Love that Seeks and Holds
January 27, 2013
This past Friday marked the celebration of the Feast of St. Paul, the Christian apostle and missionary who is well-known for his encounter with the resurrected and ascended Jesus on the road to Damascus shortly after the birth of Christianity. A religious zealot prior to this experience, Paul – then named Saul – was known for his persecution of Christians in league with the ruling authorities of the time. In our day we might label Saul a “terrorist” for his brutal acts, including his approval of the execution of Stephen, a deacon of the early church in Jerusalem, who ran afoul of the controlling religious leaders of his day.
Saul was an enemy of the church, if ever the church had an enemy. Not only did he oversee the death of Stephen, but Saul is the one given credit for “ravaging the church,” dragging off Christians, men and women alike, to prisons, leading Christians to flee their homes to avoid Saul’s savagery in Jerusalem. Not being satisfied to imprison some and drive away others, Saul left for Damascus in pursuit of Christians, receiving permission from the religious leaders to do so. It was on the way to fulfill this mission that Saul encountered the blinding light and piercing voice that would call him to another mission altogether.
We see, then, that God was seeking Saul, not to condemn him but to save him, and to turn the newly named Paul toward that other mission to love the world for whom God sent his Son, not “to condemn the world but in order that the world through him might be saved.” Saul, the enemy of the church, found the love of God and became Paul, the great missionary of the Christian faith.
And this leads me to ask myself how I, who claim to follow Christ, think toward my enemies. I’ll admit that I don’t naturally think of other people as enemies; I suspect many of us are not prone to enmity in that way. But it is true that we all know people who have hurt us in various ways, and some know all too well the vicious cruelty some humans can dispense upon another.
The term “enemy” derives from the Latin “inimicus,” a term formed by adding the privative prefix “in” to the term “amicus,” which means “friend.” Our enemy is our “anti-friend,” one not concerned with our well being but rather wishing to do us harm or injury of some kind. The teachings of Jesus call us to consider just how we treat our “anti-friends.” We are, in the words of Jesus, to love our enemy, and this Jesus did when he called the murderous Saul to become missionary Paul.
And so again I ask how we who follow Christ think toward our enemies. Our reflex, our innate response, should be to love them. Or, even if it isn’t, our considered response to them should be, after careful reflection, to love them. Either way, the Christian response to the hatred of anti-friends is unbridled love.
Just today a Facebook post by an acquaintance was brought to my attention that will help illustrate the point. This fellow is a self-proclaimed Christian and, in fact, pastors a church. He commented on a vulgar post about the sitting US President with the quip: “Obama smokes crack with fag boys. Silly Faggit.” We’ll for the moment overlook the man’s misspelling of an offensive term (and the fact that his comment had nothing to do with the content of the article), and focus on the utter lack of love displayed by such a statement. It is as if the teaching of Jesus has been construed to mean that one’s response to another perceived as “anti-friend” (enemy) is “anti-love.”
We also might ask if this pastor fulfills the Christian command to pray for those in authority, including his president, but more than that, or shall I say, before that – because it is the foundation of such meaningful prayer – can this man find it within himself to display love for one he perceives to be his enemy (whether he should consider him “enemy” or not is another matter). God did that for Saul, and surely one who claims the name of Christ, especially those entrusted with preaching the Christian gospel, should do the same.
Every time we read or hear or preach Paul’s writings, the church is implicitly tutored about how to love those we call “enemy.” Jesus is their friend, and so should we be.
The old hymn, “We sing the glorious conquest,” which narrates the experience of Paul on the Damascus road, in its closing lines reminds us how the enemy of God can be transformed:
And in Thy boldest foeman
Thy chosen saint can find.
In the second verse of that hymn we are reminded just how such transformation takes place:
Oh, glory most excelling
That smote across his path!
Oh, light that pierced and blinded
The zealot in his wrath!
Oh, voice that spake within him
The calm, reproving word!
Oh, love that sought and held him
The bondman of his Lord!
It is the God who in Christ seeks and holds his enemies – and we are all by nature just that – who teaches us to love our enemies as well. This is the very essence of Christianity. It is the gospel. It is this love that leads us toward the truth.
Saul was an enemy of the church, if ever the church had an enemy. Not only did he oversee the death of Stephen, but Saul is the one given credit for “ravaging the church,” dragging off Christians, men and women alike, to prisons, leading Christians to flee their homes to avoid Saul’s savagery in Jerusalem. Not being satisfied to imprison some and drive away others, Saul left for Damascus in pursuit of Christians, receiving permission from the religious leaders to do so. It was on the way to fulfill this mission that Saul encountered the blinding light and piercing voice that would call him to another mission altogether.
We see, then, that God was seeking Saul, not to condemn him but to save him, and to turn the newly named Paul toward that other mission to love the world for whom God sent his Son, not “to condemn the world but in order that the world through him might be saved.” Saul, the enemy of the church, found the love of God and became Paul, the great missionary of the Christian faith.
And this leads me to ask myself how I, who claim to follow Christ, think toward my enemies. I’ll admit that I don’t naturally think of other people as enemies; I suspect many of us are not prone to enmity in that way. But it is true that we all know people who have hurt us in various ways, and some know all too well the vicious cruelty some humans can dispense upon another.
The term “enemy” derives from the Latin “inimicus,” a term formed by adding the privative prefix “in” to the term “amicus,” which means “friend.” Our enemy is our “anti-friend,” one not concerned with our well being but rather wishing to do us harm or injury of some kind. The teachings of Jesus call us to consider just how we treat our “anti-friends.” We are, in the words of Jesus, to love our enemy, and this Jesus did when he called the murderous Saul to become missionary Paul.
And so again I ask how we who follow Christ think toward our enemies. Our reflex, our innate response, should be to love them. Or, even if it isn’t, our considered response to them should be, after careful reflection, to love them. Either way, the Christian response to the hatred of anti-friends is unbridled love.
Just today a Facebook post by an acquaintance was brought to my attention that will help illustrate the point. This fellow is a self-proclaimed Christian and, in fact, pastors a church. He commented on a vulgar post about the sitting US President with the quip: “Obama smokes crack with fag boys. Silly Faggit.” We’ll for the moment overlook the man’s misspelling of an offensive term (and the fact that his comment had nothing to do with the content of the article), and focus on the utter lack of love displayed by such a statement. It is as if the teaching of Jesus has been construed to mean that one’s response to another perceived as “anti-friend” (enemy) is “anti-love.”
We also might ask if this pastor fulfills the Christian command to pray for those in authority, including his president, but more than that, or shall I say, before that – because it is the foundation of such meaningful prayer – can this man find it within himself to display love for one he perceives to be his enemy (whether he should consider him “enemy” or not is another matter). God did that for Saul, and surely one who claims the name of Christ, especially those entrusted with preaching the Christian gospel, should do the same.
Every time we read or hear or preach Paul’s writings, the church is implicitly tutored about how to love those we call “enemy.” Jesus is their friend, and so should we be.
The old hymn, “We sing the glorious conquest,” which narrates the experience of Paul on the Damascus road, in its closing lines reminds us how the enemy of God can be transformed:
And in Thy boldest foeman
Thy chosen saint can find.
In the second verse of that hymn we are reminded just how such transformation takes place:
Oh, glory most excelling
That smote across his path!
Oh, light that pierced and blinded
The zealot in his wrath!
Oh, voice that spake within him
The calm, reproving word!
Oh, love that sought and held him
The bondman of his Lord!
It is the God who in Christ seeks and holds his enemies – and we are all by nature just that – who teaches us to love our enemies as well. This is the very essence of Christianity. It is the gospel. It is this love that leads us toward the truth.
