Following Jesus (God): I hope you know what you are getting yourself into!
Luke 6:35 “But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything else back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.”
Don’t get mad at me, I didn’t say it. Hey, I don’t like this verse anymore than you do; I’ve got some people in my life that need some killing. Its versus like these that make me want to take Jesus and nail Him to a cross and show Him whose boss. I mean where does Jesus get off; who does He think He is suggesting that I love my enemies? I’m a part of one of the bloodiest cultures that has ever existed and a statement like this verse has no room in my world. Jesus had to be wrong. Either Jesus is wrong or there are a whole lot of us who claim in the “total authority and infallible word of God…” that must have skipped over this passage. I’ve got a better idea, lets take this page out of our bibles and then the page of the same text in Matthew, and for that matter, any other page that doesn’t fit our lives and rip them out of our bibles. Nobody will know! Let’s just read the pages that justify our own soapboxes and everywhere Jesus gets in our way lets just tell Him to buzz off and if He doesn’t, let’s kill that sucker. After all, if these offensive scriptures are not there we don’t have to read them or follow them. In fact, let’s just keep what we want in our bibles; if it doesn’t fit our agenda, lives, or ways we see the world let’s just get rid of it. As stated earlier, don’t get mad at me; I didn’t say it; Jesus did. Jesus said, “love your enemies;” my (your) problem is not with me; its with Jesus. Jesus is always getting in the way and trying to redefine our lives. Jesus is always trying to act like He is God or something. Maybe the question is front of me (you) this morning is this, “Who’s your daddy?” Maybe this is what Jesus wants us to wrestle with; we are either for or against Him. We either follow Him (totally) or we don’t. The Israelites tried to follow God part way and God kicked them out of the promised land; why would God treat us any different. No where in scripture does Jesus say this is going to be easy; for God’s sake, we crucified Him for trying to redefine our lives. However, no where in scripture does it say we can follow part way. It is verses like this one that really force us to choose whether we are going to follow the world or follow Jesus; these verses separate the sheep from the goats. It would be so easy to call it quits right now; to just forget this following Jesus thing; to just do it half way; it is times like today that only through God’s grace can I say, “Jesus is Lord and regardless of the world I pledge my allegiance to Christ and I will follow Him.” It is times like this morning that only through God’s grace I say, “yes Jesus, you are right; I should love my enemies and the only way that is going to happen is if you change my heart and be a stronger presence in my life then the sin of my life that wants to see my enemies destroyed. Jesus, have mercy on my soul!!!”
God, I don’t know whether to thank you this morning or damn your name. I do know that your word cuts me to my core and refuses to leave one stone unturned in my life. Your command from the scriptures this morning to love my enemies is such a radical claim in the world I live in. It is a claim that can get you killed. However, I know that this claim is central to your gospel and central to the life of the early church, which made Christianity stand out from all other religions of its time. It’s as if you are revealing yourself to us through your son, Jesus Christ. This is a claim that we would never come up with ourselves; it must be you. God, change my heart; help me to see things new, and give me the strength to follow you. I pray that you would help me to love my enemies; to not hope for destruction in their lives. I pray that your grace would be active in their lives that they would come to know you; that they would come to believe in you; that they would read this text and be changed as well; that they would not hate me but through your grace make a decision to love me. I know this is a huge request and there is no way possible this can become a reality in my world unless you are willing to get involved. Come Lord Jesus, come, and change us to be like you! Amen!
Click Here for Crossroads Church!
