On Line Bible Study - for the Week May 17-23, 2010

Lesson 440

Luke 6: ²⁷"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. ³⁰Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you.

³²"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. ³³And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. ³⁴And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' lend to 'sinners,' expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

From blessings and woes we now turn to love. Not to make too much of incidentals or details, note the first seven words - "But I tell you who hear me..." The implication here is that we are truly listening. Today, we might characterize it by the phrase listening actively. Jesus is talking to people whose attention he truly has. It's not enough to hear what Jesus is saying; we have to respond to what he is saying.

For religious Jews, love of neighbor was defined as love of those who were like you. There were some expressions of Judaism where it was not only appropriate to hate one's enemies if their religion was different from yours; it was expected you would hate them. Jesus' teaching takes on an extreme meaning in light of what was the norm for 'love' in his day. This teaching of Christ, as radical as it was, became part of the identity of the early Christian movement.

If loving isn't enough, Jesus goes on to exhort his listeners to do good to those who hate you. In other words, this love he speaks about must be active. As if to emphasize this, Jesus then teaches his disciples to pray for those who curse and mistreat you. Not only are we to look for ways to do good for our enemies; we are called to intercede to God on their behalf - to bless them.

At this point some would say the Gospel becomes impossible. Jesus is the premier (though not the only) example of this in the New Testament. St. Luke records later in his Gospel one of the last things Jesus says before he died: Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. To plead to God for God to forgive another - especially one who has wronged us - that is not an easy prayer to pray and mean it.

These several reflections set the tone for the rest of the passage quoted above. Not just to read it, but to ask one's self: Am I fulfilling this teaching in my life?

We will consider more of this section of Luke's Gospel in our next lesson.