Bible Passage: Luke 6:27-38
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: February 20, 2022

Bulletin February 20, 2022

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

When I was at the Seminary, we were cautioned against boring people with stories about what happened to us in the “pastor’s office.”  Well, I am going to begin by telling you what happened in my office this week.  It was Monday morning and I had begun my work on this text.  All of a sudden, there is an interruption.  A man came in.  I set down my pen and gave my attention to him.  He began to tell me a little bit of his story.  I anticipated where this was going.  He was going to ask for money.  “Wait for it…”  I was wrong.  As he talked, he called my attention to the fact he was wearing no coat.  He was cold.  He didn’t ask for money…he asked for a coat and hat.

It wasn’t until later, after I had done what I could for the man and he had gone and I sat back down to this text that it really hit me.  Here I was handling, studying, dissecting this portion of Scripture that speaks to us of mercy and coats and God sends me a man in need of mercy and a coat! I tell you this not to tell a story about myself.  But to show you that the stuff of this text is real!  We live in a world where people really need mercy!  Where people really need coats!  Where Jesus really encourages us to be merciful children…Merciful Children…because we have a merciful Father.

As you listened to this text, did the absolute absurdity of what you were hearing, did the preposterousness of it all, strike you?  Listen again to Jesus’ words:  Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. (v. 27)  And then he gives some examples of what this looks like.  Bless those who curse you. (v. 28)  So if someone uses every expletive and tells you where you can go, Jesus tells you to say, “Have a blessed day!”  Jesus says, Pray for those who mistreat you. (v. 28)  And Jesus doesn’t mean that you should pray for lightning bolts to zap them!  That would be more praying “against” not “for” them.

Jesus says,  If someone strikes you on one cheek, offer the other too.  Now Jesus isn’t telling a person in an abusive relationship to stand there and be a punching bag for someone.  Jesus is teaching in a very memorable way that we are not to be governed by the spirit of this world when it comes to revenge.  You slap the world on the cheek and it comes out swinging.  You slap the world in the face and it puts on brass knuckles and punches back.  We are not governed by such thoughts of revenge.

Nor are we governed by thoughts of repayment.  Jesus says, “Give!  And don’t demand it back!”  He says, “Lend, without expecting repayment.”  Once again, the world will give and loan, too.  What interest are you willing to pay?  18% on a credit card?  3% on your mortgage?  And to the world it IS all about repayment!  Try not paying your loans for a while.  There’s this little thing called “foreclosure” in your future.  The Christian is not governed and motivated by such things!  Revenge and profit are not what make the Christian tick.

Doing what Jesus says in this text is almost counter-cultural.  Jesus calls attention to how the enemy-loving mercy of God’s children will be different in this world.  Sending a Valentine to someone who sends you a Valentine is easy, even the world loves those who love it!  Baking a cake for someone who brought you a pie, that’s easy…even the world does that!  Giving a loan to someone who can secure the loan with collateral and who will repay the principal (with interest) in a timely manner is easy!  Even the world lends expecting repayment!  However, send a Valentine to someone who “sends” you an insulting gesture, take a pie to the grouch next door, give money to somebody who asks knowing full-well you are never going to see that again, now we are breathing the rarified air of Christian mercy!

A moment ago we referred to this as “absurd” and “preposterous.”  Why would we ever conduct ourselves this way?  Because mercy like this is not so absurd and preposterous as it may seem, is it?  We have seen it…in, and from, our Father.  This comes out when Jesus says, Do good and lend, expecting nothing in return.  Your return will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the unthankful and the evil.  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (v. 35-36)

This love for enemies of which Jesus speaks, is that not the very thing God has done for us all?  Paul wrote to the Romans:  While we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son. (Romans 5:10)  Think of that!  Paul calls us “enemies” of God!  We were part of a fallen humanity who has collectively gestured at God in the Garden of Eden.  And what does God do?  Does he “hate” us right back?  God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. (John 3:16)  All he does is send his One and Only into this world to be punished for our rebellion and make peace between us and him!

We see God’s One and Only on a trajectory that ends on the cross.  He stands trial before the leaders of his people.  They spit in his face.  They yank out patches of his beard.  He stands silently and waits for them to do the other cheek, too.  This is the very thing Isaiah had prophesied the Savior would say:  I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. (Isaiah 50:6)  They finally lead him out for execution.  They strip him of his outer robe.  He gives them his undergarment, too.   The people are cursing and taunting.  The  abuse is too much.   They finally stretch him out and begin the cruel and final job of hammering spikes through his flesh to hold him to the cross.  The one who has been silent as a sheep before the shearers now finally opens his mouth.  He prays.  He prays for his abusers.  Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.  It makes no sense!  Mercy doesn’t have to make sense; it just needs to help.

Jesus further describes the mercy of our Father, He is kind to the unthankful and the evil (v. 35).  How many in the world will eat three square meals today, cloth themselves in soft, comfy fabrics, and lie down tonight on a Sleep Number mattress and dial in the perfect comfort level and drift off to sleep without a sigh of thanks to God?  And unthanked, God will do it all for them again in the morning.

There is a commercial on TV that says, “We know a thing or two because we’ve seen a thing or two.”  We children of God might say, “We know a thing or two about mercy, because we have seen a thing or two about mercy!”  We have seen it, we have received it from our Father in Jesus Christ.  It is life-changing.  It makes us children, merciful children…because we have a merciful Father!  Amen.

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