Enemy Love: The Challenge of Peace!

An outspoken catholic critic of the Bishops' stand on nuclear war declared that no bishop was going to push her in the direction of loving the Russians. To her credit, the woman had sensed one of the most important implications of the gospel of peace, whether preached by bishops or by Jesus of Nazareth. Authentic biblical peace is experienced only when those who have been enemies are able to have a change of heart and become reconciled one to the other. Short of that profound transformation, there is no peace.

Where the bishops' critic is profoundly at odds with biblical teaching is that, in fact, it does push us in the direction of loving the Russians, or anyone else who is "enemy" to us. As a way of amplifying this important teaching in the pastoral letter "the challenge of peace," I would like to concentrate on what may be the most "challenging" aspect of Jesus' teaching on peace.

Love of enemies and non-retaliation

Jesus' teaching on enemy love is very explicit: "You have heard that it was said. 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those that persecute you...." "I say to you that hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you."

Instructions about the enemy are not restricted to the gospels. A similar tradition is found in New Testament letters. Christians were a minority within the Roman Empire and often the target of suspicions and harassment for what was considered their strange rituals and behavior. Rather than repay such enemies" with more violence, Paul, for example, encouraged the Roman Christians to:

"Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.... Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all.... If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them drink.... Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Similar texts are found in other letters of Paul: "See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all...." "When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we try to conciliate...."

The author of the First Letter of Peter writes to isolated Christian communities in Asia Minor undergoing considerable abuse from the majority culture. They, too, are exhorted: "do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary, bless, for to this you have been called that you may obtain a blessing."

Enemy love and Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom

As the Gospel sayings on enemy love suggest, this entire tradition goes back to a distinctive teaching of Jesus himself. The key to his teaching on enemy love and its echoes in other parts of the New Testament can be found in the passages quoted from Matthew and Luke. In both instances the motivation for such a radical transformation from enemy hate to enemy love is not to win the enemy's favor or to prove superior virtue. It is to be done because God loves in that fashion. In Matthew's text we are told that by loving the enemy we will show ourselves to be children of the God who "makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust" (5:45). In Luke's version (6:35-36), enemy love makes us sons and daughters of the most high "for he is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish" therefore, we are to "be merciful even as your father is merciful." In other words, Jesus' teaching on love of enemies is ultimately based on his teaching about God. One could make the case that all of Jesus' words and actions can be traced to his experience of the God of Israel.

The keynote of Jesus' own ministry was the "coming of God's rule" or kingdom. Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, 'the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel" (Mark 1: 14-15). Jewish longing for the "kingdom of God" or "God's rule" was a metaphorical way of speaking about longing for God himself. Out of their pain and frustration, Israel hoped that God would come to do what their own efforts and institutions had proven unable to do: wipe away tears, erase the sting of death, provide a joyous banquet of juicy grapes and rich meats, bring justice, and establish that most precious gift, unending peace. Only the power of God, history had convinced them, could effect such transformation of the human heart and human institutions. Therefore, Israel longed for God to rule.

Jesus' own mission takes up that cry. More than that, however, Jesus claimed that his ministry was not simply the announcement of the kingdom but the effective beginning of it. When Jesus healed blind eyes or liberated a tortured human being from an evil spirit, "then the kingdom of God has come upon you." In his parables and teachings, Jesus revealed the secrets of the coming kingdom.

The compassionate God

The longing for "God's rule" could remain an abstract and dim hope until it was filled with an experience of who this God was that comes to rule. Jesus' words and actions communicate his convictions about the God of the kingdom. Here, in fact, is the most revolutionary aspect of Jesus' ministry. The God of Israel, the God who rules, is a God of extraordinary compassion. God searches for the lost sheep, the lost coin; he waits patiently by the road for the return of his lost son. He is a God who commands the servants of his household to "forgive from the heart" as they have been forgiven by him. God gives banquets and does not hesitate to invite the untouchables of the hedgerow and crossroad. This is the God whom Jesus feels free to call his Abba, a term of intimate affection for a parent - a distinctive trait of Jesus' prayer. One could go on at length in illustrating Jesus' God image. The conclusion is inevitable: Jesus' image of God or, what is the same, his experience of God, is that of a God of extraordinary compassion.

It is precisely here that one can find the foundation for Jesus' teaching on enemy love. Jesus taught his disciples to love their enemies and not to retaliate with abuse or violence because God was gratuitously and indiscriminately compassionate, even towards the evil and the unjust. God's graciousness and compassion, as experienced and taught by Jesus, are also the foundations of other related aspects characteristic of Jesus' ministry. He befriended outcasts and gentiles. He repeatedly taught the need for reconciliation and forgiveness. If such is the way God rules his people, then his people can do no less to each other. The qualities of life that Israel longed for--justice, peace, cessation of pain-- are the very ones that characterize Jesus' own message.

Enemy Love and the Cross

The firestorm that greeted the draft of the bishops' pastoral letter is a sure reminder that a gospel of peace is indeed a "challenge" and not without cost to those who proclaim it. Therefore, to discuss "enemy love" in the New Testament we must also consider the cross. There are intrinsic connections between Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God and his execution by crucifixion. First of all, the cross stands as a challenge to 'worldly' values. The evangelists present the crucifixion of Jesus as a parody of human kingship. The captive Jesus is mocked and tortured for his claims to be a "king"; he is given a crown of thorns, a purple cloak, and a reed scepter. His tormentors hail him as king at the same time they strike him on the face. In all four gospels Jesus is tried and executed as "king of the Jews". John's gospel carries the parody further. Pilate questions Jesus on his supposed kingship and then parades the battered and thorn-crowned prisoner before the crowd, acclaiming, "here is your king!" The evangelist seems to present the moment of crucifixion as an enthronement of Jesus, with his kingship proclaimed in three languages over the cross and with an entourage of two thieves crucified with him.

Different values

A careful reading of each of the gospels allows us to catch the meaning of it all. As Jesus tells Pilate, "my kingdom is not of this world." "Not of this world" cannot mean that Jesus' message is only concerned with heavenly things and not earthly ones; one wonders if he would have been crucified for such a benign message. Rather, in john's terminology "not of this world" means a kingdom based on different values than most earthly kingdoms are. This is clear in a passage from Mark when Jesus also refers to his death: "the son of man has not come to be served but to serve - to give his life in ransom for the many." The key passage comes at the end of a discussion with the sons of Zebedee where Jesus challenges the way earthly kings exercise authority in "lording it over" or oppressing their subjects. Jesus' 'kingship' reflects that of his God: it is compassionate, life-giving, respectful: values not prized by the "world;" indeed they are judged as weakness or even threatening to the public good.

To preach "love of enemies" in Jesus' day, as in our own, could be interpreted as dangerously naive, or as a threat to the established order.

The Cross: Symbol of Commitment and Victory

The cross also reminds us of another aspect of Jesus' kingdom ministry: it represents an active commitment to transformation of the world. The gospels make clear that Jesus earned the hostility of his opponents and prepared the way that led to his own crucifixion precisely because of his active stand on behalf of outcasts, his challenge to accepted ways of interpreting the law, and his teaching on the need for reconciliation. Opposition to Jesus' message breaks out in Luke's gospel at Jesus first sermon in the synagogue of Nazareth where his townspeople take offense at hi favorable remarks about gentiles, and attempt to kill him. In mark, Jesus' opponents begin plot to destroy him after his first series a actions on behalf of outcasts and sinner Jesus' cross is not something that he merely "bears"; it is also something that he "take up" by his cause on behalf of God's kingdom.

To "follow" Jesus

In this way the cross becomes a symbol of active commitment to the disciples as well. To "follow" Jesus mean to follow him to Jerusalem and the passion something which strikes terror and confusion in the disciples. Discipleship means "take up your cross and follow in my steps". In other words, the disciple must transform his or her way of thinking and become committed to the same cause of justice and peace that Jesus' undertook; such conversion and commitment lead to the cross.

The emphasis on the cross as an active symbol is important for properly interpreting the meaning of "enemy love" in the gospels. Some contemporary Christians fear that an emphasis on love of enemies and non-retaliation could be used by established powers as a mask to encourage servitude and defuse Christian commitment to justice in the world. Such a distortion of the gospel can happen if Jesus' teaching on love of enemies is separated from his proclamation of justice and his commitment to it to the point of death. The cross demonstrates that Jesus refused to make his own, even for a good cause, the values of oppression, of life-destructive violence, or of injustice; and at the same time he did not flinch from action on behalf of God's rule.

A Sign of Victory

Finally, the cross must be seen as a sign of victory - of peace over violence, of love over hatred, of life over death. Even though crucifixion was a brutal reality for citizens of the first century, the early Christians transformed it into a symbol of victory. The cross of Jesus led to resurrection; his way was God's way. Such is the basic message of all four Gospel accounts; none end merely with crucifixion. God's raising of Jesus' crucified body is seen as the vindication of his messianic mission. The message Jesus proclaimed was not illusory or naive, but rather proved to be God's own truth. Therefore, no matter how absurd or scandalous Jesus' proclamation of enemy love might seem, the resurrection reveals it as a way that leads to life.

The Kingdom and the Future

An important aspect of Jesus' kingdom proclamation is "timing." God's longed-for rule begins to break into the world in Jesus' own acts of compassion and justice; yet the full experience of the kingdom remains in the future. That tension between the "already now" and the "not yet", so characteristic of new testament thought, must be taken into account in assessing the meaning of Jesus' teaching on love of enemies for today. Jesus' command is neither an impossible ideal, unsuitable for the "real world," nor is it a law so tyrannically demanding that it leaves us no possibility but failure. Jesus' teaching on love of enemies and, in fact, the entire gospel come to us as an impelling invitation to seek a way of life that is both "already now" and "not yet."

It is "already now" in that the whole vision of the gospel compels the disciples of Jesus to move toward a life of holiness, a life reflective of the gospel vision of peace. Therefore, Christians must use every possibility within their strength to turn away from violence and to seek reconciliation, even - or especially - with the enemy. At the same time, it is "not yet," because either our own weakness or the structures of our society or the lingering hostility among adversaries may make full reconciliation not yet possible. Strung between the "already now" and the "not yet" of the gospel's vision, Christians have no choice but to work actively towards peace.

Even though Jesus and the early church knew nothing of deterrence, MX, or "first strike", the New Testament's teaching on enemy love and non-retaliation remains as a potent "challenge of peace" for contemporary Christians."

References

• The Challenge of Peace, U.S. Bishops' Pastoral, U.S. Catholic Conference, 1312 Mass. Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005
• Excellent Resources of all kinds can be obtained from Pax Christi USA, 6337 W. Cornelia Ave., Chicago, II 60634
• Grannis, Laffin, Schade, The Risk of the Cross: Christian Discipleship in the Nuclear Age. The Seabury Press, N.Y., 1982