Presented to the Riverside Cafe, 10 February 2017
Read Matthew 5:43-48
This week I have seen a lot of hatred in
the news and social media. People hate this person. People hate that person. People
hate this person for hating that person and people hate those people because
they all hate these people.
I watched Star Wars the other evening with my daughters. There is a pivotal
moment in the movie franchise, Star Wars,
where Darth Vader is trying to turn Luke from the Light to the Darkness; how
does he try to do this? He tries to do this by making him hate. He tells Luke
that only his hatred can destroy his enemy: this is a lie of Darth Vader and
this is also a lie of our enemy, the Enemy, the devil. In the real world, hate
cannot defeat evil; hate can only become evil. Hate is what turns a good
person, bad; it is love, Jesus’ love, which redeems us.
Martin Luther King Jr said, “Hatred
paralyzes life; love releases it. Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life; love illuminates it.” “Let no man pull you so low as to
hate him.” “I have decided to stick to love...Hate is too great a burden to
bear.”
‘Do you know what the stupidest expression
in the world is?’ - a firefighter once asked me - ‘fight fire with fire;’ ‘you
don’t fight fire with fire; that just causes a bigger fire!’ It is the same
with hate. Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that. If I get drawn
into hating someone because they hate something or someone than I have just
caused love to shrink and hate to grow. If on the other hand we love our
enemies and pray for those who persecute us, then even we may be called children
of our Father in heaven. If we love more than just those who love us than
indeed we may even be perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect. Therefore let
us resolve to love one another and let us wish each other well - even those who
may wish us ill.
What does it look like to love our enemies?
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