We've been looking at things we need to give up, not just for Lent, but for all of our lives. Tonight, we're going to talk about one of the hardest things of all. We're going to talk about giving up our enemies.
Now, maybe you're thinking, “Why would that be hard? I don't want to have enemies. I'd love to give them up.” Well, in one sense, that's probably true. I mean, I don't like having enemies. Nobody does. At the same time, I'm not sure just how willing we are to give them up.
Listen again to what Jesus said. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” Are we willing to do that? If that's what it takes to give up our enemies, are we willing to do it?
That's really hard. I mean, we might be able to love our enemies in theory. We might be able to love our enemies, or at least ignore them, if we don't have to deal with them very often. But think of someone you have to deal with a lot. Think of someone you have to see frequently, or talk to frequently. Think of someone who really does not like you, and whom you really do not like, either. Are we able to love those people? Are we able to do good to them? Are we willing to bless them and pray for them?
It's hard. It really is. It's hard enough, really, to love people who love us. It's even harder to love people who we're kind of neutral toward. But to love our enemies? To love that person who cheated us out of some money? To love that person who spreads rumors about us behind our backs? To love that person who's always putting us down? To love that person who always seems to be mean to us for no reason, other than just sheer meanness? We're supposed to love those people?
Well, yeah. That's what Jesus tells us to do. And Jesus tells us why. Basically, he says that, as Christians, as followers of Jesus, we're held to a higher standard. He says, it does not take a Christian to love someone who loves us. Anyone can do that. It does not take a Christian to do good to people who are good to us. Anyone can do that. It does not take a Christian to lend money to someone who we know can pay us back. Anyone can do that. In fact, pretty much everyone does do those things. The world says it's okay to do those things.
It takes a Christian, a follower of Jesus, to love an enemy. It takes a Christian, a follower of Jesus, to be good to people who are not good to us. It takes a Christian, a follower of Jesus, to give money to someone without expecting to be paid back.
Most other people don't do those things. The world does not say it's okay to do those things. In fact, a lot of times, the world says it's stupid to do those things. If we love our enemies, they'll take advantage of us. If we do good to those who are not good to us, it just encourages them to keep mistreating us. If we give money to people without expecting to be paid back, they'll just blow it and come back for more. The world says if we do those things, we'll be saps. We'll be suckers. We'll be letting people walk all over us.
And frankly, that may happen sometimes. You know, when I was a kid, I used to read these children's stories where when people loved their enemies, when people were good to those who were mean to them, it changed those people. The bad guys would see the error of their ways. They'd be sorry for what they'd done and change.
And when I was a kid, I believed that. I kept waiting to see it in the real world. Eventually, I realized that, in the real world, I lot of times it does not work like that. It can. I firmly believe people can change. But a lot of times, they don't. I know now that I was pretty naive, but it was kind of a rude awakening when I realized that the real world does not work like those children's stories I read when I was a kid.
But here's the thing about that. Jesus does not promise that the earthly world will work like those children's stories, either. Jesus does not promise that loving our enemies will make them change.
Jesus does not say being good to people who are mean to us will make them see how wrong they are. Jesus does not say anything about what our actions will do to our enemies. Our actions may or may not change others, but that's not the reason Jesus tells us to love our enemies.
God does not make us responsible for the actions of others. God makes us responsible for our own actions. We are not supposed to love our enemies because it will change them. We're supposed to love our enemies because we're supposed to be like God. Jesus said God “is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”
That's why we're supposed to love our enemies. Not to change them, but to be like God. After all, as Christians, that's what we're always supposed to try to do. We cannot do it perfectly, because we are human. At the same time, we should not use being human as an excuse to quit trying. We will fail sometimes, but when we fail, we need to try again. And again. And again, and again. Jesus did not come to tell us to be like other people. Jesus did not come to tell us to accept the wisdom of the world. Jesus came to lead us to God. Jesus came to show us God's love, so we could show God's love to others. That's why we're supposed to love our enemies. Because God does.
Then, Jesus tells us not to judge. Now, in my Bible, and maybe in yours, that part is given a different heading and put into a different section, as if it was completely separate from what came before it. That's why, even though the headings in our Bibles can be helpful sometimes, we should not put too much faith in them. I don't think the bit about not judging is separate from loving our enemies. I think it's part of the same theme.
When we decide that someone is our enemy, we've decided they're somehow less than we are. They're not as good as we are. They're not as worthy as we are. What does that get us back to? What we talked about last Wednesday: giving up feelings of superiority. When we decide someone is our enemy, we decide that we're somehow superior to them. We decide there's some way in which we're better than they are. In other words, we've made a judgment about them, and it's not a very nice one
When we decide someone is less than we are, it gives us an excuse to dislike them. It gives us an excuse to not treat them well. It gives us an excuse to not love them. After all, they're not worthy of it, right? They're just not as good as we are.
Now, as I've said before, I don't want anyone to think I'm pointing fingers here. I've done this. I suspect we've all done this. In fact, if any of us thinks we've not done it, I suspect we're not being honest with ourselves. We don't do it because we're bad, evil people. We do it because we're people. We're human. We sometimes do things we should not do.
But saying that we're human is not an excuse, either. Again, Jesus did not come to earth to say, “Go on sinning because you're only human.” As we said before, Jesus says that, as Christians, we're held to a higher standard. Jesus came to tell us we need to overcome our human nature. Jesus came to tell us to be like God. Jesus tells us to love as God loves, to forgive people the way God forgives people, and to love people the way God loves people.
How do we do that? By staying close to God. The only way we can love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who mistreat us is if we stay close to God. If we try to do it by ourselves, it won't work. It would be impossible for us. But it's not impossible with God. Nothing is impossible with God.
Jesus never said following him would be easy. But it's not impossible. If we do what we talked about on Sunday—ask for God's help with open, sincere, honest, and humble hearts—God will help us. With God's help, we can stop judging people. We can stop thinking of them as less than we are. Then, we can treat them the way God treats them. We can love them, do good to them, bless them, and pray for them.
So for Lent, and for all of our lives, let's give up our enemies. Let's love them instead. It may not change them. But it will change us. It will make us more like God. It will make us more like the people God wants us to be. And if enough of us are more like the people God wants us to be, we can change the whole world.
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