Pray For Others - February 8th, 2015 sermon

By Pastor Greg

There was a little old lady who would come out every morning on the steps of her front porch, raise her arms to the sky and shout, "Praise the Lord!"  Well, one day an atheist moved into the house next door.  Over time, he became irritated at the little old lady.  So every morning he would step out onto his front porch and yell after her, "There is no Lord!"  Time passes with the two of them carrying on this way every day.  Then one morning in the middle of winter, the little old lady stepped onto her front porch and shouted, "Praise the Lord!  Lord, I have no food and I am starving.  Please provide for me, oh Lord!"  The next morning, she stepped onto her porch and there were two huge bags of groceries sitting there. "Praise the Lord!" she cried out.  "He has provided groceries for me!"  The atheist jumped out of the hedges and shouted, "There is no Lord.  I bought those groceries!"  The little old lady threw her arms into the air and shouted, "Praise the Lord!  He has provided me with groceries and He made the Devil pay for them!”

Don’t you wish you had that kind of spunk?  This is the kind of story people share on Facebook, celebrating this lady’s defiant attitude.  She didn’t let her neighbor’s criticism stop her from praising God.  But, if this neighbor is seen as her enemy, her response doesn’t quite follow the teachings of Jesus.  Oh, I’m sure this lady was very godly and that she had a deep respect for God.  But she had missed one very important lesson from Jesus.  It’s not that this lesson is difficult to understand, it’s just not a lesson easily learned.

As Christ continues to teach on this mountainside, His lessons seem to get more difficult to follow.  It is hoped these lessons draw the unbeliever to Christ, and help the Christian become more like Christ.  But sometimes these lessons seem impossible to follow.

In Matthew 5:38-48 Jesus teaches, ³⁸ “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. ⁴⁰ If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. ⁴¹ If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. ⁴² Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.

⁴³ “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. ⁴⁴ But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! ⁴⁵ In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. ⁴⁶ If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. ⁴⁷ If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. ⁴⁸ But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect”.

Christ says we are called to pray for those who have hurt us or those who have taken advantage of us.  We are not to pray that God would avenge our wrong, but to pray for those who have hurt us. Christ calls us to pray for that atheist neighbor who constantly criticizes our relationship with God, not simply snap at them and call them the devil.  Our calling, as Christians, is to be salt and light, not judge and jury.

In an even deeper level, Jesus isn’t saying we react toward others in a Christ-like manner.  He says we are to act toward others in a Christ-like manner.  A Christian is called to be proactive in their love toward others, not reactive to the way they are treated.  Christ says in Matthew 7:12, “In everything, treat others as you would want them to treat you,” not “Treat to others as they have treated you”.  Jesus says that when we demonstrate this characteristic, we not only walk more closely with God, but that we are demonstrating the very heart of God – the meaning behind Christ’s call to be perfect.

We read this section and think to ourselves, “What kind of person could love those who have taken advantage of them?  What kind of person could pray for those who persecute them?”  Indeed, this attitude of showing love toward those who have hurt us and those who hate us seems impossible, for even though we are Christians, we are still people with feelings.  We are still able to be hurt.  How then can we find the ability to do as Christ has taught?  How can we pray for the neighbor who harasses us every morning shouting “There is no God”? 

A Christian will find that they have the ability to forgive and pray because the Lord has given us His Spirit to overcome these times of hurt.  We love with a supernatural ability because God’s Spirit dwells within us.  But I believe there is a lesson here that is often overlooked.  As with any teaching of Jesus, we must do more than simply hear the lesson.  We must chose to put this lesson into practice.  We can decide to act this way ahead of time.  You see, forgiving others, loving enemies, and praying for those who hurt us is a choice we make in our lives.  Before we are hurt, before we are slapped, before we are swindled, before we are persecuted, we chose to “love others as we love ourselves”.  This is why Jesus tells us to treat others as you would want them to treat you - teaching us to take the initiative to love.

Everyone deals with hurtful and cruel people.  Everyone does.  But some days are harder than others.  Some days you feel thin, sort of stretched, like butter scraped over too much bread.  And when you are hurt, slapped, and insulted, there is a chance you might slap back, seek revenge, curse, or call them the devil.  Later, after you regain your wits, you think back and realize you should not have reacted that way, and you vow not to react that way again.  But see, that’s the whole point.  It is a reaction.  That’s why Jesus talks about taking action here.  He talks about choosing to love, choosing to pray, and choosing to let go of the hurt.

A Christian who walks closely with God needs to be very careful that they are not drawn into the hating game; where those who are opposed to Christian values and morals are treated by Christians with the same contempt and scorn.  They hate us so we hate them.  They slap us so we slap them. Even though our society might look upon us with smug superiority and claim “There is no God”, we cannot return violence for violence.  Violence is born of weakness, not strength. It is the strong man who can love and suffer hurt.  To walk closely with God is to choose love.  And love is an act of the will, not a reaction to an emotion.

It seems an impossible task – this call to be perfect just as God is perfect.  But when we choose to love and pray for our enemies, we are doing the same thing God does.  After all, He made a choice to love us when we were His enemies (see Romans 5:10).