Courageous Love

Courageous Love

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to oppose an evil person. If someone slaps you on your right cheek, turn your other cheek to him as well.” Matthew 5:38-39

I can guarantee you that not a single person on the globe automatically turns their cheek to someone who hits them first. In fact, the way most of us tried to get out of trouble for fighting in school was by saying, “But he hit me first.” We have a built-in response that is like some free pass to unload on someone if they throw the first punch.

This response stays with us throughout life. We may outgrow fistfights (though some do not), but we seldom outgrow the desire to get back at the person who started the whole kerfuffle. We hear someone made a disparaging remark about us and we need to find equal dirt on them. Someone doesn’t return a modest loan and we harass them and take them to court. Of course it is your “right” to get your money back. But Jesus provides something better than getting our “rights” when we follow Him. He provides the opportunity to let the world see a bit of what Father God is like.

I am disgusted with ISIS. I am angry at the number of lives mercilessly taken, the civilian lives massacred with no better reason than their availability. I am upset that many people are living in a state of fear because of these latest atrocities. (Let us remember, there are many others dying every day Syria, Lebanon and Iraq.) It is disturbing to the deepest part of my gut that another human, made of the same flesh and blood, with the same brain directing their body’s movements, would deliberately believe that they are commissioned to indiscriminately end the lives of all they assume need to die.

And, from that deepest place within the anger can rise to the state of revenge and the disgust to desire harsh treatment for certain people groups. In our desire to be “safe” we sometimes target people who have no connection at all to the actual atrocious events. Between 110,000 and 120,000 Japanese Americans were interned during World War II. They were forced to relocate from the Pacific Coast, incarcerated in camps in the interior of the country. Sixty-two percent were United States citizens.

The Germans fared somewhat better during World War I, though many German expats experienced extreme prejudice. My own great-great Grandfather, Phillip Rhine, had his last name legally changed to “Phillips” to sound less German and avoid persecution. He, also, was a United States citizen with no ties at all to any American enemies.

What does all this say about us? I think it says were are terrible at knowing the difference between a real enemy and a perceived threat. Beyond that, Jesus sets a higher standard anyway. As His followers, at least in inter-personal relationships, we are not called to classify people as “enemy” or “non-enemy”. He told us Himself that Father God “causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” (Matthew 5:45) That follows His famous saying about loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:44).

I hope I can requote the verse for today without recrimination. Jesus seems to be saying that God “causes his sun to rise on terrorists and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on ISIS.” There were people just as evil when Jesus made His statements as there are today. He wants us to understand that, though Father God also hates the evil people do, He still loves them. And, to follow Christ is to follow the Father’s example.

How those things work out in your individual life will be between you and God, but we must remember, we have absolutely no wiggle-room about how we treat our enemies. We are to love them, to pray for them, and to bless them! And, we need to stop thinking that anyone that “looks” like an enemy “is” an enemy. I suppose it doesn’t matter all that much. Enemy or not, we still treat them the way Jesus has commanded: with the love of the Father.

It is time for the church to be radical about love again, not careful. It is time for Jesus’ followers to courageously love those who have known and stirred up hatred. This is dangerous love, the same love the first martyr Stephen showed when, as they stoned him to death, he said, “Father, do not lay this sin against them.”