An Appointment with Christ: A Life with Grace (Luke 6:27)

My dear brothers, may God bless you. This is Pastor Roberto Miranda speaking and I welcome you in the name of Jesus Christ to our program and I send you a warm greeting from me and from our congregation "León de Juda".

As we always say, brothers, we would love for you to visit us, to get to know our church, our community. Part of these sermons that we share with you, these brief meditations, we do it with the hope that those who listen to us feel impelled to attend a church, if they do not have one where they already attend, we invite them to our congregation, at least to visit us, get to know our community and who knows if the Lord directs them to congregate with us.

But we always say on our shows that the Christian life is not just about hearing the Word. That is good, it is necessary, it edifies us, but there is still one more step, which is to obey the Word and part of that involves joining a community of believers so that with us, we can all grow and strive towards the life of obedience and holiness that Christ expect from us. So once again, we hope that these meditations are a blessing to you, but above all that they lead you to a practical life in the things of the gospel.

On this occasion I want to begin what I hope will be a series of meditations based on the Gospel according to Saint Luke, Chapter 6, beginning with verse 27. There the word of Christ tells us, and these are words of Christ Jesus to the who listened to him at that time, but also to us:

He says: “... but to you who hear I say: beloved of your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you and pray for those who slander you. To the one who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other also, and to the one who takes your cloak, do not even deny him the tunic. Give to anyone who asks you, and to the one who takes what is yours, do not ask that it be returned to you and as you want men to do with you, so do you also with them”

In verse 35 he says: “Love therefore to your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing and your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful as your Father is also merciful."

These are wonderful words that to me are at the very heart of the Gospel. I think we would have a lot of difficulty finding words from Jesus Christ that would define more precisely what the Gospel is about, what Christianity is about. I believe that in this call of Jesus Christ we find the very essence, which defines the spirit of Christianity.

Here we have a call from Jesus to a life that expresses grace. A life of generosity, a life of love, a life of total dedication to the well-being of others. A life that does not look at itself and seek its own interests, but lives loving others to the point that we end up giving others more than they deserve. The Lord Jesus Christ addresses those who listen to him and says: "... but I say to you who hear, love your enemies." That but at the beginning of Jesus' word tells us something, before He said this He had said something that was counterbalanced and contradicted with what He now tells us here.

And certainly when we read the verses before the ones we just read we see there a negative condition in the world. He speaks of "... woe to you who are rich because you already have your consolation, woe to you who are satisfied because you will be hungry, woe to you when all men speak well of you because that is what their fathers did with the false prophets." The Lord is referring to a negative condition of the world we live in, a condition in which people who have a lot of money live at the expense, sometimes, of those who have little money. A world where there is sadness, a world that is satiated while others are hungry. A world of injustice, a world of exploitation, a world of poverty, of mistreatment of the strong against the weak. And to counteract that terrible state of affairs that characterizes the world in which we live, the Lord tells us these words.

The Lord tells us: the world is like this, this is the way men behave on earth, and one day that negative, oppressive and unjust condition will come to an end. Meanwhile you who follow me, those who embrace my teachings are on this earth, this is the way you are supposed to live, contrary to that unfair, Darwinian, animal lifestyle in which men currently live. And that is why the Lord says "... but I say to you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate them, bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you."

In other words the Lord brings us to a state of life that is far, far beyond the way ordinary human beings live. The Christian, the one who has adopted the life ethic of Jesus Christ, his behavior, his example, his teachings, is supposed to live at a very high level, at such a high level that he even comes to resemble God. Because if we see what the Lord is calling us to adopt a style of life, it is a style that God has already shown in dealing with human beings. God certainly loves his enemies.

Many people in the world curse God, deny it, even persecute those who seek God, militate against the values of the Kingdom of God. However, Jesus in the Bible loves the sinner, loves the wicked, loves the atheist, loves the one who persecutes the just. Because God is love, because God does and unjust. God is a God who loves his enemies and therefore we, says the Bible, if we are going to be like God, if we are going to imitate his behavior, we also have to love our enemies. God is a God who does good to those who hate him, certainly. As we say in the world, both the good and the bad are blessed by Him and benefit from Him. The oxygen that we breathe, God does not limit it only with those who love Him, but God shares it with everyone.

He does good to those who hate him. In the Bible we have many cases of people who did harm to the children of God and who persecuted the things of God and yet God manifested his love. The Bible says that when we were immersed in sins Christ died for us. That is, if you want to be like God, if you want to be like Jesus Christ, you have to do the things that God does.

God is love, God is generosity, God is mercy, God is forgiveness. The love of God goes far beyond the love of men. Men simply love those who love them. Men do good to those who do good to them. Men do good to those who help them, to those who strengthen and bless them. They love their friends but Christ tells you "love even your enemies, do good to those who hate you, and bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you".

I know it's a very, very difficult formula to live by yet that's what God calls you to do. Ask the Holy Spirit on this day, at this moment, to give you that heart of God, that attitude of life that allows you to love your enemies. I certainly intend to. Father, may those who listen to us on this occasion receive your grace to love even those who are their enemies, to bless even those who hate them and do them good. That is our request. Forgive us for not living up to this high calling, so sublime that you make us. Bless us and give us strength to live as Christ has lived. In his name we ask. Amen.