"And I say, love your enemies and pray for your persecutors," Matthew 5:44.
Wow! How can you say this, Jesus? Everybody knows you love your own and hate the rest. Sworn enemies. Get even, now. Justice, now. Revolution, now. Vengeance, now. See you in hell, now - whoa! Wait a minute - that's Jesus' point, isn't it? The radical way of the sky kingdom. It's hard. If it were easy everybody'd be doing it. The street to hell is a no-brainer, easy, wide. Destruction awaits greedily. The gate, Jesus says, to true life is narrow and the way to it is hard. Jesus says, Enter the narrow gate, anyway. What means this? Do the good no matter what. Trust God to handle vengeance. (He will repay! and in a way we wouldn't want anyone, not really, to be paid.)
On our knees with a brother or sister today, we pray for friend and foe alike. We commit anew to life-affirming deeds. Together, we give thanks to God, who loved us, his sworn enemies.
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