You have heard that it was said,
You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
They previously heard the commands of the law with the ears of minimalists. The law told them to love their neighbor, so they assumed that they were therefore free to hate their enemies. From a merely human perspective that made sense. In order to preserve themselves and not succumb to their enemies they thought they had to hate them. They may have believed that it was insufficient hatred for Gentiles that had caused such problems as their struggles during their desert journey, that made them long for what they left behind in Egypt. They probably assumed that it was the hatred of their enemies that allowed them to wrest control of the promised land from the various tribes who dwelt their. Moreover, the world seemed to have it out for them. From the Babylonians, to the Assyrians, to the Greeks, to the Romans, people seemed to be lining up for their turn to oppress them. It didn't seem like their was a realistic way to care for their own people without hatred for Gentiles.
But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you
On the surface, the command of Jesus to love our enemies seems hugely impractical. It seems to require that we simply role over and admit defeat whenever we encounter opposition. Yet it is true that as nations we must sometimes still take decisive action to maintain a justice international order, and that, within nations, we must take steps against those who are lawless in order to keep the peace. But even when are at war, it does not mean the people with whom we fight are really are enemies. Even criminals have dignity as men and women made in the image of God, and are still capable, despite what many believe, of redemption. The point is not that we shouldn't preserve appropriate boundaries, but rather that we understand the reason for those boundaries. The good that God wants to protect by his command to love is not merely one or another group, but all. This was seen in the parable where it was in fact the Samaritan who was in fact the neighbor of the man beaten by robbers. He really did go the extra mile to provide for the wounded man, giving of his own time and resources to help him. In doing so he did something better than preserving a rigid boundary between Jews and Samaritans. He began to actually heal the wound. Rigid boundaries might seem necessary at times. But even if they are, they are like a tourniquet on a wound, meant to be eventually removed so that life can return in fullness.
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
In the fall of Adam humanity signaled its desire to be separate from God, to have a barrier behind which they could make their own determinations about good and evil. But although God could not immediately restore things to how they had been, he spent the rest of history working to heal humanity's self-inflicted wounds of sin and division. We treated God like an enemy. Yet he did not merely destroy us, as he easily could have. While we were yet his enemies, as far as the disposition of our souls was concerned, he sent his Son to die for our sins. When Jesus came we acted as his enemies too, nailed him to the cross, and took his life. But he allowed us to do so, surrendered himself into our hands, so that by absorbing our hatred with a greater love he could make us his friends and his brothers. We will never rid this world of enemies by means of force, conquest, and victory. Violence is a cycle that more violence is insufficient to break. But we can still have hope for the future if we act as children of the heavenly Father, in the pattern given to us by his Son. We can rid the world of enemies, not by beating them, but by loving them until they become friends.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Love is meant to be more than repayment. It is something we are meant to show to others whether or not they have earned it. Reciprocity is relatively easy. We are capable of mutual affirmation amongst those with whom we are close. But we seldom wish to reach beyond those boundaries. We are generally willing to greet brothers and sisters. But what about when strangers cross our paths? Do we cross to the other side of the road, or rather, like the Samaritan, show them mercy?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.
The Jewish people had often interpreted the call to be holy as God was holy in the sense that they were meant to be rigidly separated from the surrounding nations. And before the coming of Jesus that was perhaps the best that could be hoped. But by his coming Jesus opened and taught a new and better way, a way to more perfectly imitate God, to love neighbor and enemy, without the risk of succumbing the idolatry of the world around us. It wasn't something that merely human love could do. But Jesus gave his followers new hearts with which to love, hearts so full of the Holy Spirit that they could give and give without becoming empty, and therefore without being tempted to seek alternatives to God. Finally the call of God to his people through Moses could be realized.
Be careful, then,
to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.
No comments:
Post a Comment