Epiphany 7C-- What Will Your Reward Be?

Text: “34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount. 35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.” (Luke 6:34-35)

Let’s cut right to the chase. “35 [L]ove your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil” (Luke 6:35, ESV). By that standard, how many sons of the Most High would we find in the world right now? How many would we find in this building right now? Jesus makes it that simple. That’s the standard. More is demanded of those who would dare to call themselves Sons of the Most High. More is demanded because that’s who God is. He is merciful. That’s who His true children are, too.

More than that, it’s the standard for you. What will your reward be? You and I are good at justifying why things are different in our case—coming up with reasons why Jesus would not actually expect us to be merciful to the specific people we’re dealing with. He couldn’t have meant them. These people are outright evil. He’s deliberately trying to harm me. It wasn’t an accident. She’s explicitly said that she opposes God, that she rejects what God’s word says, for example. Surely Jesus didn’t mean someone like that, did He? You’re just as good at that as you are at finding loopholes in the 10 Commandments.

Except those people are exactly who He’s talking about. “32 “If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.” The one who is deliberately trying to harm you… the one who explicitly rejects God and His word… that’s exactly who He’s talking about. That’s who He expects you to love. That’s who He commands you to bless. That’s who you are supposed to pray for. That’s what’s required to be able to claim the reward of being called a child of God, a son of the Most High.

Yes, it’s a lot to ask. How can He expect you to actually love your enemies, to do good to those who hate you? Here’s the really annoying thing: not only is He God— and able, on that basis alone, to set whatever standard He likes— but, even by our own standards, He’s perfectly justified in expecting you to do it. You’ve heard it said, “Put your money where your mouth is.” There are plenty of people who are willing to tell you what you need to be doing and how you need to be doing them. And so you might tell that person to put his money where his mouth is. If he knows what needs to be done and how, then he can start by doing it, himself. It’s only fair. Even by that standard— arguably, especially by that standard— God is justified in demanding that you love your enemies. He’s done it for you first.

He had everything and chose to empty Himself, taking on the form of a servant. While in the form of a servant He had nothing, yet He gave unsparingly what He had: sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, strength to the paralyzed, life to the dead.

He was hated and despised, yet He continued loving them with a perfect, sacrificial love. The soldiers struck him mercilessly and He turned the other cheek.

As He hung, dying, they continued to curse Him. And still no curses came from His lips in reply—instead He prayed to the Father to forgive the very ones who abused Him.

What He commands you to do is unthinkable. And it is exactly what He, Himself, did first. And He did it for you.

And what was His reward? On account of His perfect life, His faultless suffering and death, the Father raised Him from the grave on the third day. He ascended back to the right hand of the Father in power, glory, and majesty, resuming His place as the eternal, beloved Son of God (Hebrews 12:2).

Now, why would He go through all of that to end up right back where He started? So that He could raise you up with Him and seat you with Him, there, and show you the immeasurable riches of His grace (Ephesians 2:5-6). So that He would not have to deal with you according to your sins or repay you according to your iniquities.

So that He could give to all “12 ...receive[d] him, who believed in his name, ...the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).

So that, just as by a man death came to all men, so also, in Christ, life might come to all men— to you.

So that He will raise you from the dead on the Last Day, making your lowly body like His glorious body when the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality.

So that, on judgment day, you will hear Him say, “Well done,” because, ever since the moment that you were given new birth by water and the spirit, it has no longer been you who live but Christ who lives in you.

He did it because He is the true Son of the Most High—He is every bit His Father’s Son, just as gracious and merciful as He is—in order to declare you to be a true child of God. That’s who you are now, doing for others as He has done for you—being merciful, just as He has been merciful to you.

It is impossible. And yet it happens.

St. Paul is a wonderful example. In fact, in Bible study a few weeks ago someone made a great point about his faithfulness in preaching the Gospel, even in the face of vicious persecution. We sometimes picture him as being driven by guilt, driven by a desperate need to make atonement for the Christians that he, himself, had put in prison and even killed. But it’s even more likely that he saw in himself in those who persecuted him. They were where he had been. That allowed him to have compassion on them, to love them even as they tried to kill him.

And we see the same thing to this day, as well. Think back 20 years ago or so to the man who went into an Amish school and killed the children there. “[M]embers of the Amish community went to the killer's burial service at the cemetery. …Amish families who had buried their own daughters just the day before were in attendance and they hugged the widow and hugged other members of the killer's family.”[1]

Or we might also look to the families of those killed by Dylann Roof when he walked into a Bible study in a church in Charleston, South Carolina, and killed the people present. “One by one, those who chose to speak at a bond hearing did not turn to anger. Instead, while he remained impassive, they offered him forgiveness and said they were praying for his soul, even as they described the pain of their losses.”[2]

And a few years ago at the sentencing hearing of Larry Nassar we also heard the words of Rachel Denhollander. Not only did she speak eloquently about the evil that he had committed and the punishment he was facing, she also warned of an even greater judgment than anything a human court could impose. “The Bible you speak [of] carries a final judgment where all of God's wrath and eternal terror is poured out on men like you,” she said in that courtroom. “Should you ever reach the point of truly facing what you have done, the guilt will be crushing.” But she also spoke to him just as eloquently of God’s grace. “Should you ever reach the point of truly facing what you have done, the guilt will be crushing,” she said, “And that is what makes the gospel of Christ so sweet. Because it extends grace and hope and mercy where none should be found. And it will be there for you. I pray you experience the soul crushing weight of guilt so you may someday experience true repentance and true forgiveness from God, which you need far more than forgiveness from me— though I extend that to you as well.”[3]

If you’ll forgive the mixed metaphor, He has made you “a kingdom and priests to our God.” And that is the sort of sermon that He has give you to preach. To warn of God’s judgment, but also to witness, in both word and deed, to His grace and mercy. Even when they hate you; even when they persecute you; even when they curse you, when they strike you, when they take even your most basic possessions from you, He has called you to pronounce forgiveness from God—and from you.

What will your reward be? Christ’s death and resurrection turn that question on its head. He assures you of the answer first, then addresses you, sons and daughters of God, saying: “36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.”

[1] Shapiro, Joseph. “Amish Forgive School Shooter, Struggle with Grief.” www.NPR.org, October 2, 2007. https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14900930 [2] Berman, Mark. “‘I Forgive You.’ Relatives of Charleston Church Shooting Victims Address Dylann Roof.” www.WashingtonPost.com, June 19, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/06/19/i-forgive-you-relatives-of-charleston-church-victims-address-dylann-roof/?utm_term=.96fefe29d11c [3] Denhollander, Rachel. Victim impact statement at sentencing of Dr. Larry Nassar. Transcript posted at www.CNN.com, January 30, 2018. https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/24/us/rachael-denhollander-full-statement/index.html