Measure Given, Measure Received (part 4)

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  Once again, we have a specific, historical reference.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 the Creator God’s curse.  They knew that they were under the curse because they were dominated by foreign powers.  This is what their 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 the Creator God’s people did not rule themselves, then they were still experiencing the curse that their 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 their God’s curse upon them 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 their God to bless Rome?  Unthinkable! 

It is possible to go deeper into this issue of Jesus’ insistence upon blessing those who curse you.  Not only does the presence of the Romans as the rulers of God’s covenant people and their land serve as a daily reminder that their God’s curse is still upon them (subject to foreign power, in accordance with Leviticus and Deuteronomy), but these words from Jesus would serve as a reminder of what was looked upon as the ultimate curse, which is/was the Roman cross.  Rome used the cross as a tool for execution and as a means of the expression of their power. 

Crucifixion, by and large, was the method of capital punishment reserved for rebel subjects and recalcitrant slaves, and historical records indicate that Rome was not hesitant in employing crucifixion, sometimes crucifying thousands of people at one time.  As if it was not enough that Jesus’ hearers would have seen or heard about fellow citizens in their day and throughout their recent history that had been crucified by Rome, coupled with that was the Deuteronomic insistence that indicated that anyone hanged on a tree was cursed by the covenant God.  This, naturally, propounded the idea of the cross as ultimate cursing. 

The threat of this curse, under Rome’s dominion, was an ever-present reality hanging over the heads of all peoples that were subject to Rome, and owing to the words found in their books of the law, carried an even greater and more ominous weight for the people of the Creator God.  With this two-fold examination of Jesus’ directive to “bless those who curse you” (Luke 6:28a), and the rejoinder to “pray for those who mistreat you” (6:28b), the words that Jesus spoke while suffering through His execution become even more poignant and meaningful.  Essentially, we find Jesus practicing what He preached when He says, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” (23:34a).  Though this statement by Jesus is omitted by many important manuscripts, what it conveys fits very well with the message that He preached.