Passing On That Which We Have Received
The mission of Emmaus Road Church is to make and multiply disciples. “Making” and “multiplying” inevitably entails “deploying.” And the aim of deploying disciples, who have been made and multiplied, is passing on that which we have received.
Luke 6:27–36 contains some of Jesus’ first and, therefore, most significant teaching after calling together an initial group of disciples. In Luke 6:12–16 Jesus sets apart the twelve. Then in 6:17–19, Luke records what the first Core Seminar in Discipleship 101 looked like. The twelve are “shadowing” Jesus as he engages people. He preaches. He heals. He casts out unclean spirits. This is what it essentially looks like to be “on mission.”
Then Luke records Jesus’ initial teaching. And notice the distinct accent of its content. Luke 6:20–23—“Blessed” are the poor, and the hungry, and those who weep, and you—WHEN PEOPLE HATE YOU. Verses 24–26—“Woe” to you when everything is going great, and people SPEAK WELL OF YOU. There’s an interesting perspective. But do you notice an emerging theme? It comes into greater focus in verses 27–36—“Love your ENEMIES, and those who HATE you, and those who CURSE you, and those who ABUSE you, and those who TAKE from you, and are UNGRATEFUL and EVIL.”
This introduction to joining Jesus on mission is very instructive to people who are involved in making disciples and establishing gospel communities. In the process of trying to reach the lost, you can offend the lost. That is, you will engage their “lost-ness”, their sinfulness. And as you do, you may—and eventually will—set off “land mines.” People will be offended because of you. And you will be offended because of people. And Jesus is getting these cards out on the table right off the bat.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise. As he moved out on mission, Jesus called to himself hardened, weathered fisherman. He called to himself folks who were demon-possessed—folks who were socially unacceptable. The people with whom Jesus engaged as potential disciples were characters, and crooks, and folks that drank too much. The one thing they ALL had in common? They were ALL sinners. And when you engage with the sinfulness of sinners—whether it is before a sinner responds to the call to follow Christ, or whether it is after a sinner responds to the call to follow Christ—BRACE YOURSELF. You WILL get hurt! If you relate to people, eventually and inevitably you WILL GET HURT. In the words of Bilbo Baggins, “It’s a dangerous thing stepping outside your door.” And that’s why Jesus addresses people on mission, “I say to you who hear . . . Love your enemies, and . . . Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” In other words, how we relate to people when they sin reveals how well we comprehend and appropriate the gospel.
Take a closer look at Luke 6:27–36. There are two main commands in this passage, and they explain and define one another. In verse 27 Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” He repeats that command in verse 35 and then adds, in verse 36, “Be merciful, even as your (heavenly) Father is merciful.” So, what does it mean to love your enemies? Show mercy to them in the same way your heavenly Father has shown mercy to you. What does it mean to show mercy to others like your heavenly Father has shown mercy to you? Love your enemies.
This is not some abstract concept. God the Father, actually and factually, has shown mercy to his enemies. Look again at verses 27–30.
“But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods do not demand them back.”
—Luke 6:27–30
If you’re familiar with the story line of the gospel, can you think of a scene where the demonstration of mercy described in vv. 27–30 is played out? Where? In the death of Jesus. All the mercies of Luke 6:27–36 have been displayed in Jesus. At the cross, Jesus was hated. Jesus was cursed. Jesus was abused. Jesus was struck in the face. His clothes were taken. He was robbed. And he responded by doing good, and he blessed, and he interceded. All he ever did was give. He gave it all. He gave his life.
The cross of Christ represents the crown jewel of all God’s attributes—MERCY. Every attribute of God finds its dazzling summation in the cross. Before we were Christians, we weren’t neutral or ambivalent toward God. We were against God. We were his enemies, slaves to sin, willing partners with the devil, and destined for wrath. But God did NOT treat us as our sins deserve. Instead, God chose to respond to us, his enemies, in love, in mercy. The cross makes mercy real to us. At the cross, kindness meets painful action with love. At the cross, love meets offense with mercy. And now we stand before God as people who have been shown mercy.
But Jesus’ disciple-making mission involved more than displaying and expressing God’s mercy. His mission included deploying his disciples to be merciful as God, in and through Christ Jesus, has been merciful to us. Jesus calls us to follow him on mission. And the call of Luke 6:27–36 is NOT simply an invitation from our gentle teacher to be kind, and do good, and be nice. Being merciful is the claim and the aim and the purpose of the mission of our sovereign Christ. It is a call to transformed lives, by responding to sin in other people’s lives the way God responded to us, through Christ, in our sin. Therefore, to the degree that we are arrested and affected by the mercy of God, we will pursue, and bear with, and love sinners.
In a church devoted to gospel community, we come together as a group of sinners. There’s no other way. It is what it is. It is who we are. And sooner or later, you will feel that people are sinning against you—and they don’t even know it. And sooner or later, people will be sinning against you—and they do know it. And if we reduce the aim and purpose of our mission to simply gathering a group of people, then when sin surfaces, and it will surface, the offenses and hurts which we will feel, will only be seen as disheartening problems to manage, and destructive obstacles to avoid.
But when the primary aim and end of mission is to love our enemies and be merciful, as our heavenly Father is merciful, then gospel community becomes the stage on which we display the way God has shown mercy to us.
The real heart of the mission to which Jesus has called us is the tender, loving care of other/fellow sinners. And how we relate to others when they sin reveals our true grasp of the gospel. We call this “gospel fluency.” Gospel fluency is NOT simply the mental mastery of getting the facts right. It is a functional matter about a way of relating to sin in one another’s lives that is meant to set us apart from the world and testify to the reality of the active presence and power of God at work in our lives. In Luke 6:32–34, Jesus says,
“If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to get back the same amount.”
—Luke 6:32–34
If that’s all the love you’ve got, you’re no different than the rest of the world. Unregenerate sinners can do that. And some unregenerate sinners can do that really well.
But the call of Jesus, the command of Jesus, the mission of Jesus is to be merciful, even as our heavenly Father is merciful. So, think of those who curse you, those who oppose you, those don’t like you, those who make false judgments about you—and love them. And call them to be “church” with you.
Passing along God’s mercy, the mercy he shown to us, is the main reason Jesus calls people to follow him. Passing along God’s mercy, the mercy he has shown to us, is the main reason Jesus calls us on mission. Passing along God’s mercy, the mercy he has shown to us, is the main Emmaus Road Church exits.