Love Your Enemies

Jesus taught that we should love our enemies and pray for them.  He taught we should turn the other cheek.  Jesus practiced this to the extreme when he allowed himself killed by his enemies and prayed for their forgiveness at the very moment they were killing him on the cross.  How difficult we have found it to practice this in our own lives.

The political atmosphere today is a perfect example of how we fall short of this everyday.  I used to pay close attention to the news, and prided myself in my knowledge of current affairs.  The divisiveness of the 2016 presidential campaign turned me away from the news and social media.  I could not tolerate all of the hate and negativity I read on a daily basis coming from both sides of the political aisle.  It is as bad two years later.  

I, for one, find it easy to love those "enemies" of mine I have no personal contact with.  Whether it's politicians, celebrities, or facebook friends who I disagree with, or people who are blatant opponents of mine, if I have no personal connection to them I have no problem praying for them and turning my other cheek.  However, when it comes to people I have direct contact with on a regular basis, I have a very hard time turning the other cheek.

There is a person in my life with whom I have had a very adversarial professional relationship.  I have felt unjustly criticized by this person.  Frankly, this person has never liked me much.  Sometimes no matter what we do, there are people we encounter who we just rub the wrong way.  I have done what I could to keep this relationship amicable, but it is now at a point I can no longer continue my relationship with this person.  

I keep thinking of all the possible scenarios that might result when I tell this person I am breaking off our professional relationship.  I imagine how good it would feel to tell this person off to his face.  I imagine the nasty things he might say to me, and how I might give back a stinging retort.  There is a lot I could say to him to call him out on his hypocrisy and unjustified criticism.  But what good would that do?

It might make me feel good for a short period of time to be nasty to him for once.  But in reality, it would not serve him or me good in any way.  He will not change or apologize because of my criticism of him.  It would do nothing but lower me to his level.  How much better would I feel leaving as the better man?  I will break off our professional relationship by thanking him for all he has given me during our professional relationship.  I will shake his hand.  I will do everything on my part to live up to the call of Jesus to love our enemies, to turn the other cheek, and to pray for him.  I will wish him well.  I will be the better man.

Easter and the Crucifixion of Jesus

With Easter coming up on Sunday I've been thinking a lot about Jesus' death and what he died for. I think it is often helpful in my spiritual walk at times to try and reframe some of my beliefs, not necessarily to overrule them, but to help me think of new ways a particular doctrine might be relevant.

Jesus' death is often associated with salvation for wrongs done. The question arises "why did Jesus die on the cross," and the answers come pouring in: "he took on himself the sins of the world," "he received the punishment that was due us," "he paid the debt we owed." And so it goes that the most often given answer for the reason of Jesus' death was to somehow atone for wrongs done.

Now, if you read my last blog, you know that I had a way of reframing sin as a person's hurts rather than bad behavior. This view causes us to feel empathy toward "sinners" rather than condemnation. What if we used this reframing as a way of looking at Jesus' death and resurrection. Jesus did not die to atone for sins but to bear our pains and our burdens. Jesus wasn't receiving punishment, but was taking upon himself the hurts of humankind.

We read in Isaiah 53:4 that the Messiah would "[take] up our pain and [bare] our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted." This prophetic passage even addresses that we will miss part of the point of the death of Jesus. Now, I do not deny that Jesus' death was in part done to atone for our sins. I am simply looking at an additional way his death can be viewed.

This view makes God the Father less of a cruel God who would make his son take on the punishment of the world, and more of a compassionate God that would allow his son to bear our pain and our suffering; maybe because he knows Jesus can take it.

Each one of us has a burden to bare that brings us pain. Sometimes this results in addiction, sometimes behavioral problems, and sometimes mental problems. I want all of you to know that you are good just the way you are and that God has felt our pain by suffering on the cross. By his resurrection, he showed that with him we can overcome the burdens we bare. Unlike the message we so often receive from the Christian Church, Jesus is full of love and compassion and cares about each one of us with no amount of judgment or criticism.
Blessings and happy Easter,
-Brandon

Jesus Died, a Core Doctrine: A Series on Christianity's Core Beliefs

Yesterday I talked about Jesus' divinity as core to our faith and an issue that we cannot compromise on. I brushed over the fact that Jesus' humanity is equally important in our faith, and the culmination of his humanity took place on this day nearly 2000 years ago in his death on the cross.

This is not an issue many people argue about (nor do many argue anymore that Jesus was fully God). But the point of this series is not to decide on what we should and should not argue about, but about deciding on what we can agree upon, and knowing that the rest should not points of division in the church.

That Jesus really died on the cross during the first good Friday is absolutely essential because if he did not, then he did not actually defeat death, which was the main enemy he was battling in his crucifixion. If the greatest punishment ever given was that of death, given to Adam and Eve outside of the garden, the greatest gift we can receive is victory over death. Therefore, if Jesus did not actually die, he did not accomplish what was necessary.

This is also true because of the necessity of a sacrifice for the sins of the people. Leviticus 16 discusses the day of atonement when the priest goes into the holy of holies and provides for the forgiveness of peoples sins, first by sacrificing for his own sins, and then by sending off a scapegoat with the sins of the people of Israel.
Jesus' death on the cross is necessary as the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of the people so that no sacrifice is ever needed again. If Jesus did not die, then a sacrifice is yet to be paid.

So the second core doctrine of Christianity that we need to agree on is that Jesus actually died, which will tie into the third and final core doctrine to be discussed in my next post.

Before I end this post, I want to focus for a minute on the death of Jesus. One thing we often forget is that Jesus died so that everyone will live in eternity with God, not just Christians. This does not mean that I believe in universalism and that all will be saved. What I do believe it means is that just because we are Christians we are not better than non-Christians. I think we too often have a superior attitude that makes us condemn and ridicule non-Christian sinners in ways that were not intended. But if Jesus was willing to die for them, certainly we can make the sacrifice to love them and show them love, can't we? As we move from good Friday, into Saturday, we are meant to experience the feeling of hopelessness that the disciples felt on the Saturday before the first Easter, as they felt that their chance for salvation was lost in the death of Jesus. For those two days (Good Friday and Saturday) Jesus' followers experienced the worst hurt anyone could feel, the hurt of grief. Grief over the loss of a friend. Grief over the loss of dreams and hopes. Grief over the loss of their own lives, as they had devoted the last three years to what turned out (or so they thought) to be a lie. If you can emphathize with their hurt, you can emphathize with the hurt everyone goes through. Let us use good Friday as a day to learn to love, even those that are hardest to love.
Blessings,
-Brandon