“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you…” This verse is from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, which should be a clue for us as readers to sit up and pay attention to what is happening, to what is being said, to what is being shared because it is essential to our becoming Jesus’ disciples. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lays it out for his disciples then, and now, what it means to be a disciple – and that more often than not, it means to love our enemies, to turn the other cheek, to stay at the table when others walk away.
October 12, 2025
The Welcome Table
“Stay at the Table: Turning the Other Cheek”
Matthew 5: 38-48
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Stay at the Table: Turning the Other Cheek Mat 5: 38-48
Today, we start a new section of our Welcome Table sermon Series. For the month of October, we will be looking at what it means for us as followers of Jesus Christ to stay at the Table. For me, when I think of our call to stay at the Table, the time after the meal immediately comes to mind. This is a holy time. It is a time when after we have nourished our bodies, we are invited to nourish our minds, nourish our relationships. That time after the meal, is when we move past polite conversation and begin to have deeper, more meaningful conversations. That time after the meal is when we are invited to let down our defenses and get to know one another. For me, that time after the meal is a sacred moment. No one is getting up to clean off the table. No one is rushing off to their next thing on their to do list. We are simply sitting there enjoying each other’s company. That time after the meal is when we can and are invited to have conversation, to have dialog, to get to know one another beyond the surface level, to deepen our relationship with one another in community. This is what I mean when I say as followers of Jesus Christ, we have a call to stay at the Table. It is cultivating a mindset. It is creating an atmosphere of grace, of peace, of mercy, not only for ourselves, but all those gathered around the table.
However, let me be clear and say from the very beginning that Yes, there is a point where we can walk away from the table because we know if we stay at that table, we are going to say something which will cause more damage, that we are going to say something which we are going to regret. Yes…there is a point where we can walk away from the table because of healthy boundaries. We can walk away for our sanity, for our own preservation of energy. Even Jesus tells his disciples this when he tells them in the Gospel of Matthew, that they can walk away from fellow believers but only after they have tried everything to repair the relationship, only after they have tried to reconcile with the other. In another place in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus tells his disciples to shake the dust off their shoes of the towns who are not ready to receive the Gospel. No where in the Gospels does Jesus say we are to be doormats and allow people to be hateful or harmful to our person, to our mental, emotional, social, or physical health. Even in our text for today when Jesus says to turn the other check, he is not saying to stand there and allow ourselves to be beaten up. Rather he is telling his disciples that we are called to a way of love, a way of grace. He is telling his disciples that the world will and does reject this way of being, this way of viewing our relationships, this way of being in community with one another. Yet we are still called to be Jesus’ disciples. We are still called to be salt and light. We are still called to be God’s heart and hands in this world for all of God’s people, meaning we are called to focus on love in all things, through all things, for all things.
As followers of Jesus Christ, in our call to stay at the Table, we hold all of this to be true AND we also know that many of us, myself included, are quick to walk away without listening or hearing the other person, something that is easily done in this chaos which surrounds us day in and day out. I would also argue that a lot of this chaos is created by the powers that be to make us buy into the narrative that we are more different than we are similar, that if they keep us stirred up and overwhelmed with fear, we will be too distracted to come together in community.
This tension of Both/And is where we start our conversation about staying at the Table. And we do so with a difficult to practice text, the text which tells us to love our enemies. I invite you to hear these words from Matthew 5: 38-48:
“You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you that you must not oppose those who want to hurt you. If people slap you on your right cheek, you must turn the left cheek to them as well. When they wish to haul you to court and take your shirt, let them have your coat too. When they force you to go one mile, go with them two. Give to those who ask, and don’t refuse those who wish to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore, just as your heavenly Father is complete in showing love to everyone, so also you must be complete.
“You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to 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 then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that.”
I specifically pulled out these few verses because they get me every single time. They are my “Oh man, Jesus, are you serious?” verses. If I had my choice, these would definitely be the verses I would leave out of the Bible. Okay, there would probably be a few more but these would definitely be in my top 5 to leave out and craft the Gospel message into something which would be easier to live out, something which would be easier to practice.
But there it is…love your enemies. We cannot deny that it is part of our call as followers of Jesus Christ no matter how hard we try. Because he says it more than once. Not only here multiple times but also multiple times in the Gospel of Luke as well. This whole loving your enemies is non-negotiable when it comes to being disciples of Jesus Christ.
As we may remember, these verses are part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, something which goes on for a couple of chapters. This is a clue for us as readers to sit up and pay attention because what is happening, what is being said, what is being shared is essential to our becoming Jesus’ disciples. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lays it out for his disciples back then, for us now, what it means to be his disciples. That more often than not, it means love our enemies, that means turning the other check, that means staying at the table when others walk away.
These few verses are Jesus’ reminder to his disciples back then two thousand years ago, it is our reminder as his disciples here and now that the Gospel message does not play by our rules, that the Gospel message does not ask our permission on who is welcome and who is excluded, that the Gospel message turns our world upside and down and points to the Kingdom of God in our midst.
In these few verses, Jesus is reminding his disciples, he is reminding us what it means to be his followers, what it means to be God’s heart and God’s hand in this world. It means remembering God is God and we are not. It means remembering God makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. It means remembering God shows God’s grace to the worthy and the unworthy. It means remembering on any given day, I fall, we fall into one or both of those categories and still the good news is that God loves us, no matter what.
You see when Jesus said this whole loving your enemies, he was reminding his disciples back then and his disciples here and now, that it was never about us. Rather it has been, is now and will forever be about God. That this whole discipleship is not about saving souls. Rather it is about showing the world that God so loved the world that God gave God’s only Son so that we might live, so that we might know a different way to be in relationship, to be in community. The whole point of this discipleship thing is that we know that we have been so transformed by God’s love that we can do nothing else but work for healing and wholeness for all of God’s people, that we can do nothing else but join the work of creating justice and mercy for all creation. The whole point of this discipleship thing that we have experienced the transforming power of God’s love in our lives, and we can do nothing else but work towards the vision of God’s Beloved Community coming to fruition for all of God’s people. The whole point of this discipleship thing is staying at the table and being the people of love and grace that God created and calls us to be…no ifs and or butsMay it be so. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, October 12, 2025 – Stay at the Table: Turning the Other Cheek Mat 5: 38-48.
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