7th Sunday in Ordinary Time C – Feb. 23, 2025
1 Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23; 1 Cor
15:45-49; Lk 6:27-38
Theme:
What it Takes to Be True Disciples of Jesus: Love One’s Enemies, Do Good to Them,
Bless Them, and Pray for Them
A. A
Brief Exegetical Analysis of Luke 6:27-38
- Historical
and Literary Contexts
Our
Gospel is a narrative story. Jesus introduces his teaching in vv. 27-28 with
four action words that the twelve apostles and other disciples must do to those
who will eventually mistreat them: love, do good, bless, and pray for them. Vv.
29-35 constitute the body of the text, in which he explains in detail what he
mentioned in the introduction. He concludes this theme in v. 36 by asking them
to be merciful in imitation of God their Father. The lectionary added vv. 37-38
that generally belong to a different theme about Judging Others.
- Detailed
Analysis
Vv.
27-28. Love…do good… bless… pray…: In the Beatitudes’ teaching (6:20-26)
that immediately precedes our text, Jesus let his Apostles and other disciples
know that people may mistreat them because of his name. Then, in these first
two verses, he teaches them how to treat their persecutors: They should love
their enemies, do good to them, bless them, and pray for them.
Vv.
29-35. Here, Jesus gives some examples to explain what he means by loving,
doing good, blessing, and praying for the eventual persecutors of his
followers. (1) They should offer their second cheeks to those who strike them
on their first cheeks (v. 29a). Matthew speaks of the “right cheek.” “When
someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.”
(Mt 5:39b, NABRE.) For a right-handed person to strike someone on his/her right
cheek, the person must use the back of his/her hand, which was a humiliation
and insult in the Jewish culture. Although Luke did not mention the “right
cheek” (because he does not find it necessary to talk about the Jewish culture
to his Gentile readers), the lesson is the same as that of Matthew: Jesus’
followers should not practice retaliation when they are humiliated and
insulted.
(2)
“From the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic.” (v.
29b). This phrase is inverted in Matthew: Tunic comes first and the cloak
second. “If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your
cloak as well.” (Matthew 5:40, NABRE.) In both cases, the interpretation is
that Jesus’ followers should permit their persecutors to retain what they take
away from them with violence or fraud.
(3)
In the rest of the examples, Jesus calls his followers to refrain from violence
(v. 30) and to practice the golden rule: “Do to others as you would have them
do to you.” (V.31). When they do these, then they will be different from the
wicked and they will qualify to be called “children of the Most High.” (Vv.
32-35).
Vv.
36-38. Jesus’ disciples must imitate the mercifulness of God, their Father.
Being merciful means they should stop judging and condemning. Instead,
they should forgive and give (vv. 37-38). These last two verses show the
correspondence between the conduct of Jesus’ followers toward their fellows and
God’s conduct toward them. When they do not judge others, God also will not
judge them. Judging here is not a prohibition against recognizing people’s
faults. Rather, it is against passing judgment in a spirit of arrogance,
forgetful of one’s own faults. It is also against the people who play the role
of God by judging and condemning others.[1] “Not condemning” and “forgiving”
others mean that Jesus’ disciples should offer a second chance to their fellows
as God does to them. With “Give and gifts will be given to you,” Jesus means
that his followers must practice charity first before God grants them their
requests.
4. Synthesis
Our
text is Jesus’ teaching to his newly Twelve apostles and all other disciples
about how they should conduct themselves toward their eventual enemies. In the
introduction, he summarizes this conduct into four action verbs that his
followers must do: love their enemies, do good to them, bless them, and pray
for them (vv. 27-28). He supports his teaching with practical examples such as
to the person who strikes them on one cheek, they should offer the other one;
to the person who takes their cloaks with violence or by fraud, they should not
withhold even their tunics; they should not demand back their belongings from
those who take them with violence; and they must do to others as they would
have other do to them. Jesus uses all these examples to call his disciples to
no violence and great love, differentiating them from the wicked and qualifying
them to be called “children of the Most High” (vv. 29-35). In the conclusion,
Jesus synthesizes his teaching into one word: “mercifulness.” He calls his
disciples to be merciful as their Father God is merciful. To be merciful is not
to judge or condemn others but to forgive and give (vv. 37-38). What they do to
others is what God will do to them.
B. Pastoral
Implications
1. Liturgical
Context
Last
Sunday, we heard that suffering is inherent in discipleship. We should not give
up our faith and mission regardless of the present real economic and social
injustice we face. Those who keep their faith amid suffering are identified as “blessed,”
and those who give up their faith and mission because of the “fake” joy and
happiness of this world are “Woeful.” In the second part of this Sermon on the
Plain that we read today, Jesus teaches his followers another lesson on what it
takes to be his true disciples.: They must be merciful to their persecutors. In
our first reading, David shows us an example of how to love our enemies. He did
not harm King Saul, who tried to kill him. In our second reading, Saint Paul
exhorts us to bear the image not of Adam, the earthly man, but of Jesus, the
heavenly one.
2. What
the Church Teaches us Today
In
Beatitude’s teaching (6:20-26), which immediately precedes our text, Jesus revealed
to his Apostles and us that people may mistreat us because of his name. Now, in
these first two verses that open our Gospel story, he teaches us how to treat our
persecutors. Jesus calls his Twelve apostles and all of us to love our enemies,
do good to them, bless them, and pray for them (vv. 27-28).
Jesus
gives practical examples to illustrate his teaching (vv. 29-35). In the first
example, he asks his followers to offer their second cheek to the person who
strikes them on the first one (v. 29a). Matthew speaks of the “right cheek.”
“When someone strikes you on [your] right cheek, turn the other one to him as
well.” (Mt 5:39b, NABRE.) For a right-handed person to strike someone on
his/her right cheek, the person must use the back of his/her hand, which was a humiliation
and insult in the Jewish culture. Although Luke did not mention the “right
cheek” (because he does not find it necessary to talk about the Jewish culture
to his Gentile readers), the lesson is the same as that of Matthew: we, Jesus’
followers, should not practice retaliation when we are humiliated and insulted.
In
the second example, Jesus says,
“From the person
who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic.” (V. 29b). This phrase
is inverted in Matthew: Tunic comes first and the cloak second. “If anyone
wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well.” (Mt
5:40, NABRE.) In both cases, the interpretation is that Jesus’ followers should
permit their persecutors to retain what they take away from them with violence
or by fraud. The lesson here is that Jesus’ followers must be non-violent.
In
the rest of the examples, Jesus calls his disciples and all of us again to
refrain from violence (v. 30) and to practice the golden rule: “Do to others as
you would have them do to you.” (V.31). When we do these, then we will be
different from the wicked and qualify to be called “children of the Most High.”
(Vv. 32-35). Jesus synthesizes his exhortation by calling his followers,
including us today, to be merciful in imitation of God, our Father (v. 36).
In
vv. 37-38, taken from the portion about “Judging Others,” Jesus shows the
correspondence between the conduct of his followers toward their fellows and
God’s conduct toward them. When we do not judge others, God also will not judge
us. We should not play the role of God by judging the salvation or damnation of
others. Instead, our role is to offer our brothers and sisters a second chance,
as God does to us. With “Give and gifts will be given to you,” Jesus means that
we, his followers, must first practice charity before God grants our requests. One
may say that this teaching of Jesus is absurd and impossible to live out.
However, the story of David and King Saul we heard in today’s first reading and
Paul’s exhortation in our second reading demonstrate that we, too, can live out
what our Gospel teaches us today.
Regarding
our first reading, Saul was a king when he had this conflict with David. He had
lost favor with God because he felt to carry out God’s command against the
Amalekites, one of the violent enemies of Israel. By God’s recommendation, Samuel
secretly anointed David to succeed him (1 Samuel 16:1-13). In the collection of
our first reading, we see Saul with his three thousand warriors pursuing David,
who had just six hundred men, to kill him. But God delivered Saul into David’s
hand. He put him asleep along with his soldiers. David came to where Saul was lying
asleep but did not harm him. David spares his enemy when he could easily kill
him with impunity. Note why David did not kill Saul: “Do not harm him, for who
can lay hands on the Lord’s anointed and remain unpunished?” Though a sinner,
Saul remains the anointed one and God’s creature. David shows us that it is also
possible for us to love our enemies, do good to them, bless them, and pray for
them. He teaches us that we cannot harm our enemies because they are created in
God’s image.
In
our second reading, Saint Paul gives another reason we should be merciful to
those who mistreat us. He compares Jesus with Adam in the book of Genesis.
According to Paul, Adam, who was from the earth, is our origin and model as
plain human beings; and Jesus, who is from heaven, is our origin and model as
baptized Christians. So, before our baptism, we have borne the image of the
earthly one. And after baptism, we bear the image of the heavenly one, Jesus
Christ. So, Saint Paul reminds us that we are in the likeness of Christ, and we
should constantly grow into it. Therefore, we must look at our enemies as
Christ does.
May
the liturgy of this Sunday transform us so that we might love our enemies, do
good to them, bless them, and pray for them. Amen.
Rev. Leon Ngandu, SVD
Pastor at Holy Family Catholic Church
in Jackson, MS &
SVD USS Biblical Apostolate
Coordinator
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