This week’s reflection provided by Donna Maley: 

This past Sunday, the readings were Genesis 45:3-11 and Luke 6:27-38.

In the Genesis passage, Joseph sees his brothers years after they had sold him into slavery. His brothers feared him, but he was very gracious to them and had forgiven them. In the Luke passage, Jesus is teaching about loving enemies–“love your enemies,” “turn the other cheek,” etc. Dr. Kim addressed both of these readings in his sermon Sunday; and as he said, this is tough stuff!

The kind of love that Jesus talks about in Luke 6 isn’t the affectionate type of love; it is a command to make a conscious effort to love (or care for) your enemies. This means we are tasked with acting in our enemies’ best interests. We need to pray for them and must meet their needs as we would for people for whom we usually care. We are to give to all as though we are giving to God. Not expecting anything in return and doing it because it is the right thing to do. We are to grant our enemies the same respect and rights as we desire for ourselves. Once again we are reminded that God doesn’t prioritize people and neither should we. God forgives us, and thus, we must demonstrate a forgiving spirit to all.

The enemy of the Jews to whom Jesus was talking in the passage from Luke was the Romans, because they oppressed God’s people. Since the Jews despised the Romans, this teaching of Jesus’ would have turned many away from him. Let us be people who resist our nature of ignoring this lesson and instead take Jesus’ lesson to heart.

As is our nature, we will stumble and fail sometimes, even when we are trying to follow his commands. The joy of our faith is that our Father knows us, and if we ask for forgiveness when we fail, and honestly try to learn from our failures, he fully forgives us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. Thanks be to God!