I have a confession. Not long after 9/11, I was walking to the bus stop to take the express bus to Midtown Manhattan. Waiting there were two young men from the Pakistan/Afghanistan region. They were smiling and wearing backpacks as they waited for the bus, and I 'profiled' them. In a moment of fear I stepped away and decided to be late to my meeting and take the next bus. Some reading this may empathize and assume that my reaction was justified. Others will see the guilt behind my stereotyping and panic response. Either way, for me in that moment the reality of having enemies that would travel half way across the planet just to kill someone like me seemed very real -- even if I was wrong about those two men.
There are surely people who want to kill us. They want to hurt us because of the passport we carry, or they may despise us for our ethnicity. Many have real disdain for those in the opposite political party. Some people really do hate Christians -- though as good liberals they won't use the word "hate." And yes, some who claim to be Christians actually hate them right back -- maybe even hated them first. Recently a Nazi walked into a Sikh temple and opened fire. Because it happened to a Sikh temple it may still seem rather foreign or detached for some, but what if it was a Baptist church in Dallas? It's happened before.
In 70 AD, Jerusalem was under siege by the Roman Army and virtually destroyed. Some forty years before that in what appears to be a collusion of powers, they hung Jesus of Nazareth on a cross to die, and it was not uncommon to hang dozens from crosses on the side of a road where all who could see the penalty for questioning Pax Romana. Within decades of Jesus' first teaching The Sermon on the Mount, followers of Christ would be thrown into prison, burned alive, beheaded, and face lions in arenas. Yet, it was into this environment of power and violence that Jesus says "Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you."
We have enemies. They may not even know our name, but they want to hurt us or at least what we represent. Maybe against one's religion or against one's ethnicity or against one's nationality or perhaps out of utter irrational madness, but for whatever reason, the hate burns. Share the Good News boldly; there will be opposition. Live a quiet life, and there will still be someone who simply hates something about you. We have enemies. Yet, Jesus says AGAPE them. Love them. Pray for them. This one command is a world-changer.
When we refuse to love our enemies, it is no small matter. We are plainly in rebellion against Jesus the Lord. In a moment of defiance, we are choosing to be a son of this world rather than an imitator of Christ. This doesn't mean that we don't feel the pain, even the anger, or the longing for a redeemed world, but Jesus, who took up a cross, does call us to a different response. We speak differently, act differently, and even learn with the help of His Spirit to think differently. Our response to evil makes all the difference in the world. We could talk about Ghandi, a Hindu, who learned the principles of peaceful resistance from reading the Sermon on the Mount. We could talk about Martin Luther King Jr. or about the reconciliation efforts of Nelson Mandela or about John Perkins, nearly murdered in a Mississippi jail in the '60's and his ministry partnership, a former Klan member. Stories such as these turn our world upside down.
Still, it is the stories of countless millions obeying Christ that creates the tidle wave of counter-cultural love. The greatest revolution the world has ever known has been the daily obedience of Christ-followers to submit to the command to "Love our enemies." And obeying Jesus changes everything. When we respond to the evil in our world with the Way of the cross, we are filled with the power that ultimately defeats evil. Conversely, when our response mirrors that of the world, evil is further empowered and armed to swell in its destructive force. When we refuse to love our enemies, I can't help but think that we are indeed refusing Jesus himself. Can we really do anything else and still call ourselves Christians?
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