Magnum Opus

From today’s reading of Matthew 5-7

“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, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. – Matthew 5:43-48

Is this not among the most difficult commands in Scripture?

Our God is perfect in both love and justice. We are made in his image, with the brokenness and cracks that come with our fall from grace. The perfect balance of Godly traits designed into us has been upset, and that is one reason, I believe, that we find justice more appealing than love.

We watch movies and read books looking for the satisfying ending when the hero has vanquished his enemies, brought them to justice, and rescued his woman. Most of us are very sensitive to injustice, and most especially when it has been perpetrated against us or ours. We are, or course, generally far more blind to injustice when we are the perpetrators of it.

Our love, on the other hand, is generally very selective. You can see this in the way we use the language. Almost by definition, the word “love” conveys preference. “I love tacos”, “I love you”, “I love my dog” – you could replace the word “love” in each of those statements with the word “choose” and they would convey nearly the same meaning, correct? As parents we try to teach our children to love well, and very fundamental to this skill is the ability to choose well. Choose good friends. choose good activities. “Make good choices”. This is all, for the most part, healthy, wise, and good.

Yet Jesus here says “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” He is basically challenging our DNA, isn’t he? Loving one’s enemies, when thought of in the context of love as preference, is impossible. Who prefers the company of their enemies?

I think there are answers to this riddle, some easy, some hard. The first step is realizing that the love that Jesus is talking about is a thousand miles away from our emotion-driven feelings of strong preference. It is intellectual, it is intentional, it is zealous, it is active. Its direction and focus are outward, rather than inward. And, though at first appearing to our darkened minds as foolish, it is wise. Have you ever devoted spiritual energy to praying for your enemy or physical energy to doing good for your enemy? It is energy well-spent, and after a time you may find that you no longer have an enemy.

All this being said, fundamentally the best answer to the seeming impossibility that Jesus is calling us to is this: the love he is here describing is the love of the Father toward us.

We don’t prefer the company of our enemies. Jesus, our Immanuel, intentionally and zealously sought to be with his enemies: us. We find praying for our enemies difficult. Jesus prayed for his enemies as the blood clotted in his whip-wounds and the nails shot agony through his body. We find that doing good to our enemies clashes with our sense of justice. Our Lord on the cross was God’s Magnum Opus, a symphony of perfect love and perfect justice, perfectly harmonized and with such power that the earth cracked open, veils were torn, and the dead were raised.

We are called here to love as the Father loves by the one who was and is the ultimate expression of the Father’s kind of love.

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