Fine, Be a Loser
Jesus’s words are cute and a nice ethic we can aspire to, but the world tells us that in a world of winners and losers, we want to be on the side of the winners.
Do not let the softness of my beard and perfectly styled hair lead you to believe I am a pushover or lack enthusiasm for activities that have nothing to do with great hair. I am a competitive person.
Oh, you want to play a friendly game of two-hand-touch football?
Get ready for the thunder because this West Virginia Wesleyan College fall intermural fraternity league flag football champion will bring the pain.
I may not look intimidating. I may not have the physique of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, but when it is time to “Bring It,” it will be brought.
My whole family has this mentality, well, not all of them—just the winners. A few Thanksgiving and Christmas Day Monopoly games have led to arguments, allegations of cheating, and quite a few hurt feelings.
The world we live in has unambiguous definitions for winning and losing, and from what I can tell, those definitions will not be changing anytime soon. We celebrate winners and give a gentle nod to those labeled as “the losers.” While it is not polite to frown on losing, no one I know aspires to be a loser or adopts practices that lead to losing as the pre-determined outcome.
In our scripture reading, Jesus takes our definitions of winning, or being a winner by commonly held community standards, and flips those rules more sharply than my younger brother trying to change the rules while playing Monopoly on Christmas Day.
We are joining Jesus in the middle of the Sermon on the Plain. After a night of prayer and followed by choosing his twelve disciples, Jesus delivered this sermon containing guidance on living in the kingdom that broke into human history through Mary’s womb and forever changed the world with the empty tomb.
Before laying out the seemingly impossible task – loving your enemies for starters – Jesus offers four beatitudes, blessings, and four woes.
Blessed are the poor.
Blessed are the hungry.
Blessed are those who weep.
Blessed are you when you are hated.
Woe to the rich.
Woe to the full.
Woe to those who laugh or mock.
Woe to those who are falsely propped up.
Blessed are you, the one overlooked by the world.
Woe to you who cannot see beyond your pride and self-interest.
Blessed are you, the one deemed a loser by the standards of the world.
And woe to you who insist on those standards being kept.
In this flip, Jesus declares a new way of living and being. Jesus is not offering a list of character qualities for us to aspire toward. No, Jesus’ opening words in the Sermon on the Plain create a new list of contrasts between the kingdom of Caesar and the Kingdom of God with the implications of Jesus’ flip detailed in our scripture reading.
Love your enemies. No thanks. I can barely love my neighbors.
Bless those who curse you. I would rather pass. They can have their blessing when they stop their cursing.
Pray for those who abuse you. Maybe next week, Jesus.
Do to others as you would have them do to you. How about doing to others as they have done to me.
These tongue-in-cheek responses better match the game we all have been playing since birth. This is a game where getting even, settling the score, are preferred norms. Instead of being merciful just as God is merciful, we trick, deceive, and get even. And if we do not do those actions, someone will surely, do it to us.
Jesus’s words are cute and a nice ethic we can aspire to, but the world tells us that in a world of winners and losers, we want to be on the side of the winners.
In 1991, Ted Turner, described on his Wikipedia page as an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and philanthropist, said, “Christianity is for losers.” Turner would later apologize for the comment because when you are an entrepreneur, television producer, and media proprietor, alienating a significant segment of the population is bad for business.
“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you… love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.”[1]
By the standards of the world, when Jesus said what he said, Turner is right.
By the standards of the world today, Turner is right.
We cannot win the game the world insists we play because, as Bishop Will Willimon puts it, “you have not won anything because everybody plays this game of tit-for-tat retribution; and because everybody plays it well, everybody wins, so nobody wins.”[2]
The world wants us to play a game where there are more losers than winners and even winners who are losers in the end.
Jesus is inviting us to play a new game, a new way of living, a new way of being in a relationship with one another. Jesus’ invitation is to a new relationship, a restored relationship with God.
What is the name of this game? “… love your enemies, do good, lend, expecting nothing in return… and you will be children of the Most High, for God is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as God is merciful.”[3]
This is a way of living that sets aside the need to play games.
A way of living where forgiveness – for them and you – abounds.
Where grace is amazing and also offensive – amazing that is for us and offensive that is also just as much for them.
A life where our preconceived notions are flipped because the rules under which we operate are not devised based on what I or even what the other person wants or deserves. Instead, this is the invitation Jesus is extending to a life where the basis for everything is rooted in God.
And who is God?
God is, as Jesus notes in verse 36, merciful.
God is a father welcoming the prodigal home.
God is a shepherd who will leave the 99 behind in search of the one that is lost.
God is the One who extended forgiveness as he was nailed to the cross and the One who continues to forgive.
God is the One who takes your “deepest sins and your shameful secrets,”[4] marking them as irrelevant, then extending an invitation to a new way of living, a new life.
God has invited us to a seemingly impossible game, which is to play absolutely no games. Love your enemies, do good, lend, expecting nothing in return sounds difficult but God has not left us to do this on our own. Jesus is setting us up for failure so we will drop to our knees knowing under these rules we have no hope apart from a savior doing the law for us – loving his enemies, doing good, lending his life, expecting nothing in return.
Jesus’ invitation is for us to set the games aside and live a life of losing in the best way possible.
