Rev. Chip Roberston | Click/tap here to view the Sermon Reflection Guide.

Have you ever seen the picture of the three monkeys sitting together—one with his hands over his eyes, another covering his mouth, and the third with both hands over his ears? The familiar idea is simple: See no evil. Say no evil. Hear no evil. In other words, if we don’t look at it, talk about it, or listen to it, maybe we can pretend it isn’t really there. 

But Jesus gives us a different way to respond. Don’t pretend evil isn’t there. Face it. Resist it. And then choose how you will respond to it. Jesus doesn’t call us to ignore evil; neither does he call us to answer evil with more evil. Instead, he points us toward a different kind of response: agape love.

If you have been around the church for a while, you have probably heard the word agape. It describes a self-giving, intentional kind of love—a love that seeks the good of another person, even when that love is difficult. Agape love is more than a feeling. It is a choice to act in a way that reflects God’s love. 

We have been loved by God with a love we did not earn and could never repay. And because we have received that love, we are called to carry it with us into difficult places. When someone hurts us, we have a choice about what we will allow that hurt to produce in us. Will it produce anger? Will it produce revenge? Will it produce another wound?

Or can we allow the love of Christ to produce something different? We do not ignore evil. We resist it. But we resist it with love. That is the way of Jesus: not pretending that evil is absent, but refusing to let evil have the final word.