Luke 6:27-36

²⁷ “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. ²⁸ Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you. ²⁹ If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. ³⁰ Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back. ³¹ Do to others as you would like them to do to you. 

 ³² “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! ³³ And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! ³⁴ And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return. 

 ³⁵ “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. ³⁶ You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate. 

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I don’t begrudge anyone their efforts to make a living, but it sure seems to me that someone who didn’t know anything about Christmas other than what they see portrayed on television commercials just might come to a wrong conclusion about the point or the meaning of this season. You know what I’m talking about? 

I actually watch very little TV, but in one football game’s worth of commercials, I see enough ads for luxury cars, diamonds, plasma TVs and such to pretty well saturate my market! And what makes me really scratch my head as I see these ads is the subtle implication in them that suggests that in this season of gift giving, that love is best shown when we spend a lot of money on a person. Because this season is all about love, right? And love is about money? 

Well, actually, yes, the season is about love! But not like that, exactly!

Even apart from Advent/ Christmas, love is in the air in the Donat household! Many of you have heard that our daughter, Kimberly became engaged just before Thanksgiving. And we’re all looking forward to a Spring ’09 wedding. We’re very happy about ‘officially’ welcoming John into our family!                     

Then last weekend, we got more exciting news. Brian and Jolene have set their wedding date – January 19. Yes, 2008! We are also overflowing with joy for this young couple as well, we love Jolene just as we do John, and I know your prayers of blessing will be on them all. 

So the advertisers don’t get it totally wrong – love is in the air at Christmastime! But you don’t have to read very far in the Gospels to realize that the kind of love, the depth of love that came ‘down’ at Christmas is much, much different than even the best ideas of our society. 

On this Sunday, the second week of Advent, we’re focusing on ‘love’ and so we’ve read one of the most radical of all of Jesus’ teachings. In this passage from Luke 6, Jesus describes a different kind of love. He describes Kingdom love, the kind of love that he himself was bringing to our spiritually starving world. In this passage he doesn’t say this explicitly, but I think it’s covered: the diamonds and expensive gifts that we give are fine; if you can afford them – hey, good for you!… And celebrating relationships –  a true joy, for sure. But the thing is, that’s easy! 

See, anybody can do that. Anybody can love like that. Jesus says, “If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! ³³ And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! 

That the love of reciprocation; its a love in which you expect to get something in return for everything you give. That kind of love is something that the world understands quite well. And there is nothing wrong with that, not at all! But Jesus didn’t need to come to earth to explain that kind of love to us. We already get it! But God himself did need to come to not only tell us about Kingdom love, but to show us what it looks like as well.  And he did.

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I don’t have a lot of detailed memories of my High School days, but there are a few things that I can recall with great clarity. I became a follower of Christ at a youth retreat – in the winter of my sophomore year in high school. My heart was opened that night in a way that I pray has continued since then – I just wanted to learn more and more. I didn’t know the terminology back then, but my desire was to know more of God.  And I always was a reader, so that’s one way I pursued that.                                                            

Well, I remember reading a book entitled Run Baby, Run, the autobiography of Nicky Cruz, formerly the leader, the war lord, of a violent NY city street gang the Mau Maus. Cruz became a believer under the ministry of David Wilkerson and Teen Challenge, and immediately began his own ministry of outreach and reconciliation to NY City gang members (which he is still doing 40 years later!) One scene in his book I have never forgotten. Cruz was leaving a church service where he had just spoken, given his testimony. He was alone, walking to his car, and out of the shadows stepped a number of his former ‘brothers’ of the Mau Mau gang. 

They questioned his loyalty, and his manhood, and the new leader challenged him to a fight. Cruz refused. Then this guy pulled out a knife and told Cruz that he would either fight or he would die. And this is the point which I remember as if I read it yesterday. Cruz said to him, “You can cut me into 1000 pieces, and every one of them would cry out that Jesus loves you. And you’ll never be able to run from that.”  [I don’t remember how he got out of that, but obviously he did, he’s still around!] 

Lying on my bed down in my basement room with one dim light bulb illuminating the book I pondered that statement for a long time. And it wasn’t so much that I was thinking, “I’m sure not that kind of person!” – I was like, 16 years old, what 16-year-old boy knows what kind of person they are?  That’s not a terribly introspective age! 

What I kept wondering was, ‘How does God make a person like this?’ And somewhere in the depth of my heart I heard a call for the first time that night – pretty faint, but it would grow stronger over the years – a call from God that said, “Steve, this is the kind of man that I want to make out of you.”  Well, that’s been an ongoing project, and I’ll leave it to God to judge the rate of progress, if any. 

A few years later I was led me to a college and a seminary that were both founded and immersed in the holiness camp meeting tradition of the late 1800’s. Where again, in a way that has stayed with me ever since, I was challenged to try to understand and to try and live out this radical love of Jesus Christ. 

That means a constant wrestling with the thought that its not just ‘let’s be loving people’ but it’s ‘let’s love with the love of Christ Jesus’. And let’s constantly think about what that means. Not just to love those people who are like you… (or the ones that you like), but to love them all. Not just to love the people who are good to you, but to love those who are against you, even those who would call themselves your enemies.  And frankly, it’s confusing at times, and hard! 

Jesus doesn’t hedge on spelling this out very clearly: lest we misunderstand, he says, “Here’s what I’m talking about: when someone slaps you on one cheek, offer them the other.”  That’s radical now; can you imagine how that came across in a land of people who had been taught for a thousand years the principle of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth?” “Radical” is not a strong enough word! 

[Incidentally, Jesus wasn’t recommending here that Christians become the worlds’ doormats! You can’t make a Biblical case out of this for allowing someone to abuse you – physically or emotionally. But the great majority of offenses that people hold against one another are not of that magnitude, are they?] 

No one, in the history of religious thought and teaching until Jesus, (or since), ever came up with “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. ²⁸ Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.”  No one else. It didn’t come from this world! 

It’s interesting to me to read the opening clause in this teaching, did you catch it? It’s as if Jesus realized that not everyone was going to be able to accept or grasp this teaching. This is for the mature, this is for the serious disciples. He says, “But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies!” Peterson, in The Message puts it like this: “To you who are ready for the truth… I say this, love your enemies.” 

When Jesus told his disciples that the world would recognize that he – Jesus – had sent them by seeing their love in action, he wasn’t talking about how good and friendly they were going to be to each other. He wasn’t referring to the world’s looking in on the exquisite pot- luck suppers and church functions that were going to be enjoyed over the next 2,000 years or so. 

He was talking about the world seeing a radical love in action. A supernatural love. A love characterized and filled with grace, compassion, forgiveness, mercy, and kindness.  A love that doesn’t expect anything in return. A love that turns aside in the face of insults, and persecution, and a lack of understanding; a love, unlike the love of this world, because it is based on something that is not of this world. 

Last Friday night, Dianna was working late, Brian was playing in some recital in Washington, Kim was out with John, and I was bored. So I went to the Mall. My plan was to buy a coffee and walk a little until Dianna got home. Well, I walked by a store and looked in the window and I saw something there… I thought, “Dianna would love that!” 

Then my practical (i.e., cheap?) side took over and said, “You guys already planned what you’re going to do for each other for Christmas!” And I walked away. But after circling the Mall I came back. And I still thought, “That’s perfect!” I can’t tell you what it was, because I bought it! And I wrapped it, and put it under the tree. It’s a really big box! And I can’t wait until Christmas, when I can give this to Dianna, and see if I was right. 

Picking out that perfect gift is fun, isn’t it?  It is! Sharing Christmas Carols, and gifts, and parties, with friends, and family; and all the rest, is wonderful, and it’s part of the big picture of the ‘season’. But Jesus might say, “Don’t forget, that part is easy. Everybody can do that! Anybody can love and celebrate like that!”  But I’m entrusting you with a deeper love than that kind. 

“If you are able to hear me, how about this?  Love like I’ve loved you.”

So let’s think about this: the Love that came down at Christmas was a love that touched ‘unclean’ lepers, and welcomed children. It was a love that cared for the people that no one else would even look at. It was a love that washed dirty feet – even the feet that would run away from him in his greatest hour of need. It was a love that prayed, “Father forgive them” even as they hammered nails into his hands and feet… 

Can we love like that?

A guy named David Slagle, being from Georgia, loved ribs. He wrote this,

“I remember hearing about this particular restaurant that had amazing ribs, and a bunch of my friends and I drove 50 minutes to get there. The place was packed, and the food was great. It was “all you can eat rib night,” and rib bones were piling up as fast as the line to get in. Eating ribs is messy business. Barbecue sauce gets on your face, fingers, and clothes; dirty napkins pile up next to half-eaten bowls of baked beans and coleslaw. When our crew had eaten all we could eat, we paid our tab and waddled out to the car. 

That's when I reached into my pocket for my keys and came up with nothing but lint. Starting to panic, I looked through the window at the ignition. I was hoping that I had locked my keys in the car, because in the back of my mind a more disgusting possibility was taking shape. When I saw that the ignition was empty, I knew exactly where my keys were—the keys to my car, my house, and my office. Only seconds earlier, those precious keys had slid right off my tray and followed a half-eaten corn cob and several bones to the bottom of a trash can. I had thrown away my keys on all you can eat rib night. 

It was a long walk home, and my friends certainly weren't going to do my dirty work for me. So I dove in. I fished through bones, beans, barbecue, corn, cake, coleslaw, and a host of saliva-soaked napkins. A shiny layer of trashcan slime had coated my arms before I finally grasped hold of those precious keys. 

As I meditate on the Incarnation this Christmas season, I think about our dumpster-diving God. I mean no disrespect by calling him that. On the contrary, I have a soaring adoration for the infinite God who left a pristine, sinless heaven to search through the filth and rubbish of this fallen world for something precious to him—me.

*** 

And when he found us, he said, “Now, when you are willing to go and do the same, that’s when people will know that I am in you.”