Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

But surely Jesus’ command to love enemies went far beyond all the prescriptions for Israel and in the Torah? Let us look closely once more! The most important text for the command to love enemies in the context of what we are discussing is Luke 6:27-30:¹⁰

Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again.

Here and in the following verses we find a composition by Luke, part of the so-called Sermon on the Plain. Luke was making use of a collection of applicable sayings of Jesus that he found in the Sayings Source (cf. Matt 5:38-48). We can see from Luke 6:27-30 how categorically Jesus was capable of speaking. In the sentences quoted, he does not deal with difficulties, conditions, or particular circumstances. He speaks radically, that is, he gets to the root. Therefore the quoted sentences are not formulae to be applied like recipes. They cannot simply be reduced to an ethical system; they are an unwieldy instrument for casuistry.

So, must I give to everyone who asks of me? Jesus would have spoken that demand with an eye to the situation in Israel, where small farmers and day laborers repeatedly needed help from their neighbors or fellow believers to cope with failed harvests or in times of unemployment. For us too the words “give to everyone who begs from you” have not lost their meaning, but they cannot be applied mechanically. Should a mother going through the supermarket with her child fulfill all the wishes that are created there in the most subtle and well-thought-out ways? She would be exercising hatred for her child if she bought it everything it wants and begs its mother to give it.

The same is true of all the other statements about love of neighbor and of enemies. They cannot and must not be used as if they were operating instructions, to be applied mechanically. Rather, we need to keep in mind that biblical statements of this kind have a basis in which they are rooted, namely, the people of God. The continual parade of false interpretations of Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount and/or Luke’s Sermon on the Plain almost all derive from a failure to pay attention to that grounding, that basis supporting the whole.¹¹

Because the biblical reality of the people of God was completely foreign to ancient religions, so also the biblical idea of love of neighbor, and certainly that of love of enemies, was equally a stranger to them.¹² In 1989 Mary W. Blundell, a professor of classical philology, published a book titled Helping Friends and Harming Enemies, in which she shows that “Greek popular thought is pervaded by the assumption that one should help one’s friends and harm one’s enemies. These fundamental principles surface continually from Homer onwards and survive well into the Roman period.”¹³ That states the essential. Blundell reaches her conclusions based on her outstanding knowledge of the ancient world. She brings together a multitude of textual witnesses, and these repeatedly testify that one should love one’s friends, help them, lend to them. Of course, the basic principle of balanced mutuality must rule. The Greek poet Hesiod (eighth c. BCE) expresses it this way: “Be friends with the friendly, and visit him who visits you. Give to one who gives, but do not give to one who does not give.”¹⁴

In Luke 6:32-36, the continuation of the part of the Sermon on the Plain I cited above, we find just the opposite. Here the principle of ethical mutuality that Hesiod formulates so elegantly is carried ad absurdum. How? Hesiod’s principle completely ignores who God is and how God acts, and so it must also be ignorant of the reality of the people of God,¹⁵ for the rule here is:

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:32-36)