Love your enemy..

In Matthew’s Gospel (Matthew 5:43-48), Jesus instructs His followers to “take the higher road,” to look beyond divisions or past offenses and love the other.  At first blush, this passage is challenging; however, Jesus’ message also offers the promise of freedom — freedom to live as we are created to live, as human beings.  As Jesus says, “that you may be children of your heavenly Father.”  He does not command us to be God, the heavenly Father; rather, Jesus liberates us with His words to be children of God.

Jesus calls each of us to look upon people (including the self) as God does.  Jesus encourages us to turn away from the human tendency to idolize the self and let God be the one to execute judgment on His creations.  God is the one who causes “the sun to rise and fall over the good and bad” (v. 45).  We were not created to leverage judgment upon the world; we were created for and out of love—that is our purpose, our reason for being. 

As we look toward the week to come, let’s pray together to God and ask for help to set aside our tendency to judge others and ourselves and learn to walk in the way of offering love to everyone we encounter.  Let’s look for how we are complicit in systems that keep our “enemies” at bay and impact the lives of blood and flesh human beings.  In doing so, we will become ever more so the people of God (Deuteronomy 26:19).

A good start is to practice what Ellen Degeneres exhorts everyone to do at the end of each of her performances; “Be kind to one another”.