Another week in Epiphany. Another week on the mount, listening to Jesus.
Turn the other cheek, give them your cloak, go the second mile, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you. And then the kicker – be perfect.
That’s not easy listening. I don’t find the “music” too appealing either.
Be perfect, therefore as your heavenly Father is perfect. These verses end so much like the last group – with something that catches us by surprise and stops us dead in our tracks. How are we to understand this?
When we in the 21st century think of perfection, we think of no mistakes, no flaws, no failures – THAT is perfection to us. But, in the Greek , this is not the meaning of “telos” and the translation that this version offers us is not without its defects.
It is so different from our 21st century understanding of the word, that I made notations in the margins of my bible. Those on that hill the day listening to Jesus would have understood that word much differently.
They would have heard it as having attained the end or purpose, as being complete. They would not have heard it as moral perfectionism. They would have heard it as a goal to be achieved as God has achieved his goal, attained the end, the purpose.
And that purpose and goal is none other than Jesus and the reconciliation that he brings between God and his people. We are salt and light and are God’s blessed and beloved children. That is our identity. And now Jesus calls us to live into that identity.
And, as loved and blessed children of God – salt and light in this world, we take this love that we have been given and give it to others. We have a purpose – a God-given purpose to show the world Christ’s love.
And just how are we to do this? Well, you have heard it said…but JESUS says… It is important to remember that Jesus never called us to do anything that he himself did not do. Jesus walked to Jerusalem, to the cross, enduring the humiliation of the cross so that we might know eternal life.
Jesus was never a doormat and he doesn’t expect us to be one either. Rather than invoke the law of retaliation, Jesus implores us to not oppose the evil doer violently. But yes, oppose the evil doer by doing good and approaching with humiliation so as to shame those in power.
With this thought in mind, again, those who were powerful enough to take someone with absolutely nothing into court, to shame them by not only giving their coat in pay for the debt but the cloak as well. Since the cloak was also used as a blanket, the act was intended to bring shame to the offending party.
Subscription by the Romans was a problem in this 1st century colony. They thought nothing of showing their power over the colonized by forcing them into some sort of labor, the favorite being making people carry their baggage.
With the intent to shame the powerful, caring it the extra mile, the person has not accepted the intended humiliation. An added benefit is that he has saved his neighbor from degradation as well.
Love of neighbor is of utmost importance to Jesus and again, takes a radical and corrective stance beginning with you have heard it said but JESUS says, not only love your neighbor but enemies – the very same people who seek to shame, humiliate and degrade – as well.
This idea is so counter-intuitive, so intrinsically against the human nature, that it requires prayer. It is so important that Jesus includes it in the Lord’s Prayer when we ask for forgiveness and pray that we forgive as we have been forgiven.
Rain is not selective – it will always rain on everything – not just the portions that “deserve” it. The rain doesn’t discriminate and neither does God’s love – it’s for everyone – friend and enemy alike. And it is consistent, complete, and perfect.
Jesus also knows how difficult it is for us to love rather than hate, to forgive rather than hold a grudge, to be vulnerable rather than seek to protect ourselves at all costs, to give to others rather than make sure that we have more than enough for survival, to heal rather than to hurt.
These things are so hard because we, too, have been hurt; we have been injured in ways that cannot be seen. God knows those wounds. God knows our emotional afflictions and yet, he calls us salt and light; blessed and beloved – that is our identity.
And yet, there is always something that stops us, something that gets in our way – a grudge, a disappointment, a painful memory – stops us, gets in the way of achieving the goal that God has set before us.
Think about just one thing that prevents you from being what God has set before you as your goal, your purpose, your step towards God’s perfection.
Each Sunday we begin our service with the confession and forgiveness. We celebrate the Eucharist – Christ’s holy meal – communion. A wonderful embrace of God’s love.
As you come up to communion this Sunday, receive the wine and the bread and leave something behind.
As God’s love embraces you at the communion rail, leave behind that which prevents you from perfection. And then know that God’s love embraces you.
We hear so much about living our best life now. The army used to have a commercial that implored us to be all that we can be.
Jesus is inviting us to be all that God wants us to be and to live so that our neighbor’s best life is now.
Love God. Serve the neighbor. Grow in faith.
That’s music to my ears, even if the listening isn’t so easy.