Climb The Mountain

Day 9 Love For Enemies Matthew 5:43-48 Turning the other cheek is nothing short of radical. It flies in the face of moral sensibility and makes quick work of karma. Can we comprehend the faith of Jesus Christ as He let the blows fall one after another, confident this would bring God’s peace? John tells us the world had no definition for love until the cross. Love was in the world, for God created everything out of His great love. At the beginning, His Spirit hovered over the waters and life stirred at His loving command. “Become!” He sang over the void. Love has always been here like a thin blue atmosphere. But there was no shape to love, no right word to define it until the Son of God let Himself be pinned to a cross and took His final breath. John tells us this is love; now we are looking at the real thing. Once we have seen the cross, our eyes are open to understand. We can see God’s love at work everywhere else, long before Christ arrived and after. We know His pattern, for we understand His form. Love is the cross. We need only look for the cross in all His dealings with people, in His speech, in His creative masterwork, and then we will see love on a scale only God Almighty could dream up. Not for one second has this world ever been abandoned or forgotten. We are utterly drenched in His undying affections and have been so since before the world was formed. Holding His Father in the highest esteem, Jesus teaches His disciples about love’s unique purpose in God’s great plan: 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. Perfect is an immense word. Perfect means far more than without fault; it translates as complete. Perfect is the word Christ called out from the cross when He cried, “It is finished!” It is now perfect, He declared, meaning that the will of His God had been carried out. The love of God sent Jesus into the world to do it. The Word became flesh and became our Neighbor, and at the cross, all His perfect ways were brought to completion. What was His will? “Be perfect,” Jesus speaks over us. Can you hear His delight? This be is a summons, not a rebuke. It is stronger than the original let there be of Genesis. Creation was only the beginning. The children of God are the culmination of His every desire, thought, and power. You, dear Child of God, are what He always wanted. You are His will. Because of love, everything is in place for it. So now, be complete. Be His. Jesus is unveiling a mystery with His sermon the disciples probably did not like, which is that God loves both His enemies and His neighbors. His will extends to both. As Jews, the disciples had been born into the ancient covenant of friendship between God and Abraham. The truth they were His special treasure permeated collective identity and understanding, along with the reverse assumption God hated the Gentile world. The first was theological bedrock; the second, Jesus flatly disagrees with. He draws their attention to the glaring gap between things as they stand and what God has willed. The Father indeed has enemies, enemies that He loves extravagantly and is also inviting into perfection through the cross. The omnipresent love of God is the proof. How else could His will be accomplished? Peter will later explain, “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” In this patient love of God, all hope rests, for love is what makes God perfect. God is love. Love is what motivated Him to look on a dead creation and make the first move: You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus is pulling several things together for us in His teaching. Regarding the command to love a neighbor, He is quoting Leviticus; regarding the birthright to hate an enemy, tradition says He is condemning contemporary rabbinical wisdom. And regarding the love of God displayed by His Father’s control over the weather, He is referring to the dramatic story of Elijah on Mount Carmel. Long, long before, God had sent shaggy and reclusive Elijah to warn King Ahab of a coming drought. For the next three years, no rain fell. Brooks disappeared. Crops failed, plants withered, and famine spread. The unrelenting sun baked sinful Samaria bone dry. Elijah fled across the border to hide from the king’s wrathful retaliation, for Ahab considered Eljiah some kind of dark wizard. Then one day, out of nowhere, he heard God’s gentle whisper again. “Go and present yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the land.” Elijah obeyed. He returned to find the drought had ravaged the land, but idolatry still ran rampant across Israel. The heat and hunger did not seem to have changed any hearts. There is no record in Scripture of…