Today is Palm Sunday. A Sunday commemorating Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem and honored as a King a few days before he would die for the world, and defeat death by being risen from the dead.

It can be said that Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on that donkey marked the beginning of a week that would find climax in the most supreme offering of extravagant, compassionate and self-sacrificial love that the world would ever see…Jesus’ death on a cross and his ensuing Resurrection 3 days later.

This morning we want to focus on the nature of God’s love and the love that he calls us to show to others.

We are in the middle of this series called “Hard to Believe.” And this morning we will look at another one of Jesus teachings that

To start this morning I’d like to ask you to stand this morning and read with me this important and powerful passage.

⁴³ "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' ⁴⁴ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Let’s start by setting some context here. I’d like to look at two types of context. The first is the context of Setting and the 2^nd of History:

Setting Context:

• Sermon on the Mount>
• Writing to disciples…with others watching.
• Jesus is really introducing his Kingdom here…a new Kingdom to live in, even though the earthly Kingdom of Jewish history and the Roman Empire surrounds them. These are HIS ways…the ways of true life. We’ve seen this in his words relating murder to anger and adultery to lust….and now here, the concept of unconditional love.

With this understood, let’s look at what Jesus says,

⁴³ "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'

Now why is this significant…why say this? To understand this, we have to understand the environment that these men lived in and their past and present realities…this brings up the 2^nd context…Context of History…

Historical Context:

• These men understood what an enemy was…an individual or group that wanted them dead.
• These men had, and would continue to have, enemies…they had enemies of the past (nations that hated Israel)…they have enemies present (Roman Empire)…and they will have enemies in the future (Jews and Romans alike).
• So this concept of loving your neighbor and hating your enemy had become a common assumption of the day for Jewish people because of what their past and present situations had brought them…enemies. And they used the Scriptures to justify it…where did loving your neighbor and hating your enemy come from?
• Love your neighbor…which was reference to a passage from Leviticus in the Hebrew Scriptures…Lev. 19:18.

" 'Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

• And hate your enemy?...where does that come from? This was a pharisaical understanding of the implications of Lev. 19:18 and two other verses, Psalm 139:19-22 and 140:9-11.

Psalm 139:19-22—

¹⁹ If only you would slay the wicked, O God!        Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

    ²⁰ They speak of you with evil intent;        your adversaries misuse your name.

    ²¹ Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,        and abhor those who rise up against you?

    ²² I have nothing but hatred for them;        I count them my enemies.

Psalm 140:9-11—

⁹ Let the heads of those who surround me        be covered with the trouble their lips have caused.

   ¹⁰ Let burning coals fall upon them;        may they be thrown into the fire,        into miry pits, never to rise.

    ¹¹ Let slanderers not be established in the land;        may disaster hunt down men of violence.

• As a result, the Jewish people of the day would band together and say, “we will look out for our own.” We will love those who love us, who are like us…but we will hate those who are our enemies. So you can see, the concept of “enemy” was much more significant to them than it is to us today.

So from the original context we can see that we really don’t have these types of enemies that Israel had. We live in a country that values freedom, democracy, and civil rights. Typically, here in the US we don’t have a lot of people wishing us dead (at least the way the Israelites did). Don’t get me wrong, we have enemies…terrorists for one and some of us have individual enemies in this world (like people that we work with that hate us). But the context of this verse doesn’t have the same force as it did for them.

To put this verse in contemporary context today would be like if Al-Quada had taken over the US and people, left and right, were being taken hostage and horrible atrocities where being carried out on national TV (on our own networks)…you can imagine the fear, hatred and outrage. That might give a better picture of the realities that they were dealing with…

But it is exactly in this context that Jesus goes on to say…

⁴⁴ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

What did he just say? That’s ludicrous and very drastic language. It would’ve been like, after 9-11, if Bush instead of saying we are going to hunt down who did this….instead he were to say…let’s love Al-Quada and pray for them right now.

Jesus is saying love your captor, pray for your oppressor, the one that wants you dead.…THIS IS REVOLUTIONARY TEACHING…but these are the ways of JESUS. This is what Jesus was saying to his disciples who had seen a history of enemies and this is exactly what Jesus would’ve said to David in response to the preceding Psalms that were read…”I understand it is hard, it’s not just, that people attack and kill and murder and hate you…but not so with you…you must love your enemies and pray for those that would want to harm you.”

The depth and revolutionary nature of Jesus’ teaching is powerful for us…because it shows us the extreme nature of unconditional love that Jesus calls for us to have towards ALL people. This is what makes Jesus’ teaching “Hard to Believe”. The main theme that Jesus is teaching us is not necessarily just loving our enemies but to love like God loves! This is the heart of what he is saying. To love unconditionally, extravagantly, and generously…to put aside hatred, anger and fear and love the way God loves…that’s the true nature of what Jesus is teaching here.

Let’s look again at the passage…

⁴³ "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' ⁴⁴ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

Why?

⁴⁵ that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

Translation…So that you can be like the Father…in the language of the day, to be seen as a son of God was to be seen as having equal status with God…Jesus gets in trouble for calling God his Father and seeing himself as the Son of God.

He clarifies as he continues,

He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

God blesses and loves and cares for all, even those who hate him.

He goes on…

⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?

He says, it’s easy to love those that love us back, that don’t interfere with our lives and freedoms…

But Jesus says, “Love like God loves!” Look at verse 48…

⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

He is not making an argument here about Christian perfection…he saying, be like the Father here, be like God…let your love be perfect, impartial and unconditional…In short again, Love like God loves!

So in order to understand the force of Jesus teaching for us today, we need to start by identifying and being honest about our own hatred and anger that crowds out this extreme love that Jesus is calling us to. We don’t do a very good job loving the way God loves today in our culture and in our personal lives, do we? Sure, we’ll give to help relief efforts in other countries because we think it’s the right thing to do, and that’s good and all, but we typically live by the motto of loving only those that love us back, or who are worthy of our love. Our love is conditional. I’ve identified some areas in our culture and in our own personal lives that are indicting in this way…

1. Personal Relationships
   • Anger and fighting over disagreements, lack of trust, etc. (and let’s remember that most anger is rooted in selfish, fear and hatred…we just clothe our hatred and make it look clean)
   • We love our family members when they love us, or are nice to us…but when they are mean, we hate…we get angry.
   • Consider the amount of domestic violence in our country…anywhere from 1-3 million people, primarily women, who fall victim to domestic violence each year.
   • I read about a man and his brother in law that got into a fight over which political candidate they supported. It ended up with one man getting stabbed.
2. Politics
   • Speaking of politics, it is standard practice to campaign negatively against another candidate, and the ensuing responses from the recipient are typically fueled by anger and hatred.
   • I watched a political candidate this week come unglued on TV because of a supposedly unfair attack by another candidate.
   • And watch political rallies…the hatred and anger present from people that are Republicans that hate the Democrats, and Democrats that hate the Republicans.
3. Sports
   • How about sports? Since when is it justifiable for two grown men to throw punches at each other on the ice at a hockey game, or stomp on some ones head with football cleats, or get into a fight after having a baseball thrown at your head at 95 mphs…okay, that one might justifiable.
   • I struggle in this area as well…I’m a big Red Sox fan and as a result I hate the Yankees. I watch the Yankees to watch them lose. This is a problem…rooted in a spirit of hostility, anger, hatred, and fear.
4. TV Shows
   • And then there’s reality TV shows…which I on occasion enjoy watching…but in nearly every one there is a spirit of hate present among the contestants…from Survivor to Big Brother.
   • And the media builds on this because they know it makes a good story, because people love to hate certain characters.
5. Driving
   • How about us personally, as we are driving in our cars. The feelings that well up inside of you when you see a bumper sticker you disagree with, or when you get cut off in traffic and then the one that cut you off gives you the finger.
6. In our churches
   • Even most indicting might be in our churches and Christian circles.
   • Too often, out of fear of our culture and the new world we live in, we find it acceptable to criticize those that are not followers of Jesus, and look down on them because they don’t play by “our rules”.
   • We also find ways to criticize our own people that are pushing the envelope in thinking about new, innovative, and fresh ways to expand the Kingdom of God. These people are met with sharp criticism, motivated many times by anger, hatred and fear.
   • We have forgotten how to agree to disagree…Instead we grow to despise each other and cast judgment.
   • I have seen this first hand, and it is harmful and hurtful.
   • Too often we are more concerned with “being right” than living out a life of love, compassion, graciousness, and generosity that Jesus seems to have in his “stump” speech all throughout the Gospels. He is the guy we are supposed to be following right?

As you can see, we have a hard enough time loving, period…let alone love a terrorist or a serial killer or a rapist.

To close this morning, I’d like to encourage each of us to respond to what God may be saying to us. On your seat is a 3x5 card. Take that card right now and hold it in your hand. By way of response, I’d like to ask you to complete the following statement on this card…

”Jesus, please replace my anger, hatred and fear with love for …”

To whom do you need to write down on this card? A spouse, a neighbor, a co-worker, a friend, a politician, a public figure, a father or mother? I’d like to encourage you to take some time right now and pray and think through who you need to write on this card. And then put that card in a place where you can see it this week, in your Bible, on the dashboard of your car, etc….

For some of you, you might not be able to write someone down because you still hold anger and hatred towards someone and don’t want to forgive or be freed from that. I would encourage you to ask God to show you how deep his love for you really is….it is only after we experience God’s love for us that we are able to give his love, unconditionally and graciously to others…

Close in Prayer…