Love Your Enemies

Trying to apply Jesus’ toughest teaching today

03/12/2022

Mt 5:43-48 Jesus said to his disciples: “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, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers and sisters only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Today Jesus presents perhaps his most radical teaching, namely, he says, “love your enemies.” And today, history presents us with a perfect opportunity to apply that teaching by trying to love our enemy, President Vladimir Putin. Never before, at least in my lifetime, has the gospel seemed so practical and relevant, and yet also appeared so impossible and radical, and maybe even a little ridiculous. Is anyone seriously trying to "love your enemy" today? Or, rather don’t we see Putin painted as a maniacal madman, or others who hijack his agenda for their own ideological purposes and political goals? Some hate Putin and want to punish and destroy him, while others use Putin as a pawn in their own chess game. But in both cases, no is trying to “love your enemy.”

Here are three ways I try to take baby steps toward applying Jesus’ tough teaching to the enemy at the gates, President Putin, and try to love him. Maybe this will help you to love your enemy a little more too. First, it helps me to remember that to love someone does not mean you have to be "best friends" with everyone. It is impossible to be best friends with almost 8 billion people in the world. Fr. George Tribou, our high school principal, told us that if we have one or two best friends in our life we are very fortunate. But I have over 4,000 best friends on Facebook, so Tribou was obviously wrong. But if best friends are few and far between, how do we love our neighbor let alone our enemy?

Well, I think there is a minimum level of love, namely, that you wish everyone to go to heaven. And that level of love – low as it may feel – you can extend to all 8 billion people living on earth. But the hard part is not wishing the opposite on our enemies, that is, not saying, “Go to hell,” and meaning it, not desiring someone’s eternal damnation. When we feel that, we fall below the lowest level of love, and we fail to love our neighbor or our enemy. So, can you wish for President Putin to go to heaven and not to hell? Even though we may rightly want him to be punished for his war crimes, Christians should not want him to be punished eternally. That is one step toward fulfilling Jesus’ command to “love your enemy.”

A second step to love your enemy is to remember that no one deliberately chooses something evil because it is evil. We all choose the good, even if it is not good for us. I eat three pieces of cheese cake because I think it is very good, not because I think it is very bad, although it is very bad for me. Why, then, is Putin invading Ukraine? Here a little history may help. The country of Ukraine was formed on June 23, 1917, and it was called Ukrainian People’s Republic. Sadly, four years later, in 1922, it forcibly became a founding member of the Soviet Union, and fell under Communist rule. Ukraine gained its independence in 1991 after the fall of the Iron Curtin and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In 1994, Ukraine democratically elected a president, Victor Yanukovych, who was very friendly with Moscow.

But in 2013, there was protests and Yanukoyvch was deposed and a new government was forcibly established which was more friendly to the West. Obviously, that was a very unwelcome state of affairs from Putin’s point of view. That is why in 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and ever since has been preparing to invade Ukraine and establish a government more friendly to Moscow. I don’t know Putin’s end-game in Ukraine, but history may give us a hint. He doesn’t want to run the country, but he also doesn’t want the West to run it either.

That would be equivalent to Texas seceding from the United States and creating its own government. We would probably fight to get it back under the mantle of America. My real point, of course, it not political but rather moral, and to say one no one chooses evil just because it is evil. I eat three slices of cheesecake, and Putin invades Ukraine, but we both think we are getting something good, even if it is not good for us. And that may help you to love your enemy a little (maybe).

Finally, the third baby step is to recall C. S. Lewis’ book “The Four Loves.” He distinguishes between family love, friendly love, erotic love, and God’s love. In other words, we all love our families (most of the time). We love our friends and we do things for them in need. And we love our beloved wife or husband romantically, erotically. But God loves us all, friend and foe, neighbor and enemy, Ukrainian and Russian. While we practice the three easy loves, let us ask for God’s grace to practice the highest and holiest love of all: God’s love. That is what Jesus summarized today when he said: “Love your enemies.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!