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Epiphany 7.25 Luke 6:27-38

“Love your enemies; do good to those who hate you… to him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also… But, if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?”

So it turns out, both J.D. Vance and Pope Francis are wrong in their recent public quarrel over whether love starts at home (the Vice-President’s contention) or whether love begins with the downtrodden and outcast, as the Pope insists.

Because, when Jesus talks about love he says: “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

If the Pope and VP would let the Word of God have the final say, they would see they’re both wrong! Love begins and ends with God, and Jesus is God, come in the flesh, so real love begins and ends with Jesus. This is what we talk about when we talk about love. 😉

And this is important background for our challenging Gospel today that we should love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, offer the left cheek to one who strikes our right. If we love God with all our hearts, soul, and mind—and if all means ALL (which it does—because Jesus means everything he says!) then where does this love for self, neighbor, and enemy come from, hmmm?

Good question, right? I got a few of ‘em… 😉

St. Paul gives the answer in 2 Cor. 3:18 (turns out: to understand any part of the bible, you really need to have grasped the whole thing, and OK, I get it: the VP is legitimately busy with lots of other reading, but what is Francis’ excuse?).

Now, in 2 Cor. 3, St. Paul’s talking about glory, but love is the key element of God’s glory, inseparable from it. Get God’s glory and you’ve got his love! And St. Paul says: “when we turn to the LORD [Jesus!] the veil that covered Moses’ face is taken away and we, with unveiled face, reflecting the glory of the LORD, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory by the LORD Spirit.”

That’s a mildly corrected translation of the Greek, BTW, (κατοπτριζω is literally reflecting not “beholding”—a small but crucial difference! See how a little Greek’s necessary to get what the scriptures actually say? It’s amazing how shoddy the popular English translations all are at some crucial points, and again: I can see the VP doesn’t need Greek for his job, but what’s the Pope’s excuse?

Well… that “Latin is all you need!” is his excuse, having made Jerome’s crap Latin translation Rome’s official bible, but kids: it’s really most certainly true that Greek is an elegant, sexy language, the language of God, kings, philosophers; while Latin is the dull, dead language of sycophants, scribes, and sanitation engineers, and, finally, killed the Romans. 😉

But Paul’s clear point is that the glory of God is not something that we work to manifest or that we have internally to wield. No! It’s something we reflect—like little mirrors angled toward the sun.

St. John, when he talks about love, says: “this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son, the propitiation for our sins.” So, you put Paul and John together, and it’s clear that we love God only by reflecting, bouncing back the love of Jesus from the cross to him and to all around us.

And this happens by faith alone, the non-rejection of God’s gifts, glory, and grace. When Jesus says: “Love your enemies”, he’s not saying that we should search our hearts and muster up some affection for our enemies and show it by our hard work to like them better. No! When Jesus talks about love, he’s always talking about HIMSELF!—what he does to and for us, what we, by faith, will reflect back to him and to all around us.

So many people get the sermon on the mount in Matthew and the similar sermon on the plain in Luke (of which our Gospel today is a part) wrong! because they read it all as Law, as a command to do these things by our own innate powers. But… no! Jesus’ preaching is always Gospel proclamation! It’s not about what we do for him, but what he has done and keeps doing for us and our salvation.

Luther memorably says that this was the secret that opened the scriptures to him: that—like Moses bringing water from the rock—Luther whacked every single passage of scripture with his staff until it brought forth Jesus and his love and mercy received by faith alone. The holy scriptures aren’t mainly showing what we must do. NO! Every single passage shows JESUS—what he does, always already, for us, by grace through faith in Christ alone!

BTW: this is why all our English translations are so bad at so many crucial points: because all the major translations, starting with the King James on down to the ESV, were done by Calvinist majority committees who read the scriptures mainly as laws we fulfill by our WORKS rather than the gifts Jesus freely gives to the faithful.

We really need a Concordia Bible, translated by real Lutherans!

While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us! No greater love is there, than to lay down one’s life for his friends, and yet… Jesus lays down his life for his enemies, while we were his enemies!

When this love envelops us, by Gospel Word and Sacraments, it can’t help but bounce back to God and then to all the world around us—wherever it’s received by faith. JESUS is the only one who ever can, ever has loved his enemies to death, giving all, expecting nothing back. So: REAL LOVE begins and ends with… JESUS!!!

Do you think it’s weak?—turning the other cheek, letting people take everything you have? Is it weakness you see on Golgotha?—the LORD of life stripped of everything he has, like a lamb going uncomplaining forth to slaughter? Or, hidden underneath, can’t you see the greatest strength in the universe?

Here, I see the power of divine love. The temple curtain, torn in two. Saints, coming out of their graves. A soldier, confessing Jesus is LORD, God! On the 3rd day, I see the all-conquering might of the love that dies for his enemies to save us all!

On the cross, I see courage and strength beyond imagination! I hear Christ the All Ruling, with his dying breath, going: “Is that the best you got, Mr. Devil? I call that a love pat…” 😉

Knowing that his death has destroyed death and the devil’s Kingdom, Jesus dies in triumph, and he rises with power before which the world… cowers!

Knowing that sharing such loss, such a death, will only transfigure us into Jesus’ image and likeness, what’s not to like, er… love? Who can separate us from the love of God? What robs and kills us, only makes us… stronger! Just so, the Peace, that surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.