Jesus' fulfillment of the Law and Prophets is all about the Spirit of them and how they are meant to lift up a people with one another and with their God. Jesus' Law of Agape Love commands us to love God with all that we have and love our neighbor as our selves. The two are inseparable. Jesus then taught that we should love one another as He has loved us. This is a tall order, but if we are followers of Jesus we will strive to grow in that Agape (active commitment on behalf of the other - especially "the least", stranger and enemy), and how we live it in this part of God's Kingdom, here and now.
So, for those around Jesus who represent the abuses of power in empire that allow them to kill at will, not only are they not to kill, but not to hate... and not only not to hate, but not to get to that point of anger that would make one want to objectify the other or justify harm to them. No. Following Jesus means that we reconcile. Those who resist empire are also to take heed to this. We are to resist, not participate in worldly empire values and transform worldly empire thinking and acting. If we become like empire and use force or coercion toward that goal, then we have lost because we exhibit worldly empire values instead of Kingdom of God values in the struggle. As we have seen in history, active, aggressive non-violent resistance works. Transformation of hateful systems, ideologies and hearts does not happen by returning the hatefulness with more of the same. Transformation comes from speaking truth into it and then offering an alternative - a better way. Agape Love is that better way for the world. We cannot be right with God if we are at odds with our sisters and brothers. Anger from some perspective of "justification" or "righteousness" that separates us is not about Agape Love, but about self and pride. Hatred that comes from fear of the other is not about Agape Love, but about self and fear. Agape Love casts out pride and fear, allowing us to reconcile, to reach across, to sit at table with our enemies because God commands it. And in the striving to reconcile, Kingdom values transform the world.
Hyperbole here is not meant to be taken literally. We must stop doing that with scriptural teachings. Looking at a person solely with lust, even if one has not acted on that lust, is making a person into an object, and particularly seeing that person as an object whose only purpose to us is for one's own sexual pleasure. We de-value human beings when we reduce everything about them to sex. The value of other human beings comes from the heart and soul. Who they are is not defined by only their body parts or what they do with them sexually. Sex is meant to be an expression of love, a unique expression shared with a person that does deeper than mere physical gratification. We have urges as adult human beings, and they are meant to be satisfied within a context of love. Making sex just about gratifying self is an act of objectifying or using another person for our own lusts and not valuing them beyond what they do for us. Agape Love does not allow that. Two, consenting adults sharing this intimacy in a context of love is never wrong, unless there is betrayal in adultery or unless the betrayal comes from de-valuing the other by treating them like an object. One who follows Jesus should go to great lengths to curb the urge to objectify someone else for the sake of sexual gratification.
Jesus took a hard line on divorce. I believe that marriage is intended to be taken seriously. In His time, it was lawful, under the Law of Moses for a MAN to write a certificate of divorce for whatever reasons, leaving the wife with no security, means of living or stature in society. This is about power. Men abused the loopholes in the law because men enforced the laws. Women and children were powerless in the society. This command out of Agape Love recognizes the value of women and children and takes abuses off the table. There were, no doubt many men who would not be pleased by this, because they were used to using the law to their advantage over others. Jesus fulfills this law in this way to lift up the value of women. Women are not meant to be tossed from one man to another in marriage as if they are chattel. This was a revolutionary teaching. "Trading one's wife in on a younger model", as we see regularly practiced today among the powerful and wealthy elite males in our society is an abuse of Agape Love. Objectifying, not only women, but wives is wrong. Agape Love prohibits that. The powerless are to be lifted up and valued, and those who abuse power are to repent and live differently.
We need to remember from where our strength comes, keeping in perspective to whom we belong and to whom belongs all of heaven and earth. This is God's Kingdom. We just live in this part of it. We have no power over much of what happens in it, and to act or speak as if we do, unfettered from our utter dependence and reliance upon God and unaffected by our adherence to God's will is not faithful. Telling the truth is a Kingdom value. Humility is a Kingdom value. Claiming power over the truth is not. Claiming that one has control over what happens is not. I believe that God values us keeping our word and being known for keeping our word, not making outrageous claims. I believe that God values us simply stating the truth without personal bravado. Being a follower of Jesus who has integrity, not just in words but actions is of great value in the Kingdom of God. It may not always be valued in worldly empire, but in the Kingdom it has merit.
Jesus fulfills the Law and Prophets in Agape Love, which is the spirit of the Law as God intended it. Jesus here addressed some of the abuses of the Law by those who were in collusion with Rome and who acted on their own behalf at the expense of others, for their personal gain in power and wealth. As followers of Jesus, we are commanded to live Agape in the world in every arena of life. By definition that means putting others' well-being at least equal to our own. It is in the living of Agape Love that community is built and out of healthy community that healthy individuals come. Treating the other as one would like to be treated creates an environment of compassion, empathy and trust. Those are Kingdom values, and lived in the face of worldly empire values that divide by breeding hatred and greed, those values transform not only individual lives, but the whole world - THIS PART of God's Kingdom.
Pastor Jamie
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