17 April 2006

Reflections on another selection from "Christ and Violence" by Ronald Sider.

...one is not to place oneself against an evil person in the way indicated in Matthew 5:39 (You have heard it said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'), which was the normally accepted way - i.e., by exacting equal damages for injury suffered. In fact, one is to respond to evil by refusing to place the person who inflicts evil in the category of an enemy to be hated or injured. Instead of categorizing the person who harms one as an enemy, one is to love him. And the love is to be so clear and costly and so singlemindedly focused on the needs of the other person that it will even accept additional insult and injury from the wicked person.

Imagine being able to be carried to a place of peace so that you would not categorize the one who inflicts evil as enemy. This is no simple task. It is as though we must go against every fiber of our being. I suppose that is absolutely correct if we know ourselves only as broken beings. But we are also sons and daughters of God. Therefore, we are given the capacity to love even those who we would usually call enemy. Unfortunately, we must be very disciplined to act in such a way. This does not mean that we simply go through the motions of loving one who harms us. Rather it means that we really do love them. If this is not the case, it would be easy to keep score of what our enemies are doing and rather than loving them and calling them enemy no more, we would be monitoring their behavior to see it they really are our enemies and not worthy of our love. To see a love like this, we have traditionally gone to the cross and heard the words of Jesus forgiving those who have placed him on the cross and all that it meant in those days.

Connection: It would be good to find people who could prayerfully help us to stay away from the strong temptation to exact equal damages from those who harm us. We must always be available to new ways to carry on in the face of evil of any kind.

By your death and suffering, O God, you continue to transform the face of our humanity and you call us into a new way of life - a resurrected life. As we wrestle with how we are to be your people, pray that your Holy Spirit will bring us peace and in that peace we will find the strength to love all people. Amen.