If you would turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter 6; you can find that on page 861 in the Bibles located in the pew in front of you.
Schadenfreude. Schadenfreude is a word that comes from the German words meaning “harm” and “joy.” It’s the satisfaction that comes from someone else’s misfortune. So for example, a few weeks ago, the North Carolina Tarheels defeated the Duke Blue Devils in the NCAA Final Four. It was the first time that those two teams had ever met in the NCAA tournament. And if it wasn’t sweet enough that the win for North Carolina secured for them a spot in the National Championship game, what made it better was that it meant sending out Duke’s coach, Mike Krzyzewski in the last game of his career with a loss. His last game – a loss to their biggest rival on the biggest stage of all! It was the icing on the cake. It was the cherry on top. It was the chef’s kiss! That’s schadenfreude. And some say we are living in the age of schadenfreude where it’s fun to have a villain on the other team or across the political aisle. There’s something entertaining about watching a rival mess up or about doing better than your rival. And the internet and social media makes for an easy way to spread and even to relish in the misfortune of others.
But we don’t do that, right? We don’t find any joy in talking about someone else’s flaws or mistakes behind their backs, do we? We don’t caricature the ideas of those with opinions different from us and then not only dismiss their ideas but dismiss them as people as well, right? Or are we sometimes guilty of that? Are we sometimes guilty of drawing lines between ourselves and others and then acting in a way that betrays Christ’s call on us to love our neighbor? Well Jesus’ teaching in Luke chapter 6 puts us right in the crosshairs. This is what it means to follow Jesus. This is what it means to live like Him. This is what it means to love like Him. And what we’ll find from Luke chapter 6 is that it’s not always easy and it’s not always comfortable, but this is Christ’s word to us tonight. We’ll see three things. We’ll see bad news, worse news, and then finally good news. Bad news, worse news, and then good news. Let’s pray and then ask God’s help before we read this passage tonight.
Father, we thank You for Your Word. We praise You for this passage’s teaching from Jesus’ own ministry. There’s so much here, so much that we cannot even begin to cover tonight, and yet we pray that Your Spirit would work and apply and teach and use the Word for the purpose for which You sent it; that You would convict us and teach us and make us into the image of Christ as we hear Your Word, as we respond by faith, and seek to live out our lives for Your glory. We pray all of this in Jesus’ name, amen.
Luke chapter 6, starting in verse 12:
“In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God. And when day came, he called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles: Simon, whom he named Peter, and Andrew his brother, and James and John, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon who was called the Zealot, and Judas the son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.
And he came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon, who came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. And those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all the crowd sought to touch him, for power came out from him and healed them all.
And he lifted up his eyes on his disciples, and said:
‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.
Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil, on account of the Son of Man! Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for so their fathers did to the prophets.
But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation.
Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry.
Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.
Woe to you, when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets.
But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.
If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.
Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.’
He also told them a parable: ‘Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? Everyone who comes to me and hears my words and does them, I will show you what he is like: he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when a flood arose, the stream broke against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house was great.’”
The grass withers and the flowers fall but the Word of our God endures forever.
Bad News
This is a section of Luke’s gospel that describes a time of general popularity for Jesus. We read in verse 17 where it says that “a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem” and from Tyre and Sidon, they came to hear Jesus and they came “to be healed of their diseases.” This was a diverse crowd that had come from a considerable distance away. There were most likely in this crowd, included both Jews and Gentiles, and they had traveled from 50, 75, maybe even more miles away to check out what Jesus was all about. But even in this time of relative popularity, we see here that there were already signs of trouble for Jesus. Remember what we read last week, the very last verse that we read in chapter 6 verse 11. It says that the Pharisees were “filled with fury and they discussed what they might do to Jesus.” And what do we find here in these verses that we just read tonight? We read that Jesus chooses out of the disciples, out of this crowd that was around Him, He chooses twelve men to intentionally train and to equip and yet one of them, Judas Iscariot, became a traitor. And we know what that means, don’t we? It means that Judas will later betray Jesus to the authorities and he will hand Jesus over in order to be executed.
So even though this is not a time of full-blown animosity towards Jesus, not yet, that day is coming. But there is trouble. And part of the message of this passage is that Jesus’ disciples can expect to face the same kinds of trouble simply because they are Jesus’ disciples. In fact, the expectation of hostility is in the background of everything that Jesus says in this passage, both in the blessings and in the woes and also in His teaching that He gives to His disciples. Verse 22 talks about when people hate you and exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil. Verses 27 to 35 are about enemies. It’s about those who hate you and curse you and abuse you and strike you on the cheek and take away your goods. This is a daunting prospect that Jesus is holding out before His disciples in this passage. And He says it was the same thing that the people had done to the prophets that had come before them. Jesus says elsewhere in John chapter 15, He says that “if the world hates you, know that it hated Me before it hated you.” And He says that “a servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you. And all these things they will do to you on account of My name.”
What’s Jesus saying? He’s saying that His disciples can expect opposition and even enmity for the sake of following Jesus. We know that to be true, don’t we? We know that is true in a secular culture, living in a secular culture. Even if we do not face outright persecution in our day, just ask the people, the brothers and sisters in Christ for whom we are praying on Sunday mornings on that Watch List – the 50 most persecuted countries in the world. Ask them if they face opposition and enmity for following Jesus Christ. And it is in ways that we cannot hardly fathom. And that’s what Jesus is saying to His disciples here.
And there should be something significant to take from the fact that this is the first really concentrated section of teaching from Jesus in the gospel of Luke. This is what is oftentimes called, “The Sermon on the Plain.” There are many similarities that you find in this passage with “The Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew chapters 5 to 7. This is the first concentrated section of teaching in this gospel. And what is the main point? The main point of emphasis is that there is enmity that Jesus’ disciples will face for following Him. What should that tell us? It should tell us that there is a cost to following Jesus, that not everyone is going to accept or support your commitment to follow Jesus as the Christ. There’s a cost. And the government and the media, they may not respect our faith and our way of life, but when do we ever expect that they would? When do we ever get the idea that they were going to do that? After all, Thomas Jefferson may have spoken about religious liberty, but Jesus didn’t. Jesus talked about persecution and mistreatment and trials. And don’t think that your fellow soccer moms and soccer dads or your boss or your college professors or your fraternity brothers or even your family is necessarily going to make it easy for you to be a Christian, to follow Christ. In fact, we can expect challenges on many of those fronts. And we have to be careful because the love of popularity, a desire to fit in and to go with the flow, will eat out the heart of sincere Christian discipleship. There’s a cost. There’s a cost to following Jesus and it may even bring conflict among our very closest relationships.
But there’s also something very simple that we cannot miss as we think about that enmity that is to come to Jesus’ disciples, and it is this – It’s that the conflict comes from following Jesus. The conflict does not come from being rude or abrasive or loud or arrogant. The conflict does not come from trying to pick a fight or win an argument. It comes from living like Jesus. It comes from loving like Jesus in a fallen world, in the midst of opposition. Really that leads to the second point of this passage. This is not just the bad news, but the worse news is that we are called to love our enemies.
Worse News
Our family was watching a movie the other night and there was a party scene, a street party scene where people were out in the street, they were laughing, they were eating, they were dancing and having a good time. And one of the main characters told a joke to some of his friends. It was one of those “bad news, worse news” kind of jokes you’ve probably heard before. It’s where the doctor comes to the patient and says, “I have bad news and I have worse news.” “What’s the bad news?” “The bad news is you’re going to die in 24 hours.” “That’s really bad! What could be worse than that?” “Well it’s that I was looking for you all of yesterday!” And he got a laugh from all of his friends and in some way the humor was not so much the joke but the response of all of his friends to the joke. But we’ve heard jokes like that; we’ve heard stories like that – bad news, worse news. There’s something like that in this passage. The bad news – there will be enmity. The worse news is – you’re called to love those who are your enemies. We’re called to love the ones, to love the ones who will hate you and exclude you and revile you and scorn your name as evil for the sake of Jesus’ name.
This is both the difficulty and the beauty of the Christian ethic. That it is to love without limits. It is to love spouse and child and friend and neighbor and fellow church member – yes. But it’s more than that. It’s to love even our enemies. I’m sure that this may be the most relevant and needed topic for us in our day because we live in a time that is so much characterized by anger and outrage and shouting. There can be bitter conflict and division everywhere, in everything from politics to church denominations. There can be conflict and division in everything from marriages to airline flights. It seems to be everywhere we go, everywhere we look.
This past semester in my New Testament Survey class at Belhaven, I asked the students what were some of the most pressing ethical issues that they were facing as college students. What do you think they said? Their answer, and the topic that we discussed more than anything else and longer than anything else, it was not race, it was not gender, it was not sexual ethics. It was forgiveness. It was forgiveness. How do we treat people when they have hurt us? How do we deal with the mistakes that we ourselves have made and how do we move on from those things? Forgiveness. That surprised me, but that’s what’s on people’s minds. Forgiveness is on people’s minds. And I think the reason for that is because there seems to be so little of it going on around us. And we can get swept up, can’t we, in acting the very same way. And we “fight fire with fire” as the saying goes. But that is not the way of Jesus because the way of Jesus is the way of love. It’s a love that looks different from the way the world loves. We see that in verses 32 to 34. He says, “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you, for even sinners love those who love them.” We’re used to reciprocated love, but that’s not what Jesus is calling us to. He’s calling us to a love that extends even to our enemies.
And just in case we were tempted to define love on our own terms or to soften some of what Jesus is calling us to in this passage, He spells out explicitly what that means to love our enemies. He says it’s to do something good for them and it’s to speak well of them and to speak well to them. It’s to pray for them and to be generous and kind and merciful and forgiving. It means not getting even and not being stingy and not holding grudges. One commentator says that “this is to be the distinctive characteristic of Christians.” And there’s so much more that we could say from these verses about what it means to love our enemies, but you get the point, don’t you? This kind of love is demanding. It’s risky. This kind of love is costly. And very often it’s the furthest thing from what we want to do, the furthest thing from what we are even capable of doing.
And yet this is the way that Jesus loves. This is the way that Jesus loves. Because it was when we were enemies, Christ came. He came to give to us the gift of salvation and to bring us into the family of God. When we were in rebellion against God in our sin and deserving of God’s wrath and judgment, Jesus came and He took the punishment that our sin deserves and He gives to us in its place mercy and forgiveness, grace, a love that is unimaginable, unmeasurable, and it is free. Paul says in Romans 5, “If, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by His life.” We were enemies and Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. And if we were to be honest, it’s not just that He loved us when we were enemies, but isn’t there in all of us a tendency to running away and fleeing from Jesus and doing our own thing, even as His disciples? And He continues to love us and to pursue us and to show us His grace and His mercy and His forgiveness and His love which knows no limits. That’s His love. That’s Jesus’ love for enemies. And if we follow Jesus, then we are called to love like Jesus. He says in verse 40, “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone, when he is fully trained, will be like his teacher.” We are called to love our enemies as Christ has loved us. And as one writer says, “Our enemies are not those against whom we cherish hostility, but they are those who harbor hostility against us and that love is nowhere more glorified than when it dwells in the midst of enemies.” The kind of love that Jesus commands here, it displays the beauty of the Gospel and it shows to us what should be the powerful witness of a Christian life. It’s a life of love. A life of love even for our enemies. Because if we can love our enemies, can’t we love anyone? Who is it that we cannot love if we can love our enemies?
R.C. Sproul told a story one time about a Christian counselor that he knew. And the counselor had a man come to him who said he wanted to divorce his wife because he did not love her anymore. The counselor said to him, “Well, the Bible tells you, ‘Husbands, love your wives.’” And he said, “Love her? I can’t even be in the same house with her anymore.” The counselor said, “Well, suppose you were to separate from her for a time. The Bible also says, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” He said the man became exasperated. He said, “Love her? I don’t have anything but enmity in my heart for her.” And you know where it’s going. He takes him to this passage. Christ says, “Love your enemies.”
You see what he was doing. He was trying to demonstrate that love is not merely an emotion. It is a command to the will. And if we are called to love our enemies, if we can love our enemies in obedience to Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit, then we can love spouse and family and neighbor and church member. We can love whomever, because the call to love our enemies contains within its orbit the call to love in every relationship. How do we do that? We do that by doing the very same things that Christ commands for us as we are called to love our enemies. It’s to do good to them and to speak well of them, to speak well to them, to pray for them, to show them generosity and mercy and kindness and forgiveness. To turn the other cheek. Not to keep score and to let go of grudges. In other words, it’s to do the golden rule. Verse 31, Jesus says, “As you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.” That’s the way we’re called to love. That’s not easy, is it? It’s easier said than done. But that love is demonstrated perfectly for us. That love is demonstrated perfectly to us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus by which we have been made a new creation by faith, a new creation that is able to love in a new way and to live and to love like Jesus. That’s what Jesus is calling us to do as His disciples, as His followers. So yes, maybe it’s worse news, maybe it’s harder than we ever thought possible, and yet this is the beauty of the Gospel of the Christian life, of the Christian ethic – to love in this way.
Good News
Now finally and briefly in closing, it’s not all bad news. You know it’s not all bad news. There’s got to be good news, right? There is good news. And here’s the good news – it’s that the way of Jesus is the way of blessing. The way of Jesus is the way of blessing. There’s a writer for a national magazine. He writes a weekly column on happiness. He also teaches a course at Harvard on happiness and he hosts an online event for that magazine every year on happiness. Everyone wants to be happy, right? And the writer says that the four main ingredients of happiness are faith, family, work and friends, but that most people search for happiness in money, power, pleasure and honor. The point is this. That we look for happiness in the wrong places so often. And when Jesus pronounces who it is that is blessed in verses 20 and 22, that word “blessed” can also be translated “happy.” “Happy are the poor. Happy are those who are reviled and hated.”
What Jesus is doing there is He is establishing a whole different set of values from what the world considers will bring happiness or blessing. It’s an upside-down way of life in God’s kingdom that brings blessing. True blessing, real happiness is found in being a member of the kingdom of God. It’s in looking for satisfaction and joy in the things that come from God and finding the reward that He promises will be great in heaven. Jesus says that a life that is built on anything else, it will crumble and it will fall. “But everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and does them, he is like a man who built a house and laid a foundation on the rock. A flood arose, the stream broke against the house, and it could not shake it because it had been well-built,” verses 47 and 48. An ethic that starts with love for enemy makes no sense. It’s dangerous. It seems so reckless, doesn’t it? But this is the way of Jesus. This is the way of the Gospel. This is the way of the kingdom of God. This is the way to blessing today. “Blessed are…” This is blessing today, and it is reward tomorrow.
We are called to live like this. We really are. Jesus is really calling us to love with this sort of love. And I imagine that for all of us, everyone here tonight, that there are attitudes in our hearts, there are relationships in our lives that we need to change and we need to reorient in light of the grace of God to us and in light of Christ’s call to us to love our enemies. And it’s worth it, isn’t it? If we consider Christ’s love for us, it’s worth it. And if we consider the blessings of God and if we consider the reward that He promises to us, it’s worth it. So be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. You know we can never out-do the mercy of God to us. We can never out-pace, we can never out-strip God’s mercy to us. And so let us go from that place and show mercy to those around us, even to those whom we think may not deserve it. This is the beauty of the Christian life. It’s the beauty of Christ’s love for us, which He calls for us to spread wherever He sends us. Let’s pray that He will help us to that. Let’s pray.
Father, we confess our own weakness and our own failures in obedience to Your command. We pray for more of Your mercy and we ask for grace to forgive and to heal and to share Your love with others around us. Would this be the compelling witness and testimony of our lives and of the power of the Gospel in us – that we do not love just as the world loves, but we love as You have loved us. Would You give us strength and courage and boldness and help us to see the blessing in that. Help us to live with hope and to live for the reward that You have for us and not for anything that the world gives. We pray all of this in Christ’s name, amen.