“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Matthew 5:43 – 48

I find these teachings of Jesus to be at odds with the world in which I live. Is he serious?  What if we were to love our enemies?  That means rewriting history which is based on the truism that to survive and prosper we must protect our ourselves against people who are not “us.”  Is this not implicit in all our education and acculturation?  Who are the victors in history?   They are those who fight against our enemies.

I have just finished reading a huge 900-page life of Napoleon, recently published.  His France was superior to all nations and cultures.  He was convinced of that and went about proving it on the battlefield and in life in general.  That is so opposite of Jesus who spent his life loving those that Israel feared and hated.  Jesus loved Jews and Gentiles equally.  He healed a Syrophoenician woman like he healed Peter’s mother-in-law.  No difference.

How is it that the cultures in which we live are so fearful of others?  Jesus loved all people.  We were taught a little song, “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world.”  We sang this without realizing that the real song was, “We love our own and must make sure we stand together to defend our rights, as we understand them.”

I grew up with the notion that if we do not protect ourselves we are doomed as a culture, a people.  Jesus does not teach that!  So what do we do with our history that lifts up those, usually warriors, who protect us?  It is easy to say, “Jesus was wrong. Our heroes protect us!”  Our secular historians keep emphasizing that – keeping alive the belief that we must fight in every way to protect ourselves and our cultures.  Our heroes are those who do this best.

Jesus did not equivocate, he said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”  That sounds so absurd to our ethnic ears.  We lived in East Africa where we heard one story after another about the ways the followers of Jesus turned the cheek and forgave those who persecuted them.

Once again, what appears at first to be nice but meaningless advice, turns out to be the way of God.  Oh, Lord, teach me what this all means.    But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.