How do we rise above enmity and promote justice?
In the First Book of Samuel, David has more than one opportunity to kill his enemy Saul. On one occasion, David enters Saul’s camp and
finds Saul lying asleep with his spear
thrust into the ground at his head.
Rather than act on this opportunity, however, David merely takes Saul’s spear and water jug, demonstrating his justice and faithfulness to God while
yet asserting his superior position over Saul.
Knowing that Saul is the Lord’s
anointed, David chooses not to have Saul’s blood on his hands, opting to
remain in right relationship with God instead.
Psalm 103 tells us that merciful
and gracious is the Lord; David likewise elects to be merciful, demonstrating forbearance and remaining open to God’s
will.
David may spare
Saul out of concern for the Lord’s
anointed, but in Luke’s Gospel, Jesus suggests a posture toward our enemies
that is even more radical: Jesus calls
upon his disciples not just to love each other, but to love their enemies, and to
pray for those who persecute them.
For Jesus’ audience, the disciples, the word enemies brings to mind
first and foremost their Roman oppressors.
Jesus is thus challenging the disciples to love and pray for the very
people who occupy their land, tax them heavily, treat them with violence &
injustice; the disciples are to meet injustice with justice and faithfulness. It is a challenge we continue to face
today whenever we are confronted with injustice in our world.
In effect, Jesus’
teaching calls us to work to break through our own limitations, to take down
any walls we erect separating those we love from those we don’t, so that love
can flow from us to all people. We are to be
merciful in the model and image of
the heavenly one, as Paul calls Jesus in his letter to the Corinthians,
conforming to Jesus’ teaching of love and mercy in ways that are life-giving. In essence, Jesus is calling us to allow
God’s power in us to help us rise above any insult, injury, or persecution,
embracing even those who seek to harm us, trying to match our love to God’s
love, trying to enter into the depth of God’s love for all. Only that love can banish all enmity, as it brings the world into one community, united in mercy and compassion, with justice as its goal.
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