Most of the time, when we read the words of
Jesus, he’s having a conversation with someone. Someone has asked him a
question. Or someone has asked him to
heal them. Or he’s trying to tell the
disciples what’s going to happen to him. But it’s Jesus talking to
someone, for the most part.
But Jesus could give long speeches, what we would today
call sermons. And we have a few of his sermons in the Bible. There’s the Sermon on the Mount, for
example. There’s what I call Jesus’ farewell address, the speech he made
to the disciples just before he went to the Garden of Gethsemane. We’ll
deal with that one in a few weeks. And
we have the one we read tonight, the Sermon on the Plain.
The Sermon on the Plain is basically a shorter version of
the Sermon on the Mount. Some people think Luke just took the Sermon on
the Mount, cut it down and put it in a different setting. It seems more
reasonable, though, to assume that Jesus was talking to two different audiences
in two different places, and so gave two versions of the same
message.
We can tell, from the speeches that we have, that Jesus was
a good preacher. And we can see that, when he preached, he was not at all
hesitant to tell it like it is. He came out and said what he had to
say. And he did that even if what he had
to say was not what people wanted to hear.
Jesus started out with the blessings, and
of course people liked hearing that. He went on with the woes, which
people did not like as much. But still,
you know how that goes. People found a way to say those woes did not
apply to them. They were not rich or
anything. And so, for the most part,
people were okay with that, too.
But then comes
the part that nobody likes. Jesus said, “Love your enemies, do good to
those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone
takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who
asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to
others as you would have them do to you.”
Most of us have heard that before, of
course. And we pay lip service to it.
But let me ask you--and I’m not asking for a show of hands or anything,
but I want you to think about it:
Do you love
your enemies?
Do you do good
for those who hate you?
Do you bless
those who curse you?
Do you pray
for those who mistreat you?
If someone
hits you--physically or otherwise--do you not only not hit back, but allow them
to hit you again?
If someone
takes something from you, do you offer them something else as well?
Do you give to
everyone who asks you?
None of those
things is easy to do. In fact, they’re very hard. Some of them don’t even make sense to
us. Our instinct is to try to come up with some way to explain them away,
to try to come up with excuses for ourselves, to say, well, Jesus really did
not mean that literally. He was just trying to make a point.
He was trying
to make a point, of course, but it’s not a point that allows us to make excuses
for ourselves. Listen to what Jesus says next: “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 that.
And 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. But 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 children of the
Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just
as your Father is merciful.”
Now, Jesus did
not say that we have to do these things to get to heaven. Eternal life is
based on faith in Jesus Christ and not on good works. But what I think Jesus was saying was, look,
if you truly believe I am the divine Son of God, then your life needs to be
different from the people who don’t believe. And it’s not just a matter
of being a little nicer and a little kinder.
What I’m calling for you to do is to change your entire mindset.
Our human
mindset is that we’ll love those who love us. Our human mindset is that
we’ll be nice to people who are nice to us. Our human mindset is that
we’ll give to people who can pay us back.
And Jesus is telling us, that’s not God’s mindset. God’s mindset
is to be love everyone, whether they love Him or not. God’s mindset is to help people who call on
Him, and even to help people who don’t. God’s mindset is to try to be
there for everyone, even if they choose to turn away from him.
That’s the
mindset Jesus is calling us to have. Jesus is calling us to give up our
human mindset and take on God’s mindset. In other words, Jesus is calling
us to be as God-like as possible. Not in
power, obviously, but in love. Jesus calls us to love people, not as
humans love them, but as God loves them.
Jesus calls us to love people with no conditions, with no strings
attached. Jesus calls us to love people no matter how they treat us. And the love Jesus calls us to have goes beyond
just tolerating people or putting up with them.
The love Jesus calls us to have goes beyond just accepting people.
The love Jesus calls us to have means embracing people as they are.
That’s
hard. But remember--Jesus did it. Jesus loved Judas, who would
betray him. He even allowed him to be part of the Last Supper, knowing
that Judas was about to betray him. Jesus loved Pilate, and Pilate was
the one who allowed Jesus to be killed.
And as Jesus hung on the cross, he looked at the people who were
responsible for killing him and asked God the Father to forgive them.
That’s
love. That’s the kind of love Jesus had. It’s the kind of love
Jesus still has. And it’s the kind of love Jesus calls us to have, too.
Our instinct,
when we hear that, is to kind of dismiss it. I mean, we might nod our
heads in agreement with it, but there’s a part of us that’s thinking, yeah,
yeah. That all sounds good in theory.
But I’m not Jesus. I cannot love
like Jesus. God cannot expect me to love
like Jesus. And so, while we agree that this is what we’re supposed to
do, we don’t really take very many steps to try and do it. And believe me, I’m as guilty of that as
anyone, maybe more.
Jesus knew
these things would be hard for us. But still, knowing that, he did not
make them optional. He did not give us excuses and he did not grant
exceptions, because Jesus knew that if he gave us excuses we would take them,
and if he granted exceptions we’d all want one. Jesus knew these things
would be hard for us, but he told us to do them anyway.
One of the
things Lent is about is for us to examine our lives. We are to look at
who God is, look at who we are, and see how far short we fall from who God
wants us to be. But then, we are to make whatever changes are necessary
to make up the difference. In other
words, what Lent is about is for us to change our mindset. You and I need
to change from a human mindset to a God-like mindset. And this is what Jesus is telling us to do in
our reading for tonight.
So the
question for each of us, including me is: are we going to do this? Are we going to take Jesus’ words
seriously? I asked a series of questions earlier. Let me ask those questions again, a little
differently:
Are you
willing to love your enemies?
Are you
willing to do good for those who hate you?
Are you
willing to bless those who curse you?
Are you
willing to pray for those who mistreat you?
If someone
hits you--physically or otherwise--are you willing to not only not hit back,
but allow them to hit you again?
If someone
takes something from you, are you willing to offer them something else as well?
Are you
willing to give to everyone who asks you?
None of it’s
easy. And we can make all kinds of excuses not to do any of it. I
know we can, because I’ve made all kinds of excuses. Sometimes I still do. But are we
willing, tonight, to stop making excuses?
Are we willing, tonight, to change from our human mindset to a God-like
mindset?
We know what
we’re supposed to do. Are we, in this season of Lent, willing to do it?
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