This Sunday, Thomas Anderson, Jr., Willow's Chicago Campus Pastor, taught us from chapter 5 of the book of Matthew. Today's message was anchored in verses 43 through 48—part of what we call Jesus's Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Pastor Thomas reminded us early on in his message that Jesus regularly takes the status quo and flips it on its head, and that's exactly what He is doing in this passage of Scripture.
Responding with grace and love is extremely challenging as it requires things of us that aren't always easy. How do we navigate moments when people get under our skin and on our nerves? How to navigate with people that are actively against us.
- We have to be honest in acknowledging what actually hurts.
- We have to be vulnerable to tell the person that hurt us.
- We have to be willing to surrender any plans for retaliation.
- We have to be wise enough to put up boundaries (good for clarifying what stays in and what stays off).
If we're honest, though, these things are hard, and we're often like, "Sure thing, but..." Pastor Thomas reminded us, that when having grace with people gets rough, love gets tough.
1. Love is resilient (v. 43-45a)
The truth is that everyone desires to be loved, treated with dignity and respect, and to be cared for and valued. We love love and love to be loved. God created us to be in relationship with others. But what happens when love doesn't seem to work?
Jesus points us to our identity as children of God. Because the truth is, Love is able to endure and even thrive because it is not based on human capabilities but rather on God's love and His act on the cross.
Love isn't a concept or idea, it is a way of treating others. When you’re really angry at someone, what would it look like to pray for that person? And pray for peace over that person?
We must be connected to the King, the Love of God, to be able to give it.
2. Love is impartial (v. 45b-48)
Jesus sets up the unearned grace God provides all people by using the images of the sun and rain. Whether "good" or "bad," all receive the blessing of the rain and the sun. The point is that just as God blesses people with rain and sunshine equally, love is a marker of equality and equity. Jesus sets up the unearned grace that is available to all people. God will judge the world, and still, we all experience common grace because we are all created in the image of God. We must ask ourselves, does our love reflect that all people are children of God?
The only way to see a resilient love, an impartial love, a love that makes a way for gracious responses to others, is to have accepted and experience God's resilient and impartial love for ourselves.
How does this massage help us focus on Jesus? If you don't know Jesus, now is your time to choose to follow Him. He loves you with an everlasting and transforming love and desires to be in relationship with you.
For those that follow Jesus, think about the boundaries that you have set up. Are you keeping out the opportunity to love? Are you keeping in only those that are easy to love?
How does this message help us grow together as a church? Your faith is personal but not private. We must practice daily devotion–so that we can fall more and more in love with God and be the light and love that Pastor Thomas was talking about. When we read [the Bible] together, we hear God together, we can love together, and spur one another on to good works.
