1) The WHY of Love. Left to our ways without love, we would choose unforgiveness, retaliation, bitterness and unnecessary stress,

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1 SERMON OF THE WEEK First Presbyterian Church of Honolulu April 22, 2012 Love Your Enemies (Gospel of Luke Series) The Rev. Dr. Dan Chun Luke 6:27 But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, Luke 6:28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. Luke 6:29 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Luke 6:30 Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Luke 6:31 Do to others as you would have them do to you. Luke 6:32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. Luke 6:33 If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. Luke 6:34 If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. Luke 6:35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. There are many passages in the Bible that are not easy. This is one of them. It is serious and hard. Love your enemies. Do good to those who harm you. Bless those who curse you. What does this say about the love that Jesus wants us to have and knows that we are unbelievably capable of? This kind of love speaks of three aspects: 1) The WHY of Love Jesus told us to love people even enemies. Why? Because He knew that because of our sinful, selfish hearts, love would be the only way out. Any other way than love would mean more heartache. Left to our ways without love, we would choose unforgiveness, retaliation, bitterness and unnecessary stress, It is in our human nature to hit back when someone hurts us. Come at me with a fist, I will come back with a knife. You come at me with a knife, I will come to you with a gun. You come at me with a gun, I will come with a bazooka. You come at me with a bazooka, I will come back with a missile. And that is why Jesus said to turn the other cheek. It s the only way to break the vicious cycle of unforgiveness and revenge. Jesus knew that we are incapable of knowing what the exact punishment should be. We punish unfairly. The Bible very clearly says that we should steer clear of 1 revenge in thought, word or deed, and leave it to God to justly take care of the perpetrator. Roman 12:19 says, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Vengeance should only be in God s hands. What is forgiveness? Is it to forgive and forget? No, we never forget the crime against us. Does forgiveness mean we condone the sin against us and say, Oh well, boys will be boys, so that s okay? No. If you have been abused, you do not condone the abuse. The Bible defines forgiveness as giving up the right to retaliate. If we try to get back at the person who hurt us in thought, word or deed, we will make matters worse and we will lose every time. When Jesus says we must love our enemies and bless those who curse us, it may cause us to wonder to whom is Jesus giving the advice. Is He saying that we should love our enemies or those who curse us SO THAT THEY will be blessed? No, He is saying that WE will be blessed if we choose to forgo retaliation and instead opt for forgiveness. Clearly Jesus is saying, YOU will be blessed if YOU forgive your enemy and bless those who curse you. Jesus calls us to love so we will be blessed.

2 It is for OUR sake that we love and forgive, and not so much for the sake of the one who offended us. And to be true, there will be a lot of people who will hurt us. We live in a world where there is betrayal, misunderstanding, miscommunication and outright evil. Without exception all of us will face some sort of disappointment or wrong from a company, a friend, relative or a co-worker. That s part of life. It happened to Jesus, so why should it be different for us who are His followers? If the Master was betrayed here on earth, why should we, the servants, expect to be spared of betrayal and injustice? By that I don t mean that Jesus is saying, Suck it up, when bad things happen. What I m saying is that Jesus understands. He is compassion-ate toward us. Contracts are terminated and promises are broken. People are often incapable of saying they re sorry. And some people are incapable of easily receiving an apology. So let s make sure we have the right expectations in life. Did not Jesus say in John 16:33: In me you may have peace. In the world you will face persecution but take courage for I have conquered the world! Tribulation, suffering, persecution, heartbreak is part of the deal of life. But be of good cheer because Christ has overcome the world. He is more powerful than all of the pain and evil that you and I will face. Life is hard. For the Christian we don t get a free pass on suffering in this world. But we must love in spite of suffering and betrayal. We must love because to live any other way will mean more suffering. 2) The CHALLENGE of Love Jesus telling us to love our enemies is one of the biggest challenges in the Bible. We hear that and we think, You have got to be kidding! Love our enemies? Let s look at that first verse in our passage for today: Luke 6: 27 But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you Notice the word listen. Jesus knows that only those who are listening to Him will get this because some will choose not to listen. Then Jesus tells us to do an even harder thing: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. For many Jews who heard him say this, they probably thought that He was talking about the Romans. What could be more ridiculous? The Romans oppressed them! Now He s asking them to love the Romans and do good to them? Probably at that point many Jews walked away from Jesus. And who would blame them? Revenge or payback is held high in most societies and cultures. The challenge of love is that we have to do good only to those who like you? No, that s not right. Only to those who respect you? No, but to love even those who HATE YOU. What??? And then Jesus makes it even harder by saying: Luke 6:28 Bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 2 How can that be possible? An enemy hurts me. An enemy doesn t want my best interests. Do I want to be hurt again over and over? Hear me clearly on this. Loving an enemy is not be confused with romantic love. It does not mean that you have to have affection for that person and want to hang out with him or her. But it does mean that you have to pray for them and bless them. How? Why? This leads to the third point: 3) The BLESSING of Love When we can truly forgive someone we are able to bless them and pray for them. if we can do that, we will be invulnerable. Nothing will faze us. In fact, we will be blessed. You see, when we forgive, we are in a position of strength and not weakness. We cannot be knocked down. How so? If you curse me and I don t curse you back but decide to pray for you instead, then you cannot ultimately get me. I will always have the upper hand. You may knock me down, but you can t control me. And by me praying for you and loving you, I become invulnerable because I am not controlled by your hatred, your abuse or by your betrayal. I can move on. I can choose not to be reactive to your hatred and choose to be proactive instead. I can choose to pray for my accuser, my deceiver, my betrayer or my abuser. I can choose to forgive. By choosing love I will always have the upper hand rather than be subordinate to my base instinct to retaliate.

3 I started a singles ministries at the last church I served at in California. The local newspaper was so gracious to me that they did a huge 4-column article about my being part of that church. They thought it was interesting how a TV news reporter decided to go into ministry instead. The article featured a big picture of me that spanned two columns. Huge picture! The problem was that the editor put the wrong picture of me in this wonderful article! Here is the article and my so-called picture: Not only did the newspaper print the wrong picture of me, but they also happened to pick the photo of a man named Abdullah Bature, the head of Islamic Association in Northern California! (I heard he was really mad.) Was I mad? Not really. On the contrary, it made me laugh. While some may be offended, I would consider this as small on the scale of life. But let s escalate a bit the difficulty of forgiveness. I have Cory Oliveros permission to share this story. Just before Easter our worship leader Cory was at his bank to fill out a deposit slip and so he laid down his iphone on the counter. When it was his turn to go to the teller he realized he left his iphone on the other counter, so he went back for it but the phone was gone! Someone stole it! Through a tracking app on his computer, Cory was able to know for sure that his phone was stolen because the tracking showed how the iphone was being driven away. For days he was mad at this person who stole his phone and got away. Again, this was Easter week when all on staff are a bit stressed in preparing for four worship services. Cory went to Craigslist to see if he could make an appointment with anyone selling an iphone like his, and then confront the seller. Cory wanted justice. He wanted payback. He wanted revenge. As the days went on, thinking about the theft and the thief put stress on Cory s marriage and his kids. He was very upset. This shows us that if we can t give it up to God, it will put a toll on us. It turned out that the bank was able to help Cory by checking the video files of their security camera. They believed they have a chance of identifying the customer who took it. This tells us two things: First, never steal something in a bank that has security cameras, and second, as Cory realized, it doesn t help to stew about things, especially when you have been cursed by someone s theft. Thankfully Cory is fine today. I have learned that when someone wrongs me and I give in to the temptation to take revenge, the offender then continues to control me by putting me in a web of wanting revenge. He or she will continue to hurt me by my obsession of the hurt. They get me on their turf of anger and I m always thinking about them. The blessing of love is that it breaks the cycle of unnecessary hatred, stress and heartache because we are no longer in the dance with the devil. The blessing of love is that we are invulnerable to hatred. We forgive and it ultimately, like Teflon, slides off of us. As Jesus said: 3 If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:29-31) We are invulnerable when we forgive. A guy strikes you on the cheek, you say, Go ahead, and hit me again. I will not hit back because I m in control. A guy says, I want your coat, and you say, Go ahead and take it with even with my shirt. So how do we pray for an enemy or someone who has hurt us? Very simply, I pray that they might draw closer to Jesus. That is not in a sneaky sort of way where I pray that the offender gets close to Jesus so Jesus can sucker punch him or her. (Wham! That ll show you!) No, that would still be a form or revenge. Rather, when I pray for people who have hurt me, I put them in Jesus hands so He can to deal with them as He fits. And as I pray for the person who has hurt me, I find that I change, too. As I pray for them, I get more empathetic. I understand more about their pain. I might even understand about how I might have hurt them and they are just hitting back. I may understand more about their childhood, which may have been tougher than mine. Praying for my enemies best and blessing them is the sure fire way to make sure my heart doesn t get toxic. Hatred, revenge and hurts always make our soul toxic. We get poisoned. We get a cancer of bitterness that can spread.

4 The Bible says, Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, for anger gives a foothold to the devil. (Ephesians 4:26-27) You see, when we forgive others, it means we really understand the forgiveness of God. Just as He has forgiven us, so must we forgive others. If Jesus died for my sins, then how can I not forgive others? If I am really in touch with all of the things I have done wrong, know that I have blown it time and time again because I am not perfect, and I willingly accept Jesus forgiveness, then why is it that I cannot forgive the sins of OTHERS against me? Forgiveness is for our benefit. When we don t forgive it will eat us up. Retaliation will eat us up. That is why Jesus said to turn the other cheek because it will mean that we have gotten out of the revenge business. When we don t forgive it is we who pay the price. We are the ones who will get sick. We are the ones who will feel insecure. We will lose sleep. We are the ones who will not love and will soon be out of the fellowship with other people. That is why vengeance should always be the Lord s. He is the one who knows and understands what is the fair punishment. He is the one who should do the punishing. We need to get out of the punishing business. Only God can do that. Do we not say in the Lords prayer, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors? I have given you examples of hurts or wrongs ranging from the very light to the more serious. A newspaper editor printing the wrong picture of me is pretty low on the scale of offences. We laugh. I laugh. It s not really a big thing. A stolen phone is a more serious reason for wanting revenge because we lose all of our contact information. It s very frustrating. We can understand how someone would want to get back at the thief. But in the large scale of things, it s still relatively low on the scale compared to, let s say, the atrocities of war. We may think that Jesus is just referring to the lighter things in life when he talks about forgiveness, and not when there is an incredibly serious infraction or crime against us. But I believe that Jesus was really talking about every kind of hurt, offense, wrongdoing or crime. Let me close with a true story. Bruce Murakami, a local boy from Hawaii, met a woman named Cindy here in Kaneohe, who eventually became his wife. Eventually, they moved to Tampa Bay, Florida. Over time Cindy led Bruce to the Lord. On November 16, 1998, then 48-year old Bruce came home from work to have lunch with Cindy and 11-year old daughter Chelsey, whom they adopted from Korea. Bruce had to run off to a project after lunch, and Cindy and Chelsey were going to drive to a supermarket. The family had a rule in their home to always kiss, hug and say I love you before saying goodbye to each other. And they did that before they parted after lunch. Bruce was just driving out of his subdivision when he heard an explosion and then saw black smoke going up against the blue sky. He turned and looked and started to follow the source of the 4 smoke and it took him back to a neighborhood supermarket. There he saw the remnants of a smashed Ford Aerostar minivan, now just a burning tangle of steel and broken glass. When he saw the special alloy wheels, his heart stopped. It was his family s car. Buckled up and dead inside the car were his wife Cindy, his soul mate of two decades, and daughter Chelsea. He ran to the car, and firemen had to restrain him as he screamed in anguish. He said, Seeing the smoke and then seeing the car was like someone hit me in the stomach twice. You keep saying, No, it can t be. It turned out that the family van was struck while Cindy was pulling out of the supermarket parking lot by a car driven by 19- year old Justin Cabezas, who was illegally street racing at a speed later determined to be between 78 and 86 miles per hour. If the tragedy were not enough, the court case took a long delay and the Hillsborough State Attorney s Office closed the case after two years and NO criminal charges were filed against the driver! No one could blame Murakami for being outraged. For two long years while he waited for the verdict, Bruce s life was in ruins. Days would find him slumped at a beach staring blankly at the waves. He withdrew from friendships. He walked away from his construction business. Murakami said, I got to a point where because I do believe in God, I just said, Man if you are real, you gotta come down here right now. You need to come down here and explain this to me. And now to hear of no criminal charges?

5 The outrage was great. He said at that point his Christianity went out the window. Bruce said if he had met Justin Cabezas he wanted to kill him. Bruce wanted justice. He wanted pay back. Someone had to pay for this. So he hired a defense lawyer and an accident reconstruction team to amass enough evidence to bring charges against Justin. Bruce said he was not only going after the young man but also the State Attorney s Office, the Florida Highway Patrol and the rental car company that rented the car to Justin. Bruce made a vow to be at every single court hearing. Part of him wanted to grab Justin and shake him, and the other part was trying to understand who he was and why he did what he did. Eight months later, Bruce felt he needed to get back to the basics, and the basics was the word of God. He felt he had to get back to reading his Bible. He said he had once read it front and back. He could recite many passages. He was angry at God and questioned Him, Why me, God? Why did this happen? When he started to read the Bible again, he opened it up one day to the book of Luke chapter six, exactly the same chapter what we are studying today. He read it and he said, I realized I needed to forgive as the Lord forgives us. I needed to make a change in life. I verbally started to say, I forgive you, Justin. I forgive you for what you did to my family. 14 months later Justin was finally charged with the death of Bruce s wife and daughter. When Bruce finally saw Justin in court, he was surprised to see, in his own words, not a punk kid with green hair but a clean-cut kid. Bruce started to think about Justin as if he were his son. He asked himself, What if my son did this? Do I want him to have 30 years of prison for one mistake? It would be another year and a half before the sentencing. One day Bruce said a crazy thought came to him. What if he and Justin teamed together to talk to young people about safety on the road? He asked his lawyers if he could do that. (I am not sure if they thought that was a good idea.) He also asked if he could meet with Justin alone with NO lawyers there. The attorneys hearts must have dropped. But they agreed to set up the meeting anyway. Bruce said, You don t know if looking at the person across the table if you will accept the apology or hang him. Finally at the day of the meeting, he said to Justin, I am not going to ask you why. That s irrelevant. I want to hear what you have to tell me. The first thing Justin said was, I m sorry. He expressed his shame for his role in the accident. Bruce said his response in turn that day was, I forgave him. I don t condone his actions. He s paying the price. Bruce then asked for leniency for Justin s house arrest and a new program in his required Community Service Program that would be designed to help young drivers make responsible choices. It would be a new program that Bruce would develop. Today it s called Safe Teen Driver and it reaches thousands of 5 teenagers to help them become responsible drivers. Bruce and Justin spend the majority of their time on the road to high schools, churches and other organizations. When not speaking to large audiences, Bruce travels to meet victims or other drivers who have caused accidents. "You have to deal with your anger or it will destroy you," Bruce says. "If I hadn't found a way to forgive, I would have been a third victim." [ Life Sentence by COLETTE BANCROFT, Published July 9, 2004, Tampa Bay Times] This is the transforming power of forgiveness offered to you. This is what Jesus talked about. This is what could happen if we love our enemies, bless those who curse us, and turn the other cheek. It can be done, especially with Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. Are there people in our lives we need to forgive? Today may be the day we do it so we no longer will need to be the victim. Lets pray.