As I write this blog, we are a couple of days away from the
massacre of nearly 150 students at a university in Kenya. These students were Christians, they were
separated from Muslim students on that basis alone and murdered by
“militants.” Such things are happening
with increasing frequency and at home, we see our culture becoming increasingly
secular and writers for newspapers such as the NY Times suggesting that Christians
should be “made to take homosexuality off the sin list.” Jesus said we would be
hated for believing. Here, the writer
takes for granted that the unrighteous will exult in triumph over the defeat
and death of the righteous. What is our
attitude to be towards this? Yesterday,
the Beatitudes answered that question.
We are to weep and mourn over the world.
Here, we are given the promise that ultimately righteousness will
prevail, judgment will come. The cross
says none are righteous, and Jesus’ prayer was, “Father, forgive them.” He had compassion on His tormentors because
He knew they were ignorant, under the sway of a delusion from hell. We should be glad when unrighteousness is
judged but loving towards the unrighteous.
Without the cross, we would all hate this teaching, “Love
your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray
for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other
also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.” Truth be told, we mostly don’t like it now,
it is not natural to us because we live in a sinful world and we participate
too deeply in the fall, the sin nature is strong. It is human and natural to want to see those
who hate and hurt us get “what they deserve” and to judge others while failing
to judge ourselves. There is enough to
deal with in my life without bothering judging others. We are called to compassion for both
ourselves and others in loving them as we love ourselves. If we judged ourselves as harshly as we judge
others would we have a better understanding of grace?
The Jews didn’t appreciate Paul’s ministry to bring the
Gentiles into the covenant through the blood of Jesus and faith alone. They wanted to add to the cross, they wanted
to add circumcision and the Law. Jesus
came to fulfill the Law and Paul’s preaching of the cross with nothing added to
it as sufficient for inclusion into the covenant community was a bridge too
far. Jesus exposed the best attempts of
the Pharisees at righteousness as misguided and incomplete, lacking in the
critical respect of love. If Christ in
me is the hope of glory, then my hope isn’t found in external observances to
any written law but obedience to the law written on my heart. The law that begins with loving your enemies,
doing good to those who hate you, blessing those who curse you and praying for
those who abuse you. If they think the
written law is tough, try Jesus’ way.
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