Love even your worst enemy

I just pictured a scenario which made me consider the function of mercy in the absence of sin, and in the presence of good deeds. Jesus has the power to forgive sins on earth (specifically he said the Son of Man, perhaps speaking of more than one here, as with "The Lord of the Sabbath", etc)

Matthew 9:6

"'But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.' So he said to the paralyzed man, 'Get up, take your mat and go home.'"

Mercy is the willing adjustment of the result of a judgement to the benefit of the one judged. Perhaps the mechanism God spoke of in the Old Testament, that included a benefit or blessing if his people did not sin, in addition to layers of curses if they did sin, were meant to demonstrate this mercy is valid, as a function of adjustment, even in the absence of sin.

Deuteronomy 28:1-2

"If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:"

I just pictured the unexpected ending, where the stakes are extraordinarily high, and so is the price of sin. I pictured the beast standing accused, to be punished for every soul led astray and stolen, but zero were found. In this version of reality arrangements were carefully made to ensure none had worshiped the beast. The mercy that was intended for Jesus' enemy, but had not been spoken, was still in place, however, and what would have lessened the blow of sin instead started to amplify blessings to the same extreme degree. People all over claimed this ending was absurd, but there was no fault to be found within The Phoenix, and the innocent would not be judged, despite reputation. So mercy compounded with the good done in secret, as intended, but with no sin on the scale to weigh against blessings spiraled out of control, seemingly functionally infinite in nature. I heard a voice with a smile "This is not an accident, this is not a glitch. This was the critical hit of a path through this minefield. The ending that has pulled through the new beginning as intended. Blessings will continue until they become almost too much to bear, and then they will cease... until more are requested. For I desire mercy, not sacrifice."

It is strange to see such things, so off the beaten path, so contradictory to what the church teaches, and to consider their possibility honestly. Then I consider the context for Jesus' message in his day and how it flew in the face of what the religious leaders at that time taught and believed. They even killed him despite having no basis to accuse him within the book they claimed to have based their beliefs off of. Not only that, but his message was in line with this one I saw: unexpected mercy, deeper than we can imagine, true unconditional love. He indicated that, despite everything that seemed so certain in the law and was held to so stubbornly in his day, love would win in the end. 

He even let people know that there would be those unhappy with the ending, demanding what they considered to be justice, a justice that would condemn them just as easily- as none here are without sin- and even condemn them intrinsically based on their position of hating enough to demand torment based on sin. Jesus' parables were not just meant for his immediate audience, but were also designed to echo throughout this timeline and resonate either now or on that day of judgement, for readers in these final days, readers who would find themselves in the position of the brother of the prodigal son. So I speak of what I saw, shouting it from these rooftops as I have done with everything else, finding hope within its message, and finding no contradiction within the words or spirit of Jesus' message.

If you read the Bible cover to cover, you will notice a lot of repetition. This is not an accident; this is not a failure to compare notes by those who penned the words. It is not just the record of events that repeat, but the events themselves that repeat. Time and time again man sins and God disciplines; man fails and God rescues. Even many of the details seem to repeat. While I think this is meant to demonstrate that God is trying to communicate through faithful consistency, the main purpose here seems not to be to communicate the past, but to communicate the nature of the future, in advance of events unfolding. The story repeats, even with Jesus. Jewish scholars at the time expected a king to come in unrivaled power and crush his and their enemies, and they received a king who loved even his enemies. Christian scholars now expect a king to come in unrivaled power and crush his and our enemies, and they will receive, in faithful consistency, a king who loves even his enemies. It will make sense, it will all reconcile with what has been known since the beginning. The question is will it be accepted, or will there still be those that stand outside the city, jealous of undeserved mercy, angry at inconceivable, measureless love, love which was conveyed from the beginning through to the end of this timeline, and has echoed predictably in the quiet recesses to a building crescendo?

Love your enemy.