From Hate to Love
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?48 Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:43-48, NASB)
The text above comes from a very popular part of Matthew's gospel, most commonly known as The Sermon on the Mount. It follows closely after what we learned about this past Sunday at Thomasville First UMC- Jesus' temptations in the desert. The Sermon on the Mount is the largest grouping of Jesus' teaching in all the gospel accounts and hints, or alludes, back at the past when Moses' went up on Mount Sinai to deliver God's Law. However, Jesus does not go up (Matt 5:1) on the mountain as merely a messenger of the Law, like Moses, but as the architect Himself. What does Matthew want us to understand about Jesus through this allusion? Matthew wants us, and his original audience, to see Jesus as far more superior than Moses and as the long awaited Messiah. The whole of Jesus' teaching in The Sermon on the Mount is directly related with how God's people must recognize God's sovereignty and not overstep into the areas that God is ultimately in control of.
As Jesus does with us on our path of discipleship, he corrects our various misunderstandings and gives us clearer guidelines. Jesus, rather than giving more rules and regulations to live by, takes the written Law, or other writings from the Jewish faith, to a more serious level. Throughout The Sermon on the Mount, it seems Jesus wants us to notice the reasons behind how we act toward others, rather than just our interpersonal conduct. The God who knows all and sees all desires we change on a deeper level than just on the level of other people's perceptions. However, throughout this portion of Jesus' teaching, it's clear our actions are important to Jesus, but he isn't interested in making us a to-do list. Jesus wants our actions to flow out of a deeper place than: "I don't judge others because God said not to." (Matt 7:1-6) to: "I don't judge others because God, while having the right to judge and condemn me, showed me mercy and I want to show my gratitude to God by refraining from judgement of others and sharing that same incredible love. Judgement belongs to God and it seems he does it differently and better than I do". It's quite a different approach, isn't it?
Matt 5:43-48 is concerned with how, as God's people, we should treat our enemies. v47 makes it seem as if Jesus, though in the presence of a mix of people, is speaking directly to those of Jewish heritage. The main enemy of Jewish people in those days were there colonizers, the Romans. The Romans were foreign, pagans and promoted a very different way of life compared to the native Jews. You can imagine that the Jews felt persecuted just by the Roman presence in their land, even if they were not actively against their religion. Jesus wants to be clear that his followers are to be counter-cultural and live not according to the ways of the world, but as best as possible following God's actions. It is not up to the people present to judge their enemies, that's for God to do. So Jesus gives two areas of focus for his people, "[...] Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you [...]". The Greek here gives us greater depth of meaning than our English translations. Jesus' command to love is a present, continuous imperative, which could be translated literally as: "Love and keep on loving your enemies". If we use an example of telling someone to clean their room, Jesus is not saying, "Go and clean your room and get it over with it"- a once and done action, but Jesus is saying something like, "Go and clean your room and continue gradually cleaning it to make sure it's always clean".
Jesus' command to love isn't to be understood as a simple one-time action, but as a lifestyle. For Jesus, how this lifestyle of love comes about is through prayer. We often think the purpose of prayer is to change bad outcomes, which sometimes it does, but the type of prayer that Jesus is talking about helps us feel for other people and their situations. It's the type of prayer that may help us have compassion and recognize God's love toward the people we disregard. Prayer has the power to change our hearts from hate to love. Jesus in Matthew 5:45 wants those who feel morally and religiously righteous to notice that even the wicked receive good things from God, in the example of sun and rain. If God has love for those who seem so unlovable, so too should his people. Maybe the Jews present at Jesus' teaching don't recognize that they feel wrongly about other groups outside of themselves, but their actions say otherwise.
Jesus then communicates to the Jewish people in the audience that their actions are very similar to the Tax Collectors and Gentiles. In Jesus' day, no Jewish person would ever want to think of themselves as a Gentile or a Tax Collector. Again, Jesus is reminding his audience that their actions speak louder than their words.
Jesus last comment of this text (v48) about perfection is very interesting. As I read it, I think it has to do with a misunderstanding of perfection in many religious, Jewish circles in Jesus' day. For many of them, a perfect person, or complete person, was someone who followed and adhered to God's written Law in a thorough way and remained unstained from earthly sin. In other words, someone who lived a very devout life, aloof from people of bad behavior. But Jesus adds something to that idea. For Jesus, holiness, or perfection, is closely related with the capacity to love those who don't seem, in our eyes, worthy of love. Holiness begins by humbly recognizing God's amazing love and gift to us. As we begin to recognize that love and gift, it leads us to treat others as God treats us: with love, grace and mercy.
It's a sad reality when we realize we have excluded and disregarded people because they are different from us and unlovable in our eyes. The more we actively reflect on God's love and how He has welcomed us, I believe we can extend that same love, authentically, to others.
May God be gracious to us as we contemplate God's love and seek to extent that love to those who seem unlovable and unworthy. Let us take on the difficult task of praying for those who we don't always see eye-to-eye with and see how God might transform our hearts.
Amen.
The text above comes from a very popular part of Matthew's gospel, most commonly known as The Sermon on the Mount. It follows closely after what we learned about this past Sunday at Thomasville First UMC- Jesus' temptations in the desert. The Sermon on the Mount is the largest grouping of Jesus' teaching in all the gospel accounts and hints, or alludes, back at the past when Moses' went up on Mount Sinai to deliver God's Law. However, Jesus does not go up (Matt 5:1) on the mountain as merely a messenger of the Law, like Moses, but as the architect Himself. What does Matthew want us to understand about Jesus through this allusion? Matthew wants us, and his original audience, to see Jesus as far more superior than Moses and as the long awaited Messiah. The whole of Jesus' teaching in The Sermon on the Mount is directly related with how God's people must recognize God's sovereignty and not overstep into the areas that God is ultimately in control of.
As Jesus does with us on our path of discipleship, he corrects our various misunderstandings and gives us clearer guidelines. Jesus, rather than giving more rules and regulations to live by, takes the written Law, or other writings from the Jewish faith, to a more serious level. Throughout The Sermon on the Mount, it seems Jesus wants us to notice the reasons behind how we act toward others, rather than just our interpersonal conduct. The God who knows all and sees all desires we change on a deeper level than just on the level of other people's perceptions. However, throughout this portion of Jesus' teaching, it's clear our actions are important to Jesus, but he isn't interested in making us a to-do list. Jesus wants our actions to flow out of a deeper place than: "I don't judge others because God said not to." (Matt 7:1-6) to: "I don't judge others because God, while having the right to judge and condemn me, showed me mercy and I want to show my gratitude to God by refraining from judgement of others and sharing that same incredible love. Judgement belongs to God and it seems he does it differently and better than I do". It's quite a different approach, isn't it?
Matt 5:43-48 is concerned with how, as God's people, we should treat our enemies. v47 makes it seem as if Jesus, though in the presence of a mix of people, is speaking directly to those of Jewish heritage. The main enemy of Jewish people in those days were there colonizers, the Romans. The Romans were foreign, pagans and promoted a very different way of life compared to the native Jews. You can imagine that the Jews felt persecuted just by the Roman presence in their land, even if they were not actively against their religion. Jesus wants to be clear that his followers are to be counter-cultural and live not according to the ways of the world, but as best as possible following God's actions. It is not up to the people present to judge their enemies, that's for God to do. So Jesus gives two areas of focus for his people, "[...] Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you [...]". The Greek here gives us greater depth of meaning than our English translations. Jesus' command to love is a present, continuous imperative, which could be translated literally as: "Love and keep on loving your enemies". If we use an example of telling someone to clean their room, Jesus is not saying, "Go and clean your room and get it over with it"- a once and done action, but Jesus is saying something like, "Go and clean your room and continue gradually cleaning it to make sure it's always clean".
Jesus' command to love isn't to be understood as a simple one-time action, but as a lifestyle. For Jesus, how this lifestyle of love comes about is through prayer. We often think the purpose of prayer is to change bad outcomes, which sometimes it does, but the type of prayer that Jesus is talking about helps us feel for other people and their situations. It's the type of prayer that may help us have compassion and recognize God's love toward the people we disregard. Prayer has the power to change our hearts from hate to love. Jesus in Matthew 5:45 wants those who feel morally and religiously righteous to notice that even the wicked receive good things from God, in the example of sun and rain. If God has love for those who seem so unlovable, so too should his people. Maybe the Jews present at Jesus' teaching don't recognize that they feel wrongly about other groups outside of themselves, but their actions say otherwise.
Jesus then communicates to the Jewish people in the audience that their actions are very similar to the Tax Collectors and Gentiles. In Jesus' day, no Jewish person would ever want to think of themselves as a Gentile or a Tax Collector. Again, Jesus is reminding his audience that their actions speak louder than their words.
Jesus last comment of this text (v48) about perfection is very interesting. As I read it, I think it has to do with a misunderstanding of perfection in many religious, Jewish circles in Jesus' day. For many of them, a perfect person, or complete person, was someone who followed and adhered to God's written Law in a thorough way and remained unstained from earthly sin. In other words, someone who lived a very devout life, aloof from people of bad behavior. But Jesus adds something to that idea. For Jesus, holiness, or perfection, is closely related with the capacity to love those who don't seem, in our eyes, worthy of love. Holiness begins by humbly recognizing God's amazing love and gift to us. As we begin to recognize that love and gift, it leads us to treat others as God treats us: with love, grace and mercy.
It's a sad reality when we realize we have excluded and disregarded people because they are different from us and unlovable in our eyes. The more we actively reflect on God's love and how He has welcomed us, I believe we can extend that same love, authentically, to others.
May God be gracious to us as we contemplate God's love and seek to extent that love to those who seem unlovable and unworthy. Let us take on the difficult task of praying for those who we don't always see eye-to-eye with and see how God might transform our hearts.
Amen.
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