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11 Love, Justice, and Mercy The Commandment of Love Equipped by the Spirit of God and prayer, a Christian disciple is then prepared to hear and obey Jesus’ commandment of love. For without being energized and enabled by the Holy Spirit, we cannot possibly love as Jesus did. One of Jesus’ tasks was to correct misunderstanding and distortion that had arisen within Judaism and then to build upon the teaching of the Law and the Prophets. Indeed, Jesus came to fulfill and complete the teaching of the Old Testament. One of Jesus’ major concerns was to help his fellow Jews see that the whole purpose of the Jewish Law was to help people love each other. A Positive Approach The ethical and moral teaching of the Old Testament had basically been built upon negative or restrictive commandments. Most of the Ten Commandments begin with the statement, “Thou shalt not . . . .” Essentially, much of the Old Testament tells you
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what you should not do to God and to your neighbor. But Jesus dramatically changed the focus of God’s moral mandate. This is clearly seen in a situation where a lawyer asks Jesus to condense the teachings of God into a few brief sentences. He said, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” Jesus responded: And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matt 22:35-40)
What Jesus is saying is that we should move away from being fixated on what we should not do to our God and neighbor and become refocused on what we should do. We should change our mindset from negative and restrictive thinking to positive and outgoing thinking. Instead of protecting everybody, Jesus teaches us to rechannel our thoughts to loving everybody. Towards the end of his life, Jesus looked at his disciples and said, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13: 34-35)
Jesus is saying that the hallmark of the Christian is not so much one who keeps the Law but one who has love for others. Indeed, if we truly love others, then a by-product of such love is a natural and spontaneous observance of the Law. When I was studying voice during college, I had a professor for a short time who taught me by telling me what I should not do. “Scott” he would grumble, “Don’t swallow the tone. Don’t keep it in the back of your throat. Don’t mush your words.” Over the period of a semester I made little progress and began to dread voice lessons. The next semester I switched professors and something new happened. This voice coach did not tell me what not to do. Rather, he would say, “Scott, you’ve got a good, strong voice. Let’s pitch it forward toward your nose. Open your eyes wide. Flare your nostrils like you’re smelling a rose. Lean forward just a little. That’s it! That’s it! Much better!”
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My second professor’s approach was best. I did sing better because he told me what to do and did not emphasize what I should not do. By doing what I should do, I naturally stopped doing what I should not do. Jesus knew this secret well. He said, “If you are to be my disciples then you will be known by your ability to love. We’ll not try to follow lives of strict self-denial like John the Baptist’s disciples. Rather, we’ll put our emphasis on reaching out and loving others. Why, they’ll know that you’re my disciples if you have love for one another.” Now, we must ask the question, What were some of the major characteristics of this love which Jesus taught? ‘What distinguishes the love of the Christian? Taking the Initiative For many centuries one of the ethical dictums that had been floating around the ancient world was “Don’t do unto others what you would not like to be done unto you.” Five hundred years before Jesus lived, the Chinese philosopher Confucius had taught his disciples, “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” Likewise, the Buddhists taught the same ethic. As we move westward, we find that the Greeks and Romans taught the same maxim. Even the Jews knew this universal code of ethics. A very influential rabbinic teacher who was a near contemporary of Jesus was a man named Hillel. Once when asked sarcastically by a Gentile to explain all of the Torah (Law) in as few words as possible, Hillel responded, “What is hateful to thee to suffer at the hands of another, do not thou to thy fellowman.” 1 If ever there was a universal code of morality, it is found in these few words. However, Jesus turned all of this upside down. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Therefore whatever you want others to do for you, do so for them, for this is the law and the prophets” (Matt 7:12). Jesus reversed the old maxim which was negative in character and made it positive. He put emphasis on “do unto others good
1 James
1929) 101.
Moffatt, Love in the New Testament (London: Hodder & Stoughton,
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things” instead of “refrain from doing unto others bad things.” Such an emphasis was unheard of in the ancient world. As William Barclay states, “It is possible to quote rabbinic parallels for almost everything that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount; but there is no real parallel to this saying. This is something new which had never been said before .... This is probably the most universally famous thing that Jesus ever said.” 2 As a result, Jesus’ teaching has popularly been referred to as “The Golden Rule.” Now the greatest import of Jesus’ golden rule is that it demands that the Christian disciple take the initiative to love others. Instead of holding back and refraining from harming people, Jesus says, “Go on the offensive. Get on out into life and do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Christian love is not a sentiment. It is an action. It is a compelling urge to fly into the face of the selfish negativism of this world with an aggressive surge of positive love. Christian love demands the courage to swim upstream, to be different, to take the initiative to love others when non-Christians are simply concerned with “mind your own business and don’t bother anybody.” Jesus knew that God’s love could never be seen if his followers were always on the defensive. Ball games are won by an aggressive offense. And God’s kingdom—the place where God’s will is done on earth as it is in—Heaven—will never be actualized unless Christians take the bold initiative to love others. As I write these words, my wife is in our living room teaching English to a young Chinese medical student. Beth has never taught English before. However, one night several months ago, Beth and I were eating in a Chinese restaurant and our waiter was a young man who had just arrived from China. He spoke English and as we talked, I told him I had been reared in Southeast Asia. When we left, I gave him my business card, wrote my home telephone number on the back, and said, “If I can ever help you, please call me.” Several weeks later, the phone rang and it was my Chinese friend. He simply said, “Can you teach my wife English?” To make
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William Barclay, The Gospel of Luke, rev. ed., The Daily Study Bible (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975) 273.
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a long story short, Beth is now teaching his wife one day a week and this is turning into a beautiful relationship. But it all began when on an impulse I gave him my card and said, “If I can help. . . .” Christian love is taking the initiative to help. It is reaching out to embrace instead of drawing back to protect. Giving unto Others Jesus also taught that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35). He had a clear awareness that loving people requires that we do a lot of giving away. Perhaps one of Jesus’ statements that most often wedges uncomfortably in my conscience is “Let the man who has two tunics [coats] share with him who has none; and let him who has food do likewise” (Luke 3:11). Every morning when I stand in my closet and it takes me five minutes to decide which of a dozen coats I will wear, this verse comes clanging through my mind. I have so much and many others have so little. Yet, I find that many American Christians feel that Jesus’ teaching on giving and sharing is a figment of a pious preacher’s imagination. As a pastor, I often feel that I am allowed two Sundays a year to talk about financial giving, and that had better be during the annual stewardship campaign. Yet, when we read the Bible, we discover that one verse in every six in the first three Gospels relates, either directly or indirectly, to money and possessions. Sixteen of our Lord’s forty-four parables speak of the use or misuse of possessions. And always the message is the same: Share with others! Yet, this is so hard to do. I learned a long time ago never to pick out my wife’s clothes for her. She has her own taste and style and I have a remarkable inability to look at a rack of women’s clothes and “ring her number.” However, about ten years ago when more masculinelooking suits and blazers were in vogue for women, I suddenly found I could relate better to ladies’ clothes. So for Christmas that year, I bought Beth two blazers and a wool suit. She loved them and I was so proud and pleased. Last week, I happened to see Beth walking out of our front door with an arm full of clothes. On the top of the stack were the blazers and suit. Being more than curious I said, “Where are you going,
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honey?” “Just taking some stuff to Goodwill.” she replied. “Got anything you need to go?” Turning in shock and looking at the camel blazer, I sputtered, “You’re taking that to Goodwill?!” “Scott, I haven’t worn any of these clothes in five years. And remember the moths that got in the upstairs storage closet and ate a hole in this suit? I think there are other people who need these clothes this winter.” Well, I huffed inside the house quite irked. And then I began to realize how insensitive I am. Jesus said that if you have two coats, share one with another. And here I was putting my wife on a guilt trip for giving away some tenyearold coats in the height of winter. I thought of that eager young yuppie who came to Jesus quite ready to be obedient and follow him. Jesus saw his exposed Achilles tendon and with penetrating but purposeful exaggeration said, “If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions, and give to the poor... and come, follow me” (Matt 19:21). We are told that the young man hung his head, sadly reconsidered, and walked away because “he was one who owned much property.” Jesus does not require that we sell all to follow him. That’s not the point. But he does say that to love others, we must be able to deeply share of what we possess. Yesterday, I read that the average member of my denomination (Southern Baptist) gives the equivalent of the cost of two cups of coffee to eleviate world hunger each year. We, too, have heard the voice of Jesus, reconsidered, and have walked away. Somewhere on an old wall these words were etched by an unknown Christian: “What I gave, I have; what I spent, I had; what I kept, I lost.” To love like Christ is to share. But to share is to receive what money cannot buy and time cannot steal: peace, fulfillment, purpose, and the smile of God. Embracing Your Enemy Jesus further defined Christian love when he made another audacious claim: 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 mistreat you.
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... And just as you want men to treat you, treat them in the same way. And if you love those who love you, what credit 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 credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same thing .... But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the Most High, and He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. (Luke 6:27-28, 31-33, 35)
Jesus is clear when he says that we are to love our enemies and those who are difficult to like. More precisely, we are to love those who may never return our love, much less say “thank you!” This is difficult and we must be clear as to what Jesus meant. When Jesus said “love your enemies,” he could have used several words which mean love. He could have selected a word for love (philia) which connotes a feeling of genuine warmth and good feelings felt between friends. But, he did not. He could have chosen another word for love (eros) that depicts a feeling between lovers. Again, he did not. Instead Jesus chose a word the Greeks translate as agape. What kind of love is this? William Barclay states that agape-love “describes an active feeling of benevolence towards the other person; it means that whatever the other person does to us we will never allow ourselves to desire anything but his highest good; and we will deliberately and of set purpose go out of our way to be good and kind to him.”’ In other words, Jesus does not expect his disciples to feel warm and fuzzy toward everyone. Not everybody can be your friend. But Jesus does expect us to consistently be good, generous, and gracious to all people, including those who do not like us or treat us well. I remember a Filipino man by the name of Dr. Zacharias Dayot. Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, Zach was a young pastor in a small Filipino village. He was struggling to lead a church, be a husband, and be a father to several young children. When the Japanese attacked the Philippines, Zach’s village was directly on the invasion path. As Japanese troops drew near, it was decided that all the men
3 Barclay,
The Gospel of Luke, 78.
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of the village should hide in the jungle. Certainly if the village was found to be defenseless and full of only innocent women and children, the Japanese armies would simply pass through and spare them harm. However, the opposite happened. Incensed that the men were gone, and suspecting that they might be guerilla fighters, the soldiers killed all the women and children in the village and burned their homes to the ground. When Zach returned, all that he loved and owned were ashes. Fifteen years later, young Zach was now the respected Dr. Dayot and a leader in the Philippine Baptist Convention. Remarried with a new family, the traumatic emotional wounds of the war were slowly healing. But one day Dr. Dayot was asked to represent Philippine Baptists and welcome an official delegation of Japanese Baptists to the Philippines. All of the pain and the bitterness of the war rose up within him and he adamantly refused. He could not welcome a people who had killed his family. Yet, as Dr. Dayot pondered his decision, God’s Spirit began to act as judge and to convict him of the teachings of Jesus. As the words “love your enemies” echoed through his mind, Dr. Dayot knew that he must go to the airport to welcome these Japanese Christians. With tears running down his face he met them, shook their hands, and embraced them. I heard this story as a little boy. But I have never been able to forget it. Now, when I draw back from doing good and wishing the best for someone I do not like, I remember Zach Dayot. And when I do, I am usually able to embrace my enemy. Christian love is a love that is practical and real. And it is a love extended to enemies as well as friends. Forgiving a Friend There is one thing that is sometimes more difficult than forgiving an enemy and that is forgiving a friend who has hurt you. Equally difficult is the task of taking the initiative to patch up a wound that has been inflicted in a friendship. Yet Christian love demands that the followers of Jesus be people who work to create reconciliation in painful and breached relationships. In Matthew 5:23-24, Jesus states, “If therefore you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother
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has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering.” This is easier said than done. I remember when these words first impacted my life. I was traveling with a professional music group my first year out of college. One of the group members and I had a heated argument over something so unimportant that it has now faded from my memory. But we were both bullheaded and refused to budge. Our friendship was quickly deteriorating. Shortly after our argument we sang at a large student convention. We had been on the program of a worship service and now the service was moving toward a time of quiet communion and meditation. As we prepared to share the Lord’s Supper together, the presiding minister read Jesus’ words from Matthew 5:23-24. I was sitting on the back row of the sanctuary and the scripture hit me like a brick. I looked toward the front of the auditorium and clearly saw my stubborn friend. He also looked around, caught my eye, and we both quickly turned our heads. I knew that I wanted to embrace him and say I was sorry. But pride and a fear of intimacy riveted me to my seat. Finally, I decided to walk to the altar and receive communion. Maybe if I moved toward my friend, he would move toward me. As I stood up, I looked to find him, but he was no longer there. He had left, and my heart sank. Walking slowly down the aisle to the altar, I sensed someone behind me. Stopping and turning around, I discovered my friend three steps behind me. Foolishly smiling, we embraced, slapping each other on the back as awkward, macho men will do. Suddenly there was no need for words or explanations. The hurt was mutually gone and forgiven. And we were stronger friends than ever before. A love cannot mature which has not been inflamed, beaten, and forged by hurt, anger, and reconciliation. Christian love is to be a catalyst for reconciliation in a world that is tattered and torn. The great Bible scholar of the early church, St. Jerome ( AD 342–420), recorded for us a very ancient story about the Apostle John. In very advanced age, John was living in Ephesus. As his health declined he became too weak to teach or even to stand. Yet he longed to be with his fellow Christians.
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Every day friends would carry him to the church. There he would sit in an almost senile stupor. Yet when people would talk to him or ask him a question, he would always say the same thing: “Little Children, love one another.” 4 For this great Apostle who had walked with Jesus, the Gospel had boiled down to one sentence. And that sentence was the positive commandment of Jesus to love one another. Justice and Mercy There is a second “golden rule” quite familiar to humankind that is very different than the ethic of love taught by Jesus Christ. This other golden rule states, “Them that has the gold makes the rules.” In our world it does seem that the rich and the powerful control society. Because of indifference or neglect by the affluent, many who are poor and needy remain impoverished. Recently, I read that Americans comprise only six percent of the world’s population. Yet this same small group of people consume up to forty percent of the world’s goods while millions are hungry and threadbare. In a true sense, “them that has the gold makes the rules.” In response to this, Jesus insisted that his followers be more than just individually righteous. Rather, he joined with his forebears, the Old Testament prophets, in insisting that his disciples be concerned for social justice. It is not enough to be a pious and holy monk in a monastary. Jesus demands that his followers be concerned with changing a corrupt world into a more God-like and compassionate community. As we have seen, Jesus began his ministry by returning to his hometown synagogue in Nazareth and telling his neighbors and friends what his intentions were. Quoting the great prophet Isaiah he said: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me Because He has annointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, And recovery of sight to the blind,
4 “St.
Jerome, Commentariorum in epistolam ad Galatas 3.6.10.
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To set free those who are downtrodden, To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord. (Isa 61:1-2; Luke 4:18-19)
Jesus was clearly stating that he was concerned with those who were poor, downtrodden, and held captive by the callousness of society. Granted, Jesus did not attempt to heal every lame man in Galilee or open every blinded eye. He did not set up a massive social work system. But to each of his disciples he said, “Work for social justice and create a merciful society.” Again, listen to Jesus’ words: You know that those who are recognized as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them; and their great men exercise authority over them. But it is not so among you, but whoever wishes to become great among you shall be your servant; and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:42-45)
Jesus clearly teaches that to be great in the eyes of God, Christians must not be people who “lord it over” the oppressed and downtrodden of this world. Rather we must be a service-oriented people who seek to correct injustice and rectify the ills of our society. In a similar vein, Jesus once told his disciples about how God truly evaluates the quality and integrity of our lives. He depicted a scene in which a Christian who has had little compassion for the oppressed stands before God to be judged. Jesus states that God will say to this person: “for I was hungry, and you gave me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite me in; naked and you did not clothe me; sick and in prison, and you did not visit me.” Then they themselves will also answer, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry, or thirsty, or a stanger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, saying, “Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” (Matt 25:42-45)
There can be little doubt that Jesus called not only for individual righteousness but for social responsibility as well. He wanted this earth to be a place where “God’s will is done on earth as it is in
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heaven.” And it is not god’s will for people he has created and loves to be hungry, naked, sick, poor, and oppressed. When I was a college student, I discovered the writing of that great English Methodist minister Leslie Weatherhead. One night sitting quietly at my desk, I read his simple words, “I doubt if there is one evil in our beloved land, or even in the world, which could survive for a generation the onslaught of all the followers of Christ unted against it.” 5 Somehow in the reading of these words, the truth and the power of Christianity broke through to me. I saw that if the Christian church ever did realize the fullness of Jesus’ message which calls for mercy and social justice, then our world could literally be reformed over night. One of the greatest challenges of our present day is to get Christian men and women to see the corporate and social responsibilities of their faith. For God will say to each of us, “to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me” (Matt 25:40). S
5 Leslie D. Weatherhead, The Christian Agnostic (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1965) 161.
Understanding Christianty? Looking through the Windows of God. by Scott Walker
Here is a book for persons seeking to understand their faith as well as for those who stand outside faith asking searching and honest questions. Readers are invited to take a new look at God who is both the source of light and a window maker. “God takes the initiative to create within the black ignorance of our existence, windows through which we might catch a glimpse of God and God’s light?” Walker also invites Christians who may know only part of the gospel story to step back and view the entire canvas. “I am convinced that Christians must somehow come to grasp a comprehensive view of the Bible. We must see the story in its simple, sweeping totality and not get bogged down in singular brush strokes and techniques—that is, dogmas, tradition, creeds, and the sticky pin heads that angels dance upon.” Understanding Christianity? Looking through the Windows of God invites us to come back and look at the Bible broadly and simply and grasp its basic, yet eternally profound truths. Scott Walker is the son of missionary parents and spent eight years of his childhood in the Philippines. He is the pastor of the historic First Baptist Church of Charleston, South Carolina. A graduate of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div. and the University of Georgia (Ed.D.), he has served as guest professor on both seminary and college campuses and is an active speaker for campus and civic groups. He and his wife Beth are the parents of two sons and a daughter.
ISBN 1-880837-02-1