Exploring My Strange Bible - Love Your Enemies - Gospel of Matthew Part 9

Episode Date: June 25, 2018

Today we explore the meaning and significance of Jesus’s command “Love your neighbor”, which even includes the people who hate you (or your enemies). We’re going to look into why this is such a shocking and controversial teaching, especially in Jesus’s day and age. It can sometimes feel very counter-intuitive. This is a difficult teaching to hear and process and think of what it means, but let’s go into this with open minds.

Tim Mackey, Jr. utterly amazing and worth following with everything that you have. On this podcast, I'm putting together the last 10 years worth of lectures and sermons where I've been exploring the strange and wonderful story of the Bible and how it invites us into the mission of Jesus and the journey of faith. And I hope this can be helpful for you too. I also help start this thing called The Bible Project. We make animated videos and podcasts about all kinds of topics in Bible and theology. You can find those resources at thebibleproject.com. With all that said, let's dive into the episode for this week. All right, well, in this episode, we're going to keep exploring the gospel according to Matthew, All right, well, in this episode, we're going to keep exploring the gospel according to Matthew,

specifically camping out for a while in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapters 5 through 7. It's the collection of his most well-known and powerful teachings in one place. In this episode, we're going to explore the meaning and significance of Jesus' command to love your neighbor, which Jesus includes within the definition of neighbor, even people who hate you and who are your enemies. We're going to see why this was a shocking and controversial teaching in Jesus' own day. And I dare say that the command of Jesus to his followers to love their enemies is still today one of the most difficult things a follower of Jesus can try and fulfill and live out. Why did this matter to Jesus? It's one of the most counterintuitive things that Jesus has his followers to do.

So this is a difficult teaching both to hear, to process, and to think of what it means for you and for me. So let's just go in with open minds and humble ourselves before the sage master. He has more to teach us here than just a rule for following him, but it's actually a brand new way of seeing all human beings, including ones that I don't like. So there you go. Let's dive in and learn together. I feel this week is kind of the conclusion and turning point to a little mini section within the Sermon on the Mount that we've been exploring. We're in the Gospel of Matthew, we're in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5 through 7. And the last six Sundays, we've been in this section of Jesus's

teaching where he's King Jesus, he's announcing, inaugurating God's kingdom, he's inviting people to live under his rule and under the ethic and the value system of the kingdom of God's people. And people who put their trust in Jesus, they look to him for direction, for redefining their humanity. And that's really what these teachings have been about. Jesus is calling into being a people that he's working on. And he's not just interested in modifying our behavior. He's interested in exposing and

moving towards the really deep, deep root issues in our hearts and in our minds and in our habits. And these issues are ways that we sabotage and corrode our relationships. Remember, the highest ethic for King Jesus and in the kingdom of Jesus, it's loving, healthy relationships. It's the highest value in the kingdom. Loving, healthy relationship with God. Loving, healthy relationship with Jesus. And so anything that threatens relationships, healthy, loving relationships in the kingdom of Jesus' people, he wants to expose it. He wants to move towards it and have us deal with it. And so this has not been the easiest series, and here we go. Another week just sock in the gut.

I don't know what else to tell you. I feel a little bit timid almost standing and trying to present and talk about these words of Jesus. Last week, Josh explored what I think is one of Jesus' most radical teachings ever, the rejection of retaliation, right? And this week, we're exploring, I think, the other most radical teaching of Jesus, which is loving people that you hate and that you can't stand, and that can't stand you either, by the way, and actually loving those people. And these words, in my mind, I feel a bit, there's a scene that came into my mind as I was thinking about these two weeks in particular, and it's an experience I had in going up I-5, You go up about 60 miles, and then you head east to Mount St. Helens.

Have any of you ever been to the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center? You go up that long, you go up that road, I forget, exit 65 or something like that, and you go east, and you go to the Visitor Center. And then, so you go through it, and they have all the pictures and things like that. And then you go out onto that big veranda and it's just that, you know, it's just Mount St. Helens, this huge, huge mountain, this blown out crater. It's just this gigantic vista, totally awe-inspiring. And then what I also remember is that there are these little info people like cruising the verandaanda ready to just give lectures on the spot

about what it is that you're looking at. And so I remember I was there with my family and it's just so awe-inspiring. And then this person comes up and just starts chatting and telling us all these facts about the growth rate of the forest and how it filled in the crater

and this kind of thing. And to be perfectly honest with you, other than a few random facts, I don't remember anything that person said. I will never forget the first time I saw a blown out crater of Mount St. Helens. And that's kind of a bit how I feel right now, is that these words of Jesus are like a mountain in human history. No one had ever said anything quite like this before and then actually lived by it truly. And no one has actually ever said anything quite like this since or lived by it who wasn't just simply referring back to what Jesus said 2,000 years ago. These words are like a mountain. And so we stand here today looking at the beauty and the depth and the profound implications of the teachings of Jesus.

And so I join you alongside just gazing at the beauty of these teachings of the Lord Jesus. And so I join you alongside just gazing at the beauty of these teachings of the Lord Jesus. And they have the capacity to completely transform human communities. These words do. And so I just want to humble myself before them. I invite you to do the same. And let's even just get an inkling, to internalize just a bit of what Jesus is getting at here is dynamite. And it will ruin you forever in the best way possible. So let's think about what he's saying. The danger in these six weeks, I mean, it takes all of like five minutes to read these six teachings. We've been in them a month and a half. But they all are forming this portrait of the disciple of Jesus

with a transformed heart and mind. And especially these last two. This one right here on loving your enemies and last weeks. They go together. And actually, if you read the Gospel of Luke, Luke, instead of presenting, you know, reject, retaliation, and then love your enemies, he's blended the two teachings together to read as one seamless teaching, because they go together.

And so here's, last week and this week really are kind of combined into one teaching. And so here's the scene. Jesus, this is last week, Jesus says, he quotes from the Old Testament law, and he says, if you're an Israelite, God's word, the Torah, says that you are entitled as a human being, made in God's image, you're entitled to fair recompense if somebody wrongs you. And then he names a number of situations, very common to day-to-day life in Gaius' Galilee up there. So he says, let's say, for example, you're a fisherman, a fisherwoman, and you're going in the road back into town from the sea, you've got to go through the tax collector's booth,

because that's how things work in Roman Palestine. And so you get up there, and it's Zacchaeus. Remember that guy? He's in the Gospel of Luke. Tiny dude, little, little dude, right? Zacchaeus, remember that guy? He's in the Gospel of Luke. Tiny dude, little, little dude, right? And so, you know, you don't have enough to pay taxes on what you caught today. And you're going to have to, like, ditch some of your fish, because that's how the system works. And so, but you don't want to do that, because you know that, like, your neighbors are really hungry, and they need this fish. And so, Zacchaeus, and you're like, I don't have enough to pay.

And Zacchaeus, he jumps up on the table and he just backhand slaps you. Right in front of everybody. He's got Roman soldiers right here. They'll break your kneecaps if you do anything. And he just humiliates and shames you in front of everybody. You're a disciple of Jesus. You've been hearing Jesus teach on the mountainside. You go to him on the Sabbath and you hear him in synagogue and you're compelled by this man and you want to follow him. What do you do? How do you respond to Zacchaeus who just slapped

you in front of everybody, right? Or maybe it is the Sabbath and you're having a picnic with your family by, you know, the Sea of Galilee and a troop of Roman soldiers, you know, comes walking up and they're carrying their heavy bags and they've been out on patrol around the lake. This is very common. And where these guys show up, it's trouble. It's trouble. And so there's a whole bunch of families by the lake doing what you would do on the Sabbath, just enjoying God's good world. And then all of a sudden, like, swords come out, like you, Israelite, throw bag down on the ground, like, pick up my bag, carry it up over that hill. Do it now or you're dead. And they totally have the right and authority to do that. You're a disciple of Jesus. What do you do? What do you do? And I think one of the things that I call it the doormat

misunderstanding of Jesus' teaching on non-retaliation is we think, well, if I'm a disciple of Jesus, you just like do it and just don't do anything, right? You just do what you're told. You just submit to it., you let people walk all over you. You do nothing. That's how many people perceive Jesus' teachings. And that's not what Jesus said. Jesus said, you don't whimper away from Zacchaeus and shrink away. What you do is you find a place within you, because Jesus has opened it up inside of you,

to find compassion for this man. And you say, Zacchaeus, dude, you've had a bad day, clearly. Do you need to get any more out? Here's my other cheek. Or you say to that Roman soldier, you say, you look so tired. Roman soldier, you say, you look so tired. Could I have the privilege of carrying your bags to your doorstep? Would you let me do that for you? What is that? You know what I'm saying? Like, what is that? That's not passive. You know what I'm saying? That is not doing nothing.

passive. You know what I'm saying? That is not doing nothing. That is a very intentional, active response. What do you call that? It's not revenge. It's not retaliation. But it's also not being passive and doing nothing. What is it? And what Jesus calls it, at least in the original language that the Gospel of Matthew is written in, he calls it agape. Agape. And that's what he's exploring in this teaching that we're looking at today. The response of a disciple of Jesus to evil and to wrongdoing is not to do nothing. It is to do this in return.

And this has the capability of so transforming human relationships that there's a reason why this stands as a mountain. In the history of human ethics, in the history of human teaching and discourse about what is the right behavior and the right thing to do, this paragraph of Jesus' teachings is just, everybody looks to it, whether they're Christians or not. There's something happened when Jesus said these words that changed human history forever. And it's this, it's this right here. So let's

dive into Jesus' words and let's just see how he unpacks this. It's utterly profound. This is the sixth time he's pulled this move here in verse 43. He says, y'all have heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Let's just pause. Let's pause right there. So this is the sixth time he's quoted from some Old Testament command or law in the Torah. And then he affirms it or qualifies it in some way. And then he just sets his teaching right there alongside of it. And almost always what his teaching is doing is not negating. He says, I didn't come to sweep away or undermine the Torah. What I came to do is to fulfill it. And he moves towards the deeper issues that the law, the Old Testament law, which is good,

but it just begins to uncover what's beneath the surface here. And so notice, actually, this is really interesting. Look down at your Bible, look at verse 33. He says, you've heard it said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Now every week he's quoted or paraphrased some series of Bible verses in the Torah, in the Old Testament. Where is he quoting from or alluding to in this teaching? So Leviticus 19, 18. But Leviticus 19, 18, well, actually, here. Convenient. Let me just show it to you in whole right here.

So here it is. Don't seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh. This is Yahweh speaking to the people at Mount Sinai. So there's the source of Jesus' quotation, love your neighbor. What's missing that is right here? Hate your enemy. So where's Jesus getting that, right? And you will search the entire Hebrew scriptures, and you will never find a law or a command that says hate your enemy. You'll find stories about people hating their enemies,

but usually they're stories of really horrible people, right? Screwed up. So like it's not, they're not like they're moral examples for us or something. So what, what is Jesus doing here? And actually the key, look at his, look at his introductory words. Jesus doesn't say, you have read in the scriptures, love your neighbor, but hate your enemy. What does he say? You have heard what? That it's said. So he's referring here to the way that this verse in Leviticus has been understood and talked about and taught. And it's going to become very clear that Jesus thinks that this idea in the Torah has been tragically mishandled and misunderstood and what he's alluding to here is a whole debate

about the meaning and significance of that command that command right there because if if if this is God's word one of the commands of the Torah, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, the burning question that immediately comes to your mind is what? Who counts? Like, who's your neighbor? So God wants you to love your neighbor. Is that everybody? Does that include Zacchaeus?

Does that include that Roman soldier? I don't live next door to that Roman soldier, you know? So he's not mine, he's my neighbor. This was a raging debate in Jesus's day about the meaning and implications of this command in the Torah. And actually, if you, here's what you should always do. If you have a question about the meaning of anything of a sentence in the Bible, the first thing you should do is say, oh, yeah, the Bible isn't a collection of verses. It's like all of these incredible works of literature and so on. And so you should always read it in context. So shall we just do that exercise together here? Yep. Okay. Leviticus 19. Here's the context right

here. And what I've highlighted in yellow is all the clues about who in Leviticus 19 is your neighbor, at least in this context. So let's just read it. Do not, this is Yahweh speaking to Israel at Mount Sinai, do not pervert justice. Don't show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich. Judge your neighbor fairly. Don't go about slandering another person among your people. Don't do anything that endangers the life of another community member. I am Yahweh. Don't hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Challenge your neighbor frankly when they do evil so that you don't share in their guilt. Don't seek revenge, don't bear grudge against any one of your people. Love your neighbor as yourself.

I am Yahweh. So if you just look at the verse that Jesus quoted, and you read it in context, who's your neighbor? In Jesus' setting, in his audience, who's your neighbor? So it's your people, community member, fellow Israelite.

That's a fairly significant clue right there. Who's your neighbor? Jesus. It's a Jewish man teaching a Jewish audience. Who's your neighbor? Yeah, it's the Jewish people. And who's talking to who right here? It's Yahweh talking to the Israelites gathered at Mount Sinai.

He's talking about how they are to live in their common life here together. So in the immediate setting of Leviticus 19, it looks like Roman soldiers don't count here, apparently. And it looks like maybe even like Zacchaeus, you know, traitor. He probably, because he's like sold the farm, you know, he's gone to work for the Romans and he's now oppressing his own people. He almost certainly doesn't count anymore either. But then, so the debate rages. But then there were other rabbis, and I think Jesus is one of them, who paid attention to a passage just a few sentences after this one in Leviticus 19. It's in the context. It's relevant. Let's continue our quest here in Leviticus 19.

So when an immigrant resides among you in your land, don't mistreat them. The immigrant residing among you must be treated as your native-born. to love as yourself here? So we have Israelites, but then we have immigrants. So these are people, non-Israelites, who've moved to the land of Israel and they're looking for work and opportunity or whatever. They look for a safe haven. And Israel is to be a place that is full of welcome and hospitality to people who aren't a part of their tribe. And they are to be treated and brought into the community and loved as fellow Israelites. And so many rabbis appeal to this paragraph and they say, well, this

for sure, this maybe covers a whole bunch, but like, does a Roman soldier fit in this category? Like a Roman soldier is not an immigrant. He's here to break your kneecaps if you don't obey the Roman law and pay your taxes. Does he count? Does the Roman soldier count? And Zacchaeus, does he count in this? Like, he's not an immigrant. He's a traitor. I'm just trying to bring you into the debate. This was a raging debate. And this is not just of historical interest.

Jesus' people have been living under the thumb of oppressive military dictators for three times as long as America has existed. 600 years, over half a millennia, right? They've lived under Assyria, Babylon, Persia, right? Greece, Egypt, Rome, all of them terribly oppressive and violent. This is it for a persecuted religious ethnic minority. These are burning questions. Who counts? Who counts? If God has called his people to love their neighbor, who counts? And so Jesus picks up Leviticus 19 and he expands it. He expands it beyond what any rabbi did in his day. It's not just loyalty to people within the tribe of Israel.

It's not just care and loyalty to people outside the tribe of Israel who come peaceably in. Jesus says the love that God is commanding in Leviticus 19 is a love without boundaries. It's a love for your friends and your enemies, for people you hate and people who hate you. Now, where did he get that? If he's reading the scriptures,

you won't find that idea in Leviticus 19. Where did he get that idea from? And as he goes on, I think he shows that he got this idea from two places. One is from looking at weather patterns, weather patterns, looking at the weather. And the second is the same scriptures, just a different part of them, weather and the scriptures. Look at what he says here. He says, I tell you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. Why should you do that? So that you may become children of your father in heaven. Now, I don't think he's saying this is entrance requirement. He's saying those who are disciples and recognize who Jesus is as the son,

the father is already their Father, but this is about becoming and living and reflecting the character traits of God that are revealed in Jesus. Now, how do you know what God is like? Well, think about the weather. None of us would ever do this, by the way, you know? So, like, would you use this in a conversation with your friends? Like, who do you think God is? That storm yesterday, you know, that was really intense. And that tells me a thing or two about God. That's precisely what Jesus does. He says, so think about this.

He says, Heavenly Father, right, God of Israel, Creator, compassionate God, He causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good. He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. So just stop for a second. This is one of those lines of Jesus you kind of read over. So somewhere along the way, Jesus started to notice how things work in the world. And he noticed that you can't go for a drive in you know through farm country and look at a lush green field you know full of you know cherry orchards and you know flourishing olive trees

or something and say oh that's definitely a friend of god right there because god smiles upon them and then like turn the corner go down a few miles and then see like an olive grove and a fig, you know, a fig, a tree orchard that has blight and mildew and the ground is all dry and so on, and conclude like, oh, definitely that's an enemy of God. God definitely has it out. For that person, they must be wicked and horrible. Jesus says, like, that's horrible theology. It's just horrible. In fact, there's a whole book of the Bible that's designed to deconstruct that way of viewing the world. It's called the book of Job, or Job. If the first time you look in your Bible, you're like, Job? Why do I want to read a book about my job, you know? So no, it's Job. Job. And it's designed to deconstruct

that kind of simplistic, bad, bad theology. Jesus observes, like the farmer who's super upstanding and honest and pays his workers fairly gets the same weather as the farmer who's a cheat, a liar, pays his workers poorly, is horrible to his family. They get the same life-giving rain that moves through the Galilee Valley. Jesus observes the sunrise. So this is Jesus' view of the world, and we'll get into this as we go throughout the Gospel of Matthew. Jesus has what Dallas Willard called a God-saturated view of the world. And it just comes out in his teachings. Jesus views every breath, every exposure to the sun and rain, every meal, every friendship, every laugh as just as utter

gift and grace from the creator God. And Jesus observes that people who deserve a good life and people who don't deserve a good life because they're so horrible, like we all get sunshine. Who gets ice cream in sunny days? People in California. Who gets ice cream if you want to in December and rainy days? People in Portland, right? And so like the friends of God or the enemies of God? And Jesus says, no, God's economy doesn't work that way. There's something in the weather that reveals God's bountiful generosity. God doesn't treat people. He doesn't give his gifts to people according to how they behave. Now, Jesus firmly believes that God will, at some point, put all things right and hold all humanity collectively, individually accountable

for how we behave and so on. But at this moment is a moment of pure grace and generosity, no matter how people behave. And Jesus draws a very powerful conclusion. He says if that's what God is like, and that's the God who Jesus comes to reveal, what must the people of the kingdom be like? So he cites weather patterns, first of all. But in doing that, he shows that he's been raised on the poetry of the book of Psalms, which contains poems that say things like this.

Yahweh is gracious. He's compassionate. He's slow to anger and he's rich in love. What does that mean, rich in love? Yahweh is good to all. He has compassion on all that he's made. The eyes of all look to you. You give them food at the proper time.

You open your hand and you satisfy the desires of every living thing. Do you see? Do you see? Jesus has been reading and thinking about Psalm 145, hasn't he? And it so deeply shaped his view of God in the world that this is what comes out. You can look at the Bible or you can look at weather. God's generous to people who hate him and who he may not like all that much either, but he gives them rain and sunshine because that's just who God is. He's generous. This is the same generosity that we're going to see Jesus enact symbolically

with these meals that he's going to throw, these public meals. And then he will invite, you know, public offenders, number one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, all to the meal. You know, the worst people you could imagine in these villages and communities. And he invites them to the meal to be a part of God's kingdom, and he calls them to follow him. It's this open-handed, generous, boundary-breaking welcome and invitation and generosity. And this gives us, I think, the first clue as to what Jesus means right here. So this word gets translated as love in our English Bibles. And if you've been around Door of Hope very long, you've heard me ride this horse quite

a few times. I think because this is not a translation problem, problem with our translations, this is a problem with the English language. The word love, I'm convinced, is one of the most unhelpful, unclear words in the English language, right? Because, I mean, it's so unhelpful. Because it can mean so many different things. It can mean I prefer and I like something. I love pizza, you might say. I say that all the time, actually.

But what I mean is I actually prefer or I like it. I love Star Wars. I love and appreciate it, and there's just something about it that makes my heart smile, right? And I also love my family, and my wife, and my children, and that's about affection and loyalty. Those are so different. All of those are so different from each other, and we use one word to describe all three of those things. What a useless word. Why don't we just come up with three different words that have, but here we go. So this is a problem in English, because in English, love primarily refers to a feeling, right? A feeling, an emotion that happens to you. And that's very, can you see that Jesus means something very different by agape?

Something totally different. Do you have warm feelings towards Zacchaeus when he backhands you? Is Jesus asking you to generate warm feelings to Zacchaeus when he backhands you? So, we're talking about an attitude, about a mindset, and then an action that flows from that mindset. God has chosen to perform actions of kindness and generosity towards people regardless of how they behave, regardless of whether they like him or whether he happens to like what they're doing at the moment. God has chosen to agape. He's chosen. And so in Jesus' teachings, it's not like he's, this is so undecorous here, let's put that down. It's not like he's asking you to somehow generate like false or like warm fuzzies for your enemy.

What he's asking you to do is to choose to view them in a certain way. To choose to view them the way that God sees this person. Within God's economy, this person is beloved. They're a human being. They're made in God's image. And they might be screwed up in ways that are different than me, but they're a human being made in God's image. And God has come among us in the person of Jesus

to choose to do an act of love on their behalf. If I'm a disciple of Jesus, I actually don't have the right or the authority to treat someone as unloved when Jesus has treated them as someone who's loved. That's the logic of this here. So that you may become children of your Father who is in heaven. This is an image-bearing human being. I actually don't have the, in the kingdom, in the kingdom, I don't have the right to deny someone kindness and generosity. It's not that you like lay in bed and you're just like,

I just love that person. It's like, I can't stand that person, but they're made in God's image. Jesus gave his life. He lived and died for that person. And so I choose to adopt an attitude. There are some actions that we do because we feel like them. I just have this thing going on inside of me for my kiddos and for my wife, and I just do stuff. And sometimes, I'm portraying myself too positively here, right? So sometimes I act on that. There are other times where it's so clearly a choice, even for these people that are so close to me. And that's exactly his point. Look at what he goes on to say. He says, listen, verse 46, he says, if you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Don't tax collectors do that? I mean, Zacchaeus is really, really nice

to people who he knows he gets kickback from. If you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than any others? Don't pagans, and pagan is not a negative word here, it just means a non-Jewish person. Don't the non-Jewish people, they don't even have the Torah, and they are nice to each other. Don't they do that? So Jesus, he's acknowledging. He's acknowledging that humans are actually pretty decent folk do you see that right there humans are pretty decent there when we're inside of our circle when we're inside of our tribe when we are with those whom we like it's actually not hard to for us to choose to do acts

of kindness and generosity towards people who are like us, towards people who are within our circle of family, or who are in our religious tribe, or our social niche tribe, or whatever. Jesus says we all behave pretty decently, right? But that's actually not, that's not the issue as a societal problem. The problem is that we love each other within our tribes and we hate people from other tribes. And who wants to argue with Jesus on that one? It's like the great American theologian

Reinhold Niebuhr said, groups of people tend to be more immoral than individuals within those groups. And you guys know exactly, somehow, a behavior that I would never do as an individual, but somehow I participate in and can even find myself endorsing when it's a group of people about another group of people. You guys know what I'm talking about.

And so Jesus says, look, human beings are pretty decent when we're within our circle, but we're fickle, and we're selective, and we're ultimately self-centered with our agape. Because you know, like you walked, you walked into this room right here this morning, and you naturally gravitated towards people, towards giving a kind welcome, or a hug, or a hello to the people who you know that are going to give you kickback, right? Who are going to give you agape in return. And they're probably people that you know and that you have some history with. That's just how we operate. And Jesus, he just like,

dang it. He just uncovers what an actually self-centered process that is. uncovers what an actually self-centered process that is. And how the kingdom is a kingdom that reflects not how human communities tend to operate. The kingdom is a community that operates by children reflecting their father who is in heaven. And that's exactly what he means in verse 48 when he says, be perfect therefore as your heavenly father is perfect. Man, many of us have read verse 48 and have just been like, that's it. I'm done. I'm done for. I'll try and give it my best shot, but don't expect much.

And part of it is our English word perfect. Man, we could do a whole teaching just on this verse right here. Well, we'll just go here. We'll do it. I just will do one. We can't even talk about Leviticus 11 and 1 Corinthians 11 right now, but that's okay. It's the word teleos. And if you were to do a word study in the New Testament,

you will find the English word and the context in which this word gets used most, it's the word mature. This is a word used to describe someone who has reached a completion point in their growth and development as a human. Or if you look at the passages that Jesus is alluding to right here, it's the idea of being complete. And what Jesus, this is both a command, be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, but it's also a promise. There is something about when a human being intentionally steps over some relational divide,

some boundary tribal line, and performs an act, chooses an attitude and performs an act of concrete benevolence and generosity and kindness to someone who, let's just say outside your circle, much less someone who's outside your circle who hates you and who you don't particularly like either. But to go against the grain of every intuition that seems natural as a human and to look with compassion and perform an act of generosity. Jesus says humans are never more like God than they are in that moment. There's something about love, and not the fuzzy stuff, right? This right here, biblical love.

Choosing to view someone as a human being with dignity regardless of their behavior or what they've done to others or to me, and to do a concrete act of kindness. When humans do that, when disciples of Jesus do that, it's just, it's exactly, it's this teaching, I'm certain, that inspired that beautiful poem in 1 John chapter 4. Brothers and sisters, let us love one another, for love is from God, There's something about these actions, the disciples of Jesus, it's like we're participating in the very heartbeat of God. We are entering into the meaning of the universe

when we deny what seems so natural to our broken, selfish condition and we perform a concrete act despite our own feelings about it. Some actions you do because you feel like doing them. There are some things you do as an action and the feelings might have to follow. And when disciples of Jesus do this, we're participating in the very life and essence of God's own being. I don't even know what other

words to use, right? But that idea itself of verse 48 is worth many cups of tea of prayer and humble reflection. And just think about it. Most of us have had some moment, right? Some altruistic moment where this came out of you in some way, right? And if you've ever had that experience

where you've done an act like that and you've reflected back on it, you know, you like, it's so, it's like the mountain. It's so beautiful. It's so compelling. You can look at it. Others can look at it and just say, like, that, there's something about that act, agape, that sums up what it means to be a human being. Are you guys with me? Like we know that deep inside of us. That's what this is about. And so Jesus, with these words, they just, this is a mountain in the history of human conversation about what it means to be human. And Jesus just plants this mountain of his teaching right here. And it's the hardest thing that you and I will ever do. And it's also, I'm convinced there's a reason why this is the last teaching. I think it's this hardest thing that you and I will ever do. And it's also, I'm convinced,

there's a reason why this is the last teaching. I think it's this climactic teaching. Because this is what the whole deal is about. And when Jesus' disciples do this, things happen. The disciples of Jesus who have made the most deep and significant impacts in human history are people who have chosen this course. And they're specifically people who have chosen this course

and ended up with a fate much like Jesus himself. In our culture, there is still one individual who's an icon. We name streets after this man and he's presented as an icon of justice in our culture. He saw everything he was doing deriving out of this command and teaching of Jesus right here. Who am I talking about? Two things. This is one I think is my favorite one, I think it's my favorite and most impactful picture of Martin Luther King Jr

it was a day in 1963 and he came out this front house, someone had burned across it happened many times, burned across in his front yard such a powerful story. And he got up in the morning, he put on his suit, his best suit, and he went out to the front yard, the reporters are there, and he picks up the cross and pulls it out of the grass,

and he begins to utter a prayer that God would show favor and bless the people who did this. Now the way that Martin Luther King Jr. gets presented in our culture, because he was trying to communicate this to a wider audience, he did so many essays and speeches where he doesn't talk about Jesus, and those are the ones that have become famous. Read his letters from Birmingham jail and you will see that this man, he had lots of flaws like we all do, but this was it, man. This is what drove this man.

And you can see it reflected in this quote here. He says, The ultimate weakness of violent retaliation is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence, you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence, you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate,

and so it goes. Returning evil for evil, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. This is a man who saturated himself in the gospel and in the teachings of Jesus.

And it generated a life and a series of life choices that have captured our whole nation's attention. Here we are, 50 years later, still in awe of this simple man who just followed the teachings of Jesus. And so I want us to conclude by just taking us to the bread and the cup.

Because ultimately, what drove, this is inspirational, but what drove Martin Luther King himself is Jesus himself. And it seems to me that as we go on through the Gospel of Matthew, the only way we're going to deal with any of these six issues that came up in the last month and a half in these teachings

is to look towards Jesus in trust and faith and hope that he lived as the teleos human being in my place. He was the human that I'm called to be but fail to be. And he did it as an act of agape love. And he gave his life as an act of agape love and so turned an enemy into his friend. And so the kingdom of Jesus' people were people who are imperfectly, imperfectly trying to enter into

the very heartbeat of God and recognizing that Jesus has already blazed the trail on our behalf and what we're called to do is in trust and faith believe his agape for us and his agape for your enemy. I wonder if any of us are going to be around people that we find it difficult to be around in the next seven days or so. Maybe, oh yeah, right, there's this thing Christmas and like your uncle, right? And your cousin. So here's what I'd like us to do.

We're going to take the bread and the cup, as we always do, kind of at the climax of our gathering, and I just encourage you, get one person, get one person in your mind. It's a co-worker, it's a family member,

it's a roommate, it's your spouse, it's someone at school, it's your actual neighbors above you, whatever. And just whoever for you, this is it. This is the issue. You can't stand them. And they can't stand you.

You know, don't take yourself out of the equation here. And just as you take the bread and the cup and remember Jesus' agape for you, just ask yourself, what could you do the next seven days before we gather again? What could you do to adopt a mindset and do something for them? This is the one week of the year where it actually would maybe make sense to do that.

You know what I mean? Like Jesus has given his gift of himself to us. What could you do for that person that would be surprising, counterintuitive, you didn't even see it coming before you encountered these words of Jesus? And to just see what happens. Just see what happens inside of you

and in that relationship. And so I just get that person in your head. Let me close in prayer. And let's worship the beautiful Jesus who gave us these words and his life. Guys, thank you for listening to Exploring My Strange Bible. Jesus, holy cow, he's amazing. And what he invites us into is so beautiful and challenging. So I trust that God will give you wisdom as to what people you're going to come across in the rest of your day

to show extravagant, generous love to. So there you go. Peace be with you, and we'll see you next time.