Love WHO???

Sometimes I don't understand Jesus. He's just a little too 'out there' for me. He's famous for the Sermon on the Mount, but that is a challenging piece! I mean, he takes the old command "don't murder" which is fairly straightforward, and makes it impossible with "don't call anyone else an idiot." Is that fair? (Maybe he only said that because he didn't have to deal with the drivers around here.) Not only that, he tells us we should love, not only our neighbors and friends, but even our enemies. That can't be realistic, can it? Maybe he had something else
in mind, surely not "love your enemies." 

For sure, Jesus didn't follow the normal way of thinking for his day (or ours!). Probably like you, I've been the victim of theft, of lies about me, and violence from other people. It's normal for us to get angry and wish (or do!) harm to someone who has hurt us, and it's just not normal to think about loving somebody who has done us harm. So what could Jesus have meant? Maybe it was just to earn God's approval. In Luke 6:32-34 he says "If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them!"  So maybe we're just building up points somewhere?

I find his real purpose in saying 'love your enemies' in verses 35-36. There he says "you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate." Jesus isn't telling us how to rack up extra points -- he's telling us we need to think and act like God himself. That is much, much different!

You and I are normally good and helpful to those who like us and try to help us. That's just reciprocation. But God, being relational within himself as Father, Son and Spirit is, by his nature, other-centered in love. John says "God is love" and that outward focus and giving is the core of love. When Jesus says "love your enemies" he is also telling us "this is how God loves you, and you're not really that obedient and nice and wonderful yourself, if you'd just admit it. So why do you withhold your love from someone else, just because you don't think they deserve it?" I have to admit, he's got me there. To be like the Father, I have to love my enemies. If I insist on not loving someone, I get in God's way, because he will continue to love that person with or without my help, and it's a lot better to be with God than against God.

But how do I love someone who has lied about me or hurt me? To begin, I have to surrender my own "right" to respond the same way, and admit that my way will just continue the cycle of evil. I have to agree to see that other person as God sees him or her:  as a person he loves (no matter how messed-up a person). I have to let God love that person, whom I don't love, through me. Through my emotions. Through my words. Through my actions. And when I lay down my own emotional baggage and take up Jesus' way (Matt. 11:28-30) I begin to find peace and freedom I didn't have when I was all bottled up in my own emotional chaos. Love my enemies? He had a point, after all.