By The Rev. Deacon Virginia Jenkins-Whatley
Please join me in prayer:
Lord, take my words and speak through them, take our thoughts and think through them,
and in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen
For several weeks now the gospel has been focused on God’s love.
Today we look at learning to love like God.
Each one of us can think about a time in our lives when someone did or said something that hurt us. It hurt so bad that you couldn’t forget it. We all know what it is like however it hurts even more when it is someone we once loved or respected, a former spouse, good friend, family member, a member of your church .
Resentment begins to build up and you want revenge. It grows to the point where you become enraged or anxiety begins eating away at your souls.
Jesus has some hardcore words on the subject of resentment and how to deal with it. “if someone slaps you on your one cheek, turn to them the other also.” “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you”
These are hard, hard words
I will not lie. There are somethings that Jesus has said that take you back and makes you think and pray on what you can accept or not. God forgive me, I can’t see anyone standing still and letting someone slap you around intentionally and you walk away like nothing happened. You ask yourself is this considered an act of love.
In some neighborhoods they would consider you weak, easy, a coward, a “punk” if you did nothing to stop someone that deliberately hurt you. This can be an attraction or invitation for other enemies to do the same.
When evil meets no opposition, but only patient endurance, it at last meets an opponent which is more than its match. And the Cross of Jesus Christ is the ultimate power in the world which proves that suffering love can and does defeat evil.
There is no doubt this teaching is hard, as is much of what Jesus teaches. Its not just some simple recipe for self help, although it does help us. It does affect our thinking, our inclinations, our desire, our will. It might be tempting to read this passage of scripture and say we do this forgiving stuff because if we do, we will have a great reward.
I mean, who doesn’t want to hear something like, if you love the one that hurt you, then Jesus will love you all the more, and your reward will be great, you might even get a better seat in heaven. But reading this passage that way erases grace because it infers that the love of God is conditional and transactional but its not.
The great reward has nothing to do with full pockets, big houses or even a fancier room in heaven. It does have everything to do with who we become, for there is much grace and transformation needed for us to live out the radical faith Jesus calls us to. There is no greater reward than to be seeking to love and act the way Jesus acts toward us.
God loved us while we were yet sinners or better God loved us while we were still enemies of God. Be merciful, Jesus says, “just as the Father is merciful.
Love your enemies just like the Father does
Love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return, if you do, you will have a great reward. You will be acting the way the children of the Most High act for God is kind to ungrateful and wicked people. Be compassionate just as your father is compassionate.
For it is loving like Jesus loves that we find true freedom, true peace, true joy and true life.
Jesus know that we will never love our enemies without the amazing grace that transforms us daily and makes us different than we are.
What changes us and allows us to love is God’s grace; a grace that is much, much greater than sin.
When we begin to get just a glimpse of seeing other people the way God sees people we begin the journey of learning to love others the way God loves others. Only when we discover that this is the kind of God we have, will we have any chance of following today’s scripture the way we live our lives.
To God be the glory.
In closing, what the world needs now is love, sweet love. No not just for some but for everyone
May the church say Amen