Posts
"But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.
"But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
"Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you."
- Luke 6:27-38
In yesterday's reading, we were told that Jesus went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles: Simon, whom He also named Peter, and Andrew his brother; James and John; Philip and Bartholomew; Matthew and Thomas; James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called the Zealot; Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor. And He came down with them and stood on a level place with a crowd of His disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear Him and be healed of their diseases, as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits. And they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch Him, for power went out from Him and healed them all. Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy! For indeed your reward is great in heaven, for in like manner their father did to the prophets. But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full, for you shall hunger. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all men speak well of you, for so did their fathers to the false prophets."
"But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise." My study bible points out that the "Golden Rule" is a minimum of Christian virtue. It places man's desire for goodness (what Cyril of Alexandria would call "the natural law of self-love") as a basic standard of how to treat others. This, suggests my study bible, is just the first step on the path to the perfection of virtue. Perfection is found further on in our reading (verse 36, "Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful").
"But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful." This is part of what it means to be "liberated" and "free" by the truth of Christ. We don't live based solely on what others do. We have a different authority to follow. Our reactions are not knee-jerk reactions, and they're not limited to what we learn only from our immediate environment. We seek to be "God-directed."
"Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you." My study bible suggests here that "mercy precludes human judgment. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over are descriptions of how an honest and generous merchant would measure bulk goods. Flour pressed down, for example, would yield a more generous amount than flour fluffed up. The blessings God intends to put into our hearts are more generous than we can possibly contain, yet this also depends on the spirit in which we ourselves give and forgive."
What does it mean to be in the "liberated zone" of the Kingdom, to be freed by Christ? Certainly one of those meanings is that we are not bound to act and react as we see in the world. We are free to make decisions based upon our relationship to God, to Christ -- our relationship that teaches us what love is and how to bring that Kingdom into the world. Each of us has crises, each of us disappointments. The world will treat us in ways that are hostile, perhaps particularly so if we are different, set apart, those who try to bring this Kingdom into the world. At least, that is what Christ has promised to His disciples in the Gospels. And what are we to do? How do we know which way to go in life? Our relationship as disciples and sheep to the Good Shepherd is the place where we turn to find how we are to be "in the world but not of it." It's the place where we turn for real healing. There is more to life than what meets the eye, and we are here to build the Kingdom in this world, to help to restore and reveal life in connection to Creator. Perhaps our lives will never be perfect, and we can't of ourselves heal and save everything or everyone: that is up to Christ, the Savior. But what we can do is act as if we have a loyalty to something that rises above our immediate circumstances. Do you have abuse in your family? Are there those who would destroy relationships around you? Do you carry a burden or hardship within yourself? These things are not the limits to your life. Neither are they limits to identity. What we understand about Christ's Incarnation as human being is the power to take on a life as we live it in this world, and thereby change and heal life as we live it and must live within an imperfect world. Gregory of Nazianzus says, speaking of Christ's Incarnation: "For that which He has not assumed He has not healed; but that which is united to His Godhead is also saved" (Critique of Apollinarius and Apollinarianism, Epistle 101). In other words, Christ lives as human being, as one of us in this world, so that He heals, and leads the way for us as example. Our healing, thereby, depends on our relationship to Him. His truth is what liberates us enough to say that there is a better way, and to ask for His healing and guidance in our lives. Love doesn't flinch from the truth. It sees things that everybody else can't see. It asks for good judgment. In the Eastern perspective, original sin is not about a "genetic" stain of inheritance from ancestors but about what we inherit as a "sinful" environment. As such, healing whatever it is that might have "stained" us in our lives, whether it is "our fault" or not, begins with Christ's power to heal, to teach us how to respond to an imperfect world in the ways that help to heal and to correct. Each of us shares in this mission. We bear His Kingdom and His light into the world, a mission that liberates.
