Willimon continues with the "Gospel of Salvation."
"And if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you" (Matt 5:40-42). Note that Jesus has not defined love as bringing out the best in other people, or love as making the world a better place in which to live, nor is love something that comes naturally from good people like us. Love is more demanding than a pagan virtue like justice. Jesus' love is what Jesus commands, something enabled by who he is. He expended everything. He laid down his life for a bunch of stupid, wayward sheep, friends who were also his betrayers.
Earlier Willimon comments about the Jesus saying, "Go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor." He says it was "a ridiculously extravagant demand, except this is exactly what Jesus himself was soon to do on the cross." Giving up ones life for the welfare of the other - no greater love is there than this. We can have our ethical virtues in line but then there is the necessary way of love that will not let go anyone for any reason - even if it is so absurd it will be thrown out and ignored for something more in line with the way we think and live. We are invited into this kind of an adventure for life. The church rarely goes there...but it is the way into which we are being invited and pulled by this Spirit that will abide with us even when we turn our back and become more and more self-consumed.
Connection: We need not judge one another. We are only to invite one another to follow this loving way of Jesus and then hold hands as we walk together into the mess of things.
For us, O God, you have acted again. There is no day and no time in which you turn and walk away. Instead, your love wraps us up and continues to shape our loving and living. Amen.
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