Luke 6: 27-30: Love your enemies! The words that Jesus addresses to these people are demanding and difficult: to love your enemies, not to curse them, to present the other cheek to anyone who slaps you on one cheek, and do not protest or complain when somebody takes what is yours. Taken literally, these commands seem to favor the rich who rob, but not even Jesus observes them literally. When the soldier struck Him on the face, He did not offer the other cheek but rather reacted firmly: “If there is some offense in what I said, point it out, but if not why do you strike Me?” (Jn 18: 22-23). Then, how are these words to be understood? The following verses help us to understand what Jesus wants to teach us.

Luke 6: 31-36: The Golden Rule! to imitate God. Two sayings of Jesus help us to understand what He wants to teach. The first saying is the so-called Golden Rule: “Treat others as you would like people to treat you!” (Lk 6: 31). The second saying is “Be merciful as your Father in Heaven is merciful!” (Lk 6: 36). These two directives indicate that Jesus does not want simply to change the situation, because nothing would change. He wants to change the system. The novelty which He wants to construct comes from the new experience of God the Father, full of tenderness who accepts all! The words of threat against the rich cannot be the occasion of revenge on the part of the poor! Jesus demands the contrary attitude: “Love your enemies!” Love cannot depend on what I receive from others. True love should want the good of others, independently of what he or she does for me. Love should be creative, because that is how God’s love is for us: “Be merciful, as your Heavenly Father is merciful!” Matthew says the same thing with other words: “Be perfect as your Father in Heaven is perfect” (Mt 5: 48). Never will anyone be able to say, “Today I have been perfect as the Father in Heaven is perfect! I have been merciful as the Father in Heaven is merciful.” We will always be below the measure which Jesus has placed before us.
In Luke’s Gospel, the Golden Rule says, “Treat others as you would like people to treat you!” (Lk 6: 31). Matthew, in his Gospel, gives a different formulation: “Treat others as you would like others to treat you.” And he adds, “That is the Law and the Prophets” (Mt 7, 12). Practically, all religions in the whole world have the same Golden Rule with a diverse formulation. This is a sign that a universal intuition or desire is expressed which comes from God and is part of our being in the image of God.

Luke 6: 37-38: “Do not judge and you will not be judged; do not condemn and you will not be condemned; forgive and you will be forgiven; give and there will be gifts for you; a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing, will be poured into your lap; because the standard you use will be the standard used for you.” These are four counsels: two in a negative form, do not judge and do not condemn; and two in positive form: to forgive and to give an abundant measure. When He says, “there will be gifts for you,” Jesus refers to the treatment which God wants to bestow on us. But when our way of treating others is mean, God cannot use with us the abundant and overflowing measure that He would want to use.

Celebrate the visit of God. The Discourse on the Plains or the Sermon on the Mount, from the beginning, leads the listeners to make a choice, to opt, in favor of the poor. In the Old Testament, several times, God placed before people this same choice, blessing or curse. People were given the freedom to choose: “Today I call heaven and earth to witness against you: I am offering you life or death, blessing or curse. Choose life, then, so that you and your descendants may live” (Deut 30: 19). It is not God who condemns, but the people themselves according to the choice that they make between life and death, good or evil. These moments of choosing are moments of the visit of God to His people (Gen 21: 1; 50: 24-25); Ex 3: 16; 32: 34; Jr 20: 10; Ps 65: 10; Ps 80: 15; Ps 106: 4). Luke is the only Evangelist who uses this image of the visit of God (Lk 1: 68, 78; 7: 16; 19: 44; Acts 15:1 6). For Luke it is the visit of God which places the choice between blessing or curse before people: “Blessed are you who are poor” and “Alas for you, the rich!” But people do not recognize the visit of God (Lk 19: 44).