Eliminate Your Enemies

 

We know the great commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. We heard it in our first reading today from Leviticus. Jesus didn’t make up that law, he was just restating it. Today we hear the admonition from Jesus to love our enemies, too. I think the easiest way to love our neighbors is to eliminate them. That’s not as violent as it sounds. It’s actually quite simple. Just see your enemies as your neighbors.

Jesus defined who our neighbor is with the parable of the Good Samaritan, but he doesn’t really ever define what an enemy is. Is that because we all know what an enemy is? Probably not.

The Good Samaritan and the Jew were technically enemies, even though they didn’t know one another. Their societies hated one another going back hundreds of years. Jesus turned this parable on its head. He began it as a response to the arrogant lawyer’s question, “But who is my neighbor”. And the Jews listening expected that the person who would be the neighbor would be the Jew, but it was the person who showed compassion to the enemy who was the neighbor to him. We always think the enemy is the other guy. We never see the enemy as our neighbor.

The neighbor was the one who showed compassion. Jesus didn’t say that the Samaritan and the Jew became friends, or if they ever even met again. Loving your enemies is simply being compassionate in the moment. It is putting aside any prejudices and fears and enmity and just acting in the moment. We don’t know the Samaritan’s motivation. He just acted. Jesus doesn’t say why the enemy acted the way he did; he just acted.

It all boils down to how you view others, how you treat others, no matter who they are, no matter if you think they deserve to be treated badly or not. Like the Good Samaritan, we are called to act with compassion as our motivation and our intention. Don’t worry about the rest.

Wouldn’t that be a simpler way to live? Instead of seeing people as groups or stereotypes or whatever the way you want to classify them, just show them compassion in the moment. Just act as you will. Just go with your gut. Run into the burning building no matter who lives there. In the heat of the moment I think we would all act correctly. It’s those slow burning issues and the things we have to think through that give us fits.

The term neighbor is naturally local. We all live in neighborhoods and our neighbors are those who live close to us. Enemies I think we view from a more distant perspective. I am a history buff, especially military history. To me, the enemies are the Germans or the Japanese or the Russians. They don’t have faces or names. But for most of us our enemies really are those closest to us.

It is said that you can know a lot about a person by knowing who their enemies are. Who are your enemies? You will always have people who disagree with your ideas and positions, who hold prejudice against you just because of your race or religion or social status. You will have people who actually hate you for something you did or said. Many of these you will be unaware of. Most enemies don’t openly attack you or even have a relationship with you. Others are much more vocal and public. Either way, it hurts us to think that people don’t like us. But some enemies are worth having.

Enemies spring up whenever we do something controversial, or good, or these days, just about anything will make someone your enemy it seems. The only people who have no enemies are those who do nothing, say nothing, or stand for nothing. You will have enemies whether you like it or not, whether you choose to have them or not. People will choose to be your enemies and there may be nothing you will ever be able to do to change their minds or win them to your side. As long as there is sin there will be enemies. As long as you are a Christian you will have enemies. It goes with the territory.

You can choose not to view people as enemies. Why not think of them as opponents instead? The term enemy has an undercurrent of violence to it. An enemy doesn’t just oppose you they wish you harm. It has an undercurrent of hatred attached to it. We don’t hate our opponents. Often they can cause us to step up our game, to try to persuade rather than attack and hurt. We can have and can be worthy opponents.

Do you really hate anyone? Loving your enemies does not mean you have to give in to them when they hurt you. It doesn’t mean we are to roll over and play dead. Loving your enemies when they are in the wrong often means opposing them and their positions forcefully and publicly. Admonishing the sinner is one of the spiritual works of mercy. Admonishing isn’t attacking but is a sign of love.

What if they held a war and nobody showed up. Is it still a war? Doesn’t it take two to have a conflict? And how many of those enemies are we allowing to live rent free in our heads, when they probably are not even thinking about us? How many enemies do we make up in our minds? Let it go. What sins you forgive are forgiven them, and what sins you retain are retained. How many sins are you retaining? A grudge hurts you more than them.

But you don’t have to view them as enemies. You do not have to treat them as enemies. However, you don’t have to have a relationship with anyone to love them. Love is much bigger than that. You don’t have to agree with someone to love them, in fact, the bigger love is to love them in spite of your disagreements. You can show great love for an enemy simply by not treating them the way they treat you.

Eliminate your enemies by making them your opponents. But Jesus went even further. He did in fact love his enemies.

Jesus made some very powerful enemies of the religious and political leaders of his day. How did Jesus show love to his enemies? By forgiving them. Even from the cross. Even though they would remain his enemies. Even though they rejected the salvation he offered them. Even though the thought of that caused him just as much, if not more, suffering as the nails in his hands and in his feet. Continue to offer reconciliation. Leave your offering at the altar and go be reconciled to your brother. See your enemy as your brother. Forgive them even if they won’t forgive you, even if they don’t think they need forgiveness. Especially forgive those who have no awareness that they ever hurt you, or even that you consider them an enemy. Maybe they really aren’t. And take the time this lent to think how you are an enemy to others, an enemy vs. just an opponent. Pray for everyone, especially those who persecute you.

Pray for your enemies. I guess you could pray that they start to see things like you do, or that they will stop bothering you, but your enemies may never agree with you or leave you alone, so pray instead for their happiness, for their family, for the problems they are having in their life. Everyone has problems. The Good Samaritan didn’t try to win his enemy over, he just helped him with his problems.

We Boomers remember the famous comic strip, Pogo, with the famous saying, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” Oftentimes we are our own worst enemy, aren’t we? Don’t be an enemy to anyone. Forgive everyone. Show compassion for everyone, especially for yourself.

But why do this? What is the benefit of loving your enemies?

There are many times that Jesus tells his disciples to do things because by doing so it will gain them a place in heaven, will store up treasures in heaven, who will be the least in the kingdom of heaven and who will be the greatest. But is that why we should love one another? Is it just for our own benefit? Yes, we are to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling, but we are also called to lead others to salvation. We are all about saving souls, ours and our neighbors…and our enemies.

Eliminate your enemies by seeing them as your neighbors, treating them as you neighbors, loving them as your neighbors. Ironically, the way we are to gain everything for ourselves is to give everything to others, especially when it is hard.