1 Samuel 26.2, 7-9,12-13,22-23 ‘The Lord gave
you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the Lord’s
anointed.’
1 Corinthians 15.45-49 ‘Just as we
have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the
man of heaven.’
Luke 6.27-38 ‘Be merciful,
even as your Father is merciful.’
‘Be merciful,
even as your Father is merciful.’ (Luke 6.36)
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This morning’s gospel invites us
to deep reflection on the nature of mercy and of love, two words that show the
face of God.
But
what do we do with a gospel text like the one we’ve just heard? ‘Love your enemies, do good to
those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you’. (Luke
6.27,28)
It’s
crackers.
Isn’t
it?
And
as for, ‘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.’ (Luke 6.29)
It’s just not practical.
Surely?
***
Jesus’ words are shocking, even
when they are very familiar.
Our era, with its global turmoil,
tribulation, aggression and war, is not the first to have to grapple with what
Jesus teaches: the human condition remains constant.
Taking a glance back, we should be
mindful that these words have always been perplexing to the point of being regarded
as irrational.
After all, Jesus spoke them in a
time of occupation and guerrilla warfare.
The occupying Romans for whom
‘might is right’, thought sayings like these both incomprehensible and, even
more, contemptible.
What weak religion these
Christians have: they and their teachings are beneath contempt.
Similarly, groups like the Zealots
and those actively opposing Roman rule thought these words to be precisely the
wrong way to deal with an oppressive, occupying force.
We’re left with a choice: take
these words literally or just ignore them.
But neither approach works: one
means the aggressor triumphs; the other means aggression is multiplied.
Where is the triumph of Christ?
Where is the triumph of love, mercy and justice?
So where do we go with them?
It’s been noted before, and is a
good insight, that these words are not words of weakness as might be supposed.
They are words of virtue and of
strength.
This is about the inner strength of the one who resists evil
without being captured by it.
We’re often told that the natural response
to violence and threat is ‘fright, flight or fight’.
The logic of Jesus is to adopt
none of those instincts.
To declare love for your enemy or
offer your offer cheek to be struck when already struck is not the reaction of fright, of a person paralysed by fear;
it is certainly not flight, absenting
yourself from the battle; and it is not fight,
the reaction of hitting straight back.
It is in fact the virtuous, strong
way to face evil and vice: beat it the
evil, don’t join the evil.
The aggressive, hostile person is
the human face of inner turmoil, torture and grievance.
Jesus’ teaching sees beyond the
presenting situation, someone’s aggression, and sees to the heart of the person.
It is in the human heart that
these spiritually corrosive emotions fester and then break out in violence.
So, retribution is not the path of
Jesus Christ.
But Jesus’ sayings press this
further: not only is retribution wrong, the measure of love goes beyond the
transaction.
In other words, love is not a form
of currency where if you love me this much I’ll love you back that much.
Likewise, love is not a finite resource:
we’re not given a dollop of love at birth that we have to eke out through life.
No. Love is not something that you
can trade or withhold.
True love is endlessly abundant,
‘good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over.’
(Luke 6.38)
When you measure love or ration
it, you limit what you can receive in return.
St Paul writes so powerfully about
this in 1 Corinthians 13.
***
‘Be
merciful, even as your Father is
merciful.’
First
then we need to be alert to the mercy of God.
The
Gospel of Luke, which is the principal gospel this year, relentlessly speaks of
the mercy of God.
…In
Mary’s song, the Magnificat: ‘and God’s mercy is for those who fear him from
generation to generation’. (Luke 1.50)
…In
the Parable of the Good Samaritan when the true neighbour is revealed as ‘The
one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
(Luke 10.37)
…In
the Parable of the Prodigal Son the Father shows loving mercy to the wayward
son who he could have rebuked and treated as a hired hand. (Luke 15:11–32)
So
when Jesus says, ‘Be merciful, even as
your Father is merciful’ he asking us to go beyond retribution and getting our own back, and to extend our
love, compassion and mercy beyond our
normal capacity so that we reflect the mercy of God.
Questions
follow for each one of us here this morning.
How
do I know the mercy of God? How do I show the mercy of God?
God’s
mercy is found in knowing you are a person, who, despite your sharp edges,
stubbornness, fragility or harshness, is loved.
God’s
mercy is found in knowing you are a person, who, despite what you get wrong in
life, when you turn back to God you are forgiven.
God’s
mercy is found in knowing you are a person, who inside is lonely, bruised or
sad, yet is healed.
Showing
mercy is reflecting all that in your own life and dealings with other people.
Drink
deeply from the wells of God’s mercy so you can be merciful to others.
Showing
mercy is about being a loved person who loves; a forgiven person who forgives;
a healed person who heals.
And
showing the mercy of God means setting aside judgementalism and the
hyper-criticism that demands of other people standards you would never expect
of, or demonstrate in, yourself
***
The first place we must look to
see what mercy looks like in human form is to Jesus.
He exemplifies all the words of
today’s gospel in his manner of facing the baying crowds who wanted his death.
The prophecy of Isaiah anticipates
this of him:
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened
not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a
sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened
not his mouth. (Isaiah 53.7)
If
ever there was a moment of fright, for flight or to fight it was then, but
Jesus adopted the strong way of facing down evil not becoming possessed by it.
He
allowed himself to be judged but did not judge in return, indeed he prayed from
the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23.34)
May
we resist evil, not succumb to it.
May
we know mercy and show mercy in our lives.
May
we do so to others, as we would wish them to us.
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