Luke 6:27-30

     Jesus doesn’t call his followers to do things that are easy. Loving one’s neighbor can be difficult enough. What about when he turns his bass up so loud that your windows shake when he drives by? How about when she’s unbearably boasting about her garden, looking at yours with a pitying eye? How hard it is to love the neighbors when their dog wakes you up every morning an hour before the alarm. How hard to love a stranger who cuts ahead of you in the checkout lane or takes their thirty-two items into the express lane so that your gallon of milk takes an extra eight minutes to buy.
     At other times, Jesus would say to love one’s neighbor. This was the central teaching of the Jewish faith—to love God and to love one’s neighbor. Jesus would affirm that all other laws depend on these two.
     In fact, in all seven of the world’s major religions, the basic rule of conduct is the same, a rule that is rightfully called golden – do unto others the way you would want them to do to you. Sometimes it is stated in the negative proposition – Don’t do to others what would be hateful to you.
     Loving one’s enemies takes the golden rule and turns it platinum. Love enemies. Do good for those who have hurt you. If you are cursed by someone, bless them. If someone treats you meanly, pray for them. If you are hit on one cheek, offer them the other also. If someone takes your coat, give your shirt, give what’s asked of you, don’t insist on getting something back that’s been taken. Treat other people the way you want to be treated.
     The followers of Jesus have struggled with these teachings, because it feels as if to be faithful Christians, we have to be the doormats of the world, passive victims. What good would it do to have a thief be allowed to profit off the thievery? What good does it accomplish to let an abuser continue abusing and not have to face the consequences of what they’d done? Even if you can tolerate the abuse for yourself, an abuser rarely restricts abuse to one person or sector of their lives. Ghandi and his followers used non-violence, peaceful resistance to change India. The idea was not to submit, but not to hurt in return for hurt, or return violence for violence. India was changed, but thoughtful minds have wondered whether that would have worked in all situations. It has been pointed out that Ghandi faced those who still had an honorable code of conduct; would non-violence have succeeded against a Hitler or Stalin?
      There are no easy answers to such questions. Blessing and praying for enemies is almost easy by comparison, because it is a spiritual activity and doesn’t impact these other issues. Yet that isn’t easy either, because to truly pray and bless someone who is intent on harming us goes against out instincts. And even if we say the words, it is sometimes impossible to feel them. The irony is that we are often the only ones who experience the sword’s edge when it comes to anger or hatred. Many good people refrain from trying to hurt their enemy. But their feelings continue to acidify their lives. It was portrayed in a film that Medger Evers (a valiant fighter for civil rights who was assassinated by someone who clung to his prejudices) commented on the futility of hatred, that most of the people you hate don’t know about it and the rest don’t care. It is the individual who feels the hatred and enmity who is carrying a terrible burden. Thus the words of Jesus can be at least partially understood as a spiritually healthy exercise.
     But it would be gutless to assume that Jesus only intended his words to be a personal spiritual cleansing. He tied it with actions, actions that few of us follow that faithfully. One scholar says of verse 30 that while it might be detrimental to society to apply it literally, the saying still reminds us that it is better to err on the side of generosity.
     Jesus himself wasn’t a passive victim. He chose how he would react to the world, chose to be sacrificed because he understood it to be God’s will. He raced into the temple and threw out the money changers who were abusing the faithful people who’d come to worship.
     Lacking the wisdom of Jesus who knew when to turn the cheek and when to act, his followers will have to continuously pray and struggle with his words and not shrug them off with pat or easy answers.
     Jesus puts the specifics he’s listed into a larger context which may help in the struggle. He points out that there’s no virtue in loving only the people who love you, or doing good for people who do you good, etc. Even those who are evil or are sinners do the same.
     Put in bald terms, it profits us to be nice to the people who are nice to us. It comes naturally to us. Of course we tend to like the people who like us. Of course we want to return good for good. That part is easy, just as returning violence for violence, and hatred for hatred is easy. Jesus asked us to do what isn’t easy. That’s the way the course of human society and history can change. And Jesus pointed out that this, after all, is the way God does things. God does good for both the wicked and those who are simply ungrateful or unaware that God is doing it for them. If we want to move into a new category of spirituality, we act as true children of God.

Do you have people you would define as enemies?
Are there old grudges or angers that linger in your life?
What prayer would you make to God about your enemies?
What prayer would you make to God to be healed of your pain and anger?