Luke 5-6 - Selected Verses
"When he [Jesus] saw their faith,
he said, 'Friend, your sins are forgiven'" (5:20).
5:20 Friend, your sins are forgiven. A
man's friends knock a hole in a roof and lower him on his mat so that he
is face-to-face with Jesus. The paralyzed man makes no declaration of faith,
prays no sinner's prayer. But Jesus tells him his sins are forgiven. A few
moments later his body is healed, and he is heading for home. It is all over
in minutes yet no standard procedure that we have come to recognize in our
day regarding evangelism or healing has been followed. Clearly the same faith
that Jesus could do something for the broken body, faith desperate enough
to break open a roof to get to Jesus, is faith enough also to do something
for the broken soul. Jesus recognizes no distinction. Nor does he require
a certain protocol or precise verbalization. He knows whether we have staked
everything on him or not. It is that, and not trusting to boxes others have
packaged with directions on how God saves or heals, which makes all the difference
in the world.
"Then he [Jesus] looked up at his disciples and
said: 'Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God'" (6:20).
6:20 Blessed are you who are poor. The blessings Jesus offers are for the
have-nots of the earth, persons who are deprived and impoverished spiritually
or physically or both. They can never be content with what the world has
to give. They are starving for bread; they are starving for spirit. They
miss God. They miss his love. They miss his truth. They are homesick, their
hearts broken in a world captivated by plastic and fossil fuels and trophies
and violence and celebrities. But their anguish will not be endless. There
will be a day of peace when their stomachs and spirits will be filled, when
the tears will dry on their skin.
"'But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those
who hate you'"(6:27).
6:27 Love your enemies. It is one thing to love a friend or a stranger
or a virtually anonymous humanity and another to love and forgive an enemy
who hurts us and hates us. Such love would transform our world but, as Mark
Twain said, the trouble is this kind of Christianity has never been tried.
When Jesus tells us to love, bless, and pray for our enemies and turn the
other cheek, he's emphasizing he doesn't want us to be people who thrive
on aggression and retaliation, who return blow for blow, curse for curse,
grudge for grudge, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. He doesn't want us walking
around looking for a fight, brooding about how we can get even, planning
an act of vengeance. He wants us to break the cycle of hostility. Protecting
a woman or man or child who is being abused by physically restraining the
perpetrator is one thing. Never getting to the point of praying for that
person, having mercy on that person, visiting them in prison, or bringing
them a gift to express your love and forgiveness is something else. That
is where Jesus is telling us to go. That is loving an enemy. That is turning
the other cheek. That is Christianity. It is not an easy thing to do. But
following Christ has never been an easy thing to do. It makes us free. But
as Martin Luther King, Jr. stressed, "Freedom has always been an expensive
thing."
 
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E-newsletter Archive
January / February 2005
