Luke 6: ²⁷ (Jesus said) “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. ²⁹ If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. ³⁰ Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. ³¹ Do to others as you would have them do to you. ³² “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. ³³ If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. ³⁴ If you lend to those from whom you hope to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, to receive as much again. ³⁵ But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. ³⁶ Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 

This is such a challenging passage, particularly the part that reads, “Give to everyone who begs from you…”. Anyone besides me every feel awkward at a street light where a person is asking for money? My response to such persons has varied over the years. Sometimes I’ve been as generous as I could be. Other times I’ve told myself I’m probably just putting money into the hands of someone who is likely to use that money in sub-optimal ways. I’ve given food instead of money when I was prepared to do so. I’m sure there are other examples, but my point is that I haven’t been consistent in my practice.

Jesus offers a simple, focused direction here. Give to EVERYONE who begs from you. Everyone. There’s a part of me that rebels against this. If I’m giving money to someone who’s going to use that money to buy alcohol or drugs or whatever, aren’t I part of the problem? The obvious, logical answer is “yes”. I am enabling addictive behavior. But the sense I get from our passage for today is the command to give to those in need – and leave it to the Lord to deal with the rest. The situation is not mine to control. My job is to give when I have the ability to do so. That’s it.

Lord I have to admit this command still doesn’t quite sit right with me. I don’t want to enable addictive behavior if I can avoid it. But of course, in most cases, I have no way of knowing what a person will do with what I give them. I gather from this passage that I don’t need to worry about that, but simply to obey. Lord give me grace to do so. Amen.