Has loving our ememies gotten harder since 9/11? It seemed for a time in the immediate aftermath of the fall of the Twin Towers that nearly everyone had a sense of wanting revenge. For many, perhaps most, that was a passing emotion and clearer heads and deeper faith prevailed. But for others, getting even became the new religion and in some cases even part of a somewhat skewed form of Christianity.
Today’s Gospel has always been challenging. I suspect it always will be. Even Jesus points out that loving those who love you is easy enough that even sinners do it. It doesn’t seem to be human nature to love those who wish us ill or actively harm us, and yet history and the nightly news give us examples of people who have been able to do exactly that.
In our first reading today David has Saul, the king who seeks his life, at a clear disadvantage. While keeping proof that he could have taken the king’s life, David says to Saul, “Today, though the Lord delivered you into my grasp, I would not harm the Lord’s anointed.” This helps to illuminate Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel.
Something we often miss in this teaching is this. Jesus says that if we do these things, “your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” God is merciful to all because all are his creatures. In the same way, we are called to be merciful because we are God’s children and all people belong to God.
People often think of the Old Testament as portraying a harsh and vengeful God, but a rabbinic story tells of the parting of the Red Sea and God standing on the shore weeping “because the Egyptians are my children, too.” Just as children strive to imitate their parents, we are called to know our interconnectedness, to treat all people as our brothers and sisters, children of one God.
And if loving our enemies isn’t enough of a challenge, Jesus also reminds us that doing good needs to have pure motives as well. Perhaps just as hard to overcome is the tendency to do good to those who can return the favor. Completely selfless acts of kindness, like astonishing feats of forgiveness, are not unheard of, but they strike us sometimes as almost superhuman.
In a further twist, Jesus says that if we give without expecting a reward, we will be astonished when we receive a reward beyond our wildest imaginings. If we think we have some sort of cosmic justice system worked out in our souls, Jesus is telling us to let go of that. It’s all about our expectations. If I give something to you and expect you to give something back to me, a subtle element of control enters the transaction. In God’s world, if we give with graceful generosity and no expectations of a return, we will be surprised by the generosity that we in turn receive.
As difficult as today’s Gospel is, we can’t dismiss it as pious words from a goody-goody preacher out of touch with reality. Lukes’ Gospel tells us that Jesus forgave his executioners from the cross. Indeed, his death itself accomplished the forgiveness of a world full of sinners, ourselves not the least. As a result, life eternal was measured back to him—and to us.
