That Cowardly Preacher and His Ignorant Sermon

My thoroughly American, Evangelical Christian brain on any random Tuesday:

I can’t take him seriously. “Love your neighbor,” he says. Sure, that's nice. But “love your enemy?” Is he some ignoramus, Kumbaya-singing hippie on shrooms? Wait wait wait… Let me give him the benefit of the doubt. He must mean my needy customer, or my mother-in-law, or my fantasy football manager, yeah? Oh, ok. I can do that. I thought for a second there he was talking about my big ‘E’ Enemy as in “the marxists, the fascists, the political extremists, the immigrants, the terrorists!” Worse, I thought maybe he was so naive as to be referring to my country’s enemies! The Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, and GOD FORBID (crossing my chest right now) those Palestinians. Funny joke, Jesus. He makes me cackle. Anyway, being serious now… Yes, I will try to have a more Christian attitude toward my fantasy football manager this Sunday, my in-laws this thanksgiving, and that unreasonably needy customer this Friday. 

When confronted with Jesus’ Sermon on Mount, I wonder if the stream-of-consciousness above remotely resembles the inner dialogue of a lot of people in American Evangelical Christianity. I have heard similar sentiments expressed six ways from Sunday in both personal interaction and in published theological texts. “Sermon on the mount ethics are for individuals, not for nations,” is a sentiment I hear ad nauseam. Someone please send me the link to the Matthew 5 footnote here, because I’ve looked in approximately 67 different translations and reference Bibles and I’m not seeing it. I’ve even looked in the original Greek, for Pete’s sake (or Jesus’ for that matter).

When Jesus says, “love your enemy,” he destroys the very category of enemy as such. In other words, humans made as God’s Image cannot be enemies.

It has been rightly observed that when Jesus says, “love your enemy,” he destroys the very category of enemy as such. In other words, humans made as God’s Image cannot be enemies. It is a category mistake. When crucified by his brothers, friends, and political “enemies,” what does Jesus say? “Father forgive them.” but he doesn’t stop there; he gives an explanation. “For they do not know what they are doing.”1 In these two phrases Jesus shatters the concept of “humans-as-enemies” and the attendant cycle of violence that persists in this fallen way of thinking. He urges his Father to forgive his enemies precisely because he does not view them as the enemy.2 He sees them, at worse, as being deceived by some other force, some other power. He treats them as being ignorant. Culpable? Yes. But deceived by some greater power? Absolutely. The only proper reaction to ignorant people is to have compassion for them, and to try to enlighten them. It turns out, when people are deceived by the power of the death cycle (i.e. violence), the way to enlighten them is to “love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.”3

The point is this: people of Jesus are those who expose and shame the cycle of violence by placing themselves in its path, as Jesus demonstrated.

You’ll end up being taken advantage of with that mindset, no? Jesus seemed to be fully aware of where this radically loving ethic would lead. “Take up your cross and follow me,”4 he says. Where? Well, to the “place of the skull.”5 The point is this: people of Jesus are those who expose and shame the cycle of violence by placing themselves in its path, as Jesus demonstrated.6 After all, what other option is there to stop the violence in the world? Military strength? Jesus responds, “those who live by the sword will die by the sword.”7 I would gently offer the observation that the ‘ole “live by the sword” route seems more than a little fraught, if not insane, when our swords are now thermonuclear weapons (assuming we give a rat’s rear about the future of our children, humanity itself, and the rest of God’s creation with it).

This election season (excuse me while I vomit a little), there are many partisan voices demonizing other humans in their quest for power. Let’s not be mistaken. This is evil. This is of the devil.8 We Christians have no room for this in our worldview and we resist these voices. We do nothing that would dehumanize image bearers of God. We do nothing out of self-interest but look to the “interest of others.”10 If we march, we march the extra mile for the good of our ideological “enemy.”11 If we vote, we vote for the good of ”the least of these.”12 That's what we do. That’s all we do. We do it even if it costs us power or comfort or relevance or institutional health or anything in between. We do it for the love of Jesus, our Rabbi and King. We do it for the love of the world God loves.13 We do it to show that there is a greater power in the universe than that of violence and death. We do it as a demonstration of resurrection hope. 

To act in sacrificial forgiveness is against our very nature, but it is what the cross of Jesus calls us to.

But I am being radical, surely. Yup. It is radical to resist the ways in which fallen humanity has always functioned. To act in sacrificial forgiveness is against our very nature, but it is what the cross of Jesus calls us to. That is our part in bringing healing and shalom to the world. If we’re honest, we Christians in our country are not called to sacrifice all that much. It's not as if we experience persecution by any normal and historical definition of the word. But if we are still so hell-bent on grasping for political power to use against our *enemies,14 how can we expect to be the type of people who would willingly suffer for their enemies?

But I am being lazy, surely. Nope. It is far easier to find oneself perfectly at home with half of the society in the culture war than it is to resist the unhealthy currents that pull to the right or to the left. To stand resolutely against partisans in the culture war is an act of resistance; it takes real courage and wisdom. It is anything but easy. This is not surprising. The people of God have always had an identity of exile in their socio-political context.15 That is where we must stand if we care about the reputation and testimony of Jesus in the coming generations.

But I am being ignorant, surely. Yes and no. If by ignorant, you mean, I am advocating for a departure from “the way the world works,” then guilty as charged. However, what if our concepts of “ignorance” and “wisdom” need to be reparadigmed (wink) and flipped on their heads? Oh, yes, I think one early Christian mentioned something about that…16

To stand resolutely against partisans in the culture war is an act of resistance; it takes real courage and wisdom. It is anything but easy.

So, my fellow Jesus-followers in the good ole’ U.S. of A… If you vote, cool. I suppose I’ll go throw a partially filled ballot in the box too. Let’s think about who would do more good for our neighbors and less violence to our “enemies.” There will be genuine disagreement here about what policies will do so. That's fine. But please, for the sake of the testimony of Jesus, let’s adamantly not allow our act of voting to become a sort of baptism or wedding ceremony – pigeonholing us into thinking we must defend, embrace and identify with the folks whose circles we filled in. Let’s be their biggest critics, critiquing them from a Sermon on the Mount perspective. Let’s stand against their lies. Let’s stand against their power grabs. Let’s stand against their dehumanizing rhetoric. Let’s stand against their violence. Let’s stand against their wars. Let’s stand stalwartly on Jesus’ vision for humanity–a community of “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”17 And afterward, let's focus more on the type of community we are building as the church during the other 730 days of the election cycle. More harm or good is done in society in Jesus’ name on those days than on the one pencil-scratching day every other November.

Notes:

1 Luke 23:34 “Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.’ And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.”

2 Ephesians 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

3 Luke 6:27–29 “‘But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.’”

4 Mark 8:34 “Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

5 Mark 15:22 “They brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”).”

6 Colossians 2:15 “​​And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.”

7 Matthew 26:52 ““Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”

8 I am not saying that the people using this rhetoric are of the devil. I would see them as deceived by the devil and not yet enlightened by the gospel of Jesus. They are ignorant and deceived and we must pray for them to be freed.

9 James 3:9-10 “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.’

10 Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

11 Matthew 5:38-42 “‘You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”’

12 James 1:27 “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

13 John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

14 Again, human as enemy is an oxymoron and is incompatible with the anthropology taught by our Rabbi.

15 1 Peter 1:1; 2:11 “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia…” “Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul.”

16 1 Corinthians 1:23-25 “But we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

17 Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”