The command Jesus issued those who would follow him that they must "love their enemies" as a condition of becoming a child of God (Matthew 5.45) isn't a popular one, especially among Americanized Christians. Whenever the discussion comes up, there's always heated debate surrounding the issue.
In fact, this is the place at which I'm often accused of being un- or even anti-American. If there's one thing we Americans know well, it's violence. And any threat to that violence -- particularly of the Christian nonviolent kind -- is roundly rejected through the most violent of rhetorical means.
The reason for that is pretty simple: Enemy love is simply too costly for Americans. It's something that asks for that part of us -- namely, our living -- that we're simply not ready to hand over to just anyone. To avoid having to truly forsake all, pick up a cross and follow Jesus, it becomes important to find a way around the command to love enemies found in the Sermon on the Mount. To accomplish this, I've seen a host of theological and biblical interpretive gymnastics. The most common of which is to redefine the term "enemy" in order to make what Jesus said significantly more palatable.
And there's plenty of redefinitions to go around. "When Jesus talked about enemies, he was really talking about neighbors that it's difficult to get along with. He wasn't talking about people who want to harm/kill you. He definitely didn't mean Romans or Jews or _____" (supply your favorite exclusionary group here).
So let's try to set the record straight a little. Who exactly was Jesus talking about when he said, "Love your enemies"?
The word that Jesus uses in the Sermon on the Mount is the Greek word ἐχθρός. So who are they? Well, it didn't simply mean a neighbor with whom one was having trouble -- the term ἐχθρός actually means: "an enemy; someone openly hostile (at enmity), animated by deep-seated hatred. Implies irreconcilable hostility, proceeding out of a “personal” hatred bent on inflicting harm, a person resolved to inflict harm" (DNTT, Vol 1, 553). If one wants to go one step further, the Hebrew counterpart for the term enemy (what Jesus was referencing since in this part of Matthew he is critiquing OT laws on violence) includes both personal and national enemies.
Since Jesus is speaking, in the Sermon on the Mount, to first century Palestinian Jews, there's an even deeper meaning to his use of "enemies". Jews, of course, would immediately think of the Exodus -- of that time when they were slaves in Egypt -- or of the Exile -- when they were in captivity in Babylon. They would have looked around and seen the Roman occupiers and remembered the Maccabean Revolt.
Most of us don't think those things. So it's hard to realize that something as significant as the Maccabean Revolt would be figuring into Jesus' statement. So what was that Revolt?
Antiochus, in 167 BC, brutally slaughtered thousands. As told in 2 Maccabees: "When these happenings were reported to the king, he thought that Judea was in revolt. Raging like a wild animal, he set out from Egypt and took Jerusalem by storm. He ordered his soldiers to cut down without mercy those whom they met and to slay those who took refuge in their houses. There was a massacre of young and old, a killing of women and children, a slaughter of virgins and infants. In the space of three days, eighty thousand were lost, forty thousand meeting a violent death, and the same number being sold into slavery".
Or, consider Alexander Jannaeus in the same general period before Christ, who once threw a dinner party for he and his concubines and had 800 people crucified for entertainment. If that's not bad enough, while the men were on the cross he slit the throats of their wives and children in front of them -- forcing to watch their families be slaughtered during their own drawn-out executions.
Or, consider Alexander Jannaeus in the same general period before Christ, who once threw a dinner party for he and his concubines and had 800 people crucified for entertainment. If that's not bad enough, while the men were on the cross he slit the throats of their wives and children in front of them -- forcing to watch their families be slaughtered during their own drawn-out executions.
A little closer to home: A couple of years before Jesus was born, Varus crucified 2,000 people at once -- an event that some in Jesus' audience may have even witnessed.
Or, just a few years after Jesus died during the revolt of AD 70, the Romans crucified 500 people a day until they ran out of wood in the city.
These are just a few examples, but if you know their history, you know there are countless more. Those who knew and listened to Jesus teach in person were all too acquainted with "enemies". When Jesus commanded "enemy love", they absolutely would have known what he was referring to because their recent national story was full of these brutal enemies, and their daily life was surrounded by these enemies who not only taxed them into poverty, but also crucified them along the roads as a way to keep them under constant state of terror.
Or, just a few years after Jesus died during the revolt of AD 70, the Romans crucified 500 people a day until they ran out of wood in the city.
These are just a few examples, but if you know their history, you know there are countless more. Those who knew and listened to Jesus teach in person were all too acquainted with "enemies". When Jesus commanded "enemy love", they absolutely would have known what he was referring to because their recent national story was full of these brutal enemies, and their daily life was surrounded by these enemies who not only taxed them into poverty, but also crucified them along the roads as a way to keep them under constant state of terror.
So when Jesus talked about "enemy love" he had a very particular group in mind. He wasn't speaking about vague generalities -- about being nice to people who just don't like you on an interpersonal level. He was setting up a whole new way of interacting socially and politically with people who were -- literally -- out to get you.
Those people who want to cause you harm?
Love them.
Love them.
Pray for them.
Do good to them.
Refuse to respond to them with violence.
"Because then you will be like your Father in heaven."