The call to love one’s enemies and do good to those who hate you, has all the appearance and feeling of losing control over one’s life, and thus being at the mercy (or lack thereof) of others—both friend and foe. Conversely, defensive retaliation in kind, and exacting an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, create the illusion of being in control, of being free, and thus less vulnerable. But is this really true? After all, who was the freer person and more in control—Saul in his compulsive and relentless persecution of David? Or, David who, despite having Saul at his mercy, chose to not harm the Lord’s anointed. The operative word, here, is “chose.” For, the ability to choose is an essential element of being free. David chooses to not harm Saul, whereas Saul lacks free choice and his jealousy and irrational fear of David compel him to try and destroy the noble son of Jesse.
Similarly, Jesus’ instructions about loving one’s enemies and doing good to those who hate us and do us harm, are not simply commandments to be obeyed, but also an invitation to become truly free—just as our heavenly Father is free and makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. As such, Jesus’ sampling of practical ways in which one can love one’s enemies and do good to those who harm us, is not so much an instruction manual for achieving this noble end, and rather represents some of the likely external manifestations of that inner freedom born of a heart transformed by God’s love. In addition, this inner loving freedom is manifested not only to obvious enemies—bent on harming you—but also to those who are not enemies but who, for example, owe you money and cannot pay you back.
This is a reminder that the term “enemy” admits of various shades of interpretation. Someone intent on killing you is one kind of enemy, whereas the person whose giftedness or superior skills threaten your sense of self-worth, can be experienced as another kind of enemy. In our presently polarized church, country, and world, enemies can all too easily become those who don’t share our views or our perspective on reality. Less dramatically, in our selfishness, even the needy neighbor who requires nothing more than a little of our time, can be construed as an “enemy” to my present plans and personal agenda.
Each one of us here this morning possesses a certain degree of that authentic inner freedom that marks us as children of our heavenly Father. One lesson from Jesus’ teaching in today’s gospel, is that our “enemies” offer an effective gauge for measuring just how free we actually are, and how clearly our lives witness to being true children of the Most High, for he himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. And so, if we are not yet capable of loving all our enemies—both real and so construed—let us at least allow such “enemies” to remind us that our hearts are not yet truly free. And may the One who forgave those who nailed him to the cross grant us a complete share in his merciful and forgiving love. For only in this way will we be able to love as he did and truly become children of our heavenly Father.