Scripture can be found here…
This passage almost feels like a combination of Jesus’ greatest hits combined with the things he’s said that no one wants to hear. Many statements we find here are well-known, and are among the most-quoted words of Jesus. And everything here, from what sounds the easiest to what we could consider the most challenging, falls under the heading of “love.”
C. S. Lewis told us that there are at least four different kinds of love, and the categories he outlines are useful. He talks of friendship, which is sometimes called “brotherly love.” He talks of that benevolent love that parents usually have for their children and vice-versa—an affectionate, caregiving, nurturing love that forms the basis of healthy families. He talks of romantic love, eros, that all-consuming attraction, even obsession that is so often depicted in art and entertainment.
And then he comes to divine love, love that is entirely impartial, love that is sacrificial. The term Lewis uses is agape.
When Jesus challenges us to love our enemies, this is the kind of love he is invoking—this the word we find in the Greek text. Years ago, I wrote about agape love:
This is the same kind of love we talk about when we say, “God is love.” The love Jesus is talking about is the kind that gives of itself completely and utterly. It’s the kind of love that gives up all the power in the universe to become a puny, relatively power-less human being… It’s the kind of love that lays down its life so that someone else can live.
When Jesus is telling us to love one another, he isn’t talking about having affection for one another—though we may have that. He isn’t talking about being in love with one another—though we may, joyfully, find ourselves in that condition. He isn’t even talking about having true and deep friendships with one another—though we may be lucky enough to have those. He is talking about a love that transcends all the other loves, because it is ready to give of itself totally, wildly and extravagantly, without hope or expectation of receiving anything at all in return. It is ready to give even at the risk of its own life, its own welfare. That is agape-love. That is God-love. And that is what we are called to, as followers of Jesus.[i]
So, when Jesus says, Love your enemies, and pray for people who actually treat you quite badly, the role model for the love he’s describing is God, Godself. Unlike all the other kinds of love, agape doesn’t depend on our feelings at all. This is love as an action, the right action, the love that counters hate with still more love.
The examples Jesus uses of this love sound awful to us, outlandish. Let someone hit you a second time? Let them take your stuff and don’t try to get it back? I don’t know anyone who likes this part of Jesus’ teachings. The most doable thing on this list is his instruction that we pray for those we consider enemies. The rest of these are a real challenge to us.
And I need to go on record: I think we should teach our children to stay away from people who hurt them, not offer themselves to them for more abuse. And if we know of abuse—our moral obligation is to try to stop it, not to tell the abused they should put up with it.
But the context of these instructions for Jesus’ congregation on the plain is the occupation of Judea by the Roman Empire. Jesus is speaking to people who know intimately the presence of legions of Roman soldiers, and they are people who might well strike you, take your coat, and demand money from you. Is it possible Jesus is trying to help the people to spare themselves from the further abuse that would result if they were to resist?
This portion of Jesus’ words reminds me of what Black families call “the talk.” In an article published last year, Black parents discussed how they had “the talk” with their children. The article begins,
When Broderick Leaks used to hear about “the talk,” he associated those words with a discussion about the birds and the bees. But after Leaks had a son, the talk took on a different meaning: how to prepare children of color, and specifically Black boys, for the realities of living in a society amid racism… The talk can bring up tragic realities, especially for Black parents.
“You have this beautiful baby and they have so much promise, and you want them to achieve every hope and dream that they have,” Leaks said. “It’s a weird feeling of all of this joy, and then knowing that it doesn’t matter how smart my son is, it doesn’t matter how brilliant my son is, it doesn’t matter how handsome my son is going to be — some people are going to have a negative reaction just seeing him, and that’s heartbreaking…”[ii]
And so these families prepare their children, especially their sons, for this harsh reality. They teach them to be respectful and to remain calm with law enforcement and security guards, for example, when they are followed through a department store, or pulled over, for no apparent reason. They teach them to be polite, to be courteous, and above all, not to escalate.
Is it possible Jesus is giving the Jews of Judea the ancient Middle Eastern version of “the talk”? That he is trying to help them to survive in an environment that is hostile towards them?
Love your enemies, Jesus tells the crowd, and do good to all-even those who are inclined to persecute you. Those of us who take the words of Jesus seriously can hear in them a call to a deeper level of discipleship that, yes, invites us to kindness towards all. Love is our calling, even when it’s hard. Lewis writes,
“To love at all is to be vulnerable, love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make a priority of keeping it intact…you must give your heart to no one, not even an animal…lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket — safe, dark, motionless, airless — it will change, it will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”[iii]
That’s not what we want, and that’s not what Jesus, not what God wants for us. The heart is a muscle, literally and metaphorically. Loving our enemies is like cardio for our hearts. We are called to exercise it by loving well, even when it’s hard. We are called to refrain from judging, no matter how much satisfaction it gives us. We are called to give, and we are called to forgive. And as this passage moves toward its conclusion, another understanding emerges. Jesus asks us to behave towards one another, as we hope others will behave towards us. Jesus asks each of us to put into the world what we hope the world will become. In this way, we begin what we hope—what God prays—will be a flood of kindness and goodness that will never stop flowing outward.
A heart that practices love is a heart that is, as Lewis writes, surely breakable. But it is also a heart that knows itself to be on a journey of a deeper experience of, not only God’s love, but the fullest and best expression of what it is to be human. And so, it is also a heart that can know a peace that has no bounds—a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, more than we can even imagine.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
[i] Patricia J. Raube, “Love, Love, Love, Love,” a sermon on John 15:9-17, preached on May 17, 2009, at Union Presbyterian Church, Endicott, NY.
[ii] Gustavo Solis, “For Black parents, ‘the talk’ binds generations and reflects changes in America,” USC News, March 10, 2021, https://news.usc.edu/183102/the-talk-usc-black-parents-children-racism-america/.
[iii] Sheri Abbott, “Is All Love Created Equal? C. S. Lewis Answers—4 kinds of love,” Reasons for Hope*Jesus, February 10, 2020, https://reasonsforhopejesus.com/is-all-love-created-equal-cs-lewis-answers/.