But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. ~ Luke 6:27-28
I ended yesterday with a question: who are you called to love. And today, maybe the question is "why are we called to love." I mean, this quote from Jesus seems crazy! Why would he want us love our enemies? Why bless people who curse us or pray for those who abuse us?
Can such love be freeing and redemptive? Could that be the reason?
Perhaps in our current climate this seems especially impossible.
I'm sure there are many reasons why. Perhaps for some it is because it feels more comfortable and self-affirming to be right than to let go of our beliefs, opinions, and anger.
Perhaps for others it's because they have't experienced love from the place they were meant to: from family. So loving is a skill they haven't learned yet.
For some it may be that they have been taught to hate through experience and influence.
And maybe for others it just feels scary: what if they get rejected? What if they get hurt further?
Jesus does not promise here that if you love your enemies that they'll love you back. Maybe, with hope and time they will. I've experienced this. Maybe not with what we'd think of as a real enemy, but with someone with which I had a difficult relationship. Over time and practice, love broke us both down.
Loving is a action, not a noun here. We can love without wanting to become best friends with a person - or even really liking them. We can love them even if we need to keep a safe distance away from them fo our safety.
What the act of loving does over and over in scripture is transformation.
The more I love, the more I am loved.
The more I love, the more relationship thrives.
The more relationship thrives, the more the world is transformed.
It takes practice. And sometimes we have to start small. Practice with the person driving the car who cuts you off. Practice with the co-worker who annoys you endlessly.
Practice with the boss who didn't give you a raise, or the parent who criticized you at the holiday dinner table.
Then practice with the person in the other political party, or the other religion, or the other sexual orientation, or the other race.
And finally practice with a person who betrayed you or lied about you or persecuted you.
Each time you'll find yourself transformed - redeemed - ready to love again and to love even more.
Lord of love, you have loved us so completely even when I'm sure we ticked you off more than a little bit! Help us to learn to love just as graciously! Amen.
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