The Hardest Teaching of All
John Shuck
First Presbyterian Church
Elizabethton, Tennessee
World Communion Sunday
October 2, 2005
Again he went out by the sea.
And, with a huge crowd gathered around him,
he started teaching.
“To you who are listening, I say love your enemies.
If you love those who love you, what merit is there in that?
After all, even sinners love those who love them.
And if you do good to those who do good to you, what merit is there in that?
After all, even sinners do as much.”
Mark 2:13, Luke 6:27, 32-33
Parallel: Matthew 5:44; 46-47
Source Q, Scholars’ Version
I have been your pastor for two months now. I am still new.
One of the great things about being new in a position is that when someone has a question or issue I can reply: “I really don’t know. I am new here.”
I am going to use that for as long as I possibly can. In fact, I plan to be new here for at least a decade. I have only been here ten years; I don’t know what is going on
Preachers are good at that. We learn in seminary how to shift responsibility.
We do this best when preaching.
For example in our scripture reading for today, Jesus spoke.
“Love your enemies,” said Jesus.
One of the convenient things about preaching the sayings of Jesus is that I do not have to bear the full weight for the responsibility of preaching these hard sayings.
I am just a preacher. I didn’t make it up. Jesus said it. Take up your case with him!
I cannot imagine any teaching that is harder to hear than this one: “Love your enemies.”
That is, if we are committed to taking what he said seriously.
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One way to deal with this hard saying is the scholarly approach. Maybe Jesus really didn’t say it. Maybe this saying was put on his lips by the Gospel writers. What they say doesn’t count. I don’t have to worry about it. That is a handy approach. It is always good to have at your disposal a variety of ways to shift responsibility.
However, that way might not be so effective in this case. The consensus regarding biblical scholars from conservative to liberal is that this saying goes back to Jesus. In fact, if he can be credited with saying anything, he said this.
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Another approach is to say, “So what if he said it? Jesus was simply naïve.”
“A woman and her son are talking. She is upset about a woman at work and is rehashing all the wrongs she has done to her. Thoughts of reconciliation are far from her mind. Her son, finally tired of this topic, unfairly pulls out the Jesus card.
“Mother, what would Jesus do?”
Without skipping a beat, she looks at him and says,
“I know what Jesus would do. And he would be wrong.”
“Love your enemies” is bad advice no matter who said it.
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Another way to deal with is to admit that Jesus did say it, and what he said is probably right, but it isn’t that important. Is it so big of a deal to have enemies and to treat them as enemies?
I don’t think that will work either in this case.
If we look at the inhabitants of Earth and see their struggles and conflicts,
if we consider the wars and the rumors of war,
if we consider the violence, abuse, and injustice at all social levels,
and if we consider the technological capacity we have of destroying ourselves as we seek to destroy our enemies,
then it seems very important—perhaps at the top of the list in importance—to deal with enemies and with conflict better than we have been doing.
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The final approach to dealing with this hard saying of Jesus is to admit that Jesus did say it, and what he said is probably right, and what he said is important, but what he said doesn’t necessarily apply to me. After all, Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” I can love your enemies. It is my enemies that I have a problem with.
Love your enemies, forgive seventy times seven…sure. You should do that. It seems so easy when it is about someone else. We see someone going through a Hatfield and McCoy, or we see someone who is nursing a longstanding grudge, or we see conflict in another part of the world and we wonder like Rodney King: “Why can’t they just get along?” “Forgive and forget. Love your enemies.” Piece of cake.
Unless of course, it is personal. The best cure for us when we tell others (or think about saying to others): “Love and forgive”, is to think about those with whom we have issues, and really evaluate how loving and forgiving we have been. It is hard to do. It is hard even to be honest. Whenever we are admonished to love and forgive, we have a story. “Let me tell you what they did.”
More often than I care to admit, the best I have been able to do when I really have to evaluate my feelings toward one who has become enemy is to regard him or her with indifference.
Yet, “Be indifferent to your enemies,” doesn’t quite have that same punch to it.
So if we admit that Jesus did say, “Love your enemies”, and if we admit that what he said is probably right, and if we admit that what he said is important, and if we admit that it means for me to love my enemies, then that responsibility that I have so adeptly shifted has come home to roost.
What am I going to do about it when I am faced with this red-letter saying of Jesus: “Love your enemies, John.”
Four truths are revealed. I realize that…
1) I am going to need to deal with Jesus’ teaching to love my enemies or I will never be at peace.
2) I am not going to be effective on a communal or global scale in promoting peace unless I deal with this on a personal level.
3) I am going to need practical wisdom and the help of a community in order to do this.
4) I am going to need divine assistance.
When individuals make the decision to take this teaching of Jesus seriously, then this teaching changes from becoming a nice ideal to a practical discipline and a guiding principle for life. This teaching requires of us a commitment to reframe all of our personal relationships.
Christian non-violence, that is “loving our enemies” is nothing less than the process of transformation of ourselves and our world. The goal of nonviolence is reconciliation with all people to one another and with Earth. It isn’t about any particular issue such as poverty, the environment, civil rights or international conflict. Yet there is no issue that is outside of its scope. Nonviolence pervades all relationships.
Nonviolence requires the use of our intellects to learn from our ancestors, our neighbors near and far, to develop theory, to discuss problems, and to continually put what we have learned into practice in our communities and in our personal lives. Many have gone before us and have left us with wisdom born from experience. Most notably, Jesus. But others as well. I am sure that you have resources that you can share with others. One helpful resource I have is a book entitled, Peace is the Way: Writings on Nonviolence from the Fellowship of Reconciliation. It contains sixty essays that cover the theory, practice, and spirituality of nonviolence. It is edited by Walter Wink and contains essays by authors such as Thomas Merton, Thich Nhat Hahn, Martin Luther King, and Joanna Macy. The point is that Jesus’ teaching, “love your enemies” is coming of age intellectually, spiritually, and practically. And I think, not a moment too soon.
Nonviolence is profoundly spiritual. Without spiritual grounding it becomes distorted into self-righteousness or to a narrow support of our own pet causes. The divine domain which I think is another name for the realization of nonviolence has been here long before us and will be here long after us. We are allowed but a glimpse and opportunities to participate but never to possess. Yet we must glimpse and we must participate to help the divine domain become realized in our midst.
Finally, nonviolence is not for the faint of heart. Jesus said, “Love your enemies.” He didn’t say, “Don’t make any.” Jesus was nonviolent in a violent world. When we stand up for justice, we will face opposition. But we must love the opposition as much as ourselves and as much as those for whom we stand, else we do no good. Paul described Jesus theologically as the “first fruits.” Jesus set the standard for engaging the world with the nonviolent love and the justice of God—never letting either of them out of balance. In so doing, he was opposed. Those who followed in bearing the fruit of nonviolence also faced opposition. But opposition is not the last word. Reconciliation is. Through reconciliation, enemies become friends and justice is realized.
Today is World Communion Sunday. Around the globe, Christians have designated this Sunday as one in which all churches are invited to celebrate our unity as Christians and I think even more importantly, our unity as a human family.
Even as we are broken we are yet one.
At the Table we celebrate our successes.
At the Table we acknowledge our failures.
At the Table we find forgiveness.
At the Table we find strength for the journey.
At the Table hope is renewed.
At the Table we re-enact the promise
Of God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Of enemies made friends by Love.