A Recipe From Heaven

By Ken Woodley

If today’s Gospel reading were an earthly recipe, I would have had the ingredients all over me many times, all over the floor, the ceiling and all over Kim if she happened to be walking through the kitchen. 

Despite my best efforts, I’ve often made a mess of them.

But this is no recipe found in the pages of a cookbook. It’s a recipe from  heaven given to us by Jesus.

“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 even withhold your shirt.”

Those words are so easy for me to read aloud but so very hard to put into practice in my daily life.

As with many holy recipes, this one can be hard to swallow, especially when I’m wrestling with a fresh hurt, or an old familiar wound.

Jesus doesn’t even recommend any particular amount for most of the ingredients. 

We don’t know whether it’s two pounds of lean cut love for our enemies.

Maybe a cup of goodness to those who hate us?

Perhaps a quarter cup of blessing for those who curse us?

Possibly two tablespoons of praying for those who abuse us?

Who knows?

The only time Jesus gives us specific directions about quantity is that we’re to offer our entire other cheek to those who smack us in the face and the complete shirt off our back to anyone who steals our coat.

It would take a five-star restaurant chef to make anything out of this recipe worth serving.

Except, Jesus isn’t talking to a convention of celebrity chefs with their own television series.

Jesus is talking to a large crowd of his disciples, as well as a great number of people from all over Judea who had come to hear him and be healed.

And, of course, Jesus is also talking to us.

At first glance, it may initially appear that Jesus is more concerned with those who are harming us physically and emotionally. As if he’s letting them off the hook and putting a great burden on us.

But, with Jesus, merely glancing at his words is like quickly turning our backs on a masterpiece.

We’ve always got to go deeper.

We’ve got to loosen up and stretch our spiritual selves because, as is so often the case, Jesus is encouraging us to practice spiritual gymnastics because he’s turning everything upside down and inside out again, as he always seems to do. Blessed are those who mourn, for example.

This time it’s:

Love the haters.

Pray for the abusers.

How challenging were his words then? Just as challenging as they are today. And will be a thousand years from now.

The haters and abusers seemed to be winning everywhere in Jesus’s day, just has hatred and abuse seem too often triumphant in the world today.

So, Jesus, are you asking us to help them?

The answer is Yes.

And No.

Jesus does want us to help them.

But he doesn’t want us to help them hate or abuse or steal. I don’t think Jesus is trying to enhance the wardrobe of coat-stealers or train cheek slappers to become mixed martial arts experts.

Jesus wants us to help them stop hating and start loving.

He wants us to help them stop abusing and start loving.

Jesus wants us to help them stop hitting and start loving.

But not by hating, abusing or hitting them back.

Not even Superman or Wonder Woman could put out a fire by pouring gasoline on the flames.

Trying to extinguish even a single flame in our homes with gasoline would produce an inferno that would burn the whole house down.

So why try and defeat hatred with more hate?

Love would have no chance. Only ashes would remain.

The only victor in a battle of hatred versus hatred would be hatred. And hatred would emerge far stronger than it was before the fight began.

Nobody can defeat darkness by trying to overcome it with more darkness.

The result would be a deeper, darker darkness.

The peace and love of God that we all wish we’d feel more often throughout the day—if only the world would stop bruising us—finds room in our hearts and souls when we turn on our light to drive darkness away.

Loving those who hate us and praying for those who abuse us—turning our physical and emotional cheeks—makes us stronger spiritually and gives us power over the pain that others inflict. We cease to feel like victims. 

Anger is a difficult companion—a weed that quickly consumes every flower in the garden and plants the seeds of hatred.

Hatred then wraps the heart in a heavy chain and in the darkness it is impossible to find the key.

Forgiveness, on the other hand, is our soul’s best friend.

And love is our guardian angel.

They are the water with which we put out the fires in our lives and in the world around us.

They are the light that drives the darkness away.

That’s why Jesus gave us the recipe.

Yes, following this recipe may not stop all, or any, of the haters and abusers. But the one thing it will most certainly do is save us from becoming one of them, sparing us from spreading darkness into our own communities, homes and the lives of those closest to us.

There’s a reason Jesus didn’t give us any specific measurements for this  recipe of spiritual gymnastics.

The amounts of each ingredient will vary person to person, depending upon the individual situation we are responding to and degree of difficulty in turning the other cheek, or responding to hatred with love.

A pound, a quart, a cup or a tablespoon, wherever we are able to begin, is the right amount of any of these ingredients because it is, at that moment, all we have to give. The amounts will vary but the essential spiritual recipe remains the same. Today a teaspoon, but tomorrow may find us able to give much more.

And besides, Jesus knew that any amount—even just a pinch of true, deep love at the right time, and in the right place, can stand us on our head so we can see things right side up.

Not as they always are.

But as they are always meant to be.

One more person, one more part of the world, seeing its true self through the eyes of Christ.

The kingdom of heaven so near.

All lit up with our light and our love.

                                               AMEN

By Ken Woodley

If today’s Gospel reading were an earthly recipe, I would have had the ingredients all over me many times, all over the floor, the ceiling and all over Kim if she happened to be walking through the kitchen.
Despite my best efforts, I’ve often made a mess of them.

But this is no recipe found in the pages of a cookbook. It’s a recipe from heaven given to us by Jesus.

“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 even withhold your shirt.”

Those words are so easy for me to read aloud but so very hard to put into practice in my daily life.
As with many holy recipes, this one can be hard to swallow, especially when I’m wrestling with a fresh hurt, or an old familiar wound.
Jesus doesn’t even recommend any particular amount for most of the ingredients.

We don’t know whether it’s two pounds of lean cut love for our enemies.
Maybe a cup of goodness to those who hate us?
Perhaps a quarter cup of blessing for those who curse us?
Possibly two tablespoons of praying for those who abuse us?
Who knows?

The only time Jesus gives us specific directions about quantity is that we’re to offer our entire other cheek to those who smack us in the face and the complete shirt off our back to anyone who steals our coat.

It would take a five-star restaurant chef to make anything out of this recipe worth serving.
Except, Jesus isn’t talking to a convention of celebrity chefs with their own television series.

Jesus is talking to a large crowd of his disciples, as well as a great number of people from all over Judea who had come to hear him and be healed.

And, of course, Jesus is also talking to us.

At first glance, it may initially appear that Jesus is more concerned with those who are harming us physically and emotionally. As if he’s letting them off the hook and putting a great burden on us.
But, with Jesus, merely glancing at his words is like quickly turning our backs on a masterpiece.

We’ve always got to go deeper.
We’ve got to loosen up and stretch our spiritual selves because, as is so often the case, Jesus is encouraging us to practice spiritual gymnastics because he’s turning everything upside down and inside out again, as he always seems to do. Blessed are those who mourn, for example.

This time it’s:
Love the haters.
Pray for the abusers.

How challenging were his words then? Just as challenging as they are today. And will be a thousand years from now.
The haters and abusers seemed to be winning everywhere in Jesus’s day, just has hatred and abuse seem too often triumphant in the world today.

So, Jesus, are you asking us to help them?

The answer is Yes.
And No.
Jesus does want us to help them.
But he doesn’t want us to help them hate or abuse or steal. I don’t think Jesus is trying to enhance the wardrobe of coat-stealers or train cheek slappers to become mixed martial arts experts.

Jesus wants us to help them stop hating and start loving.
He wants us to help them stop abusing and start loving.
Jesus wants us to help them stop hitting and start loving.
But not by hating, abusing or hitting them back.

Not even Superman or Wonder Woman could put out a fire by pouring gasoline on the flames.
Trying to extinguish even a single flame in our homes with gasoline would produce an inferno that would burn the whole house down.
So why try and defeat hatred with more hate?
Love would have no chance. Only ashes would remain.

The only victor in a battle of hatred versus hatred would be hatred. And hatred would emerge far stronger than it was before the fight began.
Nobody can defeat darkness by trying to overcome it with more darkness.
The result would be a deeper, darker darkness.

The peace and love of God that we all wish we’d feel more often throughout the day—if only the world would stop bruising us—finds room in our hearts and souls when we turn on our light to drive darkness away.

Loving those who hate us and praying for those who abuse us—turning our physical and emotional cheeks—makes us stronger spiritually and gives us power over the pain that others inflict. We cease to feel like victims.

Anger is a difficult companion—a weed that quickly consumes every flower in the garden and plants the seeds of hatred.
Hatred then wraps the heart in a heavy chain and in the darkness it is impossible to find the key.

Forgiveness, on the other hand, is our soul’s best friend.
And love is our guardian angel.
They are the water with which we put out the fires in our lives and in the world around us.
They are the light that drives the darkness away.
That’s why Jesus gave us the recipe.

Yes, following this recipe may not stop all, or any, of the haters and abusers. But the one thing it will most certainly do is save us from becoming one of them, sparing us from spreading darkness into our own communities, homes and the lives of those closest to us.

There’s a reason Jesus didn’t give us any specific measurements for this recipe of spiritual gymnastics.
The amounts of each ingredient will vary person to person, depending upon the individual situation we are responding to and degree of difficulty in turning the other cheek, or responding to hatred with love.

A pound, a quart, a cup or a tablespoon, wherever we are able to begin, is the right amount of any of these ingredients because it is, at that moment, all we have to give. The amounts will vary but the essential spiritual recipe remains the same. Today a teaspoon, but tomorrow may find us able to give much more.

And besides, Jesus knew that any amount—even just a pinch of true, deep love at the right time, and in the right place, can stand us on our head so we can see things right side up.
Not as they always are.
But as they are always meant to be.

One more person, one more part of the world, seeing its true self through the eyes of Christ.
The kingdom of heaven so near.
All lit up with our light and our love.