Based upon Luke 6: 27-38
Offered to the congregation of the Community Church of Chester, NJ on February 20, 2022
Mel Prestamo, Ruling Elder PCUSA
This morning, the lectionary takes us to one of the most notable of Jesus’ teachings. We have here what is referred to as the “Golden Rule”. It may be the most quoted phrase in the Gospels next to John 3:16. But my questions for us today are, what was so special about the Golden Rule and how should it impact us? How are we supposed to respond to this teaching? What’s so golden about the Golden Rule?
Throughout the theological and philosophical history of mankind, there have been many theologians and philosophers who have taught something like Jesus’ Golden Rule. Here, let me read a couple of them for you and see if you can pick out the difference.
Hillel was a great Jewish Rabbi several generations before the time of Jesus. He was once asked to teach the whole of Jewish law while standing on one leg. I don’t know if this was an endurance challenge to prove the breath of his knowledge of the law or simply a request to simplify the whole of Jewish law. You know after the 10 Commandments that God gave to Moses, Jewish teachers created over 600 mitzvahs detailing how those commandments impacted daily life. Hillel responded, “What is hateful to thee, do not do to another.” This is similar to Jesus’ Golden Rule but not quite the same. If I can paraphrase what Hillel was saying it might be, “If you don’t like being on the receiving end, don’t be the giver.”
Philo, was another great Jewish thinker in the city of Alexandria. He said, “What you hate to suffer, do not do to anyone else.” Sounds the same. Isocrates, a Greek orator, said, “What things make you angry when you suffer them at the hands of others, do not do to other people.” The Stoics taught, “What you do not wish to be done to yourself, do not do to any other.” These all are pretty much the same.
Confucius, the great Chinese philosopher was once asked, “Is there one word which may serve as a rule of life?” He responded, “Is it not “reciprocity”? What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”
All of these teachings from Teachers, theologians and philosophers all have a similar ring to them. And today, people [even Christians] use some form of these sayings as if they were different versions of Jesus’ Golden Rule. But they’re not.
All of these teachings and how we use them today, are all on the flip side of what Jesus is teaching. All of these are negative versions of Jesus’ Golden Rule.
What Hillel, Philo and Isocrates said was, if you don’t like something to be done to you, don’t do it to another. In other words, if you don’t like being spat upon, don’t spit. If you don’t like being cheated, don’t cheat. If you don’t like being lied about, don’t lie. All of these are based on the negative premise of what we don’t want to happen to us. I don’t want to be spat upon, lied about or cheated. So, if you don’t spit, lie or cheat me, I won’t spit, lie or cheat you. These teachings don’t really express a care or concern for the wellbeing of the other, your neighbor. In each case, our own well-being is the central focus of these teachings.
Confucius’ statement is a bit more curious, though. He answered by using the word “reciprocity”. “What you do not want done to you, do not do to others.” But reciprocity, also allows for further response, doesn’t it? It allows you to say, if you hurt me, then I hurt you. Tit for Tat. That word reciprocity leaves that door open for a whole host of nasty things to follow. And isn’t that apparent in all of these philosophies and teachings. The door is always open for reciprocity. They create cycles in which pain and anger continually come around.
Now here’s a side bar thought I’m going to slip into our conversation. You can think about it as we go forward. God’s ultimate aim for creation is to bring it all back into Shalom with God. That is, that God’s Peace should once again reign throughout all creation; not the chaos we experience now; not the sinned filled world we have created. If we follow these negative theses for living with one another and have them be the basis for how humanity gets along, then how does any of it promote God’s Shalom in creation. Tit for Tat is NOT a basis for building Shalom.
So, all of these teachings may appear worthy; they may appeal to us and make some kind of sense; or seem to express some element of fairness; but they all fall woefully short of what Jesus is asking of us.
I said before that these teachings are negative in their postulation and premise. Jesus, however, proposes a positive postulation. Jesus doesn’t say use your neighbor’s actions as a measure for how you should act. All of these prior teachings use as a rule, what you do not like done to you. But Jesus teaches that we should be the first to act. We should act with kindness and love, regardless of how your neighbor acts towards us. Love your neighbor as yourself, first.
Now listen, I don’t want you to think that the bar that Jesus is setting is so unreasonably high that it just isn’t possible for us to accomplish. I don’t want you to say, “You know what. It’s a nice thought but, really? Let’s just skip over this passage and jump over to John 3:16. You know that part where it says God gives up God’s Son for our salvation. This love your neighbor thing is not something I can do. I just can’t love that jerk next door. You don’t know him. If you did, you would understand why I can’t love him. He’s an idiot!.”
Hey, we’ve all been there. Yeah. So, let’s break this teaching down into something we can do.
Our reading from Luke today begins, Jesus says, “to anyone who listens”, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who ill-use you.” This is a phrase that we shutter the most at. How can we do that? How can we love the terrorist, love the murderer, love the racist, or love the enemy threatening to launch nuclear missiles at us and any others that would do us harm? Don’t we have to be on our guard? Don’t we have to build fences to protect ourselves? After all, good fences, make good neighbors. How can we love them when they are out to destroy us? All of these arguments are swirling around us every day, and they distract us from what we are being called to be.
So, how do we as American Christians living in a hostile world, love all of these enemies?
Well first, let’s understand what the word for “love” is that Jesus was using and what it is he is asking us to do.
There are three words for our word love in the Greek language. There is “eran” which describes a passionate love that is the strong, emotional and heated love between two people for each other. That is not the word that Jesus uses here. So, Jesus is not asking us to go and kiss our enemies on the lips.
The second Greek word for love is, “philein” [phil-lain]. This is a word for love that describes our feelings for our nearest and dearest family and friends. It is an affectionate feeling of the heart. But again, this is not the word for love that Jesus uses here. So, He is not asking us to care for our enemies as we would our children, family members or our best friend.
The word that Jesus uses is “agapan”. Agapan means a feeling of benevolence towards other people. It means that no matter what others do to us, we will never allow ourselves to desire anything for them but their highest good and that we will deliberately, with a “purpose of mind” set out to do only good to them and to be kind to them. That’s a mouth full. I’ve just used fifty words to define one Greek word. So let me boil it down so that we can focus on one key phrase, that is, “with a purpose of mind.”
We cannot love our enemies as we do our partners. We cannot love our enemies as we do our children, or as we do our closest friends here in this congregation. That would be exceedingly difficult, superhuman in fact. These are forms of love that are spontaneous, that come deep from within our being and sometimes cannot be understood or controlled. We cannot conger up an erotic or familial love for our enemies. And that is not what Jesus is asking us to do. That is not the love that Jesus is using here.
The love that Jesus is calling us to is not something of the heart. It is of the will, of the mind. It is something that [only by the grace of Jesus] we can “will” ourselves to do. This is what separates Jesus’ teachings from the former negative ones that preceded him. It is not unduly difficult to keep ourselves from harming our neighbors if they do not harm us. But it is very different to go out of our way to do a good to others. This is the essence of the Christian ethic. It is based upon doing the extra thing. Walking the extra mile, giving up your tunic when a cloak is asked for, turning the other cheek. It consists, not of refraining from doing bad things, but actively doing good things.
In this passage this morning, Jesus asks, “If you love those who love you, what special grace is there in that? Even sinners do that.” Your enemies love those who love them. “If you are kind to people who are kind to you, what is special about that? Even sinners do that.”
That is what falls short with all the previous negatively based teachings. They are all based upon what others do. But Jesus says that if you follow me, if you are listening, you must do more. You must go further. You have to make a concerted effort of the mind to love your neighbor and Jesus tells us, that God will provide the grace to help us to do that. He knows we can’t do it on our own. And yes, that is a fair response to Jesus’ commandment to us to Love our neighbor. We CAN’T do it on our own. We can’t love the jerk next door on our own. You can’t. I can’t. We will need help. And where does that help come from. It comes from Jesus, our ROCK, our source of strength. Jesus tells us that help will always be available. We can access it through prayer. It is there in the Spirit that Jesus sent to guide and walk beside us.
But why? Why has Jesus set this high standard apart from any teaching that mankind had developed on its own previous to Jesus? Well, Jesus tells us, “Your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the Most High.” Now that is nice, and it would be nice to cut the line off right there and end it with a period. Right? We get a reward. That’s why we do it, right? Good enough, let’s go home.
But Jesus is not finished, he continues… “BECAUSE He [that HE is the Father, it is God] is kind to both the thankless and the wicked. Wait! What? Yes. Hear Jesus’ words again, “God is kind to both the thankless and the wicked.” Jesus continues, “Be merciful AS YOUR FATHER IN HEAVEN is merciful; do NOT judge and you will not be judged; do NOT condemn and you will not be condemned; FORGIVE and you will be forgiven.” Jesus tells us to do these things because our Father in heaven does them and because doing them will make us more like the Father.
And that is the bottom line for Jesus isn’t it? Don’t you see that? Jesus calls us in all ways to know who the Father is and to be more like that Father. The Father is kind. Be kind. The Father is merciful. Be merciful. Do not judge or condemn but be forgiving for the Father is forgiving. Doing these things brings us closer to the Father. Now Jesus knows that we cannot love our neighbors as we do our partners. Jesus knows we can’t even love them with the love we have for our children and friends. But with God’s grace, Jesus is asking us to “set our minds to the task”, to make the decision to do good for all of those who are against us. That is Agape love. That is a love that we can and must decide to have for others.
CHARGE:
So, my charge to you this week is a simple one. It is to go out and love the jerk next door. Yes. You will need help. So, I say to you again, go to Jesus in prayer and ask for that help.
BENEDICITON:
May the God of mercy and forgiveness make his face to shine upon you and give you Peace.
