Jesus and Metanoia

Should your enemies be loved by you?

Background

In the last lesson, we learnt about Jesus' approach to teaching. He thought that teaching was not about making things easier for the students but harder, it wasn't about telling the people all the answers - because that wouldn't result in understanding -instead he thought they must work to find the answers themselves.

Here we will look at some of Jesus' more specific teachings about what it means to 'repent'.

A change of heart

As we heard last time, Jesus' message was summed up as follows:

Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand

—The Gospel of Matthew, 4:17

There are two key ideas in this message:

Repent

and

the Kingdom of Heaven (or God)

The word 'repent' means to feel or express sincere regret or remorse about one's wrongdoing or sin, but this doesn't quite get across what Jesus meant.

Originally, the four Gospels (the books written about Jesus’ life by his followers) were written in Ancient Greek. The word that is translated as ‘repent’ was μετανοειτε (metanoeite) which means something like ‘change your heart, change your way of looking at the world’.

Jesus the radical

Many of Jesus' teachings will seem utterly absurd to us today. He seems to be telling us that we are worrying and caring about entirely the wrong things- that what we think is important is unimportant and that what seems silly to us is most precious.

Read the following and see what you think:

20 Looking at his disciples, he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,

for yours is the kingdom of God.

21 Blessed are you who hunger now,

for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now,

for you will laugh.

22 Blessed are you when people hate you,

when they exclude you and insult you

and reject your name as evil,

because of the Son of Man.

23 “Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, because great is your reward in heaven. For that is how their ancestors treated the prophets.

24 “But woe to you who are rich,

for you have already received your comfort.

25 Woe to you who are well fed now,

for you will go hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now,

for you will mourn and weep.

26 Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you,

for that is how their ancestors treated the false prophets.

Love for Enemies

27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

—Gospel of Luke, Chapter 6

Discussion

Do you think Jesus' instructions come across as sensible or crazy?

How can being poor be a blessing? How can being hated be a blessing? How can being rich be a curse?

If someone punches us on one cheek, should we let them punch us on the other?

Treasures in Heaven

19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy,[c] your whole body will be full of light. 23 But if your eyes are unhealthy,[d] your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.

Do Not Worry

25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[e]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Jesus seems to want to turn our understanding of life on its head. He seems to think we have got everything backwards:. Even life isn't the most important thing:

For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it.

—Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16

And who are the most important people? Probably not who you think '...But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.':

18 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. 5 And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.

—Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16

Tasks

Try to sum up Jesus' teaching in one paragraph.
What objections might people have to what he said?
Do you think Jesus was right? Are our value systems upside down?

#Axiology

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