LOVE your enemy? Are you kidding, Lord? These days?
Possible perhaps. But not likely. In fact, we would PREFER not
to. Especially when we see those TV images of the jetliners
barreling into the twin towers for the thousandth time, when we
see the rescue workers sifting through seven stories of rubble,
when we see the tear-stained faces of the wives and children of
courageous policemen and firefighters who gave their lives trying
to save people they had never met. It is hard to find anything
resembling love in our hearts for such barbarians as would have
caused such a thing.
Our leaders are using the language of war. The president
called the attack last week part of the first war of the 21st
century. This week he said, "This is a war not against a
specific individual, nor will it be a war against solely one
organization. It is a war against terrorist activities." The
banner across CNN's web page proclaims boldly AMERICA'S NEW WAR.
War, war, war!
Dr. Vernon Broyles, the associate director for social
justice and associate for corporate witness in the National
Ministries Division of our General Assembly Council wrote this
week, "We should all be grateful for the acknowledgment by
President Bush that 'we are at war,' and profit from the comments
of those who have described the attacks on the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon as 'another Pearl Harbor.'
"What is most important in those comments is not that we can
now justify a massive, sustained response against 'terrorism,'
but that we have the chance to understand that these acts have
been viewed by the perpetrators all along, not as acts of
'terrorism,' but as acts of 'war.' We have no chance of
responding successfully to our 'enemies,' whether our goal is
vengeance, or elimination, or peace, unless we understand them.
Osama bin Laden, and everyone of his ilk, whether they have come
before him or will come after him, have always seen themselves as
being engaged in 'war,' not 'terrorism'... We have seen numerous
video clips that show their training camps, which we describe as
training grounds for 'terrorists,' but they understand to be
military installations for the preparation of soldiers in their
'war.'"(1) WAR!!!
War means we are confronted by an enemy. OK. But now we
come into church less than two weeks after the heinous attack and
even before we have an accurate count of the dead and injured, we
are confronted by the words of Jesus: "You have heard that it was
said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you:
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." NUTS!
Truth is, at this moment we would rather have permission to bomb
the enemy back to the Stone Age, or at least some punishment that
would fit the crime, not this. LOVE your enemy? What does Jesus
mean?
To begin with, note that when Jesus said, "You have heard
that it was said...hate your enemies," he was not inferring that
this had been their previous religious instruction. Nowhere in
the Old Testament do we ever find that we are to hate our
enemies. In fact, what we run into is just the opposite. For
example, In Exodus 23, we read, "If you come across your enemy's
ox or donkey wandering off, be sure to take it back to him."(2) Or
Proverbs 25, "If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if
he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will
heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you."(3)
The lesson of the Old Testament is clear and consistent, and
nowhere is there any teaching about hating your enemy.
However, we should also note that, just because there is no
such instruction in scripture, that is no guarantee that good
religious people will not behave that way. There have always
been some folks, both in Jesus' time and in our own, who seem to
think that it is almost a sacred duty to hate anyone who is not
"one of us." The Essenes of the Qumran community, the people who
preserved the Dead Sea scrolls, were like that. They believed
that they were to "love all the children of light and hate all
the children of darkness."(4) Whether Jesus was thinking of them
when he brought this subject up we have no way of knowing, but
the point is that people (religious or not) DO think and act in
terms of hatred for their enemies, and Jesus says, "This ought
not to be."
All right, we can go along with that. Do not hate the
Afghanis or the guy down the street who kicked your dog or the
teenager in the back of your house who is driving you nuts or any
other enemy. Good advice. After all, everyone knows that hating
anyone does more harm to the one DOING the hating than the one
who is the OBJECT of that hate. It would be fine if that is what
Jesus said...but, of course, it is not. He did not say, "Do not
hate your enemy;" he said "Love your enemy," and there is a world
of difference there.
What could Jesus possibly have meant? Not romantic love, of
course, but agapé love - the kind of caring and concern we would
have for someone whose welfare was really important to us; it
means an UNCONQUERABLE BENEVOLENCE, an UNFAILING GOODWILL that
will exist no matter what, even in the midst of conflict.
How far should we take this "unconquerable benevolence?"
Does this mean that we are to condone evil? Does loving our
enemies mean that we can never confront them about what made us
enemies in the first place? Does this mean that we are to be
pacifists in the face of September 11th's horrible aggression?
Of course not. We are certainly NOT very loving, we are NOT
looking out for someone's highest and best good, if we let them
get away with anything they please, if we do not set limits.
If you have ever driven along a newly resurfaced road before
the center lines have been painted on it, you understand. Your
tendency is to drive right down the middle rather than down the
right hand side as would be normal once the lines are drawn. You
drive MORE COMFORTABLY once the limits are laid out. Parents who
really love their kids will let them know what the limits are
because the youngsters will live more comfortably once they are
firmly established. In terms of our enemies or potential
enemies, they too will end up in a better relationship with us
once they understand just what the limits are. Love, even for
enemies, will define the limits.
All right, we are to love our enemies. Our love is not the
kind that will just allow anything to go on, but will seek the
highest and best for them. But you must admit, that is a TALL
ORDER. How are we to go about it? Jesus gives a hint: PRAY for
them. That's right, PRAY FOR THEM. To be sure, that is NOT our
natural inclination. If there is someone we REALLY dislike,
someone we really HATE, we surely are not going to pray for them.
As a matter of fact, if their name ever comes up in our prayers,
it is generally in terms of some kind of violent death, or at
least painful injury. But Jesus does not say "pray ABOUT them,"
he says "Pray FOR them." And you know something? It works. You
just cannot hate someone for whom you are praying. Try it. You
will see.
Why? Jesus tells us in the next few verses. "That you may
be sons 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. If you love those who love you, what reward will
you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you
greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others?
Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your
heavenly Father is perfect." THAT is why Jesus wants us to
concern ourselves about this; he wants us to be God-like.
How does God treat enemies? Pretty strangely according to
the way most of us would think. We know very well that there are
people in this world who scoff at God and God's commands; they
have no compunction about the most heinous sin; they would never
consider darkening the door of a church. But what happens to
them? Not much that we can see. We think of some arch-criminals
and they seem to get along OK (MORE than OK)...big cars, fine
homes, lots of money... and we wonder why. We think it is not
fair. But apparently God does not worry much about transitory
things. God's blessings are available to all alike, at least in
THIS life. To be sure, there WILL come a day of judgment. But
that is not our worry. What Jesus is telling us is that, as far
as this world is concerned, our treatment of other people (even
enemies) is to be based on seeking the highest and best for
them...agapé...love...just exactly the way God does.
The Lord makes another point here. If we do NOT act that
way, what makes us any different from anyone else? If you only
love the people who love you back, big deal. Jesus says that
even the dregs of society are willing to respond with love for
love; God's people need to be ready with more than that, even to
the extent of responding with love for hate. If we cannot manage
more than love for love, what makes us different from the lowest
of the low? Nothing at all...nothing at all!
Then there is the question of being civil. He says if the
only people to whom we are willing to say Hello, if the only ones
to whom we are willing to extend the niceties of life, are those
in our own crowd, how are we any different from even the pagans?
The message is that God's people are to reach beyond just those
of their own crowd, and even to those whom they might think of as
enemies, in extending the common courtesies. We cannot be
content to act like everyone else in the world, even in the
matter of who gets a greeting from us and who does not. God's
people are to be different.
How different? Listen to what Jesus says: "Be perfect,
therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." PERFECT? That
is different, all right. Not "blameless" perfect, but perfect in
the way we would understand the phrase "a perfect stranger" or
"perfectly wonderful" or "perfectly awful" (depending on your
point of view). Jesus is saying simply this: when we have come
to the place in managing human relationships that we are able to
deal with our enemies in a caring and compassionate manner - the
Osama bin Ladens, the miserable neighbors, the ungrateful
children, even the one who promised to love, honor and cherish us
but seems to have forgotten about that now - when we can deal
with them with a heart of love, THEN we will have reached the
stage that the Lord would call a kind of DIVINE MATURITY. We
will be truly God-like with one another. THAT is what Jesus
means when he talks about being PERFECT.
So we return to the question with which we began: Love your
enemy? Are you kidding, Lord? No, but admittedly it is no easy
task. Many are tempted to give in to violence and have done some
truly horrible things in the aftermath of last week's attacks.
We see pictures of holy places of Muslim Americans violated. We
see the wounds of a Sikh grandfather, assaulted because his skin
was dark and someone objected to his headwear. We hear the story
of the elementary school child who is harassed because his
ancestors came from India, and his sister telling us she does not
understand, for she, too, is angry at those who have hurt us,
those who call us the Great Satan. At such a time it is good to
remember that the original American Dream was not a spouse, 2.5
children, a house, two cars and a dog. The original dream that
brought pilgrims to these shores was for a land where we would be
able to worship God as each might see fit without fear. The
Puritans at first - and now the Sikhs and the Muslims too.
"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." I
was intrigued at something that was posted on the internet the
other day by someone who identified himself as simply "Jonny."(5)
He wrote:
For some time now I have been considering what
would be the best response to WTC attack and now,
having just read that Afghanistan is in the grip of a
3-year famine and the UN estimates 5.5 million Afghans
will soon be starving, the answer has suddenly become
obvious.
America should send aid to Afghanistan on a scale
not seen since the Marshall plan. Against the will of
the Taliban, America should feed the starving, pour
food and materials into the country. Can you imagine
it? The response to the outrage is not an act of
revenge but an act of mercy. At a stroke, the entire,
predictable cycle of response/outrage/response/outrage
would be smothered at birth. It is so bizarre, so
unexpected, and yet it would be so very effective.
Think about it...What sweet revenge it would be to
see the people scrambling for American food in the dust
created by their Taliban masters! What subtle revenge
to see in the eyes of those peasants, not the easy
hatred inspired by war but the uneasy question: "Can it
really be Satan that feeds the starving?" We could
smile to hear the Taliban, Iran, et. al. try to summon
contempt for this ludicrously unjustified act of Love.
We could out-righteous the masters of righteousness and
smile benignly as their followers deserted them so they
could feed their children. This IS a religious war
after all, so let us fight them with the weapons we
have: If ever the Christian message...had strategic
relevance, it is now.
LOVE your enemy? Are you kidding, Lord? No. Jesus says,
"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." As
William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, said, "The only way a
Christian has of getting rid of his enemies is to love them into
being his friends." That may seem preposterous, ill-timed and
unrealistic right now. But, you know, it just might work. And
on top of that, this IS the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God!
Amen!
1. Vernon Broyles, "'War,' 'Terrorism' and the Search for Peace," Presbyterian News
Service, 9/18/01
2. Exodus 23:4
3. Proverbs 25:21-22
4. M Eugene Boring, "The Gospel of Matthew," New Interpreter's Bible, Electronic
Edition, (Nashville: Abingdon, 2000)
5. Posted on news://news.devx.com/off.ramp
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