It's Not Fair
Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Luke 6:35-36.
It is a familiar scene among children at play. All is well until something turns into some kind of disagreement. The disagreement turns into a scuffle. The scuffle turns into tears, and one or the other calls out to some person in authority. “She hit me,” cries one. “He started it,” responds the other. And back and forth the rationale of retaliation goes.
This reasoning, not by any means limited to children, suggests that fairness means that what is done to one must be done to another. In today’s passage, Jesus shows us a new kind of fairness, and thereby a new kind of love. It is love not rooted in the value of what you get; instead, it is love that expects nothing in return. It is God-love. It is love made flesh in Jesus. This Jesus-enfleshed love makes God’s mercies new every morning for us. It does not repay our sin in kind but with the life of Jesus, poured out to love each of us into a new creation—once and forever.
God of love, Who showers us with mercy thank You for making each of us new today, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Inspired by a Christ In Our Home Devotion