There came a point when our three
youngest children refused to play basketball with their older brother. Part of it was because he was bigger and
stronger than them, but the bigger reason was because he was always changing
the rules of the game. It is difficult
to beat someone when the rules of the game keep changing . . . so, for a while,
in the Keener household, no one would play basketball against John Andrew. And, I couldn’t argue against them. It is no fun when the rules of the game keep
changing. It is frustrating.
Imagine the frustration of those
disciples who were listening to Jesus in our scripture reading this
morning. First, they hear that God has
turned the world upside down and inside out . . . everything they thought was
right, is now the opposite. They hear
that those on the short end of the stick are blessed, and that those with the
silver spoon are cursed. Not quite the
way that they were used to. And, now,
Jesus is telling them that they need to act differently towards others;
especially those who are their enemies, those who hate and curse them, those
who hit and steal from them, and those who demand things from them. Instead of having adverse reactions towards
them, Jesus tells them that they should embrace them, welcome them, and love
them. In fact, he tells them that they
are to . . . “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
This wasn’t quite the way that life was
being lived. Quite the opposite . . .
and, now, Jesus was telling them that they had to change the way that they
lived and treated others. This is not
the way life was meant to be lived. You
do not love your enemies . . . you wipe your enemies out! Do good to those who hate you . . . no, you
be mean to them! Pray for those who
mistreat you . . . no way, you wish for karma, that is what you do. Turn the other cheek when someone punches you
. . . no, you punch back! That is the
way that life is lived, not this wishy washy wimpy “love thy neighbor” stuff
that Jesus was telling them. That is not
the way they had been taught.
But here we see Jesus change the rules
of the game. Jesus completely flips the
rules and the way that the game of life is to be played. With Jesus having told them that God sees
life and the world differently than humans do, he is now telling them how these
differences are played out . . . how God sees life being lived. It was bad enough that Jesus shocked the
people once, but now he was just compounding the shock and frustration. I am sure more than one person listening that
day had second thoughts about Jesus and what he was asking his followers to do.
Despite the affect that Jesus was having
on the people, he does not change the importance of this foundation of his
ministry . . . he does not back down.
No, he means what he says . . . it comes down to relationships and how
those relationships are lived. For Jesus
all relationships are based on a simple premise . . . to treat others as you
would want to be treated . . . relationships that are grounded in love.
Even though Jesus spoke those words
several thousands of years ago . . . even though they have been written in our
Bibles for a long, long time before any of us were here . . . I think that they
are still shocking. I think that they
speak of a way of living that is not quite up to what our society values and
deems as important. All we have to do is
to watch our televisions, listen to the radio, read our newspapers, listen to
the talk of those around us . . . our society and the whole world is a mess. It is far cry from coming anywhere close to
what Jesus is talking about this morning in our scripture reading.
Think about it . . . listen to what is
being said on our national and global stage.
If someone is not with us or for us, they are against us. If they are against us, they are our
enemies. Our enemies are to be
eliminated. Same goes for those who
hate, curse, or mistreat us . . . they are evil, they are our enemies . . .
they must be destroyed so they cannot hurt us.
If someone strikes us, we strike back; after all, the Old Testament
tells us it is an “eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. If someone begs, well they need to get up off
their rear ends and go to work . . . pick themselves up by their bootstraps and
fend for themselves. We live in a time in
which we are taught to watch out for number one . . . to take care of
ourselves. Isn’t that the message that
we have been pretty much bombarded with for quite a while now? Aren’t those the rules we are supposed to be
playing the game with . . . the way we are supposed to live life?
Those rules are a no where close to what
Jesus is telling his followers to do when it comes to living life . . . then or
now. Not much has changed since the time
of Jesus. What Jesus is asking is for
everyone to change the rules . . . rules that no one is too certain they want
to change. Shoot, we are used to the way
that things are. Who wants to make the
game harder . . . who wants to make life even more difficult? As I said earlier, no one likes when the
rules of the game are changed.
But, that is the way the game is played
if you follow Jesus. They are played by
his rules . . . God’s rules. Remember
that blessing comes from relationship . . . relationship between the individual
and God, relationship between the individual and others. Here Jesus defines the way that those
relationships are to be lived . . . by treating others the way that you would
want to be treated . . . to love others as you love yourself. Anything less is not good enough.
Once again, I ask you to look at the
world around you . . . does this look like a world in which people love
themselves? Hardly . . . it looks more
like a world in which no one loves themselves as we are surrounded by
nastiness, threats, and demonizing of those we call different and our
enemies. We see it all around us . . .
each . . . and . . . every day! We live
in a world where it seems that no one loves themselves because if they did the
world would not be the way that it is.
If the people of the world were doing what Jesus asked . . . treating
each other as they would want to be treated . . . of loving them as they loved
themselves, we would see a completely different world. We would begin to see the Kingdom of God as
it was meant to be.
Think about it.
We know the rules that Jesus brings to
the table. We know how those rules
conflict with what we have learned in our society and world. We know how difficult it is to change . . .
to let go . . . and, to learn and live by new rules. It is hard . . . real hard. We all struggle with it each and every
day. I know that I do. I know that when I am commuting to the
university during the week and someone cuts me off, my gut reaction is to signal
to them that they are “number one”; but, Jesus calls upon me to grin and bear
it . . . to treat them as I would want to be treated . . . to love them. It is not easy, but it is getting easier when
I remember the words of Jesus asking me to do so.
It is hard. Jesus never said that it would be easy. At the same time, he did say we had to try .
. . we had to try to see our enemies as members—brothers and sisters—of our
family, God’s family. To love those who
hate us, bless those who curse us, and pray for those who treat us like dirt .
. . he told us to do this. He told us
that we shouldn’t hit back, that we not seek revenge, shouldn’t be mean. He told us to love others as we love ourselves,
and to treat them as we would want to be treated. He changed the rules . . . shattered them all
. . . and, called us to love.
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