Loving Your Enemies

Carl Bloch: "Christ Mocked by a Soldier"

If you think non-retaliation is a tough principle to live by (see my post of June 20, 2011), what about Jesus’ teaching on loving your enemies? The commands to “love your enemies” and “pray for those who persecute you” seem beyond my reach. What about yours?

Matthew 5, verses 43-48, begins with Jesus’ statement summarizing the conventional religious wisdom of his day: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’” This conventional religious wisdom that Jesus quoted is a perversion of Mosaic law, a perversion that omits the words “as yourself,” excludes enemies from the category of “neighbors” and adds the command to hate them instead.

In stark contrast to this perverted religious teaching, Jesus commands his followers to love without boundaries. It is a love that reflects the love God the Creator has for the world. It is a love that creates the conditions for shalom.

The Jews were a conquered people with an occupying foreign military presence in their land. They were also one of the most heavily taxed people in history. To his Jewish audience, “love your enemy” might have brought to mind images of abusive Roman soldiers who treated them as despised slaves or arbitrary tax collectors who could charge whatever they could get away with.

Did Jesus follow this difficult command himself? He sure did! Jesus’ actions during his arrest and trial are vivid examples of how he chose to live and how he wanted his disciples to live. Immediately following his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, the armed crowd of temple officials and guards brought Jesus before Annas and then Caiaphas, the two leading Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem. When blatantly false charges were made against him, Jesus remained silent. He was slapped by one of the officials and later spit upon, then blindfolded and beaten, while the guards mocked him. Jesus did not retaliate in word or action.

The next morning they dragged the beaten prisoner before Pontius Pilate, who surely knew of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem several days earlier. In his conversation with Jesus, Pilate asked him if he was “king of the Jews.” Jesus agreed, but explained to Pilate that his kingdom was “not of this world.” The promised Messiah was ushering in a different kind of Kingdom, not one built by warfare or political intrigue as Pilate’s had. The good news of shalom that he preached was not linked to any political or military empire nor was it established by violence. It was a gospel of grace and love.

Jesus’ illegal trials by both Jewish and Roman authorities led to his crucifixion, a brutal form of execution routinely used by Rome, especially against political revolutionaries. Even in the midst of the painful agony of his crucifixion, Jesus practiced what he preached. In an act of incomprehensible love, he prayed “Father, forgive them [the soldiers] for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:24).

When Jesus taught his disciples to love their enemies and to pray for those who persecuted them – and then did so himself, he demonstrated the radical character of the gospel of shalom, a message of love in the midst of a world of hatred and violence.

So What?

• Can you think of examples or situations in your own life where you faced opposition (“enemies”) and could have responded differently than you did if you had followed Jesus’ teachings?
• Can you think of examples in history where someone chose to show love, rather than hatred, toward an enemy? Share these examples with other readers.
• Isn’t it true that we are often tempted to “spiritualize” hard teachings like this from Jesus and conclude that Jesus really meant we needed to pray for those people we don’t like. To actually “love an enemy” is something most of us would never even try. Yet it is a command, not a suggestion, from Jesus, right?

What Kind of King Is This?

The last week of Jesus’ life on earth involves a sequence of events that is extraordinary. Like his “surprise birth” (see my post of April 11, 2011), this week is not what anyone would expect, certainly not for the expected Messiah or someone proclaimed as the “King of the Jews.” Once again we see that God’s ways are not our ways. God is indeed a God of surprises.

On the day we now celebrate as Palm Sunday, Luke tells us that Jesus approached Jerusalem from the east on the road up the steep incline from Jericho. He mounted a donkey and, as he approached the city, crowds of people gathered along his path and started shouting “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord” (Luke 19:38). What an exciting time this must have been for the disciples. This was what they were hoping for. Their rabbi would announce a new kingdom, which meant freedom from the Romans, and the people would rise up in support of King Jesus.

As Jesus crossed the crest of the Mount of Olives and saw Jerusalem, Luke tells us that a surprising event happened -- Jesus wept (Luke 19:28-44). This is hardly the act of a conquering military hero! Jesus’ heart was full of grief because he knew that the people of this city did not know or understand the shalom he could bring. Jesus wept when he saw the city he loved and when he thought about the judgment that would come for rejecting his gospel of peace. The Son of God wept over sin and disobedience. No other religion in the world believes in a God like this!

Following the exhilarating experience of the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, the disciples must have been perplexed when Jesus subsequently withdrew from the limelight. Was he truly the Messiah? Was this the time when his Kingdom would be inaugurated? The people seemed ready and Passover Week, with its commemoration of the liberation from slavery in Egypt, reminded everyone of their present bondage to the occupying armies of Rome and the promise of a Davidic king who would bring freedom. Momentum was on their side and the time seemed right to the disciples for a bold assertion of power.

But then Jesus made some decisions that were not fitting of a revolutionary leader. He hosted a “last supper” over a Passover meal where, in addition to washing the feet of his disciples like a common household servant (John 13: 1-17), he spoke of his suffering and death that would come soon.

After dinner, Jesus led his disciples across the Kidron Valley to the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem. It was there that his betrayer, Judas, accompanied by armed guards and religious officials, found him. All four Gospels report this arrest scene, but John’s record adds some important additional details. John tells us that as the crowd of officials and soldiers approached, Jesus identified himself as the one they were looking for. When he did that, they drew back and fell to the ground (John 18:6). Luke tell us that the disciples then asked if they should defend themselves with their swords and one of the disciples was not willing to wait for an answer, so he attacked the High Priest’s servant. Peter, identified only in the Gospel of John (John 18:10) as the one ready to fight, had to be angrily rebuked by Jesus who, even in the time of crisis, called for peace and stopped to heal the severed ear of the injured man.

The promised Messiah was the “Prince of Peace.” He was not a revolutionary political leader out to overthrow Rome and to instigate insurrection, a point he clearly established when he denied leading a rebellion (Luke 22:52). Jesus chose not to use weapons of war to bring in his Kingdom. The gospel of the Kingdom was a message of shalom and its inauguration came not by force. Jesus taught about being a peacemaker and now he demonstrated once again how that teaching should be lived out.

So What?

• The Biblical descriptions of Jesus crying, both on his approach into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday and at the news of his friend Lazarus’ death, is very moving to me. It says, among other things, that there are times when faced with injustice and evil that the only response can sometimes be tears. Do you agree?
• Do you know of any other peacemakers who consistently lived out what they taught on this subject? What other world figures come to mind?
• If you were one of Jesus’ disciples witnessing this week’s surprising sequence of events, what do you think your reaction would be? What would you be thinking?

Jesus’ Teachings Cause Division

Sometimes Jesus’ teachings are hard to understand. Let’s be honest and admit that this is true. Let’s also not skip over passages in the Bible that we don’t like, if we are trying to understand shalom.

In Matthew 10:34, Jesus says “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law – a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household’.” This statement, including the quote for the prophet Micah, is one of those difficult passages in Scripture that requires careful study, because it seems to contradict everything we have learned about shalom so far.

If our beginning assumption is that the Bible does not contradict itself, which is my belief, and if God is the author of truth and not deception, which is also my belief, then where does this leave us? How do Jesus’ words square up with Isaiah’s description of the Messiah as the Prince of Peace? What, then, does Jesus mean when he announces that he brings a sword?

In my earlier posts, I looked at Old Testament passages that clearly establish God’s desire for shalom in his creation and his hatred of violence and conflict, although God will use war as an instrument of his judgment. We also established the fact that the prophets described the promised Messiah as a king who would rule with justice and in peace, a promise Jesus identified with when he began his public ministry. One thing therefore seems clear: Jesus is not advocating violence in this verse.

Jesus’ statement was meant to describe the effect of his coming, not the purpose of his coming. The gospel message that Jesus shared does, in fact, cause division. Sometimes it generates conflict within families, between parents and children, or brothers and sisters.

Jesus knew about this through his own personal experience: even his brothers did not believe in him until after the resurrection (John 7:5). By quoting Micah’s prophecy about conflict within families (Micah 7:6), Jesus was warning his followers that the cost of discipleship might be rejection by their own family.

Being a follower of Jesus requires a willingness to bear wounds, often painful wounds, from family and friends who reject the Messiah and instead create and follow their own gods.

Jesus, the Prince of Peace, wanted his followers to understand the cost of their discipleship. He was not going to hide the price they might have to pay. After all, he knew that he would soon face death – a man of peace, who selflessly helped others selflessly, but was executed as a criminal.

Being a peacemaker is not a safe calling -- let’s be clear about that!

So What?

• Have you ever experienced opposition and conflict among friends or family related to your faith in Jesus? How does a peacemaker respond to these kinds of challenges?
• Would it be fair to assert that if we have not faced any opposition during our lifetime because of our faith, that might be an indication that our faith is too well-hidden?

Non-Retaliation

Let’s be honest. Jesus’ teachings on peacemaking are radical. Not only does Jesus take actions that alienate most of the respected religious leaders of his day, he also gives his followers new commandments that are hard to believe and even harder to follow – both then and now!

Shortly after the Beatitudes recorded in Matthew 5, Jesus shares some of the most radical of all his teachings. He begins by quoting the Mosaic law (Exodus 21:22-25) that established the principle of exact retribution. This Mosaic law was revolutionary in its time because it limited compensation due to a victim and restrained revenge – contrary to the common response to injustice in the culture of that time, especially if a family feud developed.

Although Jesus does not contradict the principle of retribution, he states that this principle is not applicable to our personal relationships where love, not justice, ought to be the dominant characteristic.

What a difficult teaching! Jesus says our duty to someone who wrongs us is not retaliation, but acceptance of the wrong without a spirit of revenge. Jesus illustrates this radical teaching with four examples taken from the everyday world of his listeners, examples that must have been painful to hear.

The illustration of being struck on the right cheek was not taken from a fist fight, but was rather the back-handed slap of a master to a slave, a Roman to a Jew – the demeaning blow of a powerful person to the face of a weak, vulnerable one. In a similar way, going the second mile was a clear reference to the practice of the occupying Roman army to commandeer Jews to do forced service.

Jesus is teaching his disciples to avoid revenge and to practice non-retaliation in their personal lives. We must not conclude that Jesus is prohibiting the administration of justice or suggesting that we acquiesce to injustice. Rather, Jesus is forbidding his followers from taking the law into their own hands.

An “eye for an eye” is a principle of justice that belongs in the courts of law, but in our personal lives, Jesus teaches that we must not repay evil with evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21). If, in response to a blow to the cheek, we retaliate with a return slap, then the perpetrator has taken control of the situation and determined our reaction. Jesus gives us the freedom not to respond according to the actions of our attacker, but to respond in love.

So What?

• These teachings of Jesus are hard for me to share with you, because I really struggle with them in my own life. I am someone who hates injustice and wants to deal harshly with its perpetrators. I can’t stand it when people cut in line in front of me, make fun of minorities, or take illegal actions for their financial benefit at someone’s expense. How do you deal with these kinds of issues?
• It is hard for us to understand the radical examples Jesus used because we don’t live in a country occupied by foreign soldiers who exploit us. Can you think of some examples that fit our cultural context?

Blessed are the Peacemakers

Of all the teachings of Jesus, the “Sermon on the Mount” is probably the best-known. Matthews tells us that the crowds began following Jesus after news of his miraculous healing of “every disease and sickness” spread throughout the entire region of Galilee and Judea. When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and began to teach them.

The location of this teaching in Matthew 5-7 suggests that it occurred very early in Jesus’ public ministry. This “sermon” is only recorded in the first Gospel (Matthew), although Luke records a similar sermon, sometimes called “the Sermon on the Plain” in the third Gospel (6:17-49). While Luke’s account is considerably shorter than Matthew’s, both sermons begin with what are known as the Beatitudes, end with the parable of the two house builders, and contain much material in common.

It is quite likely that the teachings recorded in these three chapters of Matthew were not a single sermon given on one particular occasion, but rather are a collection of teachings by Jesus early in his ministry. Of all the teachings included in these chapters, the Beatitudes especially establish the radical character of Jesus’ ministry and clearly set him apart from all other teachers of his day.

In the Beatitudes, Jesus describes what his followers ought to be like. The first four Beatitudes describe the disciples’ relationship to God and the second four, the disciples’ relationship to other people.

As far as we know, this is Jesus’ first recorded teaching on peacemaking. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). The Amplified New Testament reads “Blessed are those who are makers and maintainers of peace.”

As noted in previous posts in this Blog, Jesus had already demonstrated on numerous occasions what peacemaking was all about. When he called the tax collector, Levi (Matthew), to be one of his twelve disciples, along with Simon the Zealot, this message was clear. When he met with the Samaritan woman at the well and engaged her in conversation, he taught his disciples another important lesson. When he touched lepers and a bleeding woman, thereby making himself “unclean,” he made his point. This is what Shalom-making is all about in a broken world.

First by his actions and then by his teaching, Jesus underlines the point that God is the author of peace and reconciliation, so people who want to follow him are called to this task as well. Satan is the author of discord and conflict. It is God who loves peace and who, through citizens of his Kingdom, is committed to seeing peace established on earth through his people, empowered by the Holy Spirit.

Peacemaking is a powerful testimony to the world that disciples of Jesus are in the business of bringing healing and reconciliation to a world full of conflict and hatred. This testimony points to the author of peace (God the Father), the Prince of Peace (Jesus Christ) and the enabler of peacemaking (Holy Spirit).

So What?

• It is hard not to be discouraged when you read the Beatitudes because it seems so impossible to actually live a life that reflects these qualities. That’s why most of us try to “spiritualize” the teachings, reducing them to some abstract theological qualities. Read the Beatitudes (Matthew 5: 3-10). Are these qualities you strive for – to be meek, merciful, and pure in heart? What a powerful antidote to a culture in which cynicism and self-interest are the primary default positions!
• Being a “maker and maintainer of peace” is an exciting calling to me. Do you agree? Rather than bringing more hurt and violence to our world, which we see every night on the evening news, we have a special mandate – to do what we can to make and maintain peace.

Get Out of This House!

How does anger, even righteous anger, fit in the job description of a peacemaker? Can peacemakers express anger without contradicting their role as reconcilers? Jesus gave us the opportunity to work through this tough question by his own example.

Matthew, Mark and Luke all record the story of Jesus ordering the money changers and merchants to leave the Temple grounds sometime during the week following his triumphal entry into Jerusalem and before his arrest. The Apostle John documents a similar event, but his description places the event earlier. It therefore seems likely that Jesus cleansed the temple twice during his three-year ministry.

In both cases, Jesus drove out the money changers and merchants and turned over their tables. In John’s account, he notes that Jesus made a whip out of cords that he used to drive the animals from the temple area.

Jesus’ righteous anger over how the merchants had turned the “house of prayer,” “my Father’s house,” into a “den of robbers” resulted in these acts of cleansing. Mark and Luke both point out that, although the cleansing of the temple angered Jewish religious leaders, the people were “amazed” at his teaching. It is important to note that Jesus used force in clearing the temple, but there is no record of him striking anyone or using violence to punish the merchants or money changers.

This dramatic confrontation gives us insights into the way in which justice and holiness are linked. Just as God in the Old Testament uses force as an instrument of his judgment against idolatrous and unjust nations, so Jesus uses force to condemn the abuse of the temple. The Prince of Peace was not passive in the face of wrong. Biblical peace is never a camouflage for injustice. Evil requires a response and Jesus’ cleansing action is instructional for us.

Confronting evil is never an easy task, especially when we are often out-numbered. But evil and violence destroy lives and wreak havoc on God’s creation. Peacemakers must be committed to working for justice, not ignoring it, and sometimes this requires direct action, identifying the injustice – naming it and calling into account those who are responsible. That’s what Jesus did!

So What?

• Can you think of examples where you have seen injustice like this? How did you respond?
• Are these issues ever discussed in your church or by you and your friends? What have you been taught about confronting evil and injustice?
• Have you been in churches where there are similarities to the temple courtyard described in these Biblical texts? I have seen some church lobbies that remind me of shopping malls and commercial centers. Is this an accurate parallel?

Defusing the Accusers’ Charges

Have you ever been caught in the middle of a mob where danger is in the air and things feel like they are about ready to explode? I experienced this in Moscow several months ago when a group of neo-Nazis gathered in Red Square and their rally became violent. This is the situation that Jesus finds himself in, as recorded in chapter 8 of John’s Gospel.

The opposition to Jesus is growing and numerous threats to his life have been made. Jesus comes to Jerusalem during a religious festival, when the city is crowded, and the Jewish religious leaders make several attempts to “trap Jesus” by asking difficult questions and raising controversial issues, hoping he will stumble in his response.

John records that Jesus comes to the Temple grounds early one morning and is speaking to a crowd of people who had come to hear him teach. All of a sudden, a group of religious leaders appears dragging with them a woman who had been caught in adultery. They make her stand in front of Jesus and this audience and challenge him with this question: “In the law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”

This “trap” was a difficult one! If Jesus agrees with the judgment that she should be stoned, he will violate Roman law that prohibited Jews from carrying out executions; if he disagrees, he will be accused of violating Mosaic law.

The Apostle John provides us with some fascinating details. He writes that when faced with the accusing mob and the terrified woman, Jesus bends down and writes on the ground with his finger. We have no record of what he wrote, but the action certainly slows things down and buys precious time in which to defuse the confrontation.

Not just once, but twice he stoops down and writes on the ground. The second time had the effect of allowing the impact of his penetrating response to sink in – “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” Slowly the angry accusers left, led by the older men. Jesus remains alone with the woman and offers her forgiveness and challenges her to stop sinning.

This act of peacemaking in the midst of the busyness of the temple courts is a remarkable story. Jesus not only taught about peace (which we will discuss in the weeks ahead), but he lived it out in the marketplace. Angry accusers were sent away convicted of their own sin, a distraught woman was saved from possible execution and offered restoration, and Jesus’ message of peace was put into practice for all his disciples to see.

So What?

• The act of bending down and writing on the ground slowed things down and helped to defuse the tension created by Jesus’ angry accusers. There is a practical insight here about finding ways to slow things down when a violent confrontation or argument is about to occur. Have you ever been in a situation like this? My struggle is that I am the kind of person who wants to quickly respond to opposition with the same hostility that is shown towards me. This is not Jesus’ way and I need to learn this lesson from him.
• The other insight I gained from this encounter was how Jesus turned the question of the accusers against them. Who among them was without sin? That’s a good place to start when the mistakes of others are brought to our attention. It is the kind of humility that peacemakers need to learn if they are to be agents of God’s Shalom.
• After reading about this encounter in John 8:1-11, are there any other thoughts you have on this remarkable exchange? Please share them by adding your comments to this blog.