'THE GRACE OF UNDERSTANDING'

Love for enemies – Matthew 5: 43-48 

‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.”  But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.  For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same?  And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?  Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.’

How many times have you said something and then immediately wished you hadn’t?

No matter how hard you try, how carefully you word what you say or write, things get misunderstood.  Your motives may be the best, but motives can’t be seen or touched.  Only the word is there to be taken and, sometimes, misinterpreted, and if there’s one thing we humans are good at, it’s misunderstanding!  There’s a deep insecurity in each of us that tends to make us so sensitive to attack that we see danger where it doesn’t exist.  Then, in response, we defend ourselves, attack without reason, saddle someone with motives they had never thought of, and hurt them unjustly!

It happened to Jesus, and he warned his followers that it would happen to them too.  But Jesus used the problem creatively.  He didn’t simply say, “Watch out! Follow me and you’re in for trouble.”  He said, “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.” (Matthew 5: 11)

I think though that it’s a verse you need to keep in context.  It’s part of the Sermon on the Mount and follows Jesus’ comments on the character and behaviour his disciples should struggle for – and what a struggle it is!  The whole passage seems to suggest that the blessing comes, not in the simple fact of being wrongly accused, but in the response we make to it.  Looking through some of the early verses in Matthew chapter 5 we can note some other words – meek, merciful and peacemaker.  There’s nothing about hitting back however hard we may look.

The problem about retaliation is where it ends.  At some point, and the sooner the better, we need to break the chain and refuse to be provoked.  We should take the stones thrown at us and, instead of throwing them back, use them to build another small corner of God’s kingdom.  Yes it’s tough and it jolly well hurts, and we need to grab hold of every bit of love we can reach, but it can be done, and may the Lord give us the grace to do it.

Maybe, we too, need the grace to look honestly at our motives to check they are pleasing to the Lord!

Prayer

I see you in the shadow, stretched beyond bearing on the cross.  Lord, it’s tempting, but let me not compare the little hurts and scratches of my life with yours.  To call my hurts a crucifixion is an exaggeration.  Enlarged beyond reality and dramatized beyond truth.  But it still hurts, and in the aching moment I need your arms around me.

And as your hands reach out, I see the scars and, just a little, I begin to feel what you went through for me.  I take the ache and pain and offer it to you.   Lord, it’s hard.  Your grace may be sufficient, but only just!  Amen.

Penny Bonham