I guess about a month ago I came across this readings on Jesus’s teaching: “Love your enemy”. I personally feel this is one of the difficult teaching of Jesus to apply in our daily life. Don’t you think so? This is the short reading from Matthew 5
[43] “You have heard that it was said, `You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
[44] But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
[45] so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
As I prayed about it and meditate on the words, this question kept on coming to my mind, “Lord, who is then my enemy?”
I found it strange to ask, I guess most of the time, it is pretty easy for me to spot who are my enemies in lives. But that night as I prayed, I kept on asking that question, who is my enemy?
Somehow that questions brought me to a familiar scene that I have known since I was small. It sounds very simialar to a question that was asked by a lawyer who tested Jesus and asked what is the greatest commandment. And after Jesus said, Love your God, and love your neighbor, the lawyer asked,
But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” (luke 10:29)
And I recall Jesus answered his question by telling a story. One of the most famous story in the Bible: the Good Samaritan. There was this man going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he was robbed. Not only robbed, he was stripped and beaten. Then came a priest and saw him, but pass him by, and the second a levite, but he also passed him by. Then came the thrid one, a Samaritan.
We all know the story, the Samaritan helped that poor man, and did more that what people would do. And Jesus asked:
Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”
It’s the Samaritan! The Samartian has chosen to be the poor man’s neighbor. He chose to love the poor and beaten Jews. The beaten Jews, on the other hand, has found a new neighbor, a Samaritan.
If you are wondering why the story shifts, well, I was wondering as well when I prayed about it. But then I suddenly recognize that the teachings of Jesus are closely related. The questions of who is my enemy is bound to the question who is my neighbor.
If you are not aware of the history of the Jews and the Samaritan, they are enemy! Samaritan’s were israelites in the north whose religious practices have been tainted by pagan’s practices. They disobeyed the law that forbid them to mix marriages with the pagan. So the Jews consider them as stranger, enemy, gentile. Jews do not want to have any dealing with the Samaritans.
Yet amidst the history of hatred, Jesus took this to teach about love of neighbor. Jesus show how the Samaritan man somehow found the beaten Jews as his neighbor, and he chose to love him. The enemy now has become a neighbor!
Could it be that Jesus want to teaches about who is our enemy truly is? It’s not a question of identifying who are our enemies, but it is a question as we look upon our enemy, and who they truly are?
Could it be that our enemy is actually our neighbor? Could it be that our enemy is someone who is in need of our love? Could it be that this man whom we consider as enemy, actually is some one who is robbed, beaten, stripped, and helpless?
I found it in my self, that sometimes I project my fear, my insecurity, and weakness to other people. And sometimes other people become my victim. When my pride is attacked, I started to say bad words and humiliate others. When I am corrected because of my wrong doings, I started to point out others wrong doing. I started to oppress others! I started to victimize the people around me. I began to hurt others.
I felt this is what the Lord is saying to me that night, “when you look at your enemy, you will found your neighbor.” Can you see the wounds in them? Can you recognize their brokennes? Can you see that those who persecute you is someone who is in need of love? These, then, are your neighbor.
And so the commandment “Love your neighbor” and “Love your enemy” sounds very similar. Maybe it is actually one commandment if we began to see the way God sees. And so let us pray, that we may see the way God sees, and love the way God loves. That we may be called sons of God. ( like father, like son)
[44] But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
[45] so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
