Frrom Bishop Mike. Mike is the Bishop of the Texas Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod, of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
After clearly delineating the injustice in the world, between rich and poor, Jesus, who is called to preach good news to the poor, makes it clear that God cares for those in need. They are blessed. Then he engages his disciples on how to conduct themselves in the face of such injustice. Love your enemies. Give to those in need. Share your worldly goods. Lend, expecting nothing in return.
Luke boils down the central moral/ethical teaching of Jesus. After the beatitudes, Jesus begins with three hard words: “LOVE YOUR ENEMIES.” One might spend a lifetime learning this difficult art.
Martin Luther King wrote about this in Strength to Love, published in 1963 as a collection of his sermons.
“Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.
–Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love
Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So when Jesus says “Love your enemies,” he is setting forth a profound and ultimately inescapable admonition. Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies– or else? The chain reaction of evil–hate begetting hate, wars producing wars–must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.
–Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love
Everywhere and at all times, the love ethic of Jesus is a radiant light revealing the ugliness of our stale conformity.
–Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love
One of the great tragedies of life is that men seldom bridge the gulf between practice and profession, between doing and saying. A persistent schizophrenia leaves so many of us tragically divided against ourselves. On the one hand, we proudly profess certain sublime and noble principles, but on the other hand, we sadly practice the very antithesis of these principles. How often are our lives characterised by a high blood pressure of creeds and an anaemia of deeds! We talk eloquently about our commitment to the principles of Christianity, and yet our lives are saturated with the practices of paganism. We proclaim our devotion to democracy, but we sadly practise the very opposite of the democratic creed. We talk passionately about peace, and at the same time we assiduously prepare for war. We make our fervent pleas for the high road of justice, and then we tread unflinchingly the low road of injustice. This strange dichotomy, this agonizing gulf between the ought and the is, represents the tragic theme of man’s earthly pilgrimage.
–Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love