Luke 6:27-38
Erika Funk
It was words like these from Luke that put Jesus on the cross. Not only did it seem contrary to some of the Mosaic law, but it was also unsettling and at times completely outrageous. If someone slaps you on the face, turn so they can slap you again. If someone owes you something, let it go. If someone wants your coat, give them all the clothes off your back.
Felix Baumgartner, is a good example of doing the outrageous, even impossible. He is an Austrian skydiver and BASE jumper, in 2012 he ascended 23 miles into the sky, far into space, hoisted in a 3000 pound capsule by a 30 million cubic foot helium balloon. That balloon was as big as the LA Coliseum. The capsule was not much bigger than a piano. Once Baumgartner ascended the 23 miles he stepped to the edge of the small capsule and jumped into space – with the help of a spacesuit and a parachute. He broke the sound barrier, in just a spacesuit, no spacecraft. It took him over 2 hours to ascend and less than 5 minutes to fall, landing on his feet, in the desert of New Mexico. He broke a record set by Joe Kittinger 52 years ago for highest freefall. Can you imagine!!???
You can imagine it, because it happened. You can find the video on You Tube, and it is amazing. But also stressful, watching him fall, spinning out of control during one period. The tension in the control room.
The Beatitudes, and the passage we study today is also amazing and uncomfortable, is Jesus spinning out of control here? These words, these ideas, these commands are not just new, not just different from what we’ve experience before, it’s well, … crazy!
The passage begins with a confirmation of what we’re feeling: Jesus said: but I say to you… I say, as if to declare clearly that Jesus is going to say something different than what they’ve been told by others. “love your enemies, do good to those who wish you harm”. Imagine a detainee being told to love the ICE agent who arrested her, imagine the abuse survivor being told to do good things for the abuser, imagine ..
As shocking as Jesus’ command was, it wasn’t the first time. God declares this in the book of Leviticus 19: You must not act unjustly in a legal case. Do not show favoritism to the poor or deference to the great; you must judge your fellow Israelites fairly. Do not go around slandering your people. Do not stand by while your neighbor’s blood is shed; I am the Lord. You must not hate your fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your fellow Israelite strongly, so you don’t become responsible for his sin. You must not take revenge nor hold a grudge against any of your people; instead, you must love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
The call to love your enemies is commanded again in the Lord’s Prayer “forgive us for the ways we have wronged you just as we also forgive those who have wronged us.” Or in a more familiar translation: “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. NRSV
When Jesus preached his famous “sermon on the plain or mount” depending on the gospel it was a message that went against almost everything of the culture of that time.
I served as a youth pastor in Northern California some years ago and one morning I had a memorable conversation with one of my youths named Conor. I came into work that morning to learn that some kids the night before had thrown some rocks over the fence of the church parking lot and broke the window of a car below. It was an accident, but they should be held accountable. I knew who it was but the conversation we had didn’t go as I expected. I explained to him that he needed to take responsibility for his actions. Although he readily admitted it was him, he didn’t see why he should apologize or offer compensation. We ended our conversation when he angrily asked me “what world do you live in?”. And then he hung up on me.
I often think about that exchange. What was he asking? What was I asking?
Was I asking him to live in a different world, was he asking me if I was delusional? I think he thought I was. But isn’t that the nature of following Christ? That what we do might seem outrageous. That we recognize the world we live in, although created by God, is now formed by humanity and our own perspectives of what is real, what is right and what is true.
Jesus asked the disciples the same question: what world are you living in? The world that has taught you to take revenge against those who hurt you? The world that says your neighbor can take from you what you have taken from them, whether that be your cow, your land, or even your own body.
Jesus’ whole life he taught us another world, another Way, another kind of love. Violence is not to be repaid with violence. you pray for people who hate you. Today this looks like weak submissiveness.
But some of greatest peacemakers in the world, those who found their courage and strength in Christ, were anything but passive and weak: Mother Theresa, Fannie Lou Hamer, Dr. King, Oscar Romero, when we think of these men and women we think of strong and impassioned people.
To pray for those who hate us, to pray for those we hate, to pray for people who do not want us to succeed or thrive – that is the calling, that is the command. It is different than forgiving someone. I think these are two separate steps, related of course, but not the same. We can pray for someone before we are ready to forgive. We can ask God to be at work in their lives while asking God to be at work in us. Forgiveness, is in a sense an act of closure. Praying for another is simply an act of love – always a work in progress.
We need to talk a bit about the word “enemy”. Many of us may think we have no enemies. No one is out to get us or specifically harm us. You can’t think of anyone who hates you. We may not feel “at war” with anyone. So, let’s take that word down a notch, open it up to mean people who often disregard us, those who are supposed to love us unconditionally (parents, partners, children) but just don’t. People who humiliate us or ridicule us. People who threaten us – our values, our way of life, our economic status, our ability to be who we most desire to be. Anyone who is a trigger for our anger or rage.
“The Enemy” is also a system that is broken and breaks us down. The enemy is the country we bomb and who bombs us, the governments we are taught to hate and hate us. The enemy is the faceless stereotype of others we carry around each day. The enemy is all the negative attributes we project upon people we don’t really know. This is who we pray for, enemies with names and faces and enemies whose names and faces we may never see.
To love someone is to pray for them. And so it must be true that to pray for someone is in some way to love them. Are we called to love our enemies? Maybe. We are called to pray for them. And when we cannot, for this is the truth – at times we simply cannot and should not be ashamed of that – our community of faith prays on our behalf of us and so prays for our enemies. When we cannot love, when we cannot forgive, when we are not ready to pray…. There is a community who is.
God does not ask us to do something that will only leave us in despair. If there is someone in your life who in some way plays the role of “enemy” and you are not ready to pray for them that’s okay. An abuser survivor should not be shamed into feeling that they must pray for their abuser. That is a road they are not ready yet to begin, God understands. And so should we.
When we can pray for the enemy it is the first step to closing the past so that our pain, our grief, our anger does not affect our relationships in the present and in the future. Walter Wink wrote:
In praying for our enemies, we:
- Find a creative alternative to violence
- Assert our own humanity and dignity as a person
- Break the cycle of humiliation
- Seek the oppressor’s transformation
As Felix Baumgartner headed up into space, the only voice in his ear was that of retired Air Force Col. Joe Kittinger, 84, his mentor on this project and the holder of the record he was trying to beat. That was Mr. Baumgartner’s choice. The only voice he wanted to hear was the man who had gone before him.
Praying and loving our enemy is only possible because we have the voice of one who has gone before. Jesus.
It was Mr. Kittinger’s job to walk Mr. Baumgartner through each step of the journey. One of the last items was: “Item 38. stand up on the exterior step but be sure to duck your head down low as you go out that door,” Mr. Kittinger said. After Felix confirmed that and the next two steps Joe said, “The rest is yours.”
When Mr. Kittinger made a similar jump many years before his last words before leaving the capsule were “Lord, take care of me now.”
Church family: The rest is ours.