Sinners and Saints

Week three - Better Losers
Matthew 5:38-48 and Mark 4:14-19

Bottom line: When we live as people who have already won, we’re free to lose for the sake of someone else.

“Better Losers” - a deeply unnatural and uncomfortable and illogical thought for most
But also a concept deeply enmeshed in who we are and how we are called to live as followers of Jesus.

John Dickson, “Bullies and Saints” (highly recommend for an accessible immersion into Christian history)

First 300 years of Christianity (good losers who had already won)

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. —Matthew 5:38-48

Paul, Peter, et al - “to live is Christ, to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21)

Ignatius (martyred in Rome in 110) -
In his letter to Christians in Ephesus, he wrote:
“Pray continually for the rest of humankind as well, that they may find God, for there is in them hope of repentance. Therefore allow them to be instructed by you, at least by your deeds. In response to their anger, be gentle; in response to their boasts, be humble; in response to their slander, offer prayers; in response to their errors, be steadfast in the faith; in response to their cruelty, be civilized; do not be eager to imitate them. Let us show by our forbearance that we are their brothers and sisters, and let us be eager to be imitators of the Lord.”
Tertullian (AD 160-225) -
In his letter to the Roman governor, Scapula, he said:
“We are not in any great perturbation or alarm about the persecutions we suffer from the ignorance of men; for we have attached ourselves to this sect, fully accepting the terms of its covenant. …For our religion commands us to love even our enemies, and to pray for those who persecute us, aiming at a perfection all its own. For everyone loves those who love them; it is peculiar to Christians alone to love those that hate them.”

“The Great Persecution” (AD 303-312)

Lactantius - professor of rhetoric who was forced to resign his post and, while in hiding, wrote The Divine Institutes, explaining that “Christianity emphatically connects devotion to God with compassion toward humanity because human beings bear the imago Dei.”
He said, “If we have all been given the breath of life by one and the same God, we must all be brothers, and closer than brothers too, being brothers in spirit rather than in the flesh. …This sibling relationship is why God instructs us to do evil never and good always.”

Both the founding documents of Christianity (the New Testament) and the founding centuries of Christian history (AD 30-312) provide a clear portrait of what we might call ‘normative Christianity.’ A key aspect of that norm is the resolve to love even enemies because they, too, bear the image of God. …For the first three centuries Christians seemed like ‘good losers.’ They believed they had already received the greatest reward - God’s love through Christ’s death and resurrection. And they were sure that his story of suffering followed by vindication was also theirs. They would win - they had won - even when they lost. All that was required of them, as they waited for God’s kingdom, was prayer, service, persuasion, and endurance of hardship. —John Dickson, “Bullies and Saints”

So what happened???

Constantine makes Christianity popular and “powerful” (we can be the winners - now and later)
*There was now social and political advantage to being a Christian

Eventually winning now became far more desirable than winning later

14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. —Mark 4:14-19

We get confused about what matters most. We get confused about when to fight and how to fight, and when to give and sacrifice and lay down our lives for our friends.

When we live as people who have already won, we’re free to lose for the sake of someone else.

Jesus wins.
So it’s okay to lose.
Go and love your neighbor.