But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful (Luke 6:35-36)
When Jesus taught his disciples to love God, and to love their neighbors as themselves, he went no further than the demands of the Law. Moses had taught the People of Israel in Deuteronomy, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” (Deut. 6:5); and in Leviticus, “But you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev. 19:18).
Yet when Jesus teaches the disciples in the Gospel today, in Luke’s version of what we know as the Sermon on the Mount, he breaks new ground, going beyond the teaching of Moses in calling the disciples to love their enemies. In some sense, Jesus is simply defining the neighbor (whom God commands us to love) so that the enemy is included, broadening our definition of our neighbor. This redefinition, however, went against the tradition of interpretation of Moses’ teaching in Jesus’ day, which saw the enemy (the Gentile) with suspicion.
It’s a radical teaching, going to the root of our assumptions about the world. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also” (Luke 6:27-29). Jesus is directly challenging our division of the world into “us” and “them,” as well as the cycle of violence that meets hatred with hatred, hurt with reprisal. We might add that he does this not simply in his teaching but in his life, as the story of the cross makes abundantly clear. Resurrection, and new life, come into the world as love replaces hatred, in the new Law that Jesus teaches.
The command to love the enemy is one that makes us uncomfortable; acting in conformity with it takes God’s grace to accomplish. “To love is to will the good of another” (Thomas Aquinas); that’s quite a tall order when it comes to the enemy. It is hard work, which we only fulfill with God’s help. Here the example of Christ is key, if we remember that he died for us, as the Apostle Paul writes, “while we were enemies” (Rom. 5:10); in other words, Jesus died for us while we showed him deadly enmity.
A second part of the teaching concerns generosity.
“Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again (Luke 6:30). The call to generosity, of course, is a part of God’s Law under the Old Covenant: remember the Year of Jubilee, in which debts were forgiven and slaves were set free at God’s command? The call to generosity is rooted in God’s generosity: his giving of himself in freely creating the universe; his free promise to stand by and bless the family of Abraham; his gracious mercy to us in giving his Son to die and rise again. Generosity is to inform all that Christians do; it is our principle of stewardship. “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back” (Luke 6:38).
The command to love the enemy and to be generous in our relationships, as well as the call to forgiveness that is contained in the gospel, are instances of a more general theme, that of mercy which flows from love. “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.” It’s interesting that at least one ancient manuscript of Luke adds the words “despairing of no one” to the words “expecting nothing in return.” God, too, despairs of no one as he extends to us his love, generosity, and forgiveness; in short, his mercy.
Now, some of you may think that Jesus is asking a lot of you; even that he is asking for perfection. Quite a tall order, I’ll admit, thinking about myself. But of course, that is exactly what he calls us to: explicitly, in Matthew’s parallel passage, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). For Christians, as Gregory of Nyssa remarks, the one limit to the perfection we are called to is that it has no limit (The Life of Moses, Prologue). Jesus’ teaching and life expand our horizons, that’s the point; and in living the life we are called to, we are going to need lavish levels of grace if we are to answer the call. Love of the enemy, generosity in our dealings, forgiveness of those who have offended us: these acts of mercy can only be accomplished by God’s power and presence in our lives, which Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection make available to us.
The Rt. Rev. John Bauerschmidt, D.Phil. is Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee, having served parishes in Western Massachusetts, North Carolina, and Louisiana. He served in the Church of England from 1987 to 1991 while a student at Oxford. His writings span patristics, especially Augustine, the Caroline Divines, and the Oxford Movement. Bishop John is married to Caroline, and they are the parents of three adult children.
