Unconditional Living

I’ve been reading a great book lately, called The Politics of Jesus, by a theology professor named James Howard Yoder. Yoder, a pacifist who died in 1997, peels back the layers of generations of interpretation and dogma about Christ to try and recover a sense of some of Jesus’s original, radical message. It’s challenging stuff, and I recommend the book to you.

One part that jumped out at me is Yoder’s discussion of Matthew, Chapter 5 – the Sermon on the Mount, the part that starts with the Beatitudes and ends like this:

“You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Yoder points out that the admonition to be perfect has been a stumbling block for many readers. “Perfectionist preachers,” he says, “saw there the promise of an accessible sinlessness; mainstream ethicists turned it around as the proof that the [Sermon on the Mount]’s intent is not at all to be obeyed, but to prepare people for grace by crushing them under the demand of unattainable Godlikeness”.

But reading more carefully, Yoder says, “The parallel [verses] in Matthew and Luke make it clear that ‘perfect’ here means ‘indiscriminate’ or ‘unconditional’ – a quite conceivable, even attainable imperative.”

When I read that, it occurred to me that what this verse is expressing is not the edict that you should “be perfect like God is perfect”, but rather something much closer to “Let your love be unconditional as your heavenly Father’s love is unconditional.”

That is a powerful message for me to internalize, as a father, a husband, a coworker, and a Congregationalist. What conditions am I putting on love?

Am I raising my kids to know that my love for them isn’t dependent on their success, or (gulp) compliance? Have I assured my spouse that she really can do nothing to earn – or lose – my love for her? Do I truly bear nothing but goodwill in my heart-of-hearts for my colleagues (or rivals) in the workplace? Am I helping to build a church that welcomes and embraces all God’s children, no matter where they are on life’s journey?