With a series of imperatives, Jesus now addresses all those who hear him. As with the Beatitudes, his commands would have unsettled his listeners: Love your enemies. To those who may have expected Jesus to lead a revolt against Rome, Jesus was in effect saying: “Love the Romans.” This was and remains a difficult message. It also expands the scope of the law of Moses: “you shall love your neighbors as yourself” (Lev. 19:18). Jesus will similarly interpret this commandment of Moses to include love of enemies in the parable of the good Samaritan (see Luke 10:25-37). Of course, Jesus’ message also means loving enemies within the community. Even among the apostles there was probably a need for this instruction, since the Twelve included both a tax collector and someone zealous for the law, (Zealot). Three more commands give concrete examples of what it means to love one’s enemies: do good to them, bless them, pray for them. Jesus is again further developing Old Testament teaching (exodus 23:4-5; Prov. 25:21-22. He himself will set the standard by praying for those who crucify him (Luke 23:34). The early Christians will follow Jesus’ teaching and example. (Acts 7:60).
Examples of nonretaliation further explains love of enemies. By turning the other cheek or giving one’s tunic (the inner garment) to someone who takes the outer cloak, one refuses to “be conquered by evil” and instead conquers “evil with good” (Rom 12:21). At the individual level, a person thus trusts in God to settle accounts, relatively unconcerned about preserving one’s own honor and reputation. Such selfless behavior is also marked by a magnanimous attitude: one is ready to give to everyone who asks and not demand things back.
Summarizing the foregoing instructions is the Golden Rule: Do to others as you would have them do to you. Again, Jesus’ teaching extends beyond a typical Jewish formulation (which therefore sometimes called the Silver Rule): “Do to no one what you yourself hate” (Tob. 4:15). One should do good to others and not only abstain from mistreating them. This rule applies when they do not reciprocate.
Jesus argues from the lesser to the greater to show the reasonableness of his high standard of ethical behavior. If even sinners love those who love them, how much greater love should those trying to avoid sin have? Thus, if people like the Pharisees who look down on “sinners” (5:30) fail to accept Jesus’ command—love your enemies—they ironically remain at the same level as sinners. Jesus’ Golden Rule is likewise a challenge to rise above the reciprocity of sinners who only do good to those who do good to them. The same applies for his command to lend expecting nothing back. In all these cases there is not much credit (literally, “grace”) otherwise. The standard that Jesus proposes is one of imitating God, who himself is kind to those who are evil: “Good and upright is the Lord, / therefore he shows sinners the way” (Ps 25:8). Those who do so become children of the Most High, hence also imitating Jesus, who is “Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32). The reward for those who follow such a standard will be great, not necessarily in this life but “in heaven” (6:23).
The Imitation of God also requires disciples to be merciful, just as God the Father is merciful: “the Lord, / a God merciful and gracious, / slow to anger, / and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6) (Pss 86:15; 103:8). With this imperative, Jesus is interpreting another Torah commandment— “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy” (Lev. 19:2)—in terms of the divine attribute of mercy. God’s mercy was emphasized earlier in Luke. Later, Jesus will illustrate the command to be merciful, like his teaching on love of enemies, in the parable of the good Samaritan. (10:33, 37). By contrast, for the Pharisees (in Hebrews, perushim, meaning “separatists”), holiness meant separation from anything that could render a person unclean. Such a difference underlies the controversies over table fellowship with tax collectors and sinners, where Jesus, by being merciful, leads sinners back to God.
Concretely, being merciful means that one will stop judging, stop condemning, and forgive. The result for behaving in this way is that a person will not be judged or condemned but rather forgiven—by God. This teaching is similarly expressed in the Lord’s prayer: “Forgive us our sins/ for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us” (11:4).
“Give” is repeated as the last command in this series. By giving to others, a person will receive gifts back from God in recompense (v.35), indeed to an overflowing degree. Jesus summarizes his teaching with a parallel, as it were, of the Golden Rule: the measure with which you measure will in return be measured out to you.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Vincent Clemente