Martha Mullen was sitting in a Starbucks listening to a radio news report on the difficulty of finding a burial spot for Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Boston bombing suspect. At the same time she heard the news on the radio, she remembered the words of Jesus, “love your enemies.” She decided to do something. She sent emails to various faith groups and finally got a response from the Islamic Funeral Services of Virginia who assisted in providing a burial plot for Tsarnaev. Mullen, a mental health counselor and member of the United Methodist Church, was motivated by her own faith and the teachings of Jesus to love even those who persecute us. Her decision did not win her any awards from her neighbors or local politicians. However, she felt it essential in living out the call to love your enemies.
When we read the scriptures we are moved by the compassion that Jesus has for the sinner. It is inspiring how he comforts the afflicted. Love swells in us when we see him place his hands on little children and bless them. The admonition to love one another we understand. We are even up for the challenge of loving our neighbor even though we may not particularly like the way their lawn is always uncut or their dog is always making a mess in our lawn. But, does Jesus goes to far when he says, “Love your enemies?” I might be able to find it in myself to love the annoying telemarketer who calls during the last episode of the Bachelor or the obnoxious co-worker who makes weird noises while sitting at his desk. With God’s help, I might have a chance of demonstrating some type of love to the annoying, irritating, and idiots of our world.
Jesus is asking us to love our enemies. Love those who hurt us or may still be hurting us. The spouse who betrayed us, the co-worker who destroyed our career with lies, the person at school who took advantage of us, the stranger who robbed us, the financial planner who stole from us; these are the ones we are now being asked to love.
If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that there are some people that we feel doesn't deserve God’s love. There are some that we don’t want God to love. “Love your enemies” is too inclusive for us.
And yet, Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." I can give you a series of practical reasons as to why you should not carry around hate in your heart. I can tell you that it is bad for your health. I can remind you that the time you spend hating those who have hurt you is simply giving them power over you. I can tell you that you need to love your enemies because it proves you are a better person than the scum bag that set out to hurt you. All of these are great motivators for loving those who we consider our enemy. The problem is that you will not find any of those reasons in this scripture. Jesus calls us to love our enemies because it is the character of the God we follow. There are plenty of practical motivations for not living with hate. Jesus doesn’t use any of them. He knows there most be a stronger motivation. There must be something beyond practical to convince us to love in such an impractical way.
Corrie Ten Boom, author of The Hiding Place was a Dutch Christian who helped many Jews escape the Nazi Holocaust during World War II and later imprisoned. She was tortured and suffered horribly while in a German concentration camp. Later, she was speaking at a church in Berlin when she sees one of the former S.S. men who had stood guard at the shower room door and for whom she had suffered humiliating shame. He was the first of the jailers that she had seen since the war was over. Suddenly, in her mind the room was filled with all the mocking men standing at heaps of clothing. The S.S. soldier had become a committed Christian. He came to ask her for forgiveness. As he extends his hand, he says, "Can you forgive me?" She tells how she could not. Then she realized that in not forgiving she herself had no forgiveness. Corrie Ten Boom asks, "Can you forgive?" "No!" "I can't either," she says. "But Jesus can and through him we can."
Two thousand years ago a tree was planted on a hill outside of Jerusalem. On that tree hung the most influential person who ever came into our world. It was from this tree that this one with nails in his hands looked down on the world, a world that had turned its back on him, and said, "I would rather die than hate you." He does this to show us who say to our enemies, "I would rather die than love you" there is another way.
Jesus is asking us to love our enemies. Love those who hurt us or may still be hurting us. The spouse who betrayed us, the co-worker who destroyed our career with lies, the person at school who took advantage of us, the stranger who robbed us, the financial planner who stole from us; these are the ones we are now being asked to love.
If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that there are some people that we feel doesn't deserve God’s love. There are some that we don’t want God to love. “Love your enemies” is too inclusive for us.
And yet, Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you." I can give you a series of practical reasons as to why you should not carry around hate in your heart. I can tell you that it is bad for your health. I can remind you that the time you spend hating those who have hurt you is simply giving them power over you. I can tell you that you need to love your enemies because it proves you are a better person than the scum bag that set out to hurt you. All of these are great motivators for loving those who we consider our enemy. The problem is that you will not find any of those reasons in this scripture. Jesus calls us to love our enemies because it is the character of the God we follow. There are plenty of practical motivations for not living with hate. Jesus doesn’t use any of them. He knows there most be a stronger motivation. There must be something beyond practical to convince us to love in such an impractical way.
Corrie Ten Boom, author of The Hiding Place was a Dutch Christian who helped many Jews escape the Nazi Holocaust during World War II and later imprisoned. She was tortured and suffered horribly while in a German concentration camp. Later, she was speaking at a church in Berlin when she sees one of the former S.S. men who had stood guard at the shower room door and for whom she had suffered humiliating shame. He was the first of the jailers that she had seen since the war was over. Suddenly, in her mind the room was filled with all the mocking men standing at heaps of clothing. The S.S. soldier had become a committed Christian. He came to ask her for forgiveness. As he extends his hand, he says, "Can you forgive me?" She tells how she could not. Then she realized that in not forgiving she herself had no forgiveness. Corrie Ten Boom asks, "Can you forgive?" "No!" "I can't either," she says. "But Jesus can and through him we can."
Two thousand years ago a tree was planted on a hill outside of Jerusalem. On that tree hung the most influential person who ever came into our world. It was from this tree that this one with nails in his hands looked down on the world, a world that had turned its back on him, and said, "I would rather die than hate you." He does this to show us who say to our enemies, "I would rather die than love you" there is another way.
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