The Sermon on the Mount 11 - Matt 5:43-48

My sister has a saying posted on her wall at home that I really like and that I feel fits in perfectly with the concepts the Savior talks about as we continue with the Sermon on the Mount. It says, “You don’t really understand an antagonist until you understand why he’s a protagonist in his own version of the world - John Rogers.) We all have antagonists in our lives, people who range from well-meaning but annoying to out-right seeking our destruction. What makes these people act the way they do? What in their lives tells them that hurting others in appropriate? We are not commanded to figure out why other people do the things that they do, but Jesus does say, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy. I remember reading in the Old Testament to love our neighbors, but I don’t remember hearing that it’s ok to hate your enemies. The IM says, “The commandment ‘love thy neighbor’ in found in Leviticus 19:18, but no scripture in the Old Testament commands us to hate thine enemy. It appears the Savior was referring to a saying common in His day. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946 may reveal that some Jews at the time of Christ did in fact teach that they should love fellow members of their community but hate outsiders.”

The Lord continues, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.” This is a very difficult commandment for me, very difficult, as I would imagine that it is for everyone. JTC demonstrates a little bit of the outrage probably felt by those listeners, saying, “This was a new doctrine. Never before had Israel been required to love their foes. Friendship for enemies had found no place in the Mosaic code: indeed the people had grown to look upon Israel’s enemies as god’s enemies; and now Jesus required that tolerance, mercy, and even love be meted out to such!” I’ve always lived with the teaching that hatred is wrong and that forgiveness should reign, and even with that, loving enemies is most difficult. I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for a people who were taught since childhood that hatred was appropriate to all of a sudden it’s unacceptable, that must have been a very tough transition. The IM quotes President James E. Faust as teaching, “Our natural response (to injuries inflicted by others) is anger. We may even feel justified in wanting to ‘get even’ with anyone who inflicts injury on us or our family. Dr. Sidney Simon, a recognized authority on values realization, has provided an excellent definition of forgiveness as it applies to human relationships: ‘Forgiveness is freeing up and putting to better use the energy once consumed by holding grudges, harboring resentments, and nursing unhealed wounds. It is rediscovering the strengths we always had and relocating our limitless capacity to understand and accept other people and ourselves…’ It is not easy to let go and empty our hearts of festering resentment. The Savior has offered to all of us a precious peace through His Atonement, but this can come only as we are willing to cast out negative feelings of anger, spite, or revenge. For all of us who forgive ‘those who trespass against is,’ even those who have committed serious crimes, the Atonement brings a measure of peace and comfort.”

One reason that this teaching was particularly difficult to swallow was because of the Roman occupation of Palestine at the time of Jesus’s mortal ministry. The place that I live in is relatively free, probably the freest of any civilization in human history, so I can’t even begin to imagine what horrors the Jews at this time lived with under Roman rule. There is one scene in Ben-Hur where, after the traitor brother who is a Roman soldier is punched in the face by his Jewish brother, Pilate asks, “How many Jews is a Roman worth?” To which the answer is given “10.” Then, because this particular brother was so valuable to Pilate as a chariot driver, he says, “but for you, I think 20.” So he commands his soldiers to go round up 20 Jews in the market place at random and crucify them, to demonstrate that if you hurt one of ours, we will murder 20 in the most horrific manner. This is a fictional story, so I’m not taking this account as fact, but I’m sure that these things happened all the time and to a greater and more horrific degree than is described here. But why I think this example is important is because basically Jesus is saying not only to forgive the Romans for these awful things they’ve done, but to love them, which I find a particularly bitter concept to accept. We would have to take this concept to the extreme of forgiving and loving the man who keeps you as a sex slave and prostitute, which I find to be one of the most abhorrent realities for so many people, mostly women and children.

Why do this? Why is it so important to learn to love and forgive those who have done so much wrong to you? Jesus continues, “that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” We are commanded to do this so that we can become perfected and more Christ-like. If all are children of God, then that includes those who commit atrocities, and Jesus has atoned for their sins just as much as he’s atoned for mine. He’s felt their pain just as much as he’s felt mine. And at some point in our lives aren’t we all both the just and the unjust? Don’t we commit ourselves acts of good and evil? Maybe not to the extent that others do, but I’m confident that someone else would look at my life and shutter with disgust in some of the things I’ve done, just like I would do that looking at others. We are all better than someone and we are all worse than someone, and Jesus has taken on the pains both caused by and felt by everyone, and he still loves us all, even while looking at all circumstances with full knowledge of everything that ever has been and ever will be. And if he can do it, then somehow we can too. 

Jesus continues, “for if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the publicans so?” I think it’s interesting that he uses the publicans as standard for wickedness, even though Matthew is now a disciple, and was also once a publican. JTC comments, “And further, what excellence has the man who gives only as he receives, acknowledges only those who salute him with respect, loves only as he is loved? Even the publicans did that much. Of the disciples of Christ much more was expected.” Is it important to be kind to all who are kind to us? Of course, but that reaction comes so much more naturally to us than it does to love those who are not kind to you. It would not be a struggle if commanded “be nice to those who are nice to you,” therefore there would be limited personal growth. But once we reach outside our comfort zone and learn to love those for whom it does not come naturally, there is the growth.

Finally, Jesus commands, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven in perfect.” I have a lot of different ideas about this commandment and much of it has caused me anguish. When I was younger, the command to be perfect implied that it was possible to be perfect right then and there. I struggled with this because I was/am not perfect. There are a few things that helped me come out of this struggle to embrace where I was and where I am going. The first is that of course the Lord has to command us to be perfect, he cannot command us to be mediocre or tell us that we don’t have to give it all our effort. To have eternal life, we must be perfect. However, we do not perfect ourselves, and we are not perfected in this life time. Jesus perfects us when we try our best to do what he has commanded, and it’s not a “you did one thing right, now here’s perfection.” It’s a process that takes eons of time, and is not made of one single right choice, but successive correct choices until there is no choice anymore, right is just what you do. Choice implies deciding between two different things. For instance, if I see a wallet on the ground, at one time in my life I would have had to decide “do I take it or turn it in?” Now, there is no choice, I see a wallet on the ground and I turn it in, there is no choice involved. I’m ordering drinks, there’s no choice involved, it’s always non-alcoholic, but there was a time in my life where that wasn’t the case. It’s all progression, once you’ve made a correct choice so many times that it’s not a struggle anymore, then you move on to another level of choices. This is why Nephi and all the prophets and apostles can lament their own shortcomings. Just because we perceive that their sins are less significant than ours doesn’t mean that they are perfect, they can’t be perfect in this life just like we can’t, they are just on a different level than some of us are, but if we keep working at it, we’ll get there too.

Another way that I was able to make peace with the concept of perfection is through learning what the IM quotes form Elder Russell M. Nelson as teaching, “The term perfect was translated from the Greek teleios, which means ‘complete.’… The infinitive form of the verb is teleiono, which means ‘to reach a distance end, to be fully developed, to consummate, or to finish.’ Please note that the word does not imply freedom for error; it implies achieving a distance objective… We need not be dismayed if our earnest efforts toward perfection now seem so arduous and endless. Perfection is pending. It can come in full only after the Resurrection and only through the Lord. It awaits all who love him and keep his commandments.” The IM also quotes the Prophet Joseph Smith as teaching, “When you climb up a ladder, you must begin at the bottom, and ascend step by step, until you arrive at the top; and so it is with the principles of the gospel- you must begin with the first, and go on until you learn all the principles of exaltation. But it will be a great while after you have passed through the veil before you will have learned them. It is not all to be comprehended in this world; it will be a great work to learn our salvation and exaltation even beyond the grave.”