Enemies (Luke 6:27-38)
Rev. Peter Heckert
02/20/22

+ Grace to you, and peace, from God our heavenly Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. + Amen.

The text for our meditation for this seventh Sunday of Epiphany comes from our Gospel text, especially where Luke records Jesus’s words, “But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you …” Here ends our text; my dear Christian friends …

If you’re a fan of the original Karate Kid movies, you’ll likely recognize the phrase “Strike first! Strike hard! No mercy, sir!” That’s the mantra of the Cobra Kai’s, the antagonists and bullies who belonged to the karate dojo of the same name. Their sensei, John Kreese, was a Vietnam War vet who adopted this violent philosophy and practice in order to stay alive during the war; when he came home and started his dojo, he instilled that mentality into his karate students. Contrast that with NariYoshi Miyagi, and the type of karate that he taught, Miyagi-Do. Strictly used for self-defense, Mr. Miyagi taught his own student, Daniel LaRusso, that sometimes the best offense … is a good defense. The enemy can’t strike … if he can’t land the blow. Blocking, deflecting, redirecting. That’s the way of Miyagi-Do karate! 

It makes for good drama, a good movie series – in case you can’t tell, it’s one of my favorites. However, what would Jesus say to both John Kreese and Mr. Miyagi? The way that some read our gospel lesson, it seems fairly obvious that He’d say both forms of karate, Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do, are reprehensible. After all, pardon the pun, Jesus pulls no punches here. His words aren’t mysterious or obfuscated. These imperatives from our Lord, these commands … are all too clear, aren’t they? Christians are not supposed to fight or fight back. When someone offends, when an attacker strikes, when the bully demands the money … we’re not supposed to resist. They land a solid right hook, we’re supposed to recover and allow a follow-up left jab. We’re not supposed to retaliate, or even defend ourselves, much less “Strike first, strike hard, no mercy, sir!” No, at the risk of being considered doormats, we’re called to “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

But … how? How can we live in a world as violent as this one … without ever fighting back? How can we pray for our enemies when they are literally slaughtering our neighbors? How can we turn a blind eye to the injustice and criminality of, for example, what the Chinese Communist party is doing to the Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang? How can we be apathetic to the bellicose saber-rattling of Vladimir Putin in the Ukraine? How can we ignore the evil being perpetrated upon our Christian brothers and sisters by the governments of North Korea and the Taliban? Is that how we live as Christians? Is that how we love our neighbor? By allowing them to be butchered like pigs?

The wider culture would tell us that it’s either-or. There’s no wiggle room. Jesus is either commanding His people to be complete pacifists or He’s not, and we have free reign …, but is that what this text is about? Is Jesus giving us a new law, to never pick up a sword – or, as more likely would be the case these days, a 9mm pistol? Are you a Christian if you do, or don’t, defend yourself or your loved ones? Or are we misunderstanding the entire point our Lord is making here?

This text is a continuation of what we heard last week, the beginning of Jesus’s so-called “Sermon on the plain.” He started last week, having healed many in this sea of Jews and Gentiles who have come to Him for reprieve. At a certain point, He looks up at all His disciples, declares His beatitudes and woes, and follows immediately with our text. 

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”

Now, the reality is that Jesus did say this, and He did mean it … in the same way that He said and meant, “If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.” Jesus is deadly serious about this command for us to love our enemies, and we are called to follow it …. And that’s the problem. He’s being serious … but you and I know the inability of sinful humanity to follow His imperative. There are occasions in this broken, sinful life where one is faced with committing one sin … or committing another, and there is no other option. Regardless of what you do, you are going to break one of God’s commandments. So here, this command for us to love our enemies is, indeed, what we are required to follow as Christians … but if you are a soldier, and you love your enemies by not killing them, you likely condemn your fellow soldiers to die. This sincere call from Jesus, this command for us to love our enemies and to turn the other cheek, is yet another example of the Law that we are required to keep … and yet are unable to do so.

But I think there’s a greater purpose to what Jesus says in our text. We hear His words and are cut to the heart by our inability to keep His law … but we also remember that Jesus did, in fact, keep all of God’s law, including this one. When He was struck in the face, He did not retaliate. When He was being mocked for His suffering, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He who was so reviled and hated by all of humanity, including us … nevertheless allowed Himself to be crucified and killed in our stead. To us poor, miserable beggars, He didn’t give a tunic or a cloak, but rather freely gave the robe of His righteousness. He knew that there was no way that we could ever hope to pay Him back for all He did … and yet, He still died the death that we, His enemies, deserved.

So what’s the takeaway in all this? Are we Christians allowed to defend ourselves or our families? Are we allowed to be soldiers or executioners or members of law enforcement? Are we supposed to be pacifist punching bags who would sooner die than touch a weapon or resist our enemies? I don’t believe those are the right questions to ask. I think, the real question is, “Who am I, a poor miserable sinner, to be so loved by the Creator?” We were the enemies that Jesus loved so much that He laid down His life and took it up again. That’s not license for us to strike first and hard without mercy, nor is it license to wash our hands of a situation where a neighbor is imperiled and we can do something about it. It is, however, license to know that we are completely forgiven and atoned for. It is license to serve according to our vocations and abilities, to serve our neighbor in whatever capacity we can. We know that service won’t be perfect, we know we will sin in doing so, but we know all the more that Christ fully atoned for our sin, including our imperfect service. Enemies no more, we are His forgiven and redeemed children, “not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

+ In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. + Amen.