To Love One’s Enemies
Good Morning Friends,
Oh you have to be kidding. How in the world can you love someone who does not love you in return but wants to tear you down and destroy you? I have enough trouble loving the people I like. My first instinct is to destroy the ones who are my enemies… especially with the anniversary of 9/11 having just passed to remind me of the challenge. Why is it that our fear seems to bind us tighter than the bonds of a common love? Well let me read this again maybe I missed something. Maybe it is not a common love but an uncommon love that allows us to help those who hate us. The greatest sermon ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount, is clear. Well let me read it one more time. Nope it is still there. The rabbis who taught to love your neighbor and hate your enemy must have been wrong…it is not good enough to do what we are able to do…we have to do what is impossible. Who then is the enemy? Is the enemy us? I guess that is the point…all the grace that is humanly possible is just not enough. The point is that because human nature tells us to get revenge our only salvation is the grace of a supernatural power that enables us To Love One’s Enemies.
Love for Enemies
Scripture: ‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 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. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. ‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 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. 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. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Judging Others‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.’
Luke 6: 27-38 (NRSV)
In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.
Luke 22:44 (NRSV)
Message: During morning Mass on Thursday September 11, Pope Francis focused on the radical features of Christian life that are designed to overturn the world. He focused on the law of love and why imitating Jesus is not easy. The Pope’s message is intertwined with Sunday’s scripture on forgiveness from the lectionary. Then in Luke 6 there is in a discussion of the subject of radical love where Jesus points out that there is no credit for loving only those who love us for that is simply an exchange. This brings us to the reality that being Christian means being “a bit foolish”, at least according to worldly logic and the balance sheets we keep on relationships. To make the Gospel surprisingly alive and new Jesus turned everything upside down. We are not a bargain exchange faith. There is a cost and it is ones very life lay down for the will of the Father. You see for Jesus, God’s will was not that he would lay down his life for his friends but for his enemies…all of us pagans. The greatest reward Jesus reasoned is to do good expecting nothing in return. This is not to be self-reflective but to be outside of one’s self all together. You see friends, one cannot manage to do this alone, and it is actually not to frighten us but to rescue us. It is about accepting the uncommon grace of God. Jesus giving a gift to the world of pagans like us is a submission to God’s will. So too we are to give love to our enemies. This is all unnerving. Maybe if we are not sweating blood we have not come to grips with the real challenge of being Christian.
Pray that we learn to love with the kind of love that changes everything. Pray that this love consume us, burning in our hearts with a passion that transforms our relationships and molds our speech and breaks our hearts for those in need. Pray that we pardon by faith, that we set at liberty even our enemies to enjoy peace, fellowship, joy and the hope of God’s glory. Pray that in God’s agape love…in this place of grace…this place of power we stand. Pray that we here practice responsible generosity. Pray we understand that it is that because of Jesus’ sacrificial love we have been made whole. Pray that our hearts are big enough to love.
Pray we forgive others for they know not what they do. Pray we realize that our greatest enemy might just be the one staring back at us in the mirror. Pray that our hearts are big enough to love.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Daily Devotionals 