For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you

 

 "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 cast your 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 fathers 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."   Possibly the theme of these verses is summed up in the last one, which is also understood as the "Golden Rule."  My study Bible calls the Golden Rule a minimum of Christian virtue, as it places humanity's desire for goodness (which St. Cyril of Alexandria calls "the natural law of self-love") as a basic standard of how to treat others.  It says this is but the first step on the path to the perfection of virtue.  The perfection is found in verse 36 of today's reading ("Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is also merciful"), where it is God's mercy, rather than the desire of human beings, which is the standard.  

"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."  Jesus is asking us to break out of the rules of tit-for-tat.  As He does in the Sermon on the Mount, there is built into these statements at minimum a prohibition against revenge, but its main gist is that we are not simply slaves to the social order, to the ways in which others treat us.  He asks us to follow a different agenda, to observe the mercy of God and model ourselves upon that instead.

 

 "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 comments 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 which is pressed down, for example, will give a more generous amount than flour which is fluffed up with pockets of air.  My study Bible adds that the blessings which God intends to put into our hearts are more generous than we can possibly contain, yet this also depends upon the spirit in which we ourselves give and forgive.

In pondering the words in today's reading, I'm wondering how they must have sounded to Christ's listeners.  He seems to be asking people to come out of their ordinary suppositions about life and how to conduct it, and to come to some new conclusion about the power in seeking to be more "like God."  Jesus invites us to consider the mercy of the Most High:  "For He is kind to the unthankful and evil."  God doesn't judge using a worldly standard, but God instead asserts God's own standard, and He asks us to be "sons of the Most High" by being "like" God.  If we consider this ultimately merciful God in the light of the standards of the world at the time, what would we find?  Rulers and leaders of nations used power fairly ruthlessly.  The family of Herod the Great, who ruled Israel during Christ's lifetime, was particularly known for ruthlessness even among the other powerful rulers of the world.  If we look at the contemporary pagan gods and myths, we find a harsh world indeed, and one populated by gods who could be swayed by their own passions and desires.  Taking a look at the plays of classical Greek literature, we would find that justice worked itself out in a kind of "measure for measure" way, so to speak.  Every action resulted in a reaction that worked itself through time:  curses came back to curse, violence came back to the descendants of those who began the cycle, everything worked out in a way that reflected a sort of justice in which acts of hubris would somehow result in requisite "payment" down the line.  There are times when we see glimpses of mercy in the evolution of justice within that body of literature as well, but nothing comes close to this standard that Christ sets.  While it may seem quite a tall order even today, we might want to think about Christ's teachings as those which facilitate God's justice and judgment in the world.  As those who seek to participate in God's kingdom, we are asked to seek to live through guidelines that differ from a worldly standard; we are asked to be gracious and merciful as God is gracious and merciful.  One can simply imagine, then, what God's judgment would mean for those who respond with cruelty; we're not meant to believe that judgment never comes.  But we are asked to consciously cede that judgment to God, and to be aware of what God's judgment is like.  In John's Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples (at the Last Supper), "If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19).  In chapter 17, He prays to the Father, "I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world" (John 17:14-16).  The emphasis is that those whom He has kept in His name, and in the word of God, are not "of" the world, although they are "in" the world.  His teachings in today's reading, about the practice of mercy -- even that which seems unmerited -- becomes a key way one is not "of" the world.  He takes us out of the world in this sense, and asks us to become detached, independent, dispassionate, in order to follow Him, to be more "like God," and so children of God.  In John's chapter 16, Jesus explains to the disciples, "Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment" (John 16:7-8).  We are asked to be "like God," even as the Holy Spirit is at work in the world doing the work of judgment, and our righteousness is to shine like a light within this process.  For how else might judgment take place?  (In this context, see also Romans 12:19-20.)   Let us think about His words and what He asks of us, for so much may be dependent on how we understand discipleship and the mission He proclaims.  This is His new covenant, the way that God must be at work among us -- not so that we are "like" the world, but so that we might be a different kind of light to see by, a different kind of measure.  In gospel of the Kingdom, we become responsible for that which we desire for ourselves -- to live mercy even if it gains contempt or hatred from others.   "For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you."