Year A 7th Sunday after the Epiphany

Text: Matthew 5:38-48 – Love my enemy – is Jesus serious?

The story of a mother who witnessed her son being killed by his father has touched the hearts of our nation and beyond.

But what has been amazingly heart wrenching about this story has been the courage and composure of the mother – Rosie.

She hasn’t lashed out at the police who had 5 warrants for his arrest.

She hasn’t criticised the magistrate who granted bail against recommendations by the police who said that he would harm his wife and son.

Instead she has been an example of healing for herself and for the community around her.

Compare that to another story that made the front pages of the news this past week.

A new law introduced for one person – Julian Knight – mass murderer in the Hoddle Street Massacre, 27 years ago.

There is still anger – and hate – and a desire for revenge.

Julian Knight is eligible for parole this year and overwhelmingly the public don’t want him released.

I’m not arguing one way or the other but what has been noticeable is the anger and hatred that is still levelled at him.

The question is not whether he should or shouldn’t be released but the question is where will healing come from.

It obviously hasn’t come from having had him incarcerated for 27 years.

It is doubtful that it will come if he is never released or even at his death.

When there is this much hurt, healing only comes through forgiveness.

This is a new ethic that Jesus proposes:

To love our enemies, to turn the other cheek, to forgive and love no matter what — no exclusions.

It is what Jesus asks, but is it truly possible?

I have no doubt that if we publicly taught what Jesus proclaimed that it would be an offense to many people.

Is it realistic to expect the families of Julian Knight’s victims to forgive him and to love him?

Is it appropriate to ask an abused person to pray for the one who abuses them, to offer the other cheek to the one who has struck them?

God sends sun and rain on the righteous and the unrighteous — but this is hard: (v45)

We are called to love and be merciful to people who have really hurt us.

These ideals may be fine for God, but for those of us who are victims, can God really expect, even demand this from us?

Can God really expect us to be perfect as he is perfect?

We need to look at what Jesus says in a new way.

To love our enemy is to bring us healing.

To love our enemy is to change the situation that stops the continuing pain when the physical hurt has actually stopped.

To take the initiative and relate to our enemies in a new way.

To take the power out of their hands and to put it into God’s hands.

To love the enemy does not mean to like the enemy.

Instead it means to understand them as human beings — troubled and sinful human beings whom God has created and for whose sins Jesus Christ has died – on whom God makes the sun to shine and the rain to fall.

If we don’t understand that, then the pain will continue even though the physical abuse has stopped.

To many, this teaching is scandalous and offensive.

But that is the power of the cross.

Remember what Paul says –

The message of the cross is foolishness to those who don’t understand it.

It is a stumbling block for those who do not believe.

This is not to suggest that we passively sit back and ask for more hurt by turning the other cheek.

It does not mean that the abused person continues to live with the one who hurts them.

But what Jesus deals with is how we recover from the hurt.

Once we remove ourselves from the source of the hurt, how do we stop the pain.

How do we heal?

Anger and vengeance continue the hurt.

Angry people take out their anger on others around them.

Have you ever worked with someone who is hurting and angry at someone else?

Their anger and hurt affects all of their relationships.

Forgiveness is an invitation to allow God’s healing into your life.

Jesus is not asking the impossible as impossible as it may seem.

Jesus shows us examples in his own life.

As his accusers nailed his hands to the cross he begged his father to forgive them. (Luke 23:34)

He didn’t seek vengeance or harm because that would be simply doing what they are doing to him.

He showed compassion and forgiveness to Peter who had earlier abandoned and denied him. (John 21:15-17)

How would the church look today if Jesus had rejected Peter and not forgiven him.

Hurt can bring out the best and the worst in us.

When we are hurt we can say and do things that are worse than the original hurt done to us.

When we are hurt we have to resist our urges and emotions because it can unleash great power in us to hurt the one who has hurt us and that will then affect others.

Jesus teaches us to resist our anger.

Does it mean a person who hurts someone gets away with it?

Far from it!

Listen to what Paul said:

Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy that person. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple. (1 Cor 3:16,17).

They are answerable to God just as we teach our children not to take matters into their own hands but to let the proper authorities deal with justice.

Justice in our hands is a dangerous thing.

Vigilantes deliver unjust justice.

Those who take justice into their own hands often end up in front of authorities themselves, punished for taking matters into their own hands.

This is not about justice against the one who has hurt you.

This is about YOU receiving healing.

Praying for our enemies may bring about change in their lives, but it is firstly about bringing change in YOUR life through healing.

Forgiveness is not about the hurter getting away with it;

It is about the hurting being healed.

It is about fully experiencing the grace of God as we discover that God’s grace extends to all people.

God makes the sun to shine on the righteous and unrighteous.

God offering grace to those who hurt us does not mean God doesn’t care about us.

God wants us to heal but while we are angry and hurt we don’t allow room for that.

That’s what Paul teaches when he says:

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Do not take revenge but leave room for God’s anger, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” (Romans 9:12-20)

Sadly many people know only negative things about the Christian church.

How often don’t we hear “religion is the blame for wars”.

Or the only thing that many people know about the church is that it judges people.

Christ sets us a higher standard because we are living in a world where news of violence comes to us each day. 

We have an opportunity to show the world the true face of God.

Jesus is not advising us to do nothing, but to be the ones who bring about healing.

From the beginning of the church, Christians have experienced their values conflicting with the world’s.

We are in the world but not of the world (John 17:14)

This is a difficult teach and one that goes against our human instincts – to turn the other cheek.

But let us remember the angel’s promise to Mary and Joseph – he will be called Immanuel – God with us.

That’s how Matthew’s Gospel began, and that is how it ends as Jesus sends us out into the world to make disciples of all nations – I am with you always until the end of the age.

So when you find it difficult to turn the other cheek or to love your enemy or to pray for those who persecute you, remember that the one who died for your sins is with you to give you strength to forgive others.