The Community of Love: The Sermon on the Mount
Much has been written and sung about love. From Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to Johnny Cash and Bob Dillan. To modern poets, writers and musicians. But what about Platonic love? What about love of neighbor. Well, pretty much the entire New Testament, and many parts of the Old Testament are about this kind of love. But it is summed up best in Jesus’ teachings and actions. In Luke 6, Jesus sums up what this kind of love looks like, “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.” In this same passage in the Gospel of Matthew, he also says “if someone demands you go a mile, go two with him.” (Matthew 5:14) This is particular startling for the Jews of his time. Roman soldiers would often ask the oppressed Jews to carry their armor and pack for long distances. And Jesus was saying, love them, and go two miles.
Jesus was the embodiment of God’s love. God’s love, we can see from scripture, is all about community. It was about bringing in those who were excluded. People who were shunned by society like the lepers and beggars and blind or lame. People who were outsiders like the Samaritan woman at the well. Samaritans were hated by the Jews as Jewish half-breeds with the surrounding “godless” pagans. In the Gospel of John, Jesus has an exchange with a Samaritan woman: “Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.“
He goes on to prophesize about her family and her many husbands and reassures her, saying basically that a time is coming when she will be included in the Children of God, and there will be no separation among them. In the community of the children of God, love reigns supreme. We don’t always live up to this ideal and we fail. But we try every chance we get we extend love to others and each other in practical ways. Missions, ministries to the homeless and the downtrodden and sick and old, drives for supplies and help for victims of war and natural disasters are just some examples. We recently did a drive at church for supplies for the many victims of the recent hurricanes in the Southern United States and the island countries in the Gulf of Mexico. Our church empowers new leaders to reach out in practical ways to the community. I am a lay chaplain and Stephen Minister at our old church. And I plan to apply this at our new church in a ministry to shut-ins.
There is nothing more life-changing than love for one’s neighbor. And Jesus said that everyone, even those who curse you or are your enemies, are your neighbors. What would the world look like if more people stormed the gates of the kingdom of Heaven and so became children of God, whatever their religion. The world would be a giant community of love. That is what Jesus came for and no less. That is the ministry he started. What a wonderful thing to work toward, each in our own little way.
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.” In this same passage in the Gospel of Matthew, he also says “if someone demands you go a mile, go two with him.” (Matthew 5:14) This is particular startling for the Jews of his time. Roman soldiers would often ask the oppressed Jews to carry their armor and pack for long distances. And Jesus was saying, love them, and go two miles.
Jesus was the embodiment of God’s love. God’s love, we can see from scripture, is all about community. It was about bringing in those who were excluded. People who were shunned by society like the lepers and beggars and blind or lame. People who were outsiders like the Samaritan woman at the well. Samaritans were hated by the Jews as Jewish half-breeds with the surrounding “godless” pagans. In the Gospel of John, Jesus has an exchange with a Samaritan woman: “Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.
When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.“
He goes on to prophesize about her family and her many husbands and reassures her, saying basically that a time is coming when she will be included in the Children of God, and there will be no separation among them. In the community of the children of God, love reigns supreme. We don’t always live up to this ideal and we fail. But we try every chance we get we extend love to others and each other in practical ways. Missions, ministries to the homeless and the downtrodden and sick and old, drives for supplies and help for victims of war and natural disasters are just some examples. We recently did a drive at church for supplies for the many victims of the recent hurricanes in the Southern United States and the island countries in the Gulf of Mexico. Our church empowers new leaders to reach out in practical ways to the community. I am a lay chaplain and Stephen Minister at our old church. And I plan to apply this at our new church in a ministry to shut-ins.
There is nothing more life-changing than love for one’s neighbor. And Jesus said that everyone, even those who curse you or are your enemies, are your neighbors. What would the world look like if more people stormed the gates of the kingdom of Heaven and so became children of God, whatever their religion. The world would be a giant community of love. That is what Jesus came for and no less. That is the ministry he started. What a wonderful thing to work toward, each in our own little way.
