God shows grace, God shows mercy, God shows love to the just and the unjust. Luke tells us that we are to act in ways, speak in ways which reflect the character of God in all things and through all things because “God is kind to ungrateful and wicked people. Be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate.”
February 23, 2025
Messages from the Gospel of Luke
“Behaving as God’s Children”
Luke 6: 27-38
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Luke 6: 27-38
“To you who are ready for the truth, I say this: Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the supple moves of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, gift wrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more payback. Live generously.
“Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.
“I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. I promise, You’ll never regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind.
“Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults—unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity.”
Behaving as God’s Children Luke 6: 27-38
We continue in the Gospel of Luke, and he just doesn’t let up! Last week, he made us uncomfortable with his list of Blessings and Woes. And now, well now, he asks the impossible! He wants us to love our enemies. He wants us to do good to those who hate us. Luke even wants us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us.
Reading through the remainder of this passage, I’m not sure I like where all this is going. Doesn’t Luke know how difficult all this will actually be? Doesn’t Luke know that this is not how the world works? Doesn’t Luke know how impossible all this will be to live out in our lives?
In asking the questions, we have our answer. Yes, Luke knows how difficult what he is asking us to do will be. Yes, Luke knows that what he is asking us to do is not how the world works. And yes, Luke even knows how impossible all this will be to live out in our lives. That’s why he includes this part of the passage.
Luke is not asking us to be perfect in this text. In fact, he knows that we will not get it right every time. Rather, what Luke is asking us to do in this passage is to quit offering excuses as to why we can’t live out these things and instead live in ways which reflect our belief, our understanding that God is truly at work in this world bringing healing and wholeness to all of God’s children.
You see, too often when we come to texts like this one in our Bible, we tend to throw up our hands, say that they ask the impossible, and then ignore that they even exist. We tend to say that what these types of texts ask of us is too difficult for us to live out and instead go about our own business without allowing them to push us or challenge us into becoming the people God created and calls us to be. Too often, we cynically tell Luke that he has lost touch with reality, that he is too naïve, that he can’t comprehend how our world really works nowadays.
Let me just say, Luke is not naïve nor is he crazy for asking the impossible of us as the ones who proclaim a Risen Savior, as ones who proclaim the foolishness of the cross, as ones who say that light and love will always overcome death and darkness. When Luke shares these seemingly impossible requests, Luke is simply reminding us that the very purpose and mission of the Kingdom of God is to throw us off balance. Yes, even us good church folk, especially us good church folk, you know the ones who like everything with clear boundaries and simple answers, the ones who think we know the rules of the game, you know the very ones who will choose order and stability every single time, even if it means going against what we know to be the Gospel message, you know all that stuff about making justice, loving kindness, being a voice to the voiceless, you know all that stuff about taking care of the stranger. Luke is talking to us, the very ones who will choose the safest way possible if it means we get to stay comfortable and unaffected. In this particular passage, Luke is reminding us that God’s Beloved Community doesn’t play by our rules. It never has and it never will.
Luke tells us again, because we just don’t seem to be getting it, Luke tells us again that what God’s Beloved Community will do is level the playing field for all of God’s children. What the Gospel Message will do is offend us with its scandalous grace each and every time. What being disciples of Christ means is that we take these words of Jesus seriously and actually try to live them out as people of faith. Imagine what something as simple as that might do in our world, for our world. Power and Might would no longer be the way relationships are defined. Greed and Hate would no longer destroy communities. Violence and Hurt would no longer be the way disagreements are settled. Imagine, just imagine what could happen, what would happen if we as the very ones who have experienced God’s grace, as the very ones who experienced God’s love in our lives, imagine what would happen if we actually took Jesus’ words seriously, and instead of offering excuses as to why we couldn’t, if we actually lived out Jesus’ words in our lives as the Gospel Truth.
Again, please don’t hear me say that I have all the answers nor that I am the one who models this way of grace and love all the time. Because believe me, I get it wrong more times than I get it right. That being said, it stands to reason if we as the people of God, if we don’t take these requests to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate, to do unto others as we would want them to do unto us, if we as the disciples of Christ, if we don’t take these words seriously, then why do we expect anyone else to either?
Remember, in this section of his Sermon on the Plain, Jesus is extending an invitation to his disciples to live in a way which reflects the ways of God at work in this world. Jesus is telling his disciples, is telling the crowd, that hate and violence should not be what defines their words, should not be what dictates their behavior. Rather, their words, their behaviors, their actions, their relationships with others should be patterned on the very character of their God, a God who since the beginning of time has shown us that God is steadfast in God’s love, that God is generous with grace, that God is faithful from generation to generation.
This is not rocket science. We know how to do this. We do this through peaceful protests. We do this by feeding the hungry. We do this by welcoming the stranger. We do this by not judging others based on the color of their skin, or their sexual orientation or even by their ideologies. We overcome evil with love by being in true authentic relationship with all God’s children. We overcome evil with good by inviting someone of differing opinions to have a conversation, not on Facebook, but in person, face to face, over a cup of coffee or by breaking bread with them so that we can get to know them as a person, as a human being beyond our assumptions.
Now, once again, let me be clear, Jesus never promised this whole discipleship was going to be easy, but it is what we signed up for when we embraced Jesus as our Lord and Savior. And like I said last week, and I’ll say again. As ones who have chosen love and light over despair and desperation, we cannot force the Gospel Message to be something it is not. It will always, always be an invitation which flips our world upside down. It will always, always be an invitation to see things differently, to see them not as how the world sees things but to see things, to see people through the eyes of God’s compassion and love. As ones who have chosen Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we know that the Gospel message will always, always be an invitation to act in ways, speak in ways which reflect the character of God in all things and through all things because: Ultimately, as Luke reminds us…we know that our God loves us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. And we are called to do the same, giving thanks each day that God is God, and we are not. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, February 23, 2025 – Behaving as God’s Children Luke 6: 27-38.
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