Love your enemies.  Jesus phrases the matter strongly to make a strong point, a holy point.  Enemies oppose us because of what we believe.  We are their enemy because their enemy is God.  Those opposed to God, to God’s Word, want to make us ashamed, to feel foolish, because of our beliefs.  They point, and say, “What sane, intelligent, mature, decent human being could believe such things?”  We have enemies outside the church.  So far as that goes, if scorn for our beliefs is the gauge, we have enemies within the church!  The church as we know it has changed, very visibly, within our lifetime.

If you want to be accepted by the spirit of the age, you know what to do: say what the times say, act as the times act.  The way to reward in heaven looks different, remarkably, identifiably different: love those who love to ridicule you; do good to those who scorn you because of Jesus.  That doesn’t just mean tolerate them.  Tolerance isn’t love.  Not wishing harm is not the same as loving.  Love is to wish, to will, the blessing of another person, to have compassion: your happiness bound up with their happiness, your sorrow with their sorrow.  Love is wanting the other to live and to flourish, to have life and have it abundantly.

We do this for family and friends, easily.  That’s the point.  Grace and salvation are not found along the easy way: the ways of this world.  We are to have compassion for, to seek the blessing of those who scorn us, who oppose us, who have conceived such a deep dislike for us that the very mention of our name, of our beliefs, causes an eruption.  We are to pray for them.  When was the last time you prayed for those fighting for ISIS?  When was the last time you prayed for the militant atheists, or the comedians whose very popular schtick amounts to making out traditional, Bible-believing Christians to be little better than idiots?  I hope you hate no one.  Hate of another is not the way of Christ.  Hate of another is of this world, is the way of Cain.  But if you find such feelings leaping up in your heart, or if you feel indignant anger arising, pray.  Pray for the one who has roused such feelings.  Pray for yourself, for release from those heavy, hurtful chains.

Jesus talks about offering the other cheek.  Is that the way of the strong?  Isn’t that shameful?  Beloved, the only thing of which we need be ashamed is our sin.  Isn’t this turning the other cheek the way of weak cowards?  If so, why does Jesus tell us this is to be our way?  Was Jesus a weak coward, who went to the cross?  Beloved, there are some who seem determined to pick a fight with you.  If you shove his teeth down his throat with your fist, if you give her a tongue lashing she’ll not soon forget, have you gained treasure in heaven?

          Scripture is our food for life.  I encourage you to spend time with God’s Word daily.  Scripture is like a panorama of the brokenness of life; Scripture is the eyeglasses by which our broken vision is corrected.  There, God calls us to consider the utter brokenness of this life, of every human being.  You know the brokenness in your own life.  You see brokenness all around you.  The news is a constant carnival of human brokenness.  Some gets condemned, some is applauded.  The world can get very busy over brokenness yet can do nothing about it.  Those who present themselves as kindhearted in the world’s ways labor mightily to make bad good: the bad remains; sprucing up bad to make it look good only highlights the brokenness.

We are not called to make bad good.  This is not in our power.  Those who trust Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord are called to be holy instruments for bringing life to the dead, to testify that Christ came to make dead alive.  The outcome of brokenness is to be dead, dead to God.  They work, and laugh, and eat, have pets and families, and they are dead.  When Jesus commands us to love our enemies, to be concerned to do them good, to pray for them, to turn the other cheek when they strike us, strike us even as we are praying for them, strike us even as we are doing good to them, Jesus is showing us part of what it means to be holy.  Jesus is giving us a very intimate glimpse into the heart of God, who calls and is ignored, who speaks and is scorned, who gives and is reviled, who loves and is rejected.

Consider all God has put up with from you, over the years!  Why is God so patient, so tolerant?  God is supremely tolerant.  So should we be, if we would have treasure in heaven, if we would live as Christ taught.  When we remember the broken mess of our own lives, we become more patient, even more compassionate, for the broken messes who live on this planet with us.  In Jesus, we have restoring, mending, healing words of life to offer.

We may think we have such words when we say, “Who am I, to judge.”  I think we get that completely wrong.  Jesus says judge not, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, forgive.  It is within the power of the judge to condemn or to forgive.  Jesus is reminding us to be merciful.  He is not telling us to be blind.  Too often, “who am I, to judge” becomes an excuse to excuse sin.  Is there such a thing as sin?  Does Scripture tell us what sin is?  Our Westminster Shorter Catechism, meant for teaching the basics of the faith to children, is quite clear: “Sin is any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God.”  Any failure to live up to what God expects, any act that transgresses the clear word of God, is sin.  James puts it this way, “Anyone, then, who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, commits sin” (James 4:17).  Scholars, theologians, and pastors are excitedly redefining sin in our times; they believe they are being faithful.  The church is for broken people to find healing, not to call brokenness health.

We accept sin happens; we do not excuse it.  We do not approve sin.  We do not smile blandly and say, “Who am I, to judge.”  The clear expectation throughout Scripture is that we counsel with one who has sinned, counsel in charity, compassion, and prayer.  We go, we urge him or her to turn from sin.  Jesus says, “Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive” (Lk 17:3).  We say, “who am I, to judge?”  “[Y]ou should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins” (James 5:20).

We do not sit in our comfortable chairs, shrug our shoulders, say “who am I, to judge” and go about our own business.  In Jesus Christ, salvation is our business, proclaiming the Word of Life is our business.  Is it kindness, mercy, and forgiveness to keep out of it, not to get involved in the brokenness?  Why does God get involved, then?  Why does God get so involved that He sends the Son to earth in Jesus, to call us from our sin, to call us to life, to go to the cross for us so that, in him, we might become dead to sin and alive to righteousness?

Jesus tells us to love.  He does not tell us to be blind to sin.  He tells us to pray, not look the other way.  We do not participate in the lie, do not call sin blessing.  Scripture calls it sin, but “who am I, to judge?”  This is the way of convenience, not righteousness.  Grace cost God someone.  Grace costs us something.

“Who am I, to judge” is not compassion; it is the way to avoid conflict.  Typically, we do not seek conflict; we do not like conflict.  How do we deal with conflict?  How do we resolve it—if it can be resolved!  Human Resource folks have studied this question.  They have identified five major conflict management styles: avoidance, accommodation, confrontation, compromise, and collaboration.  What’s your style?  Avoidance is common—don’t get tangled up in it; it just isn’t that important! doesn’t matter!—strange, how things that were important become unimportant, when conflict arises.  Conflict cannot be avoided forever.  Accommodation—giving in, appeasement, is an easy way to manage conflict; it can be a way of fear and weakness, but the accommodation style is also common where a relationship matters more than an outcome.  “Who am I, to judge” is either avoidance or accommodation.  The church today is about relationships.  Congregations are about relationships.  We are told, rightly, that Jesus came to restore relationship with God.  All about relationship.  Accommodate, then.  Don’t make a fuss.  Turn the other cheek.  Give your coat, too.  Walk the extra mile.  Aren’t we disobeying Jesus if we refuse to accommodate?

Christ came among us because relationships matter.  Christ came among us because the outcome matters.  The cross is the supreme testimony that the outcome matters.  The cross is the supreme testimony that the relationship matters.  Relationship and outcome must be held together, taken together, two sides of the same coin, heavenly treasure.  We ignore outcomes to our peril.  We ignore relationships to our peril. “Who am I, to judge,” supposedly maintains relationships: relationships founded upon avoidance and accommodation.  Is this the foundation of a healthy relationship.  Is this the life to which Christ calls us?

Are we supposed to judge then?  No.  We are not to ignore sin, act as if it doesn’t exist, isn’t really there, as if the one who is doing what Scripture calls sin is not really sinning.  Did Jesus ignore sin?  Jesus forgave sin.  The forgiving was transformative.  We are not commanded to disregard sin, ours or the other person’s!  What would the world look like, then?  With God, we hate the sin, we love the sinner; we do not condemn.  Because of Jesus, with and in Christ, we offer forgiveness.  We offer them the way back, back to full, healthy relationship.  We share the Word of God with others; we offer them words of life.

Is it love to let the sinner wander away to death?  Love urges that one onto the right path.  Jesus says, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone” (Jn 8:7).  In this, we hear “Judge not and you will not be judged,” and we say, supposing humility, “Who am I, to judge.”  Only, what does Jesus afterwards say to that woman?  Do you remember?  Her life depended on it.  Paul asks, “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Rom 6:16).  We are not being called to excuse sin, much less to do as the theologians and seminary professors, teaching that what Scripture calls sin is no sin.  Let us obey Jesus, who came, not to ignore sin, not to call no sin what God calls sin, not to say, “who am I, to judge,” but to save from sin.  Would you be saved from sin?  Have a heart to save others from sin.  The relationship matters.  The outcome matters.

Lost, broken, dead people are saved by encountering Jesus Christ.  Broken people fear the light that would reveal all they wish hidden, yet they long for the light that gives hope in the darkness, light that can turn the night into day, that can wash over them like the love unknown for which their dead hearts have yearned for so long, so long they almost forgot, so long they wanted to forget.  When lost, broken, dead people see those who call themselves Christians living no differently from lost, broken, dead people, what is there to be desired in that?

When the lost ones see us loving while not loved, doing good without expectation of repayment or reciprocity, when the broken ones see that we accept the sinner even as we do not approve the sin, when the dead ones see not only that we refrain from doing to others what we would not want done to us but actively do unto others as we would wish them to do to us, they begin to see God, through us.  They begin to hear God, through us.  They begin to love God, through us.  They begin to live, through us—only, we know it’s not through us, brothers and sisters, because what are we?  We are broken, too.  No, those dead ones, like us, begin to live, through the Spirit, through God, who gives, who blesses, who loves, who calls, who is tolerant, who is patient, and who is rejected, laughed at, and ignored by many, even by some you and I know.

And to Jesus Christ, who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests of his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever.