Love your Enemies

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon
Sunday, May 15, 2011

[Video] The young man walked through the streets of Me where two fighting men there happened to be. “Sir, help us out. We’re in a maze, you see. I don’t like him and he doesn’t like me.” Shaking his head, the young man said, “Love your enemies. When will you learn?” He touched his heart and softened his voice, “Think about anger. It builds and it grows. Hate becomes evil and takes all that you know. Love and friendship disappear while hate and resentment live in here.”

This past week, I had my own experience with upside down thinking. It was a week ago that my daughter, Madison, came to me. She’s in 6th Grade and she said, “Dad, I have a project at school I need your help with. We need to build something.” I said, “That’s my kind of homework. We’re going to build something.” I said, “Great daughter of mine, what are we going to build?” She says, “We’re going to build a mouse trap car.” “Say what?” “A mouse trap car.” “That doesn’t sound right. No, no. Mouse traps, they’re designed to catch mice; you know, those pesky little rodents that come in this time of year to our garages and to our homes. Mouse traps aren’t meant to be cars. There’s just something wrong about the whole idea.”

Much in the same way, the teachings of Jesus that we’ve been looking at just at first glance seem wrong. This week, Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” Love our enemies? By definition, an enemy is someone who’s against us and we’re against them. We don’t love enemies. We hate enemies. We despise enemies or at the very least, we avoid enemies. It’s upside down kind of thinking.

But much in the same way the assignment had to be done and we really should follow Jesus’ teaching, I guess we better go with it. Once you get past the whole upside down thing, the concept is easy enough to understand. Once you get past the idea that it just doesn’t seem right, the concept itself isn’t really all that tough. But going from concept to reality, now that’s where I found the real challenge and the parallels, if you will, between building this mouse trap car and loving our enemies. The concept is easy to understand but putting it into reality. . . So, in other words, going from the concept of a mouse trap car to a working model, that’s a different story. Going from the idea that we are to love our enemies to sincerely doing so, that’s another matter. And this is where the parallels sort of came into place for me.

The concept, for instance, of a mouse trap car is rather easy. You’re supposed to take a mouse trap and somehow make a self-propelled car out of that. So Madison and I did a little bit of research, got on the Net, looked up a few things, saw some different designs. She sketched out the ones she wanted, got that done. We headed over to Home Depot, got all of our supplies, came back to the house. We were ready to build a mouse trap car.

Living the Christian life. The concept at least is easy. We do our research, correct? We call it Sunday School and catechism and Midweek and bible study and then we go off and we get all of our supplies. We have our bible and we have our catechism and we even have a nifty little fish that we put on the back of our car. We’re all set. We’re going to live the Christian life.

But now to go from the concept to reality, to go from the idea to a working model, I have several observations from this past week that it’s a little bit different than just the concept. So my first observation was this: It’s harder than it looks. When I first heard we’re supposed to build a car out of a mouse trap, how difficult can that be? Come on, honestly, slap a couple of wheels on it, get a piece of string, boom, you go. You have yourself a car made out of a mouse trap. After all, Madison and I have all of the supplies we need. We have a killer design. We started on Sunday, so we started early. We started gluing things up, getting things ready. Monday we did a little bit more, Tuesday just a little bit of tweaking but Wednesday is the final assembly of our killer car that is going to zip down the hallway at school.

So I leave the office a little bit early because I’m thinking we can have this puppy done by dinnertime. I’m thinking an hour, 90 minutes tops, we will have it completed. Four hours sixteen minutes later, we emerged from the basement, hands covered in glue, fingers black and blue from that nasty mouse trap, sawdust in our hair and no car. I’m not going to go into the details nor will I divulge some of the thoughts that went through my mind during those four hours and sixteen minutes. Let’s just suffice it to say, it’s harder than it looks.

So Jesus gives us the concept of love your enemies. Upside down thinking, as it may be, but it’s not all that hard to understand and at first glance, we say we don’t like it. It doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun but okay, how hard can it be. So we’re not supposed to have hatred. We’re not supposed to want revenge. We don’t want to get even. Okay, I got it. I got it. I got it. So the faceless terrorist that we read about in the paper, we offer up a prayer to God that He would change their heart. The thief that we never meet, the gang member that we never run into, okay, we can love our enemy.

What about the girl who spreads nasty rumors about you? What about the guy who walks out the door? What about the broker who embezzles your retirement? What about the guy who keeps taking credit for all your work and now he gets promoted and you don’t? What about the spouse who ignores you? What about the best friend who betrays you? What do you do when every fiber of your body hates that person, cannot stand to be in their presence? Going from concept to reality, it’s not as easy as it looks.

The second observation: I developed a deeper understanding and appreciation. Let me explain. So I’m up from out of the basement and I’m picking glue from between my fingers and I look out the front door and I see my truck in the driveway and, all of a sudden, I have a new appreciation and understanding for the vehicle that’s sitting there. After all, if I can’t even make a mouse trap with a couple wheels go down the hallway, how did that come into being? Somebody had to have the concept along the way. Somebody had the idea of making that vehicle and then somebody had to turn that concept into a reality. I’m less likely to take it for granted, at least for a little while. The fact that I just jump into it, I turn the key and I drive around in air conditioned or heated comfort, surrounded by music and comfortable seats, somebody had to take that complex, technological wonder of a concept and make it into a reality. I had a new appreciation and understanding.

Jesus says that we’re to love our enemies and He’s speaking from experience. He’s not just floating out an idea. It’s not just a theoretical thing that He postulates but Jesus is speaking from experience. Listen to what God’s word says in Colossians 1, he’s talking about us, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies of God.” Or how about when he writes to the church in Rome, “For if, when we were God’s enemies,” Jesus is speaking from experience here. You and I were enemies of God. In our natural state, we are against God. He is a holy God, a righteous God. We’re unholy. We’re unrighteous. He’s sinless. We’re full of sin. We’re enemies of God and yet scripture says this, “God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” While we were still against God, while we were still working against Him, enemies of God, Christ laid down His life for us.

Now if I have trouble loving a person that said something nasty about me, how does that compare to a God who laid down His life for all of creation? If I have trouble forgiving somebody who asked for that forgiveness and sincerely desires it of me, then how does that compare to a God who shed His blood for the forgiveness of those who would believe in Him and those who don’t, for those who would love Him and for those who would hate Him.

Jesus says that His Father in heaven causes the sun to shine on the evil and the good, that the rain comes on the righteous and the unrighteous, that our God takes care of all of creation and all people whether they’re for Him or against Him. Did not Jesus Himself pray for the forgiveness of those who were nailing His hands and His feet to a cross? I can’t comprehend that kind of love, to take the concept of loving an enemy and Jesus turns it into a reality.

So when I try to love an enemy, when I try to get over a hurt or a hatred and I struggle with just one person, all of a sudden, I have a deeper appreciation, maybe even a sliver of understanding of how deep God’s love is, how powerful it is.

The final observation: Lessons learned. That was the point, right? The teacher made the assignment because she wanted to make the lesson concrete. You can learn about physics. You can read about physics. She can even take a test about physics, about potential energy, kinectic energy, resistance and all the rest but to actually put it into practice makes the lesson concrete and then you really begin to understand.

That’s what Jesus is doing for us when He says to us, “I want you to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” The lesson of love is what He’s trying to teach us and He’s trying to take us from this concept and make it into a reality. So we’re not just going to take a test on it. We’re not just going to read about it. But what does it actually mean? We have to understand what kind of love Jesus is talking about. How can one love their enemy?

Well, it’s a perfect love. It’s a different love than what you and I understand, a different love than what comes naturally to you and me. It’s a love that we describe as undeserved. It’s a love that we describe as unconditional. It’s a love that is given which is not contingent upon the other person on the receiving end at all. It’s not whether they’re worthy of the love or not and it’s not whether they will do something with that or not.

Now that’s a foreign concept to us because every relationship we are in is conditional. We put something in and we want something out. We would never say it that crudely, but I want you to think about every relationship you have. You’re looking to get something out of it. You are friends with somebody. Why? You enjoy their company. You get something from that relationship.

You love somebody with the expectation that they will love you in return. You will receive love so that you give love. But the kind of love that Jesus is talking about here, what He’s trying to get a handle on is a different kind of love. It’s a love that is not contingent upon the other person. They don’t deserve it. They won’t return it. But that doesn’t matter. It’s a love that finds joy only in the joy of the other person. It’s a love that wants only the best for the other person.

To help us understand that, Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” You say, “How can we love our enemies? They hate us.” So what? This love has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with what they’ve done to you or what they haven’t done to you, whether they’ll respond or whether they won’t respond. That’s the kind of love that God has for us. That’s perfect love.

Now I don’t want you to misunderstand me here. I’m not saying that Jesus says we should become the doormat of anyone and everyone who comes along, that we should set ourselves up to be used and abused. No, no, no, no. This love wants the best for the other person. That doesn’t mean that we say yes and we do anything that the other person asks us to do. God doesn’t do that with us. In fact, more often than not, God says no to us, much to our frustration. But He says no to us from the request we make of Him because He knows better, because He wants to provide for us what we truly need and what’s really good for us.

As parents, we want our children to grow up to be independent and self sufficient. Does that mean we give anything and everything to our kids that they ask for? I hope not. How will they ever learn to be independent? How will they ever stand on their own? Sometimes, as a parent, you have to step back and, as hard as it is, because you love them, you watch them fail. How else will they learn?

Jesus is not saying be a doormat to anyone who comes along, but He is trying to teach us perfect love. The fact is the only way we can love that way is that God’s love has to flow through us. You and I cannot love perfectly, not this side of heaven. We have been too infected by this world. We have been too infected by sin for us to give that kind of unconditional love that doesn’t look for anything in return.

The fact is if you have been hurt deeply by somebody, if they have crushed you, if you have been bruised and abused by someone else, it’s impossible for you to just love them and to pass that all away. But if you’ve been touched by God’s love, if you have been overwhelmed by the depth of that love, when you consider that you have done the same thing to God, that you’ve turned your back on Him, betrayed Him, you’ve lied about Him and yet, He loves you, and if that can capture your heart, then you can begin to love as He loves.

The love that Jesus is talking about and I’m talking about is an attitude. It’s a way of thinking. It’s upside down thinking to us because love for us is conditional. This is an upside down way of thinking. So what I’m saying is if you’re waiting for me to give you a whole list of things to do and not to do to love your enemies, you’re going to be disappointed and, unfortunately, I have failed in my job. This kind of love isn’t a check list. So we don’t go down and say, “Well, I prayed for my enemies.” Check. “I smiled at the person in the hallway.” Check. “I engaged in conversation with them at the social event.” Double check on that one. You’ve just turned love into a law.

The love is a way of thinking. It’s an attitude in our hearts. Jesus says when we love our enemy, we are truly children of our Father in heaven. What He’s saying is we have the attributes, the characteristics of our Father in heaven. This side of heaven, we’ll never be able to perfectly love as our Father loves us, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying. It shouldn’t stop us from striving to have that kind of perfect love for others.

Just this past Friday, Madison took her car into school. It worked. It zipped right down the hallway, and then the teacher sent it home and she said, “Make some modifications and we’ll have another go at it next week and see if it goes further.”

Every morning when you get up, God says, “Have another go at it.” Every morning when you wake up, God says, “You have a fresh start.” If you wake up in the morning saying, “Man, I blew it yesterday. That person got angry with me and I got angry with him. I avoided so and so because I can’t stand to be in their presence. I have animosity in my heart,” God says, “You get a clean start.”

The love of God and the blood of Jesus washes that away so that every day, He says, “Have another go at it.” It’s taking the concept and making it a reality. It’s taking upside down thinking and making it your thinking. Amen.