I don’t know about you, but I have come to rely very heavily on my GPS whenever I hit the road. Especially during those stormy days when roads were closed due to downed trees or wires, I even used GPS when I was going to Bryn Mawr or Paoli Hospital to anoint someone. And, I made sure to use a GPS with real time traffic alerts where up-to-the-minute details made my journey faster and easier.
Life is often described as a journey. For us Christians, it’s a journey through this life to the next. And, just as our car’s GPS can direct us to our destination here in this world, the beatitudes are the GPS for our life journey to heaven. After all, our final destiny is life with God, who is love. And, as we heard in last week’s Gospel, the beatitudes direct us in the ways of love. This week, we hear Jesus provide us with some very practical, minute-by-minute details of how to follow his directions for God-like love. So, let’s look at what Jesus is teaching us in today’s Gospel.
But first, let’s look at his audience. Just before the passage that we heard today, the Gospel reports that Jesus was surrounded by a huge crowd. This crowd was not made up only of his disciples but Jews from all of Judea and Jerusalem. It also included non-Jewish folks from Tyre and Sidon, pagan cities, as well as Roman troops who exploited and oppressed their subjects, Jews and non-Jews alike. All of these folks were standing shoulder-to-shoulder – friends and enemies alike – as they listened to Jesus speak.
When Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you . . .” he was speaking to his Jewish neighbors who were being exploited and oppressed by the troops of the Roman occupation, introducing them to a whole new direction in life. They were used to hating the Romans, cursing them for mistreating them, and Jesus was calling them love them. This is the way to the Kingdom of God, Jesus was saying to them. Jesus was redirecting them along the path of eternal life with directions rooted in love.
I’m sure this was a very difficult teaching for the people of Jesus’ time, and it remains a challenge for us today, doesn’t it? We might be more inclined to be like Abishai in today’s first reading who just wanted to nail his enemy, Saul, to the ground with one thrust of the spear. Now, pay attention, Jesus’ message is only for those who are directing their lives in the way of the Lord. Notice how Jesus begins this teaching: “to you who hear I say, love your enemies . . .” Pay attention to this introduction. “To you who hear . . .” Not everybody is listening, are they?
We read earlier in Luke’s Gospel that the Pharisees, the Jewish religious leaders in the crowd, were there watching Jesus, looking for some reason to accuse him. They weren’t really listening to him; they were just looking for an occasion to get rid of him. We also read that lots of people in the crowd were reaching out to touch Jesus because they’d seen healing power flow from him, and they wanted to get some of that power for themselves. They weren’t really listening either. They just wanted him to fix their situation.
They’re not so different from many of us, are they? Some of us go to God only when we have a problem that we want him to fix. We’re not ready to listen to the Gospel – the good news of our salvation – that God sent his Son to give us. Listening means we’re open to learning something new. Listening means we’re willing to change. Listening to God means being obedient to God and we all struggle with obedience. So Jesus knew that not everyone would really listen to his message. He knows that most people aren’t ready to be re-directed; they’re too busy following the path they have laid out for themselves. But to those who are listening, he offers direction to the only destination that’s worthwhile – eternal life in God’s loving embrace.
Let’s listen to today’s lesson again. He says, “But to you who hear, I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” These are really clear directions. And, to give us a really easy measure to use, he offers the Golden Rule: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Real simple, isn’t it?
Then he asks a couple of powerful rhetorical questions to challenge us. “For if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. If you lend money to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, and get paid back the same amount.” And then, to distinguish us from sinners who have not set their GPS to heaven, he repeats his message. “But rather, love your enemies, do good to them, and lend expecting nothing back.” And, he reminds us of our destination. “Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High.” And, he reminds us of God’s unconditional love for everyone, concluding with “because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
So, I hope you will leave church today with your GPS programmed. Not just the GPS in your car or on your phone, but the GPS in your head and heart. I pray that you have programmed it with the love of Jesus Christ. It’s not always an easy road but that’s how we get to heaven, and we all want to reach that destination, don’t we?