02192022 – Luke 6. 27-38
REVENGE I tell you IS SWEET. If someone strikes you on the cheek, take ‘em out.
If someone rips off your coat or Jordans’ steal someone elses…just make sure they are the right size…
If someone asks, look at them, like you’ve got to be kidding…what are you CRAZY? And walk away…but watch your back!
If someone TAKES from you, make sure you EXACT your POUND OF FLESH…
Treating OTHERS as they have treated US– seems to be “NATURAL” and a “FAIR WAY” of “administering justice.”
It is just NOT CHRISTIAN! Nor is it BIBLICAL. It is THE WAY of our WORLD, however!
Do unto THEM, before THEY do unto YOU. Strike FIRST. Take what YOU want.
Look out for old NUMBER ONE. Lie your way through it…and around it.
It’s ALL GOOD! There are NO CONSEQUENCES today. A slap on the wrist, maybe!
It’s every MAN for himself! NICE commentary, right? But SADLY, a little too close, for comfort!
You remember: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It’s IN THE BOOK!
Loving your enemies has ALWAYS BEEN a radical idea. Remember the book called GENESIS?
Remember the JOSEPH story? Long before Joseph’s bro’s had wanted to kill him, for many reasons, some not altogether bad, either…
He was a SPOILED BRAT. He was daddy’s FAVORITE. Everybody else had to work. Cept’ this kid! Joseph layed around the house. Joseph, the youngest, the BABY of the family, wore a special coat, given to him by his DADDY, a coat which DAILY rubbed the brother’s faces in his “undeserved-non-traditional-top-rank.
On TOP of all of that, Joseph had DREAMS, that he DELIGHTED in retelling, about how THE REST OF THE FAMILY, maybe even the rest of the cosmos, would BOW DOWN to him. So, the brothers wanted to do away with him. They PLOTTED, schemed, planned.
But instead of killing him, they sold him into slavery. Joseph ended up in Egypt, and the brothers thought they were done with him FOR GOOD! BUT, Joseph’s journey was JUST beginning.
Bought by a “big wig,” Joseph worked for him until the day the official’s wife tried to mess with him.
When he REFUSED to give in, she cried out, and Joseph was thrown into the clink. (Yes, I was watching Hogan’s Heroes when I wrote this!)
He was THERE for at least two years before he was needed by Pharaoh to interpret some crazy dreams.
Because of his WISDOM and DISCERNMENT, he was is SUDDENLY and UNEXPECTANTLY freed from prison and raised to the number two POST in all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.
For seven years, Joseph over-sees-a- great-public-works-project, which will set aside 20% of each year’s harvest, so that when “seven years of famine comes,” Egypt WILL BE READY.
Life was GOOD for Joseph, EVEN a couple of years into the famine.
THEN one day, HIS BRO’S show up to buy grain. DUN-DUN-DUN. He recognized them but they DO NOT recognize him. DUN-DUN-DUN.
Obviously he REMEMBERED all that they did TO him, and ALL of the suffering HE had endured.
Now, THEY were completely within HIS CONTROL. He could do whatEVER he wanted with them. He could EXACT REVENGE for so many years of suffering, ALL OF IT “unjust suffering” and to his way of thinking…completely “UNWARRANTED.”
So he TOYED with them for awhile.
He made their lives CHAOTIC and MISERABLE. FIRST, he held one of them as “a hostage,” ‘til they returned with their youngest brother. He played “MIND GAMES” with them by placing their money in their sacks of grain…and even hiding his own cup.
THEN, when they return, he ACCUSED them of being SPIES, and THREATENED to keep their “youngest brother.” They were all TERRIFIED, and rightly so. They were AT HIS MERCY. SO, did Joseph love those who did him wrong?
The brothers, realizing WHO HE WAS, and realizing that he intended to do them NO HARM at all, were DAZED and STUNNED. They didn’t know WHAT to do. They couldn’t believe it! So Joseph called them close and ENBRACED THEM. YOU do likewise!
LOVE, DO GOOD, BLESS, PRAY FOR, FORGIVE, DO NOT JUDGE or CONDEMN. Be RAD. Stun the heck out of them.
Do NOT react as our World reacts. Amen.