Friday, July 4, 2014

A radical message from Jesus

Matthew 5:43-48

          I love such nebulous prescriptions as love your neighbor as yourself and love God with your whole heart. The two great commandments, the essence of what God asks of us seems somewhat easy. And then there is this passage that puts a spin on it that makes me uncomfortable.  Not so easy, eh?

           This week has seen some horrible news. Gay men being lured into meetings only to be murdered, young Israeli boys being kidnapped and murdered, a Palestinian youth being murdered in Jerusalem in retaliation, the religious right hate mongering and hijacking the supreme court over politics and bias. The country and the world seems polarized and to paraphrase a line from South Pacific, ' I hear the human race hasn't much more time'. 

            This passage quite clearly calls us to love our enemy and pray for our persecutors. Before we play mental gymnastics with this like some wing nut who tries to explain that his hate for gays is really because he loves us, know that such exercises are not what love truly is. Think about how you would like to be loved. That is how we are to love those that are our enemies. I didn't say it was easy but Jesus' message is so radical that we would have difficulty with it. 

             If we say we are followers of Jesus Christ or if we are a follower of any religion that seeks truth and the God of love, we will have to realign our thinking from standards of this world to that of God. We are called to peace, love and inclusion. We must abandon ( and fight back ) against the standards of this world which is hate, violence, war and greed.

             Something to think about.            


‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” 4But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

No comments:

Post a Comment