Enemies

Trying to get the attention of his followers, to those who would listen to his often tough and maybe shocking declarations, Jesus flat out said to them, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. “He is not kidding. He is not trying to shock his followers into reality. He is making a verbal list and checking it twice for his serious followers. This is not a kid’s game and not something to deal with lightly. If we all spend our lives escaping from, cursing, hurting and/or torturing those we don’t like, those who are our enemies, then everything Jesus came to do is wasted. 

He goes further. If someone slaps you on the cheek, smile and point to the other cheek, offering the enemy to hit that one too. It’s not to be funny. It’s to point out that no matter what the enemy might threaten or try to do to hurt you, it’s okay, even though it may hurt or damage your face. Your job, our job, all of us who believe in Christ, must take it on the chin, so to speak, and know that somehow, sometime, somewhere, the aggressive, so to speak, enemy will see his error because God is in all of mankind, believe it or not, want it or not, live with it or not. And He will resolve the situation.

I remember the old childhood saying, Only God can make a tree. Add to that, only God can make a man or woman and that means only God can make us and we must adjust our lives to do good to all people, whether we like them or not because we all come from the hand, the creation, the love of God. It’s sad that many of us have negative personalities because we want to win, to dominate, to be important, to control people and environments. We therefore make huge errors in our relationships with each other, in competition, in having to have it all, in not liking someone because of their attitude and especially their behavior. There are a lot of people out there I avoid because they hate others, are cruel to others, and try to abuse and dominate the weak and the sad. But still, if I slice up that relationship, then maybe I won’t be able to succeed in my small efforts to get them to understand about love and hope. If they don’t like what I say or show them, that’s their choice. At least, as God’s servant you or I try. We cannot do more. Jesus firmly states - and we learn this in kindergarten or pre-school - “Do to others as you would have them do to you” And He says clearly: Love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. I learned early in life not to loan. But always to give. 

Do we know our enemies? Do we really love our enemies? Sometimes they could be hanging out behind the kitchen door or soliciting you to help the poor who aren’t so poor. Or they can just be attempting to give you a bad name, or they are taking a challenge to be better than you are in whatever you do, as if that mattered.

In modern times, one doesn’t need enemies to be a victim, to be killed or shot at or drugged into some sort of awful situation. In fact, we don’t even know why people do what they do when we really aren’t in their picture, nor do we know them or walk the same sidewalk or even shop at the same grocery. But somehow, we have been appointed enemy of a sort because of our color, our sex, our poverty, our wealth, and thus vulnerable to some shade of violence or abuse or confrontation that is not at all friendly. 

Evil, jealousy and power are the three corners that can disrupt our lives if we are in the wrong place at the wrong time, or say something mis-interpreted, or even stop at the wrong stoplight where some irate, angry person is at the wheel of a car, determined to get revenge on the world, even on the back of innocent, maybe good people. Who cares? They don’t, and probably no one else cares except the car crowds’ friends. 

And sometimes they don’t even know that they might be removing one of God’s angels off this earth, but they don’t care. Memphis’ crime rate for 2021 is atrocious. It has been uncontrollable and a lot of that is because there are so many police retiring, getting out of that category because they are tired of too often being accused of doing things they did following the script they learned in training, doing what they were trained to do to calm a scene, or protect people, when they themselves needed self-protection, but it seems they didn’t have the right to that protection. 

Enemies often evolve like sores that one scratches but cannot remove. But Jesus declared, it is not up to us to judge or condemn because we don’t know the situation, the history, the pain, and poverty that might surround the enemy attacking us. All of us need to forgive and give and share and care. We need to do it not just for the reward Jesus told his followers that would be given to them and us, but because we are God’s children with big hearts and we have the strength to be merciful because we know to love one another no matter what, even though we may be victims or damaged or disappointed in our attempts to do right by others. It’s not for us to worry about. We are God’s children and all the good we do, the measure we will give, will be the measure, Jesus tells us, that will be returned to us in the heavens. So, worry not and just love even the most difficult of those we encounter. And be at peace on this earth. 

 ~ Rev

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audrey@audreytaylorgonzalez.com
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