The Difficult Side of Love: Gen. 45: 3-11, 15; Luke 6: 27-38
Some days you just want to throat-punch a person who is driving you nuts. There are days where you may daydream of good paybacks to people who did you wrong. From time to time, you may revel in seeing karma take care of someone who has been problematic for a long time. A friend of mine told a story of how a co-worker was causing her all sorts of problems. This person was mean, fake, and often back-stabbing. My friend said she turned it all over to God, and at Thanksgiving, when the mean co-worker’s family was all gathered at her home, the septic tank exploded sending sewage blasting through the toilets and showers in her house. My friend said, “Poo-head got what she deserved. God is good, all the time.”
Now, I may not be the greatest Biblical expert in realm of theology, but I’m fairly sure that taking delight in the suffering of people you don’t like is not a gospel message. Jesus tells us that we must love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. We hear those words that God so loved the world. And in the midst of all this Christian teaching on love, we sometimes come to a point where we say, “I’d rather not.” Six days this week I chose love and peace, today I want to choose violence.
My friends, we come to the difficult side of love. Jesus takes us down a pathway of difficulty in what it means to love. God, we have no problem with. Most friends and family we can find love for even if it’s from a safe distance. We can have this general Christian love for the world based on what Christ teaches. But here we come to the really hard part: enemies, those who hate us, undesirables, irritating people, the crude, the unkind, the obnoxious/horrible/miserable folks society has to offer us. And Jesus again tells us, “Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.” And to that statement, we all offer a collective, “But I DON’T WANT TO!”
It is, however, this peculiar behavior of Christ-followers that makes us stand out as so different from the world. Whereas the world has a retribution-minded attitude, God’s faithful live in a place of constant and unending forgiveness. Life will train you to believe it is true that you should do unto others exactly as they have done unto you, OR, do unto others before they can do it to you first. That’ll set them right. But Jesus teaches a very different way of life, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” This way of life is incredibly different from human intuition or natural inclination.
This is what makes God’s people stand out—their presence for love in this world—a love that is all-encompassing and expansive. Our calling is to be the people who bring the presence of Christ forward into a world that can be cruel and difficult. Very few people truly adhere to this calling that we love friend and family equal unto enemy and adversary. Jesus viewed enemies, not as something to crush and defeat, but as humans to love and bring into the sacred fold. The great Maya Angelou said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Jesus taught and advocated for followers who made people feel safe, restored, made whole, healed, and blessed. That’s what makes a difference in people’s lives. In a world consumed with money, self-interest, politics, and turmoil, the measure of our trust in Christ is how much we show Christ to others in our lives. Jesus tells us not to judge others, not to condemn others, to always forgive, and to give what we can. If we expect God’s blessings, we cannot be cheap in blessing others in return.
In some ways this section of Luke makes us feel a bit put upon, or vulnerable, maybe even at times a bit guilty that it’s not something we want to live up to. I remember talking about this scripture with a friend, and he said, “Well I just don’t really agree with that. Giving without a repayment? Loving people who are mean to you? And frankly not everything is forgivable.” I gently reminded him that his argument wasn’t with what I was telling him, but what Jesus actually said in the gospel. The hardest place to find ourselves in faith is seeing what Jesus said and reconciling it with, “I just don’t like or agree with that.”
If we claim to be followers of Christ, though, we have to remember that Jesus went willing to a cross to love and redeem those who followed closely, and those who mocked him to his face. He went to a cross for the thief that had faith and the one who cursed him. He went to the cross for Peter, the rock on whom the church was built, and Judas, who sealed Jesus’s crucifixion with a kiss, handing him over to his enemies. The question is not and never who Jesus went to the cross to redeem and save, but who is willing to follow him in taking up their own crosses? That’s much harder to answer.
I think Joseph is an excellent example here. The parallels between Joseph’s journey and Jesus’s are strong and likely intentional. Joseph was betrayed by those closest to him and trafficked to a foreign country. He was made to work as a servant, or more accurately, a slave, in a foreign home, and betrayed again by his owners lies. He was wrongfully jailed and left to be forgotten. But in one miraculous moment, he is redeemed and placed in a position of power and glory. The parallels are there.
In the story we hear today in Genesis, Joseph is encountering his brothers again, the very ones who betrayed and sold him into servitude and trafficking to Egypt. As one of the highest commanders in Egypt, Joseph could have exacted his revenge in the most vicious and incredible ways. He could have made his brothers pay dearly for their betrayal and cruelty to him. Their very lives, and indeed the lives of their families, were in Joesph’s hands, and he could have gotten sweet revenge.
But Joseph was a man of God, who followed the God of mercy and forgiveness. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Forgive those who have wronged you. Joseph knew that because God had blessed him so abundantly, he could not turn his back on God and give in to his most evil instincts toward his brothers. We see in both the story of Jesus and Joseph signs of forgiveness and love. Judas gave Jesus the kiss of betrayal and death even though Jesus shared communion and his holiness with Judas. Joseph kissed his brothers in love and forgiveness. In the end, Joseph was blessed, and Judas left this life with guilt.
Following in the way of Jesus is hard, and this is the most difficult side of love we will ever see. But too many things live in our heads rent-free. Too many wounds, unforgiven wrongs, judgments, silent condemnations, stingy moments, anger at enemies, too much of this lives in the hearts and minds of humankind. Love, be generous, judge not, condemn not, and begrudge not anyone in your life. In that way, people will see Christ living and shining forth from you.
We must also, though, be prepared to deal with the times people don’t love us, harbor anger at us, judge us, condemn us, hate us, curse us, even if we are unaware the depths of hard feelings in another human’s heart. As Christ’s followers, we must live up to and be changed by the forgiveness, grace, love, and mercy we receive. In all times and situations, the burden stays on us to show Christ’s love and grace in all times and situations, no matter how hard it may be. Our victory in this life is found in our ability to seek out Christ and live out Christ in every situation.
Some days, faith is harder than others. We may feel just a little bit petty, angry, and “judgy.” We may hope God engages in a little cosmic karma and blows up the septic system of our enemies. I had a friend who said, “I don’t wish evil upon my enemies, just a long series of inconveniences.” I had another person say to me one time, “I do pray for my enemies. I pray that they see Jesus face to face…today.” But the measure of us as followers of Jesus is not how we treat those whom we love easily, but those for whom it is very hard to love. There is nothing more clear and certain that when Jesus says to us, “Do to others as you would like them to do to you.” When we encounter the difficult side of love, may we always turn back to Jesus to lead the way.
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