Summary: Living by the Golden Rule would bless others who treat us well, but it does not address those who treat us poorly. Christ calls us to offer generosity and grace to others, regardless of what we have received from them.
A cautionary story is making the rounds among preachers. A pastor stood to proclaim the words we heard from today's Gospel lesson, only to be bushwhacked after the service by a listener. He had tried valiantly to discuss Jesus' teaching to turn the other cheek, pray for those who curse us and love our enemies. However, an irate woman confronted him at the sanctuary door. "I want you to know," she said, "that I don't agree with a word you said this morning."
"You don't?"
"No, I don't," she said. "The way I see it, you were complicating the teachings of Jesus."
"Was I?"
"Yes, you were," she said. "If we want to follow Jesus, we have to do to others as we would have them do to us. That is the essence of what Jesus taught us. As far as I'm concerned, there is nothing better than the Golden Rule." With that, she whirled around and stomped away.
She was not the first to sum up the implications of faith with the Golden Rule. About 20 years before the birth of Jesus, the two most prominent Jewish rabbis were named Shammai and Hillel. One day, a Gentile approached the two of them with this challenge: "I challenge you to summarize the teachings of your religion while standing upon one foot."
Shammai dismissed him with the words, "You don't know what you are asking."
The questioner looked at Hillel and gave the challenge again. Hillel stood upon one foot and said, "Whatever is hateful to you, do not do to another. That is the whole law, and all else is commentary."1
There is nothing new in Hillel's teaching. The Golden Rule has been around for centuries in one form or another. Jesus did not invent it; he borrowed it from the best ethical traditions of the known world. Confucius taught the Golden Rule in China. Epictetus taught the Golden Rule in ancient Greece. It was standard teaching, a distillation of the deepest human wisdom. Many problems could be solved if we would treat others as we wish to be treated.
As all of us know, we are living through angry and divisive times. Complaints are in the air. Talk-back segments on the local television station are poisoned with grumbling. Vendettas are plotted. Our nation would be a kinder country if folks would speak to others in the manner they'd like others to speak to them. Acting with decency would transform this tired world into a much nicer place.
What is so enduring about the Golden Rule is that it is reciprocal. The rule keeps us within a relationship with somebody else. It presumes we live in community. Whatever we want done, we do it for somebody else. We treat others as we wish to be treated. Living by the Golden Rule means we take other people seriously, particularly in their point of need.
There is a story about a rabbi who was approached by one of his students. The student said, "Rabbi, I love you."
The rabbi said, "Oh really? Do you know what troubles me most?"
The student said, "No, I don't know what troubles you the most."
The rabbi said, "How can you say that you love me if you don't know what troubles me most?"
To take the Golden Rule seriously is to take one another seriously. We share someone's burdens because we know what it is like to carry a burden. We listen because we know how it feels to be ignored. Like the Good Samaritan, we reach out to others because we know what it is like for somebody to pass us by. That is what the Golden Rule is all about. We walk in somebody else's shoes. We live as if we have everything in common. Wouldn't it be great if we could live by the Golden Rule?
And yet, who can do it perfectly? Occasionally, maybe, but not all the time. Some might believe the Golden Rule summarizes the teachings that come immediately before it in today's passage. That is, love your enemies because you want your enemies to love you. Do good to those who hate you for you wish their hate to be transformed. Bless those who curse you as a move to cancel all cursing.
Of course, there is no automatic connection. If we love our enemies, there is no assurance our enemies will be kind to us. What is missing in the Golden Rule is a means to manage those occasions when the community breaks down, when people cease to take one another seriously or when people call up the newspaper and leave anonymous complaints without taking any responsibility. A good deed for others gives no assurance that others will be good to you. That is the limit of the Golden Rule.
The Christian life pushes us to go even further. Christ's call is not merely to be kind to people who are already kind to us, but to love our enemies too. It is easy to be nice to nice people. The challenge is to act graciously when others lash out at us, or to act with kindness to those who are ungrateful and wicked.
Our model is what God has done in the face of our misbehavior. God has loved his enemies. God has been good to those who hate him. God has blessed those who curse him. God has been kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. We have seen it on the cross of Jesus. Someone struck Jesus on the cheek, and his other cheek was available. Someone took away his coat, and he did not withhold his shirt. Someone took away all his goods, and Jesus did not ask for them again. This is what God is like, particularly toward those who do not do to others as they wish it done unto them.
Without the cross, the Golden Rule is merely a Silver Suggestion or a Platinum Platitude. Without the revelation of God in the death of Jesus, we are captive to our own advice. If Jesus came to merely teach people what they already know, then he could have ignored the cross, lived to a ripe old age and sold self-help books. But that is not what happened. Jesus died at the hands of his enemies. He, in turn, forgave them.2 He extended the mercy of God to all of us, in the end that we might become merciful. Isn't this a more excellent way to live?
A number of years ago, The New York Times Magazine told the story of Nicholas Gage (not to be confused with Nicolas Cage, the actor) and his mother Eleni. Eleni was a Greek peasant who smuggled her son out of the village before he could be "re-educated" by the communist party. As a result, she was tortured and murdered on August 28, 1948.
Thirty-two years later, her son quit his job as a reporter for the New York Times. He devoted his time and money to finding his mother's killer. He sifted through government cover-ups and false leads. Eventually he found the person who ordered Eleni's death. His name was Katis.
In a moving account, he tells of going up the path to a seaside cottage, where he sees Katis, fast asleep. He pondered his revenge for the man who had killed his mother. Yet Gage remembered how his mother had not spent the last moments cursing her tormentors. Rather, she faced death with courage because she had done her duty to those she loved. "I could have killed Katis," he confessed. He added:
It would have given me relief from the pain that had filled me for so many years. But as much as I want that satisfaction, I have learned that I can't do it. My mother's love, the primary impulse of her life, still binds us together, often surrounding me like a tangible presence. Summoning the hate to kill my enemy would have severed that bridge connecting us. It would have destroyed the part of me that is most like my mother.3
Gage prowled all over Greece, looking to treat somebody else as he felt his mother had been treated. He spent his money to give the enemy a taste of his own medicine. Instead, he was interrupted by love, a mother's love that made sacrifices for him, a love that was not withheld even in the face of death, a love like the love of Christ on the cross.
When we love one another like this, we show ourselves to be children of the Most High God. The promise of the Gospel is that God is kind to the ungrateful, the wicked and the selfish. We have heard it said, "Do to others as you would have them do unto you." But the Gospel says, Do to others as God has done unto you.
Yes, there is something better than the Golden Rule and it is the marvelous love of God. Love is one trait that marks a church full of God's children. Around here, you might say there is a striking family resemblance.