Thursday, February 25, 2010

Measure Given, Measure Received (part 2)

Having laid a bit of contextual foundation, we can now commence our attempt at figuring out what exactly is being said by Jesus when He says, “Give, and it will be given to you: A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be poured into your lap. For the measure you use will me the measure you receive” (Luke 6:38). With everything that has been said to this point (in part 1), clearly, we cannot simply look at this verse and think that Jesus is talking about giving and getting in terms of finances and material items. Additionally, it’s going to take some work to get there.

To get the point, we have to go back to the twenty-seventh verse in this chapter. As we do that, we have to systematically build on the foundation that has been laid. There, Jesus says, “But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies” (6:27a). Who are their enemies? The Jews in the audience (from Judea and Jerusalem) would have heard Jesus speaking about their enemies, the Romans. They are being told to love them, when they wanted to have nothing to do with them, and wanted to eject them from their land and their lives. Now remember, the One saying these things is the man that might very well be the Messiah and the Son of God (both terms for Israel’s promised king). The messiah is supposed to lead the revolution that defeats their enemies, but instead, He is insisting that the enemies be loved. This is strange and unexpected. Those in His audience that hail from Tyre and Sidon (presumably Gentiles), may find the Romans to be an irritant, but ultimately, they would not harbor the same feelings of animosity towards Rome as would the Jews, for reasons we shall see later.

However, so as to actively engage the whole of His audience, we can hear Jesus adding, “do good to those who hate you” (6:27b), as a sympathetic nod to the Gentiles. The Gentiles would not be looked upon by the Jews with quite the negativity with which they viewed and in which they held the Romans. They would, unfortunately, be held in extreme disfavor (hated) by the Jews. Though having said this, we do not limit the feelings of hatred to the Jews only. The Romans, having had to deal with stubborn and rebellious and zealous Jews for such a long period of time, might very well have come to hate them as much as they were hated by them. Regardless of the specific direction of the statement, each person that heard these words would be able to search their own heart. Hatred was a two-way street.

The point is, we have to continually connect the words of Jesus with the very real, historical situation in which they were spoken and which vested them with meaning. That is the only way for the words to have any meaning for us today. These were not imagined or potential enemies. No, they were real. He was not talking about some nebulous sense of feelings of hatred. He was talking about very real hatred. Jesus told His fellow countrymen that they should love enemies that oppress them and tax them into slavery. He told all of His hearers (Jew & Gentile) to do good to those that would probably be content with seeing them dead, simply so that they would not have to look at or deal with them. It is through understanding this that we are then able to devise an ethic under which we can operate and know that we are acting according to the will of God, in submission to the dictates of our Lord and King.

Jesus continues and says, “bless those who curse you” (6:28a). Once again, we have a specific, historical reference. His Jewish hearers were quite familiar with what was implied when the word “curse” was used. Jesus was not talking about people that might say bad things about you. No. With these words, He is referencing Israel’s historical narrative and the covenant promises of their God. The people knew that they were still living under God’s curse. They knew that they were under the curse because they were dominated by foreign powers. This is what God had promised in the book of Deuteronomy if His people failed to live up to Torah, and failed to fulfill their covenant responsibilities to be a light to the nations.

They had been in subjection to foreign powers since the day of Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon, having been subject to Babylon, Persia, Greece, Egypt, Syria, and now Rome. As long as God’s people did not rule themselves, then they were still experiencing the curse that God had promised to bring upon them. Because of this, not only was Rome their hated enemy that probably hated them in return, but Rome also would be incorrectly viewed as the power that was cursing them. If Rome was gone, then so too, they might think, would God’s curse be gone. This was just one more reason to desire Rome’s overthrow and to begrudge living under their rule. What Jesus was demanding was truly a revolutionary mindset! Love Rome? Ask God to bless Rome? Unthinkable!

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