LOVING YOUR ENEMY
A few years ago, my wife and I were driving across the dry, cactus ridden, long and monotonous Interstate Highway 10 from Los Angeles to Phoenix for a wedding. I started sharing with my wife, fumbling around my new and very different interpretation of Jesus’ words about loving your enemy as part of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:43-48).
The Sermon starts out with the famous Beatitudes, “Blessed are . . . .”
Whenever I read the Beatitudes, I didn’t think I measured up to the “standard” Jesus set. I miserably fell short more often than not. I used to read them as a set of conditional requirements, if I am poor, meek, and/or hunger for righteousness, and so forth and so on, then God would bless me or I am a blessed person.
Over time, I have come to realize that the Beatitudes itself is Gospel. It is not an if and then indictment. It is not an invitation to high moralistic achievements. It is when (not if) or as you are merciful, mourning, and/or pure in heart, you are blessed or God’s presence is with you.
I am not poor, meek, merciful, and/or pure in heart most of the time. In fact, I am mostly the very opposite of what Jesus outlined. Nonetheless while tilting heavily on the side of the opposites, I am still both and. We all are.
Jesus then segues into being the salt of the earth and the light of the world (I will loop back to my reflection on this below further). And then what follows is a long, tedious, but enlightening and shocking section on Jesus positioning Himself to reinterpret and to fulfill the Scriptures (The Old Testament). He is not bashing the Law. The Message translation puts it, “I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama.”
Then the section on loving your enemy. . .
What I rambled to my wife during the drive was the thought that loving your enemy is loving oneself that is not in line with God’s blessings. It is loving the enemy within, as the enemy of the true self (I do think Jesus mainly meant to communicate enemy as others. But I also experienced that the Scripture is multi-layered in meanings and depth…so I offer this thought). In other words, Jesus may be telling us to have self-compassion and to love the part of who we are without condemnation and hatred. Extending grace to your enemy-self, as John O’Donohue defines grace as “the permanent climate of divine kindness”, is what may be at stake here. O’Donohue continues, grace is “the perennial infusion of springtime into the winter of bleakness.” Again, because the truth of the matter is that we are all both-and (going back to the Beatitudes above).
It is right in the middle of the both-and state and predicament that we are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. We do not have to try to be the salt and the light, we just are. What this means is that we are not approaching the world with perfection, superiority, and certainty which is what ego wants and likes. We finally have the ability and capacity to have compassion and solidarity with all humanity.
Philo of Alexandria said, “Be kind for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.”
We can truly come alongside others with tender-heartedness and humility. It is precisely in the state of solidarity and humility, we can be faithful salt of the earth and the light of the world.
The chapter ends with this verse (48)…
“You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
The word perfect can be misleading here. I believe the word has more to do with growth and maturity, not moral perfection.
I resonate with what Eugene Peterson captured in The Message. He expands the verse this way…
“In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”