When Harassed by Enemies…

Now, I didn’t clock this myself, but Rachel very helpfully pointed out to me that we thought about God’s enemies, or David’s enemies, this morning, and how we are to pray to God whenever we are surrounded by them. And tonight we’re going to think, well, even though we’re surrounded by our enemies — of course we pray for help — but how are we to treat our enemies? How are we to treat our enemies as people who persecute us, people who harass us? And what does the Lord want us to do, and how does he want us to live?

So Matthew chapter 5, verses 38 to 48. Let me read.

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Let’s just pray and ask for the Lord’s help as we come to this point in his word.

Father, we bless you and we praise you and we thank you. We thank you for the songs that we have sung. We thank you for the praise that we have offered to you. And Father, now as it comes time to listen to your words, we just pray that you would give us ears to hear. Father, we come here tonight, we’re not sure what this week might bring, we’re not sure what situations we might find ourselves in, but as we look at this word, as we think about this word, from the outset we pray that we might have the mindset of Christ, that we might love like him, that we might act like him, that we might be like him in all that we do. We pray for your help as we look at this part of your word tonight, for it’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Tonight, what I want us to see just from this portion of God’s word is this: whenever we’re harassed by our enemies, we are not to retaliate and we are to show them love. We are not to retaliate; we are to show them love.

This is a section of the most famous sermon that has ever been preached, the most enlightening, the most thoughtful, the most earth-shattering, radical sermon that has ever been heard in human history. If you just turn back a page in your Bible, just to the beginning of Matthew chapter 5, this comes at the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel. And so far, as we come to Matthew chapter 5, Jesus has been relatively quiet. We’ve heard that he is out in chapter 4 preaching the gospel. He’s spoken to some Pharisees, he’s spoken to John the Baptist, he’s called the disciples to follow him.

But as we approach Matthew chapter 5, Jesus sees the crowds, sees those who have gathered around him, sees those who have heard of his miracles, seen his miracles, come to hear about him. And so lovingly and graciously, he goes up onto a mountain and he opens his mouth and he begins to preach. He begins to teach these people.

What is Jesus preaching? What is his message? Well, it’s the message of the kingdom: the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of the kingdom of God. And many people say that this kingdom that Jesus has brought in, this kingdom that Jesus has come to usher in, is referred to as the upside-down kingdom. Because this kingdom doesn’t work like any earthly kingdom. This kingdom is different. This kingdom doesn’t follow the rules of any kingdom that we might be part of here on earth. It’s entirely different.

And Jesus begins with something called the Beatitudes. And the first four Beatitudes are beautiful, because they tell us how we can come into this kingdom, how we can be part of this kingdom. And Jesus says, well, the people who inherit this kingdom, the people who are welcome in my kingdom, are the people who are poor in spirit, people who mourn their sin, people who are meek, people who hunger and thirst for righteousness.

But as people come into the kingdom of Jesus — as people come in and as they believe and as they repent of their sin, as Jesus opens his arms and welcomes all who come, who are hungry, who are thirsty, who are poor in spirit, who mourn their sin — Jesus goes on to teach them how we should live in this kingdom. What is the difference between somebody who lives in the kingdom of God and somebody who just lives in the kingdom of this world? What are the distinctive marks? What should the world see when they look at a Christian? What behaviour should they notice?

And so Jesus has gone through and he’s picked out a few practical examples, practical points in which the world should see a distinct difference. He talks about anger, he talks about foolish talk, he talks about lust, he talks about divorce, he talks about oaths. And here he comes to speaking about how Christians are to treat their enemies. What should the world see whenever Christians are surrounded by their enemies, surrounded by people who hate them and harass them? What difference should the world see in somebody who lives in the kingdom of God versus somebody who lives in the kingdom of this world? And it is this: that we should not retaliate and that we should love our enemies.

Maybe you came to church tonight and you thought, well, I think I’m quite a nice person, I’m quite a good person, I don’t really have any enemies, people seem to get on well with me. And maybe the hardest part of this tonight will be for you to learn that there are people who dislike you. There are people who will hate you. There will be people who will not want anything to do with you simply because of the fact that you are a Christian.

Jesus ends the Beatitudes with one of the most shocking Beatitudes, which is found in Matthew chapter 5, verse 11. This is what he says:

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Jesus says to be persecuted, to be disliked because of Christ, is something to rejoice at. And Jesus says, just like they did to the prophets — and Jesus will go on to say, just like they will do to me — if they persecuted Christ, they will persecute us.

So the question tonight is not, will we have enemies? Will we have people who will dislike us and hate us and persecute us and pursue us? But how will we react when enemies come? How are we to live surrounded by our enemies?

1 We are not to retaliate

And Jesus says simply, the status quo of this world is not good enough. The status quo of how this world operates and how this world works is not the way his kingdom works. You see, we live in a world, don’t we, where we like to get tit for tat. If you hit me, I hit you back. If you hurt me, I hurt you back. We even do it to bedbugs: whenever bedbugs bite, we bite them back. There’s an entire movie franchise called the Avengers based on the principle of getting revenge. The world loves it.

The world loves it whenever something goes wrong that there’s a group of heroes, a group of people who will take action and take revenge. We think of our world, we think of the wars that happen: the trade wars, the tariffs. If you impose a tariff, we’ll tariff you back. We’ll raise trade deals with you. We think of our actual wars. Whenever one side fires drones, the other side comes back with more drones. We live in a world that simply says, if you hurt me, I get to hurt you back. A world that keeps scores. A world that settles scores.

And even Jesus says this is true of the teaching of his day. If you look down in Matthew chapter 5 and verse 38, Jesus begins and he says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’” And Jesus there is quoting Scripture; he’s quoting from Exodus. And if you were to turn up to Exodus 21, verse 24, you will see that that verse goes on, and it says, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot, a burn for a burn, a wound for a wound, a stripe for a stripe.” The same is true of Leviticus 24 and Deuteronomy 19.

But what those verses are doing, what God’s law in the Old Testament was doing, was not giving you a licence to go and get revenge, not giving you a licence to sin against people, but actually, and strangely, it was protecting criminals. Protecting people who, whenever they committed a crime, the punishment had to fit that crime. In the Old Testament, we read of these situations of case law, helpful guidance, helpful laws: whenever people, judges, elders in Israel are making decisions, trying to sort disputes, what principles should they follow? And the principle is this: if a criminal comes, or an enemy comes, and they take out your eye, then you’re only allowed to retaliate by taking out their eye. If they come and they take your tooth, you’re only allowed to take their tooth.

That doesn’t mean if they knock out your foot, or cut off your foot, that you can go and kill their whole family. Or if they come and they kill one of your animals, that you can burn their whole village down. In fact, God’s law was more concerned not with getting revenge, but controlling it, putting a basis in place that there would be an end to this vengeance and an end to this spiral of violence.

But what the Pharisees had done, what the teachers of God’s law had done, is they had twisted this. They had said, look, God’s word says that we can take revenge. God’s word says that if somebody wrongs you, you have every right to go and you can wrong them back. And maybe tonight you think, well, yeah, I agree with that. I think I should have that right. Whenever somebody insults me, should I not be able to insult them back? Whenever somebody wrongs me, should I not be able to wrong them back? But Jesus says, no, not in my kingdom. That’s not how my kingdom works. It may be the way the world works, but it’s not the way the kingdom of God works.

Remember, this kingdom is not like any other. To get into this kingdom, you don’t have to be rich or proud or own lots of possessions. To be in this kingdom, you have to admit that you’re a sinner, fall on your knees, beg for a righteousness that isn’t yours, and say that you’ve nothing to give, nothing to bring. And Jesus says, so it is true of how people live in this kingdom. Once you’re in this kingdom, once you belong to this family, once you are part of his people and part of the church, this is how you are to live, to show the world that you don’t live for the world, you don’t live in its kingdom, but that you live in the kingdom of God.

One of the Beatitudes, as we referred to earlier, is this: “Blessed are the peacemakers.” God’s people are not people who should be going out looking for opportunities for revenge, looking for opportunities to settle the score. In fact, we should be people who actively go and make peace. Not just people who enjoy peace, not just people who prefer peace, but people who go and make peace. Jesus says, this kingdom of mine is different.

Now, Jesus isn’t saying that we need to get rid of prisons. He’s not saying that we need to get rid of our justice system. No, if somebody does something wrong, they deserve to be punished; they deserve to face the consequences for their actions. But what Jesus is saying is that in the everyday little disputes, in the everyday enemies that you and I might face, vengeance and retaliation is not our go-to option. Our go-to option is to forgive and to love and to not retaliate.

So Jesus goes through and he continues with his teaching. You have heard, he says, it was said this, but then Jesus says, but I say to you, these are the rules of my kingdom. Look down at verse 39. He says:

Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

And to show that his kingdom is different, Jesus gives us four practical examples of how his kingdom works, four ways in which this love for our enemies, our ability not to retaliate, should work itself out.

The first one, he talks about a slap on the cheek. And we might think, well, that’s not a big deal, is it? It’s not really that hard, and I wouldn’t be in much pain if somebody came and slapped me on the cheek, would I? But actually, in Bible times, being slapped on the cheek wasn’t a great injury. Rather, it was a great insult. Today, our equivalent would be spitting on somebody, showing somebody serious disrespect.

And Jesus says, if somebody comes to you and they disrespect you, and they slap you and they spit on you and they show you just so much disregard, how are you to respond? Well, you’re not to snap back. You’re not to get another quick insult in there before they can say anything else. But Jesus says, turn the other cheek. In other words, let them do it again. Be open to more insults. Be open to more slander. Why? Because that’s exactly what the world doesn’t expect.

Remember, Jesus is talking about his kingdom, talking about how the world will know that we live in his kingdom, live by his rules, that we are different from this world, that as Christians we should stand out. And one of the most defiant ways to stand out is not to retaliate. That whenever somebody says something rude or disrespectful to us, we don’t retaliate, but we open ourselves up for more hardship. We open ourselves up and let ourselves be insulted again.

One of the books that I’ve read recently is a really interesting book called Dirty Linen. It’s all about the Troubles in the little village that I grew up in. And if there ever was a conflict that was tit for tat, surely it is the Troubles in Northern Ireland. One side inflicted a blow, the other side retaliated. One side was bombed, the other side was bombed. When one side was shot, the other side was shot. And that’s the story, tit for tat, over and over.

But there are a few examples that stand out of people trying to break that cycle. In 1982, a young 11-year-old boy sat in a jewellery shop in Banbridge, waiting for a lift home, and then a bomb went off in a car outside in the street and he was killed. Twenty other people were injured. A young 11-year-old boy, his life just ended by people who were just trying to score some political points. But his father was interviewed the next day and he said, “Our family are Christians and we want no retaliation.”

The other example that stands out is the 1987 IRA bomb in Enniskillen, at the Remembrance Day service, where Marie Wilson was killed, along with 10 other people. Gordon Wilson was interviewed the next day, and this is what he says. He says, “I bear no ill will. I prayed for those men last night. I bear no grudge, and if God continues to give me the strength, I will continue to pray for them.”

You see, this call to not retaliate, this call to turn the other cheek, does not mean that God isn’t interested in justice. It doesn’t mean that God doesn’t care about the people who hurt you, or the people who upset you, or the enemies in your life. But what God is saying is, let me be the judge. Let me be the one who deals out justice.

We thought about that in Psalm 57 this morning: that David is able to trust God, that God will be the one who sorts out his enemies, that God will be the one who entraps them and snares them and puts them to shame, those who would seek to trample on David. And because God is the judge, because there will not be one sin that is ever not accounted for, either by the blood of Jesus or by the payment of the sinner, because God will deal with all of the hardship and all of the evil, then us tonight as Christians, we can turn the other cheek. Because God will deal with our sinners, God will deal with our enemies. God will deal with those who insult us and slap us and mock us. And so we are free not to retaliate, but to turn the other cheek.

The second example that Jesus gives, if you look down in verse 40, is a legal dispute: if somebody takes your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. Now, the interesting thing about the cloak in Jewish culture is that actually your cloak is protected by law. Interesting. Actually, anybody can sue you for your tunic, they can take your tunic, but your cloak is precious. Your cloak is that warm winter garment that would keep you warm if you were a shepherd or somebody who slept out at night looking after animals. The cloak is something you would have slept in or slept on. It was an expensive garment. So it wasn’t something that you lost or forgot; it was something that was important and something that was precious to you.

But Jesus says, if somebody takes you to court, they might have no right to take your cloak. They might have no legal recourse to take your coat, your cloak. So give it to them. Show them that the bonds of this world, show them that the possessions of this world, show them that your cloak that you need actually doesn’t matter to you. Whenever somebody takes you to court and tries to clean you out, go the extra mile and give it to them. Hold loosely to your items. Hold loosely to your possessions.

It’s no surprise that Jesus will go on in the Sermon on the Mount to say, well, don’t worry about what you’ll wear. Doesn’t God clothe the flowers? Doesn’t God care for the birds? Therefore, what does it matter to a child of God, when God loves us and looks after us and cares for us? Can’t we hold loosely to the things of this world? Can’t we just give and give and give, knowing that God will not see us without anything that we would need?

Thirdly, in verse 41, Jesus talks about somebody who asks you to go a mile, and he tells you, if you’re forced to go one mile, to show that you live in a different kingdom, why don’t you go two miles? And this is in the context of whenever Israel is ruled by a foreign power, whenever the Romans are occupying this land. And actually, one of the things that the Jewish people hated the most was that technically any Roman soldier could come to any Jewish citizen and conscript them into the army temporarily. A Roman soldier could come to you, a Jew, somebody whose country they are occupying, somebody who you don’t want in your country, and they could make you do something for the army. They could make you carry things, they could make you march, they could make you join in and help this occupying force out.

And Jesus says, if somebody in the army should do this, if an occupying force should make you march with their army, make you march 1,000 steps, then go 1,000 more. It’s a bit like that Proclaimers song, I Would Walk 500 Miles. Jesus says, if you’re to walk 1,000 miles, why don’t you walk 2,000 miles? Go above and beyond. Show this world that you don’t live according to its rules. Show those occupiers the love of God, that you live in his kingdom, by not just grudgingly complying and doing what they want, but go the extra mile to show that you belong to the kingdom of God.

Lastly, in this little section, Jesus picks up one more example. Verse 42: “Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.” We were over a couple of weeks ago in Stratford-upon-Avon for a wedding, and we went to Shakespeare’s house. And in Shakespeare’s house they have all these magnets with all these quotations on them. One we’ve got on our fridge says, “If there is money, spend it, spend it, spend it more,” which I think is great. But another magnet that you could buy said this, a quote from Hamlet: “Neither a lender or a borrower be.” Neither a lender or a borrower be. Whenever it comes to whether we should follow the advice of Shakespeare or the advice of Jesus, of course the advice of Jesus wins out.

Whenever somebody begs from you, give it to them. Whenever somebody borrows from you, don’t begrudge them, don’t be selfish, don’t hold it back; give and give and give. When we think about this world, what does this world love the most? What does it value the most? It’s money, isn’t it? The world wants more and more money. But Jesus says, well, actually possessions, things, your ego when you’re insulted — these hold no value in the kingdom of God. Isn’t God a good God who blesses and cares and gives you all that you need? Won’t God bless you and give you all that you need, even when you give it away, even when you bless others? Even when you give to those who beg and give to those who borrow, won’t God not see you without absolutely anything?

So whenever somebody comes and begs from you, you can be compassionate, you can give, you don’t have to begrudge them, you don’t have to treat them the way the world might treat them. You can treat them as the kingdom of God would have you treat them, that we can give up all of our rights, give up all of our egocentric ideas that the world follows, give up all our possessions to show people that we belong to the kingdom of God.

So whenever you’re insulted, whenever you’re mocked, whenever you’re belittled, whenever you’re disrespected, whenever you’re ripped off, or whenever there’s a land dispute, or whenever some builder doesn’t do something right the way they should, whenever you go to work and you’re given a menial task, whenever you’re asked to do something because nobody else wants to do it, whenever your bad boss treats you poorly — you don’t have to stand up for yourself. You don’t have to treat them the way the world would treat them. You don’t have to get back at them or insult them or take them to court or do any of that. Jesus says, if you live in my kingdom, if you live by my rules, don’t retaliate.

Don’t retaliate. Don’t live in this culture that is tit for tat. Don’t try to get your own back. God will sort it all out. God is a God of justice. He will put all things right, so that we can turn the other cheek, so that we can go the extra mile, so that we can give our cloak whenever somebody asks us for our tunic, so we can give to the one who begs from us and give to the one who borrows from us.

2 We are to show them love

Secondly, tonight, I not only want us to see that whenever we’re harassed by our enemies we’re not to retaliate, but actually we are to show them love. Look down at verse 43, please.

You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus again starts with this familiar formula in this section of the Sermon on the Mount, where he takes and he exposes a teaching of the day, a teaching that said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” And basically that was a work of logic. Well, if the Bible says we are to love our neighbours, then it makes sense logically that if we’re only to love our neighbours, then we should hate our enemies.

But Jesus says again, no, not in my kingdom, not on my watch. This is not how the kingdom of God works. Love your neighbours, Jesus says, but also love your enemies. Pray for them, seek their good, bring them before the Lord and seek their good. Ask the Lord to bless them, ask the Lord to do good to them. Ask the Lord to work in their lives, that they might come to saving faith. Ask the Lord to forgive them for their sin. Jesus says that’s how we are to treat our enemies.

We just don’t retaliate and hope that they notice something about us. We don’t just treat them passively as we stand and let them do whatever they want to us, but actively, we are to love them.

And Jesus gives us a great basis for this. He gives us a great reason for this, for why we treat our enemies this way. If you look down at verse 45: “so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.” Jesus says, this is how God works, this is how God acts. You’ve been brought into his kingdom, you’ve been brought into his family, so act like your Father. Show the family traits of loving your enemies.

And Jesus picks out two things that his Father does in heaven. He picks out two miracles of creation that show us the love of God for his enemies. And he picks out the sun, and he picks out the rain. And he says, well, doesn’t the sun rise and doesn’t the sun set on the good and on the evil? Doesn’t God send rain on the crops that feed the just and the unjust? And if God can give his enemies, and give the people that rebel against him, air in their lungs and food to eat, and the blessing of family and friends — if God can show goodness to his enemies and show his enemies love — Jesus says, be like your Father in heaven. Be like him.

God is the standard for why we act. God is the reason why we live and why we do and why we show the love of God even to your enemies, because it is what he is like. It is how he loves.

And here we come to this great distinction that we see in this passage, because I think the words that Jesus says next are really challenging, aren’t they? Verse 46:

For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

To contextualise that for us: don’t even sinners love those who love them? Don’t even atheists love those who love them? Doesn’t even your non-Christian neighbour, who has no time for God and has no desire to come to church — don’t they even love people that love them? And Jesus says that the rule of our love and the measure of our love is not how well we love people who love us, but it’s how well we love people who hate us. How well do we love people who are our enemies? How well do we love those who oppose us and hate us and want nothing to do with us simply because we love the Lord and we are part of his family?

That is the measure of love, and that is the distinction between the love of God and the love of this world: that the world loves those who love them, and God is a God who loves his enemies. And of course, sitting here as Christians tonight, we remember that that’s where once we were. We were once his enemies, and yet he reconciled us through the blood of his Son, through the cross of his Son. We once lived a life that wanted nothing to do with God, wanted nothing to do with him. We actively opposed him and worked against him. And yet, in his love for us, he took his enemies and he loved them. He loved them so much that his Son came to die, that we might not face death, or hell, or punishment, but that we might face life, that we might live forever in his glorious presence.

If you’re sitting here tonight as a Christian, you were once an enemy of God who he loved, and so he calls you to have the same love for people who oppose you, and who hate and who work against you.

Maybe tonight as you sit there, you’re not a Christian. I suppose it would not be right for me to go past this and not to say very firmly, but very gently, that if you’re not trusting in Jesus as your Saviour, then you are God’s enemy, that you are somebody who faces his wrath and his judgement and his condemnation. But the good news is that all we have to do is say, Lord, I’m your enemy. I recognise that. I recognise that all I do works against you. All that I do does not love you. All that I am is sinful. And Jesus will welcome you into his kingdom.

Who belongs in the kingdom of God? Who belongs in the family of God? Sinners who recognise their sin and who run to their Father. Because that’s how the love of God changes us. That’s how the love of God transforms us: that the Lord takes people who are his enemies, shows them love, and brings them into his family. And if that is you tonight, then let me strongly, strongly encourage you to hear the call of God on your life, to lay down your weapons, to stop your puny war, and to come, acknowledge your sin, repent of it, and come and join the family of God.

But for us who are Christians tonight, as you go to work tomorrow, as you go to school tomorrow, as you are a student at university tomorrow, who do you consider your enemies in those places? Who are those people who you know will have nothing nice to say to you, will have nothing good to offer you, will only want to work against you, maybe because you are a Christian? Maybe even in your home tonight, you will go back and you will face ridicule and mockery for your belief in Christ. But Jesus says, whenever you’re mocked and reviled and treated poorly for righteousness’ sake, do not retaliate, but show love.

One of the foremost examples of this that you might have heard before is the story of Corrie ten Boom. Now, Corrie ten Boom, along with her sister, were a family that harboured and looked after Jews during Nazi Germany. And because of this effort, they were thrown into Ravensbrück concentration camp. And sadly, Betsie, Corrie’s sister, died in that camp, but Corrie survived. And she used her story as a platform for ministry, and she went around Germany telling her story, sharing her testimony and testifying to goodness.

But one story she recounts happened in 1947. Corrie is in Munich and she’s sharing her story, sharing how the Lord was with her, and his goodness and his help and his sustaining help in that time in Ravensbrück, when in the crowd she notices somebody. Just a quick glance, and she is sure that she has seen his face before. It’s a man who is wearing a brown hat, but as Corrie thinks, suddenly he’s not a man in a brown hat or in a brown coat; he is a Nazi guard in a blue uniform. And as Corrie speaks and as she looks and as she sees this man, she grows even more sure that this was not just a man who had come to hear her speak, but this man was a guard in the concentration camp where her and her sister were so brutally and awfully treated.

And as Corrie finishes, she goes to the door to shake people’s hands, and as this man who was this guard at this concentration camp approaches, she doesn’t know what to say; she freezes. He comes to the door with his head bowed. He says, “I was a guard at a Nazi concentration camp, but after the war I became a Christian.” And he asks Corrie, “Fräulein, will you forgive me?”

And Corrie says that coldness grips her heart: that this man treated her so poorly, treated her so badly, stood over the murder of hundreds, if not thousands, of people, didn’t offer any help, didn’t offer any sustenance, didn’t offer any means of relief. Instead, he stood watch as they were paraded around and mocked and made fun of. And Corrie says that in her heart she knows that it wasn’t enough, that she couldn’t muster up the desire or the ability or the grace to forgive this man.

So what does she do? She prays, and she says, “Jesus, help me.” And as she stands there frozen on the spot, as she thinks of the message of forgiveness that she has been preaching, that Christ forgives sinners, she realises that she has to forgive this man, because she can’t stand and proclaim the goodness and the graciousness and the mercy of God for sinners and yet, when confronted by a sinner, refuse to forgive him, no matter his crime.

So as she prays, “Jesus, help me,” she reaches out and grabs the man’s outstretched arm and she says, “I forgive you, my brother, with all my heart.” What a moving and a touching story: that a lady who endured such hardship and such torment, but with the grace and the love of Jesus, can reach out and forgive somebody who’s done just that.

What is the standard that we are to live by? How does God want us to function in this world? Well, just very lastly, that very bottom verse, verse 48: “You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” What a tall order Jesus calls us to live by. What a level of behaviour he calls us to: to be perfect, to love our enemies despite what they might do, despite what they might say, despite how they might treat us, to love them because that’s how God loves. The call to be perfect as God is perfect. And like Corrie ten Boom, just like she needed God’s grace and God’s help, let’s pray that God will help us to live like our Father, to be like Christ, as we finish this evening.

Let’s pray.

Father, we come before you and we thank you for your word. We thank you, Father, for how your word encourages us, for how your word reminds us that Jesus Christ died for sinners, that the Father loves the righteous and the unrighteous, the just and the unjust. We acknowledge the comfort that that brings to our hearts. But yet, Father, your word also challenges us. And we think this week of the people that we will meet, the people that we will encounter, the people who will hate us because we love Jesus, because we belong to him.

And we pray, Father, from the depths of our heart, that we might be people who show the love of God, that we would be people who show that we live in a kingdom that is not of this world, a kingdom that is eternal, and a kingdom with a King who will never fail. And we pray for your help, that we would love our enemies, that they might see Christ, and that they might turn from their sin. And all of this we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus, who loves us and who gave his life for us. In Jesus’ name, amen.