The Ethos of Jesus

Luke 6:27-38

“But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. 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. “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. 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. 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. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. “Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”

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A ministry tool called MissionInsite produces reports on demographics and developing trends in a church's surrounding community. I've played around with this tool as a way to see if the data spoke to me or gave me an idea for an outreach project. There were some nuggets of inspiration that I'll share at a later time, though what stuck out to me were the reference points that spoke to people's most significant concerns and their relationship to religion. At the heart of this information was a question of ethos, "What values are at the core of who I am, and where do these morals and ethics come from?" The ethos of Jesus runs in the opposite direction of where our hearts want to turn to when confronted with challenging situations. So can we learn to embrace the teachings of Jesus, that asks us for more than what the world says is reasonable? 

Before we answer that question, let me take us back to the points of interest from the MissionInsite report. For a 10 mile area around our church, people listed "Social and Political Tensions/Discord" as the top among their most significant concerns, besides the ongoing pandemic, which ranked first. Regarding religion, when asked about Jesus, people were most likely to respond by saying, "People in the church do not behave as Jesus would behave." You might not see the correlation at first, but it's there. There's a relationship to people's concern about our social/political discord and how we don't treat one another well; with many believe people in the church don't behave as Jesus would behave. If we genuinely embraced the ethos of Jesus as it is present in our reading for today, I think people's responses would be very different. 

Our reading for today is a continuation of Jesus' Sermon on the Plain, which we meditated on last week. And to indicate that transition, Jesus addresses those who are still listening (we might assume people left after the first part of Jesus' teaching). If we are bold enough to stick around and listen to what Jesus is going to say, we better be prepared. We'll discover that Jesus lays out the full details of what it looks like to live in a covenant relationship with God and how to take that relationship and apply it to our daily lives. A covenant relationship means that things now are different than they were before. If we sowed purposeful malicious discord for political or individual gain, we will see that there's no room for that in the divine covenant. If we say we follow Jesus but live lives contrary to the heart of God, we will see that there's no room for that in the sacred covenant. 

From the heart of Jesus flows power that is committed to a very different way of life, God's way of life. It is a power that levels the playing field, a force that directs our gaze not upward to the heavens above; instead, it directs our eyes to the heaven that is in our midst, the world that God is unfolding before us. Realizing what Jesus is asking of us, can we follow? If we turn and go deep within our hearts, where the only audience we have is with Jesus, can we answer, "Yes, Lord, I will follow this way of life?" Because it's not enough to love, it's not enough to do good, and it's not enough to pray or bless. The path of discipleship, the path of following Jesus, requires more; it requires a complete change in our lives so that we too can participate in the reordering and reconciliation of creation.

The ethos, the heart of Jesus, commands that we love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, bless those who curse us, pray for those who treat us with ill-intent. There's an opportunity for us to take this command seriously. And there's a chance for us to be surprised if we embody this way of living and see the way it touches not only others but ourselves and our relationship to God as well. I agree with the demographic study that says "Social and Political Tensions/Discord" is a significant area of concern for our region and the national level. And I agree that many are disenfranchised with the notion of religion because, too often, people in the church do not practice what Jesus taught. We can turn this around; we can live transformative lives thanks to the power we receive from the heart of Jesus. 

In our hearts, where it is only us and Jesus, can we dare say that we will follow knowing that Jesus has extended to us the same opportunities he asks us to give to others? Such love, the impossible love that Jesus asks of us, is not always practical, but it can change the world; it can make an impact right here and now. Again Jesus is not very conventional; he is not concerned about what is and isn't practical. Jesus is only focused on us, on relationships, and on the restoration and reconciliation of creation. I am confident that God will give us the strength to carry out such a calling if we allow the divine love of God to penetrate our hearts that have been made hard by years of cynicism and mistrust. So let us go and live as Jesus taught us, handing out the blessing of compassion and mercy and love even when the world labels us as fools. Why? Because as Jesus said, "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." Let us go and do likewise.