? And then

he says it. Love your enemies. Even religious people had been taught to

have some level of kindness or just to avoid your enemies, but to love your

enemies, it's not for everybody, and I didn't put this in the notes, it's not

for everybody, but the movie Everywhere, Everything Everywhere All at Once. It was,

I thought it was famous. It won a whole bunch of Oscars. It really helped my sheet of picks

that I had because I just picked it for everything, and there's this

thing in it where you can actually get the skills of one of your parallel

persons in one of these other universes if you do some odd thing, and in this

case, she had to say, I love you to her enemy that was attacking her at the

moment, and so she's running around and she keeps going, I love you, I love you,

and she does it, doesn't work, and it doesn't work, and it doesn't work, and

then there's this moment where she's about to get kneed right in the face, and

she looks at her deep in her eyes as she's flying towards her with a knee

kick, and she goes, I love you, and it happens, and she gets the skill that she

needs to move on, so that's just free. It wasn't in the notes, but other than the

obvious, when Jesus tells us to love our enemies, what is he talking about? What

does he mean? What is he saying? I'd boil it down like this. God expects more of us

than we should expect of our enemies. God expects more of us than we should expect

from them. He says, love them, do good to them, bless them, pray for them. A handful

of people in the room right now have been going, no, no, no, no, and this can feel

jarring for some of us because we don't assume that any of our enemies or people

that we would classify that way are gonna do any of these things for us. Our

natural bent is to behave toward our enemies like our enemies. How many times

have you heard or even said yourself, well, they started it. Well, they did it

first, but Jesus isn't asking us to be like our enemies. He's asking us to be

like him. It's a sign of maturity and Christ-like character when we finally

stop trying to excuse our behavior by saying that they started it. Well, I'm

just doing what they did because we follow the likeness of Jesus, not the

actions of our enemies. So what is the more that he expects from us? Jesus says

in verse 29, if someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If

someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Now before I get

into this, just let me interject a front. Jesus saying turn the other cheek

doesn't mean that if someone hits you today, if someone is abusing you, that

you're just supposed to go back for more tomorrow. Jesus isn't encouraging us

into an abusive relationship. And so what is he saying? This could be just about

someone punching you, honestly. The word for cheek also means jaw and so some

commentaries say that they think that he's saying if someone actually

punches you, but there seems to also be a clever implication in how Jesus says

this, particularly if you read this verse in the book of Matthew. Matthew tells it

like this, if someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them your left cheek

also. And so some theologians say that the implication is that if someone

slaps you with their strong hand in order to hit you on your right cheek, they

would have had to backhand you. So they don't even think you're important

enough to slap you with the palm of their hand. Not only are they injuring

you, but they're adding insult to injury. But regardless, whether this is a punch,

whether this is a slap, Jesus is saying the response from us isn't to injure or

insult in return. I am what you would call a theoretical pacifist, which means

that I think I'm a pacifist, but it's been a long time since I've been punched

in the face.

Well then Jesus mentions coats and shirts. And if I remember correctly, in

first century Palestine, men would wear two layers, an outer robe and an

undergarment. This would just be my little plug for the idea that it's just

funny to me anytime we start some culture war about what people wear,

because everyone used to just wear dresses. Everyone wore the same thing.

And if you ran out of money, an outer robe might be the last thing that you

had of value. And someone could sue you for that. Someone could sue you for your

coat. Part of that culture might be that if you owed someone something, that you

had to give them your outer cloak all day, but they had to give it back at

night so that you could sleep and be warm at night. Someone could take

something from you, sue you for something, unjustly take something from

you, but they were not meant to leave you naked. The only thing of value you have left

after that is the shirt on your back. Jesus is actually saying be ready to give

even more. Why? Because when we don't hit back, when we don't insult return, when we

give more than asked, it doesn't just say something about our character. It says

something about who we believe in. It says something about who we trust in.

So just last week we were reminded that when they crowned Jesus with a

crown of thorns and they slapped him, they spit on him, that Jesus didn't hit

them back. When they stripped him of his clothes, that he didn't demand they

clothe him. Instead he gave everything that was underneath as well.

Listen, because of who he trusted in. We are meant to act this way because we

trust in Jesus. He acted this way because he trusted his father. It's not easy to

be like Jesus. It's not easy to read verse 30 and here Jesus say give to

everyone who asks you and if anyone takes what belongs to you, don't demand

it back. But we could ask if someone takes something from me, doesn't God

still have what I need? Is God the God that supplies all my needs except for

what's stolen from me? Or is God the God that supplies all my needs according to

his riches and glory in Christ Jesus? If I am really like Jesus, can I be taken

advantage of? Can someone steal from me what I'm willing to give away? Right?

Jesus's life was not taken, it was given. I think one of the fears that we have

about all this and you know I sometimes I'd like to say oh this is one of our

modern, one of our Western modern mindset fears, but Jesus is saying this to a

people that felt this same thing. This fear of being taken advantage of, this

fear that if we really do this, if we embody what Jesus is saying, doesn't that

just mean that we're a bunch of pushovers? I don't know, maybe. I just

think that if someone steals something from me, that if someone insults me, that

God has a thousand ways to provide what I need. And I've seen it. I've seen it

happen a thousand times in community. I think of all the times that this church

has given above and beyond and provided for people that were in need, that were

on the verge of culturally speaking their cloak being taken to. Or someone

that had something stolen. I remember years ago when Liam was still in the

hospital and we were out of town, someone stole our kids' bikes right from our

front yard. But then people provided and replaced them. Something about community

where we provide for each other, we cover each other, we step in for each other.

There's this beautiful dynamic in Christianity where maybe I don't defend

myself. If you slap me, I will turn the other cheek. But if you slap my sister, I

become her other cheek. You may not have to defend yourself, but someone else will.

You may not have to get hit twice, but someone else will stand up and take it

for you. Many years ago, a female friend told me that her husband was hitting her.

So we helped her get out of the house and then I paid him a visit. And I said

to him, if you need someone to hit, you can hit me. And for a minute I thought he

was going to until he just wept in my arms. So what does it say that Jesus said

what he said?

We don't know if Gandhi really said that an eye for an eye leaves the whole world

blind. But I believe that 2,000 years ago Jesus said turn the other cheek. Bless

those that curse you. Pray for those that persecute you. To good to those who wrong

you. Because we're not meant to be like our enemies. We're not meant to be like

the abusers of this world. We are meant to be like Jesus. Stepping in. Taking the

hits that someone else might receive. Giving what we might like to keep.

Believing that we can trust in him the same way that he trusted in his father.

Amen. Let's pray.

Jesus love our enemies is not an easy one.

Jesus we read the Gospels it feels like you were being slighted constantly.

We pray that your spirit would just work their way into our hearts. Give us the confidence of who you say that we are. We might not always need to say something back.

Help us find ourselves in community that when we feel we may have been taken advantage of that we have brothers and sisters, family that steps in and helps carry that burden.

Remind us every day to be like you instead of just the people that we would think are our enemies but help us be like you instead of the people that think they are our enemies.

So that we can do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Amen.