Upsidedown Kingdom: Love Your Enemies

A long time ago, a man had 12 sons and I-don’t-know-how-many daughters. Parents shouldn’t play favorites, but this dad did. Everyone knew it: Dad loved Joe the best. It caused tension. The older ones resented both the favoritism and their brother.

‌It bubbled over when they were off caring for livestock. Dad sent Joe to check up on them. Since they were far from home, the older boys took out their frustrations on Joe. They grabbed him and threw him in a cistern to cool his heels.

‌Joe’s oldest brother planned to circle back and rescue him. But it didn’t happen. Human traffickers came along and his brothers sold Joe, who got dragged off to a foreign country.

‌Years later, after a being a slave and rising through the ranks to manage his owner’s business, after being falsely accused of sexual assault and going to prison, Joe became a government official. Joe had power and authority. He was 2nd in command.

‌The brothers who sold him tried to do business with Joe. They didn’t recognize him, but he knew them at once! He could have made their lives miserable. After testing them, Joe embraced his brothers and wept for joy. He didn’t pay back evil for evil. Joe found them homes and jobs and a retirement home for Dad.

After Dad died, the brothers worry that Joe still held a grudge. They offer to be Joe’s slaves. Instead, Joseph was gracious:

“Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. Genesis 50:19–21 (NIV)

You can read the full account in Genesis 37-50.

Joseph’s behaviour is unusual, but it shouldn’t surprise us. Heroes of faith in the OT show the power of God the HS. Godly behaviour shows up among God’s people in the OT and NT.

Jesus’ teaching stretches our imagination b/c it’s very different from what heroes do in movies and comic books. When you watch an action movie, you don’t expect James Bond or Jason Bourne to love their enemies and leave vengeance up to God.

You know Bond is going to fight his enemy and drop him from the helicopter. That’s just the way it is. And with the rest of the audience, we’re tempted to cheer for Bond. We’re accustomed to our culture’s standards: “love your neighbour and hate your enemies.”

So Jesus’ teaching sounds foreign in our culture. The heroes of faith in the OT & NT demonstrate the challenge and beauty of believing in God and obeying God. It’s a lifestyle that catches us by surprise with generosity and grace. It’s hard but appealing.

Imagine Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan today. A Jewish man left town to go to his olive grove when Hamas fighters ambush him. They beat him up, take his clothes, and leave him half-dead on the side of the road.

An Israel Defense Force jeep rolls up, the soldiers pause beside him, listen to his moans, and head to lunch.

A Red Cross ambulance pauses, the paramedics say, “yep, he’s breathing,” & squeal the tires racing off for break.

A Palestinian with a hand-cart sees him, runs up, gives First Aid, loads him in the cart and pushes the cart as fast as she can in a burka to a refugee camp, buying medicine and food at black market prices for as long as necessary.

Which of these was a neighbour to the injured man?

You see how radical Jesus’ teaching is? But it’s not as if Jesus doesn’t practice what he preaches.

Our first parents enjoyed God’s beautiful creation: Shalom! At the serpent’s instigation, they rebelled. Their disobedience disrupted the Shalom of God’s creation. All their descendants start life in rebellion against God. Our default setting is to be God’s enemies, living in conflict with God and neighbour.

Oh, it’s easy enough to love our neighbour, our family members, and those who love us. But Jesus challenges us: loving those who love you is not particularly a sign of righteousness.

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? Matthew 5:46–47 (NIV)

Loving your own people is normal. But God created people to be more generous and gracious. Jesus’ standard is higher:

I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. Matthew 5:44–45a (NIV)

Jesus reminds us of God’s standard:

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 5:48 (NIV)

How is that going for you? I don’t know about you but I find it impossibly hard. I don’t measure up.

Yet God, the judge of all the earth, is holy. He won’t leave rebels unpunished. The consequence for sin is death: an eternity cut off from God.

And because we aren’t perfect, we can’t rescue ourselves. Like a tractor stuck in a marshy spot, the more we spin our tires to get out, the deeper we sink.

Our only hope is our Creator. He is just and holy but God is also full of compassion, love, and grace. Jesus draws our attention to his Father’s grace:

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Matthew 5:45b (NIV)

We don’t often see that in our world. Most leaders go out of their way to make life difficult for our enemies. Business is a dog-eat-dog world. Politics can be too. Countries cut off gas lines and water lines and trading routes to make life miserable for their enemies. In our own petty ways, we make life difficult for others just to spite them: God is different.

Jesus is God himself. He entered his own creation as a human baby b/c he loves his world and all humankind, incl. his enemies. As a human, he identifies with our weakness yet was without sin. He can take the punishment for human sin upon himself.

He did that at the cross. When God put the punishment for human sin on Jesus, it was Jesus’ enemies who falsely accused him, convicted him and nailed Jesus to the cross. In that kind of pain and suffering, most people would call down curses on their tormentors. Not Jesus.

Pause and marvel at how Jesus prayed for his enemies as he hung from the nails on the cross?

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34a (NIV)

In excruciating pain and suffering, Jesus practiced what he preached. He loved his enemies and prayed for those who persecuted him.

Because of Jesus’ love for his enemies, because of his obedience to his heavenly Father, Jesus’ death covers over the rebellion and wrongdoing of all humankind. Jesus’ resurrection assures us that by faith, we are raised to enjoy eternal life with God; life for God.

By faith in Jesus, we become children of God; part of his forever family. Your love for your neighbour and love for your enemies is a demonstration that you’re part of God’s family.

Jesus’ resurrection and ascension to his heavenly throne turns the world upside-down. It gives you a different perspective. His righteousness and love, while we were yet his enemies, has ushered you into his upside-down kingdom. It’s disorienting at first, but over time you get the hang of it.

Love is the natural outcome of our connection to God the heavenly Father. Loving our enemies is not something we can do by willpower or just trying harder. Loving enemies and praying for those who make our lives miserable arises out of the work of God the HS, changing us, transforming us into people of God.

They talk about this in the Alpha videos and discussions. The Alpha video includes a clip of a Corrie ten Boom an evangelism and survivor of a Nazi prison camp. A major part of her ministry was rehabilitating prison guards after the horrors they had participated in.

After one of her talks, a prison guard came up to her. She remembered him as a brutal, nasty guard at Ravensbrück concentration camp. He asked for her forgiveness. To herself she said, “I cannot.” But after praying for God’s help, she could take his hand, and boldly say, “I forgive you.”