Let's read together again the words of our text. That's Luke chapter six, verses 27 to 36. But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. 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. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. But love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great. And you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Brothers and sisters, in our Lord Jesus Christ, one of the most significant ways that our Western culture is moving away from its Christian roots is its understanding of love. For many today, love is not a matter of the will, it's not a matter of something that you choose to do, but it is a feeling. And it is a feeling that is stimulated by other people. Love is stimulated by other things. Even in our society today, love for enemies is no longer a virtue. It's actually a vice, something bad. In our society today, this is undoubtedly influenced by critical theory. It has a very hard time having any love at all for those with whom we disagree. Most people today think that loving one's enemy makes a person vulnerable, giving their enemy an advantage or power over them, and so therefore, enemies must be resisted at all costs. And this general understanding that we have in society comes through quite clearly in the realm of politics. Here in Canada, for example, the issue of tariffs makes this very clear. You have an economic and a political disagreement, a very important one, between the U.S. president and our country. It leads to a lack of love between the two countries. You think of booing the U.S. anthem has become a common thing. Another clear example from south of the border was seen just this past week. If you watched the speech that President Trump delivered to Congress, you see there the members of the Democratic Party refusing to clap for anything. The President says, even things that are obviously good for the country, you flip the two parties around, I'm not sure you see anything different. But all of this goes to show that in our society today, from the bottom up, The idea that loving your enemy no longer really exists. We no longer really have a place for it. Now, Western society is certainly by no means sunk to a new low. It's not new. Rather, it's just returned to a pre-Christian view of love. It's returned back to the sinful and back to the twisted view of love. The sinful view that says I'm only going to love another person if it somehow benefits me. You see, that was also the view of the world that Jesus came into. It's the view that every sinful human being has ultimately in their heart by nature of a love ruled by self-interest. But Jesus, as we'll see, teaches something quite different, something quite out of the ordinary, something quite extraordinary. He calls us to have a kind of love that is modeled after God, not a kind of love that is modeled after this world, a kind of love that is selfless. And it is so selfless that it can love anyone in any situation. It's the kind of love that truly builds up And as Jesus demonstrates his disciples, those who follow him are to be distinguished from others by this different, by this extraordinary kind of love. So that will be our theme this morning. Jesus calls his disciples to have an extraordinary, an extraordinary kind of love. We'll see that it's a limitless love, it's a non-reciprocal love, and finally, it's a divine love So far in the Gospel of Luke, we are still here in Jesus' Galilean ministry. It's been dominated by two activities, Jesus' preaching and Jesus' healing. Jesus, as we read, is now surrounded by a great multitude of people, people who have come from far, far away places, from Judea, from Jerusalem, even from other nations like Tyre and Sidon. Power is going out from Jesus to heal, Luke says, and all this crowd wants to do is to touch him, to receive that power to heal. Now, it's within this context of this crowd that Jesus delivers what is known in Luke's gospel as the Sermon on the Plain, the Sermon on the Plain. It's very similar to the Sermon on the Mount that we find in Matthew. but it's probably a different event. In any case, we should also note in verse 20 that the sermon's not directed to the crowd who's around him, but the sermon is directed to his disciples. Jesus is describing and encouraging his disciples to act in a certain way, a certain way that's very different from others. And that's obvious from the way that he begins the sermon. He begins the sermon with pronouncements of blessing and pronouncements of woe. And the blessings and the woes that he gives are really counterintuitive. They are something that we would not expect. And with all these blessings and these pronouncements of woe, the main point is that followers of the Lord Jesus, are going to be willing to suffer emptiness. They're going to be willing to suffer disadvantage in the present because they are looking forward to a heavenly reward from God. That's the main point of the beatitudes and the woes. And one of those disadvantages that they're willing to suffer is persecution. You see that in verse 22. Blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you. Spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice, Jesus says, for your reward is great in heaven. So Jesus is calling his disciples throughout this sermon to be and to act differently, to think of earthly suffering, to think of earthly persecution in a positive way, to think of it as a blessing, to be looking ahead to God's reward. And so there's a question then that remains. If persecution, according to Jesus, is a blessing, how does that change the way that Jesus' disciples are to handle that situation? How are they meant then to handle situations of persecution, but also how are they meant to handle situations of other enmity, of other conflict? And the answer is that in those situations, they love. They love rather than hate. Jesus says to his disciples, and he says it by extension also to us, the church, he says, I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. Out of everything that Jesus in scripture calls us to be, out of everything that Jesus calls us to do, this is probably the most difficult thing. Jesus is calling his listeners to love their enemies. He's calling them to love the people who, by definition, they do not love. And the idea also of loving one's enemies would have been almost unheard of to those people who were listening to Jesus. For the Jewish people, Love was an incredibly important thing. It was an incredibly important part of their piety. But it was love generally within the covenant community. God had, in the Old Testament, loved. He had redeemed his people Israel from slavery. He had brought back the Jews again from exile as well. And so the Jews knew that their proper response was love toward God. that they would express their love to him by being obedient, by being faithful and steadfast to him. And they also recognized, most of them, that this should also play out in love for one's neighbor. Love for one's neighbor is an incredibly important part of Jewish piety at the time. But again, the general understanding was that neighbors only included those people who were in good standing within the covenant community. The Jewish community at Qumran, a place where they discovered many, many scrolls and parchments, they had this saying. They said, love everyone whom God chooses, hate everyone he hates. That was the basic Jewish ethic. The Pharisees, it would seem, taught something very similar. When Jesus quotes them, he says, you've heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. This is the standard that Jesus' audience is used to. But now Jesus is saying that love must also extend to the outsiders, those outside the covenant, and even to the outcasts within that covenant, those people who are sinners. Love for enemies, love for sinners. Love even must be extended, as Jesus is implying, to the Roman overlords, the arch enemy, Rather than stir up a revolution to overthrow the Romans, like maybe many of Jesus' listeners were hoping for, Jesus is teaching his followers to love them. By teaching his followers to love even their enemies, Jesus is saying that the love of his followers should not be limited to certain people or to certain types of people. If even enemies are to be loved, then we could say that no one really is off limits. Enemies, rivals, acquaintances, friends, family, it's all included. Jesus here is giving an extreme case to say that everyone, everyone in between is to be loved. Our love must be a limitless one in that respect. But not only must our love not be limited with respect to other persons, it must also not be limited within ourselves, as if what Jesus is saying applies only to our external actions and as if it doesn't also apply to our private life and even to our own hearts. Jesus here, he elaborates a little on what he means by loving your enemies. And you notice in verses 27 and 28, there is actually a progression that Jesus gives. A progression from actions to speech and even to the heart. He says, do good to those who hate you. So this love is to be expressed in actions. He says, bless those who curse you. So this love is to be expressed in speech. And then he says, pray for those who abuse you. He also says, pray for those who mistreat you. It probably refers, this word in the New Testament is used usually in the context of persecution. But pray for those who mistreat you. The heart. Jesus is after the heart of his individual followers. You see, even in situations where We can do or say nothing in the face of mistreatment, even in private, even in the place where only God sees. Even there, says Jesus, even there are we called to love our enemy. We must pray to God, we must intercede for them. We must love them before the throne of grace. We must take them to God in prayer so that they can receive help. that they can receive mercy. It's really a radical thing. Just imagine yourself as a soldier on the battlefield. Imagine you come across an enemy soldier, someone who is severely wounded, but who's still alive, lying in the ditch beside the road. What do you do? Perhaps with a wartime sort of ethic, you leave him. Maybe your conscience pricks you. Instead, you pull him out of the ditch and you lay him on the road. You make a kind gesture. Perhaps he might be more easily found. It might turn into something. It would be loving, no doubt. But what if you took him? What if you took him and you put him on your back? You carried him along with you. You put him in the best hospital. You pleaded with the very best doctor to take care of him. Would you be willing to do that for an enemy? See, that's what we're doing when we pray for our enemies. It's bringing them to the throne of grace. It's bringing them to the place where they can find the greatest help. Certainly a great amount of love is needed to do such a thing for our enemy. The Lord Jesus also provides two other illustrations of this love for enemies. In verse 29, he says, 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. Now the point with these illustrations is not that we should permit assault and robbery, we should just allow it to happen without consequences. Certainly not. But rather the point is that our love for enemies should cause us to endure insult, should cause us to suffer loss with patience rather than with retaliation. Jesus' illustration here of being struck on the cheek, it probably refers to a slap in the face with the back of the hand, a common form of public insult in his culture in those days. You can also immediately, quite easily imagine the shame of being stripped of one's cloak, also of being stripped of one's tunic, which is a sort of undergarment, being left almost naked. Jesus is saying here that his followers, you're going to face animosity, you're going to face persecution. Jesus is calling them to respond to that persecution with love, even if it makes them more vulnerable. even if it exposes them to attack again. In our culture today, we have a saying, we say, don't bite the hand that feeds you. Jesus was telling his disciples, even if your hand gets bitten, don't stop feeding. The Lord Jesus himself was the one who exemplified this enemy love in a way that no one else really can do. We see throughout his ministry he reaches out to the covenant outsiders and also the covenant outcasts, Samaritans, tax collectors, prostitutes, beggars, the lame and the sick. But we know that he also loved the very enemy who would betray him. He loved Judas Iscariot. In fact, on the very night When Jesus was going to be betrayed, he knew it was coming. Jesus shared a meal there with his disciples. Judas was there. And in John chapter 13, it says, during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands and that he had come from God and was going back to God, he rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments. Taking a towel, he tied it around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. Jesus, he's the rabbi, he's the Lord. He took the form of a servant before his disciples. He loved them. He washed their feet. He even washed the feet of Judas. Imagine that. He knew everything of what Jesus was going to do at the end of the meal. He says to Judas, go do what you have to do. Jesus knew that his generosity to Judas would not benefit him. He would be betrayed. Still, Jesus loved the very disciple who would become his enemy. He washed the very feet that that same night would run off to the chief priests and run off to the Pharisees. And in the same way, brothers and sisters, the love that characterizes Jesus' disciples is not limited to friends, but it extends even to enemies, even to the heart, and even when we are mistreated for it. Without a doubt, I think that that challenges all of us. Who are the enemies that we've been considering unworthy of our love? Yes, we can think of persecutors, certainly. We can think of people who have it out for the Christian church, people who show their hostility to Christianity. It's very possible we face those sorts of people in our workplaces, our colleges, our communities. Jesus calls us to love them without reservation. But the truth is also that in our hearts, we so easily turn other people into enemies. We turn them into enemies for much less than that. People with whom we have strong differences of opinion. People with whom we have grudges or we have unresolved conflicts. These can be even family members, people close to us. People whom we are envious of, maybe people who we are jealous of. Maybe no one else really knows our true feelings for these people. Maybe no one ever finds out. But nevertheless, these are the ones whom Jesus calls us to love. There should be no limits, there should be no barriers. Brothers and sisters, it extends to enemies, it extends to friends, and it extends to everyone in between. That brings us to our second point then, that this love is not only limitless, but it is a non-reciprocal love. Jesus calls for a non-reciprocal love, that is to say, it's a love that does not expect anything in return. It's a love that is freely and generously and self-sacrificially given. And of course, it's only a love that doesn't expect anything in return that can actually love an enemy, isn't it? Jesus says in verses 30 and 31, give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. It's worth mentioning that the world of Jesus' day was dominated by a system of benefaction. It's called benefaction. What that means is that the societal understanding was that favors or gifts were never really freely given, but there was always an expectation of return. There was always an expectation of return. Society had a lot of what they call patron-client relationships. Wealthy individuals, patrons, they would offer services to their poorer clients, and the poorer clients were expected to give something back in return. They could maybe give certain types of gifts. If they couldn't give gifts, then at the very least, they had to give honor. In any case, society in Jesus' day was dominated by this back and forth, by this tit for tat, this exchange of favors and honors. The understanding was that people would give so that they could receive. And that's what Jesus challenges directly. He gives his disciples what we call today the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. And it's a saying that we recognize contains a lot of wisdom. It's a good rule of thumb for getting along with other people. It's probably something that we remind our children of from time to time. But is that all that there is to it? Is it just this wisdom for interaction with others? The golden rule was radical in Jesus' day. There were other teachers, there were other philosophers who taught something similar, but it was always in a negative form. It was always, don't do to others, what you don't want them to do to you. One of the famous Jewish rabbis said, what is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That's a fine principle. But don't do to others what you don't want them to do to you is only a law of non-hatred. It's a command not to harm others in the way that you don't want to be harmed. But you see the golden rule, according to Jesus, from Jesus' mouth is much different. It's so much more. It's a law to love actively. Do to others as you wish others would do to you. It means actively loving them. It means positively doing something. And notice another point. It's not do unto others as they do unto you. but do unto others as you wish they would do unto you. Whether they return the favor is completely besides the point. They might respond, as Jesus says, with animosity, they might respond with a slap to the face, but we are called to act out of love according to how we would like to be treated. Entirely selfless, entirely unselfish. It's not reciprocal at all. Jesus contrasts this extraordinary kind of love with the ordinary kind of love that we find even among unbelievers. It says in verse 32, if you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? Even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. See, these are examples of reciprocal love, of self-centered love, loving for the sake of being loved in return, doing good for the sake of receiving good in return, lending when expecting to receive in return. We all recognize that these sorts of things are common. There's nothing distinctive, really. There's nothing special about it. Everyone's willing to love when they get love in return, aren't they? Many people in our society, indeed, they don't hesitate to date, they don't hesitate to get engaged, they don't hesitate to even get married, as long as they feel that the love they give is being returned by their significant other. It's not hard to mow your neighbor's lawn when he's on vacation if you know that he'll do the same for you when you're gone. But Jesus says, big deal. Everybody does that. That's the world's standard of love. There's no special reward for that in God's eyes. He says that kind of love, when the costume of it is really stripped away, It's really just looking after yourself. And it won't fool God. And yet, isn't that often exactly the type of love that we show, even within the church? The kind of love that we might even pat ourselves on the back for? thinking that we're doing so well by helping one another and doing favors for one another, that's great. I take care of you and you take care of me. But what about when people don't appreciate our help? What about when people stop saying thank you for what we do? What about when our generosity towards others doesn't seem to be bearing fruit? Isn't it true that we reach our limit, usually? And you see, that's the problem with the world's kind of love, with reciprocal love, because when you stop getting, you stop giving. When you don't feel loved anymore, you get a divorce. When your neighbor's too old to mow your lawn, you stop mowing his. But the kind of love that Jesus shows is different. It says in verse 35, love your enemies, do good and lend, expecting nothing in return. It's only when we love without expectation of being paid back that we can love our enemies. It's only that kind of selfless love that can really love the people that no one else dares to love. There's a famous story of a Mennonite, a Dutch man named Dirk Willems. Maybe you've heard the story before. In Holland in the year 1569, Dirk Willems was condemned to death and he was imprisoned for his beliefs. However, he attempted to escape the prison. He managed to escape with a makeshift rope He got out of the prison, he was noticed by one of the guards, and so one of the guards gave chase to him. And the two of them were running across a frozen lake. Dirk Willems had been in prison, he had been deprived of food and drink, he was a skinny man, he was a light man. He ran across the frozen lake, no problem. But the guard who was chasing him, a little heavier, He broke through the ice. It was late winter, the ice was becoming weak. So while Dirk made it across the lake, the guard fell through. He's crying here out for help. Dirk, he had really a golden opportunity to escape. But he went back out. He risked his own life. He rescued his pursuer. He rescued his enemy from death. And do you know how he was rewarded for his generous heroism? He was recaptured and later burned to death. Talk about a love without return. You see, it's non-reciprocal. It's self-sacrificial love. that Jesus' followers are called to have, something better than the world has. It's the type of love that the Bible teaches over and over again, time and time again, that love is always a matter of giving rather than receiving, a love given without conditions attached. It's only this type of love that enables us to love our enemies, but in fact, it's only this type of love that can actually sustain or heal any human relationship. This is the only type of love that can sustain and heal a human relationship rather than destroy it. All our human relationships that we have, they all put us to the test. We're all sinners. In any human relationship, in most of them, we often reach points where we feel that love is not being reciprocated. What happens then? If the only love we know is the common love of the world, then that relationship will die. But if we love without expectation of return, then it can continue. Then it can live another day. This holds true for our relationships with others in the church. It's only through a selfless love that's willing to suffer wrong and to forgive that a congregation can have strong disagreements and stay together. This holds true also for our marriages. It's only through a selfless love that is willing to give things up for our spouses, even without recognition, that two sinners can stay married. It's also true for our families. It's only through a selfless love that is willing to give up time and energy and attention without any earthly reward that we can care for our sick relatives, that we can care for our elderly parents, This is the kind of love that Jesus calls his disciples to. Now there's, of course, one important question that remains. How? We've seen that we can only love our enemies. We have to love our enemies. We can only have a limitless love when we don't expect return. But how can we really do that? How can we love without caring about what we get back? It's only possible through the gospel. It's only possible through the good news of who God is and what he's done for us in Jesus Christ. Through the help of the Spirit, brothers and sisters, the gospel gives us the resources we need to do this. It's because this love is not earthly. This love is a divine love. See, look at what Jesus says in verses 35 and 36. He says, but love your enemies and do good and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great. And you will be sons of the Most High, for He is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. You see, the gospel gives us this great promise of reward. In line with those beatitudes and those woes at the beginning of the chapter, or in the first part of the sermon, rather, Jesus' disciples are willing to suffer disadvantage on account of a future great reward that is a heavenly one. We might be very curious about what this reward is exactly. But Jesus doesn't say, and it's probably a good thing that he doesn't, because that's not the point. The point is simply this, the good news for us is simply this, that there is a God who sees us. And that what we sacrifice for him does not go unnoticed. What we sacrifice in order to serve God does not go unappreciated. He sees, and one day he will say, well done. Whether there is more to this reward, we do not know. But through faith, we believe that God, in a gift of his pure grace, will indeed credit us for loving our enemies in an extraordinary way. And therefore, we don't need to be afraid of what we might lose, because we know that we will gain later. So that's one of the things that the gospel gives us to help us to love in this way. Secondly, we're able to love without limit. We're able to love without expectation of return because the gospel shows us that that is the way that God loved us. The Apostle Paul in his writings comes back to this point frequently. He comes back to it again and again. And he puts it really explicitly in Romans chapter five. He builds the case step by step. He says, first he says while we were still weak, Christ died for the ungodly. And then he says, but God chose his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. From ungodly, ungodly to sinners. And then finally he comes to the crescendo and he says, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. on godly sinners, indeed, even enemies we were. In the gospel, God has shown this amazing picture of his love by dying for his enemies. You and I were enemies of God. We were hostile to him. As enemies, we did not welcome his mercy, but that did not stop him. As sinners, we needed a kind of help that could only be accomplished through giving His own Son to death, and that did not stop Him. No, as Paul says, the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me. That is not just an ordinary love. That is not just an extraordinary love. That is a divine kind of love. You see, brothers and sisters, when we are touched When we are touched by that gospel, when we are touched by the mercy of God toward us, then the gospel inspires us to imitate God. Just like the Apostle John says, we love because he first loved us. And notice also that father-son language at the end of our text. You will be sons of the Most High. Be merciful as your father is merciful. If God is truly our Father, then as His sons and daughters, we're going to resemble Him. We're gonna show a likeness to those around us, that we are like God. It's not gonna be a worldly kind of love. It's going to be this self-sacrificial, divine love. We might say, actually, that Jesus in this passage not only gives us the golden rule, but he also gives us a platinum or a diamond rule. He says, do unto others as God has done unto you. Do unto others as God has done unto you. So brothers and sisters, we must be touched by the gospel in order for us to love even our enemies without any desire for selfish gain. In order for us to have a love that is really patient and kind, that does not insist on its own way, that is not irritable or resentful, as Paul says, a love that bears all things, a love that endures all things, a love that never ends. In order for us to have that extraordinary love, brothers and sisters, we must come frequently to the cross. In the agony, in the suffering of Christ, is displayed God's love for us, his enemies. Have you been there? Only there are you going to find the kind of love that you need to rebuild your marriage. Only there are you going to find the kind of love that you need to reconcile with your estranged family member or spouse. Only there are you going to find the kind of love you need to forgive old sins, to lay down old grudges. Only there are we going to find the kind of love that we need to look past our differences of opinion and to walk side by side, arm in arm for Christ. It's only there. Look there, brothers and sisters. Look to the divine love displayed on Calvary. You know, one of the things that no one can ever accuse the Bible of is downplaying the role of love. It's everywhere in Scripture. It's all over the New Testament. In the letters of John, it is the dominant theme. It is almost every other word, it seems. It is so heavily emphasized. And yet, sadly, that emphasis is not matched in many of our lives as Christians. If it was, we would be far less divided over issues of Christian freedom. If it was, our families would be less broken. If it was, our churches would be more thriving. Can you just imagine what it would be like if we loved in the way that Jesus calls us to love? Brothers and sisters, that is the call of Jesus Christ in this passage to his disciples. A call to love our enemies, all people without limit. A call to love freely without expectation of return. calls us to love others in the way that God loved us first. Brothers and sisters, it is possible. In Christ, we have all the resources that we need to do it. He gives us the spirit for the strength to do it. He gives us prayer so that we can ask for it. And he gave us the cross so that we could see it and be touched by it. Brothers and sisters, be encouraged in this. And by your love, may you be seen to be Christ's disciples. Amen. Let's respond by singing together from hymn 72. We'll sing all stanzas.