Luke 6:27-38 Commentary

From the highs of naming names and giving the high and mighty the what for last week, we come down to the realization of what God’s mercy means for all of us this week. It turns out that those who are blessed are meant to love, do good towards, and bless and pray for those who have harmed them with their greed and selfishness—just as much as those who are warned about their degrading choices need to change and do the same. At least Jesus builds up to the real humdinger of a call in verse 36: “Be merciful just as your Father is merciful.”

Jesus starts with the golden rule “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” But even this call can be a hard pill to swallow. Loving enemies, doing good to those who hate you, blessing those who curse you, praying for those who abuse you. Any one of those commands can feel like they will take a lifetime of healing and sanctification to pursue.

But then Jesus also universalises it by moving from our known enemies to the new ones that might come. He places them in the same category as those who may be in greater need than ourselves. Turning the other cheek, giving more than what someone needs or has asked for, not making someone feel bad about what we’ve given them… in a real way, these commands are a branching out of the original command to love our enemies and do good to those who hate us. Or maybe, these commands are a return to the root: we are to love and do good, it’s really that simple.

Jesus’s question in verse 32 cuts to the core, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?” Many of us know from experience that it is hard to accept love because of our struggles to love ourselves in holy ways, but we can also masquerade in altruistic love or mistake purposeful and strategic niceties for love. We reason our way into being loving or a close approximation to it that will heed people’s praise, fawn, and get us in their good books.

So Jesus repeats himself, “Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.” Love with the purpose of earthly reward is not love at all. In fact, Jesus explains, the love he has in mind for his followers is a love that’s a lot more like mercy. The word he uses for mercy, oiktirmōn, is related to compassion—of actually being concerned about someone’s situation or misery (BDAG). There are a few different words for mercy in the New Testament, and this one is the one used by Jesus and Paul to remind us that we, having received mercy, ought not hesitate in giving it to others. Just like God who “is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.”

Mercy changes the way we see ourselves and how we see others (which in turn changes the way we act and treat one another). If we are to see ourselves as “children of the Most High,” then the character of the merciful one will need to be seen in how we live. Mercy flows in the opposite direction of judgement and condemnation; mercy spurts out as forgiveness and generosity.

Note that generosity and forgiveness require a true reckoning; just because we don’t judge does not mean we don’t evaluate and tell the truth about wrongs or harm done. Forgiveness and generosity become all the more powerful when we name these things and still choose to not meet like for like and model a different way—one that is based on a sense of abundance and freedom rather than fear and scarcity. We can go above and beyond because we were made capable of it by a good God who always goes above and beyond. Scooping into our bags and then adding an extra spoonful for good measure, God wants us to see and trust in this goodness so that we don’t do so much harm to one another. But even when we do, may there be witnesses to God’s mercy.

Textual Point

It is easy to forget that this section of the Sermon on the Plain comes immediately after the Blessings and Woes of last week. At the opening of this week’s text, Jesus says, “But I say to you that listen…” Those who have been listening are those who hear and identify themselves with the blessed in the midst of their unjust suffering or those who have been warned about their greed and selfishness. In other words, we have even more context for when the mercy standard applies than we may want—which is pretty much all the time. Those who have listened implies a willingness and desire to do something about what they have heard, and Jesus describes that lifestyle as being merciful like God.

Illustration Idea

I have perhaps shared this story before, but not with this text. St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) is well-known for his love of nature and the animals as well as his oft-quoted, “Preach the gospel and, if necessary, use words.” Francis took the sort of life Jesus describes here very seriously. In fact, he used to get in trouble for how quickly he was willing to give away his clothes to others. Francis’s abbot was fed up with the cost of having to constantly replace Francis’s coats that he ordered Francis to stop giving them away. Francis found a loophole around his vow of obedience. When he met someone who needed a coat, he’d say, “I can’t give you my coat, but you could take it from me…”