Loving Enemies

Passage: Matthew 5:43-48; Philippians 1:12-14

Matthew’s version of the Sermon on the Mount summarizes Jesus’ most well-known and least-loved teachings. I say least-loved because the stuff Jesus tells us to do feels almost impossible. Most difficult is what Jesus tells us to do with enemies. Love ‘em. Pray for them. Seek what’s best for them and appeal to God on their behalf. Enemies are by definition people whose best interests we don’t have at heart. People whom we want God to give exactly what they deserve.

In Philippians 1, the Apostle Paul gives us a brief glimpse of Jesus’ new, love ethic in action. He writes this from a prison cell:

I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually served to advance the gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ.

Paul’s hope, among other things, is that even those who imprison him will come to know Jesus as Savior. Paul sees the agents of his suffering and oppression – his enemies – through a lens not of anger and hatred, but mercy and grace. How is this possible?

Because Paul is well aware that this is the way his enemy treated him. Paul began his life as Saul of Tarsus – hater of Jesus and persecutor of the church. It was when Paul was in the process of hunting down Christians that Christ came to him in person and offered him redemption. Paul articulates it this way in 1 Timothy 1:

I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief. The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.

Paul prays that his enemies will experience the same mercy and salvation he experienced at the hands of Jesus. Although we often think differently, we were to Jesus what Saul of Tarsus was to Jesus: natural enemies. We were to Jesus what our enemies are to us. Jesus refused to give us what we deserve. So doing Jesus ushers us in to a new reality. One in which our greatest hope is to see our enemies redeemed by the grace and love that redeemed us. One in which God’s goal for us is the fulfillment of humanity’s oldest dream: to be reconciled to God, and to one another.

The Trouble With Shepherds

Passage: Ezekiel 34:1-16; John 10:11-18

Throughout Scripture God uses the term “sheep” to describe his people. If you know anything about sheep you recognize that this isn’t a compliment. Sheep are stupid, nearly defenseless creatures that, left to their own devices, would die horrible premature deaths. Sheep need to be shepherded – they need to be guided, protected, nurtured and corrected by someone whose perspective and insight far surpasses their own. Although sheep often make life difficult for those entrusted with their care, they will submit to the commanding presence of a shepherd.

However this vulnerability makes sheep highly susceptible to abuse. Sheep are completely at the mercy of their shepherds. If a shepherd is neglectful, sheep wander into crevasses and swamps, fall prey to predators, or exhaust their grazing land and go hungry. If a shepherd is abusive, sheep become an outlet for his anger or even his next meal. An inadequate shepherd treats the sheep as though they exist to meet his needs.

For much of their history, God’s people live under the watch of “shepherds” – prophets, priests and kings who represent God’s authority and provide much-needed direction and protection. But not all these shepherds serve their God-given role and a God-honoring way. Like sheep, God’s people are highly susceptible to abuse and neglect. God’s shepherds, as often as not, use God’s people to meet their own needs. The people’s response is always to look for a better shepherd – a more honest prophet; a more selfless priest; a more honorable king. In the end each proves to be as fallible as the last. Through his prophet Ezekiel, God condemns the bad shepherds of Israel, and confronts his people’s naïve willingness to simply give themselves to anyone in a fancy suit who tells them what they want to hear.

How is it that God’s people haven’t changed all that much? We continue to fall for preachers and leaders who shine up nicely and talk a good game. We buy into celebrity preachers and TV personalities who tell us the version of God’s Word that best fits our agendas. And then we recoil in shock and horror when they take the money and run, take up with the church secretary, or otherwise demonstrate that in the end, we were serving them instead of the other way around. They seemed so nice; they sounded so convincing; how could I have so badly misjudged them?

Through Ezekiel God promises a solution. He says,

I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness.

God tells his people, “You will no longer, haphazardly, bounce from one bad shepherd to the next. I will shepherd you myself.” But how?

In his Gospel, John introduces a God who “takes on flesh and makes his dwelling among us.” Jesus – God in person – recalls Ezekiel’s promise, saying,

I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep. 

Jesus invites us to familiarize ourselves with his voice. We benefit from the guidance of brothers and sisters gifted with wisdom and knowledge of God’s word. But we are all fellow sheep. Our only shepherd is the only good shepherd – the one who lays down his life for us. Arm yourself against self-professed shepherds who will use you for their own ends – in the form of book proceeds, donation checks, or “likes” on social media. Get to know the voice of the Good Shepherd, who gives himself unreservedly for you. 

For the Sake of My Name

Passage: Ezekiel 20:1-20

The prophet Ezekiel has a job no one wants. It’s his job to explain to his people – the people of God – exactly why their life has unraveled. The cause, it turns out, is their serial unfaithfulness to God himself. Through Ezekiel, God reminds his people that he’s given them one second chance after another, after another. They have disregarded his overtures of love and forgiveness; they have disregarded his warnings; and now they will face the consequences of repeatedly choosing their way over God’s.

What most outrages God is the fact that all of his instructions and all of his interventions have been for his people’s benefit. God should have abandoned his people long ago – right after the first time they rejected God in favor of the idols and indulgences of their pagan neighbors. Again and again God has shown them grace, and offered another chance to get it right. Why has God – often labeled a harsh judge – shown so much leniency?

Because as much as God cares about his chosen people, he has a purpose in mind for them that is greater than their comfort and their care. In fact God’s purpose in choosing Israel was to reveal himself, through their life as a nation, to the rest of the world. God refuses to let his people fall at the hands of other nations because those nations must see that, however flawed and weak the Israelites, their God is beyond compare.

God tells Ezekiel:

…the people of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not follow my decrees but rejected my laws—by which the person who obeys them will live—and they utterly desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and destroy them in the wilderness. But for the sake of my name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. 

God’s work through the Israelites can only benefit them. Even God’s Law – which seems like an exacting imposition on them – is intended to shape their life for optimal flourishing. But regardless of their rejection of God and his way, God accomplishes his purposes through the Israelites. The Israelites are exiled to Babylon as a consequence for their unfaithfulness. Yet during this time God uses Israelites to reveals himself to the kings of the pagan Empire – through Daniel; Esther; Nehemiah and many others. God does preserve a remnant of his people. And centuries later, true to God’s promise, the Savior of all humanity is born to them.

God perpetually works on behalf of his chosen people. But more importantly, God perpetually works on behalf of all people. So that even when we as God’s people reject God’s overtures of love and his intervention on our behalf, God has his way. He continues to claim us by the blood of Jesus Christ. And he continues to show his grace and glory to an unbelieving world. Make no mistake. Everything God does is, first and foremost, for the sake of his name. When we appeal to God’s grace, we do so with an eye for God’s glory. When we ask God to bless us in specific ways, we remember that God always answers our prayers in a way that points to him. May we who belong to God be, like God, committed first to the glory of his name.  

Why Obey?

In The Divine Conspiracy Dallas Willard argues that Christianity ceases to have an impact on the world when Christians cease to be obedient to Jesus. Contemporary Christians balk at obedience to Jesus for two major reasons. The first is that Jesus commands us to do things that go against our nature and put us at odds with the world around us. Obeying Jesus is costly and painful. The second is that, having been indoctrinated into the concept of “salvation by grace alone”, we mistakenly believe that Christians have been set free from any behavioral standard. Jesus teaches clearly that reconciliation with God and eternal life come to us through Jesus’ action on our behalf, and can never be secured by our good behavior. And yet Jesus teaches repeatedly that if you have been ushered into his new life, your life will look radically different. Your new life in Christ comes to expression in clearly defined, costly, countercultural action.

The difference lies, however, in our motivation. A person who is simply religious believes that good behavior is the way to secure a good life now, and a decent life after death. In other words, the motivation for religious behavior is self-interest and self-preservation. And the point at which the religious behavior stops serving the cause of self-interest becomes the moment at which it is abandoned.

Listen to what Jesus says about obedience to him:

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”     (John 14:23-24)

What’s our motivation? Love. Because I love Jesus, I will do what he requires, no matter the cost. If you struggle to do what Jesus teaches – or even struggle with the idea of doing what Jesus teaches – you don’t yet know Jesus. You’re still treating Jesus as an object. As a means to an end. But if you know Jesus; if you know his gentleness, his compassion, his grace that come to us through his poured-out life, then you love him. You see his commands as an expression of his perfect love. Not as an imposition on your life; but as the framework, the foundation, the essence of the new life Jesus gives.   

Sin, Death, and Resurrection Life

In The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), Jesus introduces a whole new way of life. But the starting point of this new way of life is not the adoption of a new set of rules, morals or guiding principles. The starting point is that Jesus has ushered in a new reality. Jesus’ teaching is punctuated with references to “the Kingdom of God” and “the Kingdom of Heaven”. Both terms refer to the same thing: the intrusion of God’s presence and God’s restorative power into human space. Jesus’ physical presence on earth initiates a process of world transformation whereby the old rules of death and decay have been replaced with renewal, reconciliation, and resurrection. So when Jesus says, “This is how you must live,” he does not mean, “If you do the right things you will bring heaven to earth.”  He means, “Heaven has come. This is what it looks like to live at the intersection of Heaven and earth.”   

Jesus begins to illustrate this new reality when he turns water into wine, heals the sick and disabled, feeds thousands, and walks on water. “See?” he says, “The old rules no longer apply.”  But Jesus’ words don’t fully make sense until his ultimate sign: Jesus goes to the cross. Is buried, having incontrovertibly been killed. And Jesus rises from the dead. All of a sudden the world has a crystal clear image of the new life Jesus has been talking about.  Resurrection life. Life that death cannot touch.

One of the witnesses of the risen Lord Jesus, the Apostle Paul, devotes a chapter of 1 Corinthians 15 to talk specifically about the resurrection of Jesus.  He concludes the chapter with these words:

When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory?
    Where, O death, is your sting?”

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 5:54-57)

What is the connection between sin, death, the law, and Christ’s victory? It’s this:

The inevitability of death has shaped human life for most of our history. In reaction to death, our every instinct is survival – the preservation of our own flesh.  But almost every action made in response to the fear of death puts us at odds with each other and with God. In other words, actions made primarily for self-preservation are almost always sinful.  You can act out of nothing but self-interest until you are unconcerned for your own life. The only way you can be chronically unconcerned for your own life is if you are convinced that you won’t die. Nothing in this world can convince you won’t die except the introduction of a person whose life is untouched by death.  Enter Jesus.

Paul says it is only the victory of Jesus over death that sets us free to live without self-interest and therefore without sin.  Prior to Jesus’ victory over death, overcoming personal sin was seen as the only way to gain salvation.  But that pursuit was impossible.  God’s law, which once and for all made clear what is and isn’t sin, proved to be too high a standard for any human to meet unassisted.  The law served the cause of sin, that is, to force people to be preoccupied with their own survival and self-interest. 

And yet, through Christ, two things become possible.  The first is a life that isn’t ruled by self-interest and personal survival.  The second is true observance of God’s law, summarized in two simple commands: love God with your whole being; and love other people as yourself. Love is nothing if not the willingness to set aside your needs for the needs of someone else. You and I can love with abandon because someone has already set down his life to secure everything we need for body and soul, in life and in death. This is the power of Jesus’ resurrection, his victory over death.  

Who's the Hero?

Passage: 1 Samuel 17

Last year Malcom Gladwell published the book David and Goliath.  He used the familiar Bible story as the backdrop for his discussion of “Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants”.  Gladwell pitches David as the classic underdog.  And argues that a collision of circumstances – including David’s confidence and Goliath being less formidable than he seemed – led to the shepherd boy’s victory over tremendous adversity.

The problem is that this is not the story the Bible tells.  The stakes in the battle with Goliath are not David’s honor or even the honor of his people.  What’s at stake is the honor and reputation of the one true God.  In fact this is what’s at stake in every chapter of the biblical narrative.  The story of the Bible is God’s story.  The story of the God who created and rules the universe.  Who knows and owns every human life.  And whose goal is both to make himself known to humanity and to restore humanity to right relationship with God and the rest of Creation.

The showdown between the Philistines and the Israelites is a showdown between their gods.  In the ancient world this is always the case.  When the Israelites make the battle about themselves and their objectives, they always lose.  When they enter battle in the name of the LORD – Yahweh, the one true God – it doesn’t matter if they’re armed with sticks and stones.  They win.  They win because they are acting as God’s agents.  They win because they serve God’s objectives: to reveal God’s presence and God’s power to an unbelieving world.

In case we’re tempted to think otherwise, look at what David says as he walks onto the battlefield:

David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and the wild animals, and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” (1 Samuel 17:45-47)

The battle is always the Lord's.  The Lord is always the hero of the story.  If you insist on being the hero of your own story, you will lose – even when you think you’ve won.  If, on the other hand, you let God be the hero, you can’t lose.  Every battle belongs to him. 

Be Careful What You Wish For

Passage: 1 Samuel 8

One of the reasons people of faith obsess about God’s will is that we’re convinced God wants to give us nothing but happy and comfortable lives.  We assume that if we just figure out God’s will, everything will go according to what we consider “good”.  And that when things seem to go badly for us, it must be an indication that we have strayed from God’s will.  A close reading of the biblical narrative reveals that this is simply not the case.  God repeatedly permits or even actively delivers his people into circumstances that are difficult or even disastrous.  Ironically, God also sometimes gives his people exactly what they want as a way of teaching them a lesson. 

Take, for example, the Israelites’ demand for a king.  The life of God’s people has been haphazard and chaotic ever since they settled in the Promised Land.  They assume the chaos is due to an absence of unified government.  The simple solution?  Get a king.  Actually, their problem is something different – something God predicted right before they entered the Promised Land.  Deuteronomy 8 records God’s words:

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. 

If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.

(Deuteronomy 8:10-14; 19-20)

God’s prediction comes true.  As soon as they have tasted the luxury of the Promised Land, God’s people forget God.  They become exactly like every other nation of godless pagans.  And when things unravel for them, they adopt exactly the same strategy as every other godless nation: They have kings?  We need a king, too.  The Israelites go to God’s prophet, Samuel, and demand a king.  Samuel, sensing his own failure as God’s representative, laments the request before God.  God says, “It isn’t you they’ve rejected; today they have rejected me as their king!”  Then God tells Samuel to give the people what they’ve asked for.  Samuel tells them,

“This is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. 

“He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. 

“He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the Lord will not answer you in that day.”

God will give the Israelites the thing they want.  But in getting in, they will get far more than they want; and will miss what they really need: the presence and provision of almighty God, the one true King.

Like the Israelites, we run the risk of trading in the currency of God’s blessing for the currency of this world; and mistaking the stuff of this world as the stuff of God’s blessing.  The wealth and comfort and security of this world become a curse when we expect it to do what only God can.  To our detriment, God sometimes gives us exactly what we want.  But God in his mercy has also given us what we most need.  The truth is that we need a king, and receive that king in the person of Jesus Christ.  The true king has come to break the power of sin and death and hell and to set us free.  All we have to do is stop looking around for substitute sources of security.  And embrace the King on his terms.  When we do, we discover that the true King came not to take, but to give.  And that belonging to him means getting more than you dreamed possible.