February Week 3 — Mission Cleveland Parish

Virtue: Love
Resolution: I choose to love God with my whole being and my neighbor as myself, especially my enemy.

Human Story: Amish community in Nickel Mines, PA

When Jesus tells his followers to love and pray for their enemies, many people may feel that this command from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is great advice but too unrealistic to actually live out. There are, in fact, very real examples of ordinary people choosing to do their best to live out this powerful and challenging command from our Savior. One of the most compelling stories comes from an Amish community in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania.

On October 2, 2006, Charles Roberts entered a one-room schoolhouse in an Amish community, gun in hand, and told the teachers and male students to leave the classroom. He then shot ten of the girls (ages 6 to 13), killing five, before taking his own life. Angry at God for the death of his premature daughter years earlier, Charles thought he was finally getting his revenge.

This devastated community now had a choice to make, “How will we respond?” They chose four ways that shocked the world and pointed directly to the power of love and grace that Jesus preached about on the Mount of Olives. First, they visited the killer's wife and children at their home to offer them forgiveness and comfort. Having just lost their husband and father, the Amish knew that they too had just had their world ripped apart. Second, they invited the killer's wife to the funeral of their girls. Their third response was financial support given to the killer’s family. Then finally, in an almost impossible act of love and forgiveness, members of the Amish community attended the funeral of Charles Roberts. At the funeral, the Amish families wrapped their arms around Charles Roberts’ wife and children. They hugged them and offered them their prayers.

One of the grandfathers was quoted as telling some of the younger boys in the community, "We should not think evil of this man." He described to them how hateful thoughts and bitterness would take root and allow the sin of this act to bring even more death to their community by creating the same holes in their hearts that the killer had in his. Another Amish man said, "I feel bad for the gunman. He had a mother, a wife, and a soul and is now standing before a just God.” In response to their incredible compassion, the wife of the killer said, "Your love for our family has helped to provide the healing we so desperately need... Gifts you've given have touched our hearts in a way no words can describe. ... Your compassion has reached beyond our family, beyond our community, and is changing our world, and for this we sincerely thank you."

Through heartache and tears, the people of this Amish community chose the more difficult path of loving their enemies, knowing this path would bring true healing to their own deep pain. They believed that the path of forgiveness would allow them to eventually let go of anger, bitterness, and the desire for revenge. It’s a long and difficult path, but they knew they wouldn’t walk it alone. They held on to this truth, because the Savior who commands us to love the unlovable is the One who prayed for those who nailed Him to a cross.

Lesson: Matthew 5:43-46 (NIV)

“You have heard that is was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?"

Jesus' command to love your enemies is the type of passage that can tempt us to create a distinction between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament - one angry and ready to judge, the other meek and ready to forgive. But there is only one God and He has been and will be the same for all eternity. In fact, the author of Matthew strives in his gospel to connect Jesus to the Hebrew Scriptures and paint Him as the culmination of everything the Old Testament points toward. So when Jesus uses this phrase, "You have heard that it was said...But I tell you," it is important to remember that Jesus is not undermining the Old Testament. Rather, He is undermining the liberties taken by popular rabbinic teaching, and by doing so, bringing His audience back to the original intent of the Law of Moses.

Never in the Old Testament are we commanded to hate our enemies. Quite the opposite, we are given examples of God’s people being compelled and commanded to love their enemies: David spared Saul’s life, though Saul was actively looking to end David’s (1 Samuel 24); Elisha healed Naaman, a general of Syria, Israel’s enemy (2 Kings 5); Jonah allowed himself to be used by God to bring grace and salvation to the city of Nineveh, despite his personal feelings of anger against its people. Proverbs 25:21 spells it out clearly, “If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.” The God of the Old Testament delights when His people love and serve their enemies. Why? Because it makes His heart known to the world. It manifested His character. Ultimately, the Old Testament is a story of God's tenacious love and faithfulness to His children, even during their own unfaithfulness.

While we were still His enemies, God loved us enough to devise a plan of ultimate self-sacrifice, that we might return to Him as His children. Let us then live as His children, loving the world and our enemies as He first loved us.

Remembrance

Christian Love from The Valley of Vision (A Puritan Prayer)

O LOVER OF THE LOVELESS,
It is thy will that I should love thee
with heart, soul, mind, strength,
and my neighbor as myself.
But I am not sufficient for these things.
There is by nature no pure love in my soul;
Every affection in me is turned from thee;
I am bound, a slave to lust,
I cannot love thee, lovely as thou art,
until thou dost set me free.
By grace I am thy freeman and would serve thee,
for I believe thou art my God in Jesus,
and that through him I am redeemed,
and my sins are forgiven.
With this freedom I would always obey thee,
but I cannot walk in liberty,
any more than I could first attain it, of myself.
May thy Spirit draw me nearer to thee and thy ways.
Thou art the end of all means,
for if they lead me not to thee,
I go away empty.
Order all my ways by thy holy Word
and make thy commandments the joy of my heart, that by them I may have happy converse with thee. May I grow in thy love and manifest it to mankind.
Spirit of love, make me like the loving Jesus; give me his benevolent temper,
his beneficent actions,
that I may shine before men to thy glory.
The more thou doest in love in me and by me, humble me the more;
keep me meek, lowly,
and always ready to give thee honour.

Challenge

While we may not experience intense persecution like the early church, we may have strained relationships and/or enemies in a different sense. Take a step toward reconciling a broken relationship this week (even if it is a small step, like praying for the person/people).

Reflection

Thinking back to the Matthew 5 lesson, consider serving your enemy. How would this make God's heart known to the world?

Further Growth

2023: Last Sunday of Epiphany (Transfiguration)

Old Testament: Exodus 24:12-18
Psalm: Psalm 99
New Testament: Philippians 3:7-14
Gospel: Matthew 17:1-9