Saturday of the First Week of Lent – Feb. 27, 2010
Matthew 5:43 – 48
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Jesus holds the tension between neighbor and enemy, evil and good, righteous and unrighteous, “your own people” and “pagans.” Most of us see those poles as options, making a choice from each pair. In some religious systems, even God is seen as making a choice, favoring the neighbor, the good, and the righteous.
But it was not so for Jesus. He didn’t arbitrarily divide the world between the haves and the have-nots, the good and the bad, the holy ones and the sinners. Jesus didn’t see persons as “enemies” or as “unrighteous.” He saw persons who were broken and in need of God’s healing. He noticed how people were incomplete and in need of wholeness. He saw lives that were divided and he worked for their union.
Ultimately, God is not just a human person writ large, with super-special capabilities. God acts in ways we cannot fully comprehend. God’s generous love is extended to all people, even the “enemies” and the ones who “persecute” others. God’s extravagant giving extends to the evil and the good, to the righteous and the unrighteous. We may not be able to imagine it so, but this gratuity is a part of the nature of God. It is what makes God God.
This kind of generous love is distinctly characteristic of God. It means that God is perfectly God. “Perfect” (Greek, telios) means complete or whole. It suggests that a person or thing is entirely what it is supposed to be, complete, wholly itself. Thus, Jesus’ last line in v. 48 does not mean that we are supposed to be gods: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” It means that just as God is fully and wholly God, so we are each designed to be fully and wholly the person God created us to be.
My life is only complete and whole as I live into God’s intention for Jerry, not God’s intention for you or for anyone else. When I live fully into my God-intended design, I am “perfect” and in that sense I follow God’s lead.
What does it mean for me to live into my God-intended design? Likely it means that I grow to hold the same tensions that God holds and offer the same love that God offers. It means that I drop the descriptors that label some as righteous and some as unrighteous, some as neighbor and some as enemy, some as evil and some as good. God-like love offers oneself to neighbors and enemies, the evil and the good.
I know that it sounds like an unattainable goal; this, however, is the life for which you were created, the life with God for which you were made. Lent is a wonderful time to live more deeply into God’s intention for you.
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Jesus holds the tension between neighbor and enemy, evil and good, righteous and unrighteous, “your own people” and “pagans.” Most of us see those poles as options, making a choice from each pair. In some religious systems, even God is seen as making a choice, favoring the neighbor, the good, and the righteous.
But it was not so for Jesus. He didn’t arbitrarily divide the world between the haves and the have-nots, the good and the bad, the holy ones and the sinners. Jesus didn’t see persons as “enemies” or as “unrighteous.” He saw persons who were broken and in need of God’s healing. He noticed how people were incomplete and in need of wholeness. He saw lives that were divided and he worked for their union.
Ultimately, God is not just a human person writ large, with super-special capabilities. God acts in ways we cannot fully comprehend. God’s generous love is extended to all people, even the “enemies” and the ones who “persecute” others. God’s extravagant giving extends to the evil and the good, to the righteous and the unrighteous. We may not be able to imagine it so, but this gratuity is a part of the nature of God. It is what makes God God.
This kind of generous love is distinctly characteristic of God. It means that God is perfectly God. “Perfect” (Greek, telios) means complete or whole. It suggests that a person or thing is entirely what it is supposed to be, complete, wholly itself. Thus, Jesus’ last line in v. 48 does not mean that we are supposed to be gods: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” It means that just as God is fully and wholly God, so we are each designed to be fully and wholly the person God created us to be.
My life is only complete and whole as I live into God’s intention for Jerry, not God’s intention for you or for anyone else. When I live fully into my God-intended design, I am “perfect” and in that sense I follow God’s lead.
What does it mean for me to live into my God-intended design? Likely it means that I grow to hold the same tensions that God holds and offer the same love that God offers. It means that I drop the descriptors that label some as righteous and some as unrighteous, some as neighbor and some as enemy, some as evil and some as good. God-like love offers oneself to neighbors and enemies, the evil and the good.
I know that it sounds like an unattainable goal; this, however, is the life for which you were created, the life with God for which you were made. Lent is a wonderful time to live more deeply into God’s intention for you.
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