As we continue reading the Sermon on the Mount today, Jesus proclaims one of his toughest words:
“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 who persecute you, that you may be children of your heavenly Father.” (Matt. 5:43–45)
“Hate your enemies” is an apparent reference to Israel’s warfare laws in Deuteronomy 20. Because the Gentiles in Canaan worshipped false gods, they were enemies of the one, true God (Exod. 23:32-33). Thus, similar to the Israelites who worshiped the golden calf (Exod. 32:25–29), they were subject to the death penalty.
But now, in the fullness of time (Gal. 4:4), Jesus has come to “make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19), i.e., “the Gentiles” or everyone in the world distinguished from “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt. 10:5–6).
Gift Extended to All
Jesus gives witness to such love through his Paschal Sacrifice for all of humanity (see John 3:16–17), and St. Paul and St. Peter reaffirm that Jesus extends his gift of salvation to all (1 Tim. 2:4; 2 Pet. 3:9), which includes somehow offering an opportunity for repentance for those who would receive the death penalty for their idolatry in Old Testament times.
Indeed, on Calvary Jesus makes no exceptions for those who proximately crucified him, or who mocked him while he hung on the Cross (Luke 23:33–37).
We can only forgive in such circumstances, an element which is foundational to truly loving our enemies, in and with Christ (Phil. 4:13). And yet Jesus calls us to precisely this kind of sacrificial love, as we’ll see more explicitly later on in the Sermon on the Mount, i.e., in Christ’s giving us the Lord’s Prayer and its related admonition (see Matt. 6:12–15).
Do Not Let Hate Equal Hate
To be clear, we should not make ourselves the sport of our enemies in some kind of misguided martyrdom, or simply let crimes or other sins against us go unanswered. At the same time, in our Lord Jesus Christ, we can endure the most horrific trials, not letting the hatred of our enemies consume us through a corresponding hatred for them.
In the Nazi concentration camp of Auschwitz, St. Maximilian Kolbe reminded his fellow captors, “Hate is not creative. Only love is creative.”
Because Kolbe, like Jesus, saw the much bigger picture, that the world’s worst suffering is nothing compared to the everlasting punishments of hell. And so, Jesus gave us the greatest witness, showing what perfect love looks like (Matt. 5:48), not only laying down his life for his friends (John 15:13) but also his enemies (Rom. 5:10).
Liberating Power
Such is the liberating power of the life of Christ! (John 8:31–32; 14:6). That’s how St. Thomas More could pray that he and his adversaries would one day be merry together in heaven.
Which serves as a reminder that our greatest human enemies, the most sinful men and women, are candidates for conversion, to become recipients of God’s merciful love as we have already experienced.
In Christ, we can love them with his heavenly love, realizing that our real—and incontrovertible—enemies are not mere “flesh and blood,” but rather Satan and his demonic minions, “the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).
May we resist the fallen angels in our Lord Jesus (Jas. 4:7), so that we may one day merrily celebrate together in the perfect love of his heavenly kingdom.
