On her 100th birthday, a woman was asked, “What are you most proud of in your life?” “Well,” the woman responded, “I have a family that loves me…and not a single enemy in the world.” “That’s incredible,” her questioner responded. “What an inspiration to us all.” “Yep,” the woman added, “I outlived them all.” While humorous, I’m not sure longevity is the best solution for dealing with those you consider your enemies. If we look at the world, we can see plenty of examples of different ways to deal with our enemies. We can kill them. We can harm them in some way, whether physically or otherwise. We can mock them. We can try to turn others against them. We can cheer for those who cause them harm. More often than not, the world’s response to enemies is to seek to defeat them, in whatever way possible.

I don’t like spiders. I don’t know if I would say they are my enemies, but they are definitely not my friends. For much of my life, if a spider came anywhere near me, I reacted quickly and authoritatively…by smashing it. I would grab whatever object I could find near me that would work as an implement of death. It didn’t matter if that spider was harmless, minding its own business, more afraid of me than I was of it, or any other thing we say to ourselves to make us less afraid. Fear is a highly motivating emotion, and with spiders, my fear motivated me to commit arachnicide. As I’ve gotten older and learned more about spiders and their importance to the ecosystem, my reaction to spiders has changed a bit. While the sight of a spider can still cause my skin to crawl, I no longer strike first and ask questions later. I’m actually more likely to calmly get a cup and piece of paper so I can capture him and release him outside. Teenage me would think present me is insane for letting the enemy live, but I view it as growth and maturity.

When Jesus talked to his disciples and the crowds that had gathered in our passage from Luke for this morning, I’m pretty certain that spiders were not the enemies he had in mind. There may still be a lesson in there though. Listen again to Jesus’ words. “Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you.” Those are some pretty strong statements, pretty countercultural statements. We aren’t typically taught in our movies and TV shows and video games to love our enemies. We are taught to destroy our enemies, to thwart them, to seek revenge. In Jesus’ day, they didn’t have television, but they still had plenty of examples of violence begetting violence, of the response of the one being attacked to attack back. Revenge is far more common than forgiveness or mercy. But revenge is not Jesus’ chosen path against his enemies. Jesus’ way is love.

“Love your enemies,” Jesus says. Then he adds, “do good to those who hate you.” I remember being bullied when I was in eighth grade by one particular kid. He was mean and downright cruel toward me at times. He pushed me down into a puddle at recess one time for no reason. He called me names and laughed at me. But the highlight (or lowlight perhaps) of our interactions that year took place at the county fair during the summer that followed eighth grade. He and his friends approached me and my friend. I don’t really recall any words being said, but what I do remember is his fist smashing against my face. And boy, did that hurt! In that moment, as the pain took root in my body, adrenaline surged through me, and I wanted nothing more than to ball my own fist and hit him back. He would have most certainly deserved it. However, a combination of the desire to do the right thing and fear led me to do nothing. Instead, I held my head high and walked away. It was an extremely difficult thing to do, to reign in my anger. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies and to do good to those who hate you, that is not meant to be the easy choice. In fact, I’m pretty certain that Jesus knew this wasn’t the easiest way for us to behave, but he also knew that it is God’s way.

Jesus adds to that, “Bless those who curse you.” The Greek here says, “Speak well of those who pray against you.” The word for bless is actually the word from which we get our word eulogy. Speak well of those who are wishing for your demise. Have you heard the saying, “Kill them with kindness?” That is sort of the basic concept of what Jesus is saying here. We don’t speak kindly about only those who’ve spoken kindly about us or given us the things we need and want. We are called to speak kindly even about those who are being mean to us, who are actively working to harm us. April and I started watching the TV show “St. Denis Medical” recently. In a recent episode, two prisoners were brought into the ER with stab wounds that they had inflicted upon one another. The prisoners had to be restrained in order to be treated for their wounds. An overly optimistic, young male nurse feels like all these two criminals need is some encouragement and kindness to push them away from their violent ways. The head nurse finds this attitude refreshing, while one of the doctors finds it “insane and impossible.” The nurses aren’t able to change the hearts of the criminals, but after seeing how defeated they look, the doctor decides to try to get the two prisoners to get along for just one afternoon by buying them the thing they most want: sushi. It didn’t entirely work out as he’d hoped, but through the kindness of the two nurses, the doctor’s heart was changed a bit. And I think changes, brought forth in kindness, become less impossible.

Jesus also says, “Pray for those who mistreat you.” When we pray for something or someone, we are asking God to transform our own desire for a specific outcome into God’s desires. When we pray for those who mistreat or insult us, we are asking God to change our vengeful desires for them to God’s desires, which are merciful and slow to anger and loving. Have you ever prayed a prayer that went something like this? “Lord God, I can’t believe what Pete did to me. He is such a jerk. I hope he is miserable all the days of his rotten life. But not my will, but yours be done, O Lord. And Lord God, did you see that F that Ms. Pringle on the history test. It was so unfair. I wish she could take her own tests so she can see how confusing they are. But not my will but yours be done, O Lord. And finally, Lord God, I would like to see that gentleman who smashed my car with his rusty, old pickup truck get thrown in jail and the key tossed in the trash. And I hope he’s forced to pay through the nose to repair the damages. But not my will but yours be done, O Lord. Amen.” I’m not sure our prayers sound exactly like that, but the sentiment is relatively the same. We ask for what we want, even if we know it is probably not what God wants, but then we footnote it, “Not my will but yours be done, O Lord.” While the execution of that prayer may leave a little to be desired, the idea is correct. Prayer is a way for us to turn over our desire to control the situation over to God and open ourselves up to God’s solution, even if it contradicts what we really want.

“Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you; bless those who curse you; pray for those who mistreat you.” Those are not easy things to do. But Jesus doesn’t just stop there either. He goes on to say, “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who ask of you, and if anyone takes away what is yours, do not ask for it back again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” This section gives us three pretty well known idioms in the English language: turn the other cheek, give them the shirt off your back, and the golden rule (do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

All of this, and the remaining portion of our reading that we haven’t gotten to, points to God’s values of kindness, love, mercy, patience, compassion, and sacrifice. Those are the values we should be living out in relation to one another. I think this is one of the hardest teachings in the Bible because it requires us to act in ways that go against every natural instinct that we have. It is not a call to fight or flight. It is a call to follow. It is a call to live as Jesus lived, to do as Jesus’ would do. But Jesus tells us that living this way is of great value.

Jesus says, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive payment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again.” We do what Jesus would do. We love above and beyond the love that the world offers. We do good that is greater than the good that our humanity would do on its own. We give with a generosity that is greater than we think we can afford. The way of Jesus is countercultural. The way of Jesus is tough. But the way of Jesus is right and true.

Jesus concludes with a call to be merciful to not judge others and to forgive. And he ends with this statement: “A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap, for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” From this comes the popular idiom, “You get what you give” or “you get what you put into it.” These words leave us with a sense of equality. If we give a certain amount of love, that same amount will be returned to us. But I’m not sure that is true, at least as we might be prone to interpret it. What I think Jesus is saying is that, if we turn our desires over to God, so that God’s desires can be worked out in us, then God will make sure to offer us those same blessings that we are offering to others. When we offer love to others, we will see that love in our own hearts and lives as well. When we offer forgiveness to others, we will find that forgiveness taking root in our own hearts as well. Loving our enemies is hard. When Jesus told his disciples to do that, I imagine that looked at him like, “Wait…what?” But the things God calls us to were never promised to be easy. But they are good and right. And when we live into them, we can truly sense God with us, replenishing us in his love and mercy and truth. Amen.