Unreasonable Demands

With commanding authority (27) Jesus overturns the accepted wisdom of his day and announces that his disciples are subject to a radical code of conduct. The Law instructed people to love their neighbors (Lev. 19:18; Luke 10:27-28), but enemies were a different matter! Proverbs 25:21 and 22 advised people to feed their enemies, but most ignored this. Jesus’ culture was riddled with honor codes. People forcefully defended the honor of kith and kin in the face of any offence, however trivial, and consequently clearly knew their friends from their enemies. Jesus, however, insists that enemies are people to “love,” “do good to,” “bless” and “pray for” (27,28). Rather than demanding justice, Jesus’ people are to react with grace and generosity.

Jesus undergirds this radical teaching in three ways (32-36). First, his disciples are to distinguish themselves from the average folk, who carefully calculate their actions on a “what’s in it for me” basis. Nelson Mandela argued something similar after his release from prison. Black people weren’t to treat white people as they had been treated by them, since that offered no hope. Second, Jesus’ disciples are to look beyond the immediate, to a longer-term and greater reward.

Third, and most significantly, in doing this they demonstrate whose children they are. We say “like father, like son.” As God’s children, we are called to be like our Father, whom Jesus describes as “kind to the ungrateful and wicked” (35). What scandalous grace! Many long-standing disciples of Jesus still find it easier to think that God should only be kind to the good, grateful and deserving, but where would we be if God dealt with us on that basis? In his unreasonable demands, Jesus not only shows wisdom but calls us to display whose children we are.

Read Romans 12:14-21. Then ask whether there are situations you need to handle differently as a result.