Love Your Enemy: A Blue Print for Resistance / A.J. Hendry

In today's current social and political climate, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between someone's idea’s or opinions – which may or may not be hurtful, damaging, or ill thought out – their intent, and the person themselves.

As we’ve seen recently with both Tamaki and Folau – and as we’ve witnessed off shore with the rise of Trump and those who support him – those who label themselves progressive or liberal often find themselves struggling to draw a distinction between the person, and the idea.

There is an irony in this, for while the left champion the rights of the poor, the marginalized and oppressed, advocating for justice, and calling out many of the dehumanizing and degrading narratives that have made themselves at home within our western culture, they have too quickly fallen into the trap of dehumanizing and demonizing those who resist their vision of a more just, and inclusive society.

For those who seek to follow Jesus, the sheer “wrongness” of this approach is even more pronounced.

For Jesus, every act of resistance, every challenge to the oppressive systems and structures that ruled His world, began first with the invitation to Love.

Love your neighbor as yourself.

It is more than a nice religious saying, it is Jesus’ blue print for social activism.

Do good to those who persecute you.

Forgive those who hate you.

Love one another!

Jesus’ resistance was rooted in the fundamental belief that all people were made in the image of God.

Both the Oppressor and the Oppressed.

And so, Jesus spoke out against systems of oppression, he confronted those in power who benefited from the suffering of the weak, he stood up for those in society who had been shoved aside, pushed down, discarded.

Yet, through it all, he refused to give in to hate.

Jesus recognized that those who participate in the oppression of others, who dehumanize and degrade fellow human beings, are also oppressed themselves.

And Jesus came to save them too.

Seeing past the dehumanizing rhetoric, Jesus saw the person beneath, a human being, a child of God, held captive by hatred, bitterness, racism and greed.

Perhaps the clearest example of this is the story of Jesus’ encounter with the Rich Young Ruler (Mark 17-31).

What is often missed in the telling of this story, is that most of the Jewish people in Palestine during the time of Jesus, were heavily oppressed and beaten down by the rich and the powerful. The Rich Young Ruler was part of the ruling class who benefited from the current system of heavy taxation that contributed to the peasant's oppression.

He wasn't just part of the problem. His greed, and evident selfishness, was the problem.

Yet, instead of shaming him, or responding to him with a nasty tweet, or a degrading meme, Jesus looked at the young man and felt genuine love for him.

And it was this Love that prompted Jesus to challenge the Rich Young Ruler to give up his wealth, lay down his privilege, and join Him in service to the poor and the oppressed.

Jesus saw a young man trapped by his culture and blinded by the privilege and power granted to him at birth, a man who wanted so desperately to know God, yet because of his greed, was unable to truly know Love.

And yet, despite the young man’s inability to give up his privilege, despite his refusal to desist in the oppression of others, Jesus continued to Love him.

Why? You might ask?

Because, Love is the Way.

Love, is the Way by which those who are trapped by Greed, will learn to see the harm their selfishness is causing. Love is the Way, by which those blinded by white privilege will be freed to see past their own cultural context and experiences, and have their eyes opened to the continuing harm that has been caused through the colonization of their ancestors. And Love is the Way, that those who find themselves trapped by religious dogma, and legalism, will be freed to lay down their Law, and truly Love their neighbor as themselves.

Using the weapons of hate, and discrimination, will never end the cycle of oppression.

When we hate and shame those who persecute us, we only reinforce and validate their need to fear us.

And so, in our pursuit of Justice, Love calls us to see even those who cause us harm, even those who label themselves our enemies, as fellow human beings.

To recognize that those who participate in the oppression of others, are themselves oppressed by the very systems they represent.

Thus, we resist oppressive structures and systems, not to defeat or one up those who benefit from them, but to rescue all people from the dehumanizing nature of their effect.

Regardless of faith, culture, or belief, Jesus’ example holds a deep relevance for us today.

In the midst of the de-platforming, and call-out culture of the Left, Jesus’ example reminds us that true Justice only comes through the Way of Love.

As Martin Luther King, so succinctly put it, Hate cannot drive out hate, only Love can do that.

When we seek to fight for justice, while wielding the sword of bitterness, we inevitably become the very thing we have sought to stand against.

Folau, Tamaki, even Trump, are not the enemy.

Their ideas may be abhorrent to many of us, their rhetoric, and the message they preach, may well be one that causes harm, and may even lead to the oppression of those we care about.

Yet, if we want Love to win, if we truly seek to create a just and inclusive society, then we must recognize that even they are our neighbor.

A.J. Hendry