Luke 6:27-38
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all. Amen
27 But I say to you who are listening, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who insult you.
29 And whoever slaps you on one cheek, offer the other also, and whoever takes away your cloak, do not withhold your coat.
30 Whoever asks you, to the give; and whoever takes yours from him, do not ask for it back.
31 And as you want people to do to you, do also to them.
32And if you love those who love you, what thanks do you have from it? For sinners also love those who show love to them.
33 And if you do good to your benefactors, what thanks do you get from it? So do sinners.
34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive something, what thanks do you have from it? Sinners also lend to sinners so that they get the same in return.
35 But love your enemies and do good, and lend without hoping for anything in return. So your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.
36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
37 And do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
38 Give, and it will be given to you. A full, pressed, shaken and overflowing measure will be put into your lap; for the very measure with which you measure will be measured to you.
Dear congregation,
we all know this sentence: "As you do to me, I do to you." Sometimes we say it out loud, sometimes only inwardly. When someone hurts us, something in us contracts. And yes, it's also amazing how quickly it happens: to hurt someone. Words can also be knife stabs and slaps in the face. So quickly said and so long it takes to get this out of the world again.
Who doesn't know the reaction: I won't put up with it. Now I'll show you.
This is often how our world works. Everyone has the right to defence. But defending also destroys. Bombs thrown out of defense have the same destructive power. A person shot in self-defense is just as dead.
Some call this justice – but is it really just? Isn't it rather retribution? Revenge?
Our faith in Jesus Christ is a faith that does not resign itself to the progressive destruction and spiral of violence. Our faith contradicts. Jesus Christ contradicts. He contradicts today, November 9, which for German people is forever a reminder of the terrible violence and the crimes against humanity.
"Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who offend you."
On the one hand, it sounds beautiful. I would like to live in a world free of violence. At the same time, I find it an imposition. That's hard to hear. It sounds like an ideal that no one can fulfill.
What is Jesus doing here? I believe that Jesus wants to explode our thinking first. He shows that there is another way to live.
If we immediately stand in each other's way and say: that's impossible, we miss the power that lies in these words. Then we miss the hope that is supposed to be given to us in this way.
Not: "As you do to me, I do to you" – but: "As God does to me, so I do to you." Jesus offers this alternative. Not as a pious escape, but as a creative force. Jesus does not speak to people who live in peace. He talks to people who are oppressed, beaten, exploited. He does not trivialize the violence. He doesn't say, "Pretend everything is fine."
He sees the suffering, he has experienced it himself and has not escaped the violence until the end – and yet he calls for love and mercy. Because he knows: Violence gives birth to violence again. And those who fight back remain bound in the same circle.
Only those who break the spiral open up space for something new. Jesus offers this alternative. Not as a pious escape, but as a creative force.
I want to approach it from different sides and tell you about people who have made this alternative their own.
A few decades ago, an American psychologist put this attitude into new words: Marshall Rosenberg – the founder of Nonviolent Communication.
He says: It's about talking to each other without hurting. And above all: to hear each other in such a way that we understand the needs behind the words.
He suggests four steps: Observe without judging. Perceiving feelings.
Recognizing needs. Asking instead of demanding.
It sounds simple, but it changes everything.
Rosenberg often called this "the language of the heart". And that is exactly what Jesus does: He invites us to see with the eyes of God – not as judges, but as compassionate ones.God himself sees us in this way: not as failures, but as people with needs – for love, security, security, peace.
This can be practiced: it requires some time and, above all, the firm will not to get involved in similarly muddled conversation situations again and again.
There is an even more daring story of Francis of Assisi: it is important to know that Francis of Assisi came from a wealthy and powerful family. And he had become a soldier as a young man, as was expected of men from important families.
He became a soldier, but did not stay. He has renounced all his wealth and taken a different path. A radical path – in the truest sense of the word: one that goes to the roots.–. According to a legend, it was possible for Francis to make peace. The legend goes like this:
In the city of Gubbio lived a wolf that attacked and killed people. The residents were full of fear. No one dared to go out anymore. Then Francis went out – alone, without weapons. He met the wolf. And instead of driving him away, he spoke to him: "Come here, brother wolf."
He did not see the monster, but the creature. He recognized the hunger, the fear behind the violence. And the wolf – so the legend tells – lay down at his feet. They sealed their agreement with a handshake - or better: a paw blow.
Franz promised the hungry wolf that he would be fed by the humans and therefore no longer have to attack them or steal their chickens. From then on, people fed him, and he didn't hurt anyone anymore. Peace came to Gubbio.
Perhaps only a legend: but perhaps also true. This story shows what happens when someone reacts not with fear, but with trust. If someone says: I see you – not as an enemy, but as a brother. This is exactly what Jesus means. He sees the enemy as his brother. He believes that behind the violence there is a hunger – and this brings us to the middle of God's great movement.
What I discover together in all these approaches and what moves me:
What Jesus teaches here is nothing other than creation. Creation means: God brings order to chaos. It means: do not resign yourselves to evil, but try to overcome evil with good.
Then something new emerges like at the beginning. God speaks into the darkness: "Let there be light!" And it gets light.
We can read our creation story in many ways. I particularly like one reading. She takes seriously the fact that the story of creation originated in the Babylonian exile. So that was right after the incredible destruction of Jerusalem in 597 B.C. The temple in Jerusalem lay in ruins. The people were deported and defeated. Israel experienced its world as – hullabaloo – desolate and empty and chaotic.
And in this situation, the people experience: God still speaks and when God speaks, new life arises. God creates order in the chaos. God sorts and separates day and night. God creates manageable working days in which something new can be done.
That's how God is. God is merciful and gives new life. A whole new creation. Thought is the framework of our Bible: at the beginning and at the end we experience God's power that builds up and overcomes violence.
Jesus refers to this. He creates a new order in the midst of violence. Luke writes when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed for the second time. That's where the Gospels came into being when the Roman authority ruled with all its might. When war and insurrection and violence on the part of Israel seemed to be the only answer. Luke reminds us of Jesus, who said: "Be merciful, as your Father also is merciful."
This is not moral pressure. This is an invitation: live from the same source from which God lives. Let the mercy you receive continue to flow.
The attempt to put reconciliation in the foreground after the end of apartheid also had this goal: not to devastate further and not to injustice with further injustice
Dear congregation,
these verses remain a temptation. They bother us because things are often so different in the world. They confront us with sides that we don't like to perceive. It is not a quick fix: we will not be able to love enemies overnight. Psychology has taught us how long it can take for a person to heal. It's not: we-change-a-plan.
But we can start. Begin to become aware that God wants to bring about reconciliation. We cannot end the spiral of violence alone – but we can start in our small world: with an open word, with a gesture of peace, with the decision not to fight back.
And every time this succeeds, creation happens anew. Then new life emerges from chaos. Then a piece of heaven becomes visible.
"As you do to me, I do to you" – that is the old world. "As God is to me, so am I to you" – that is the new one.
God loved us first. He forgave us before we deserved it. He blesses us even though we forget him. When we love, bless and forgive in this way, traces of the new creation shine forth – here, in our lives, in our city.
Then reconciliation washes and the "Never again!" by Pastor Martin Niemöller, which has become a motto in Germany after the 2nd World War, retains its power.