CORPS RESOURCES

the spiritual DiscipliNe of prayer for eNemiesby Rebecca Walker

“You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons 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? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than

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others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:43-48, See also Lk 6:28, 35-36 and Ro 12:14, 17-21).

eVeryoNe has eNemies

Even if you only drive in our society, “you will fi nd people who curse you, and you will be given the challenge of blessing them” [1].

In our western context, the suff ering that appears to be most common is that of the broken heart, of rejection and being ignored and despised [2]. Everyone gets hurt; everyone has to deal with people in their lives who do not like them. Indeed, Jesus’ instruction to “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” assumes that we will have enemies; otherwise there would be no need for this teaching.

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Notes

1 Willard D. The Great Omission: Reclaiming Jesus's essential teachings on discipleship. Oxford, UK.: Monarch Books.; 2006.2 Nouwen H. Life of the Beloved and Our Greatest Gift: Two Inspiring Classics in one volume. London, UK.: Hodder and Stoughton; 2002.3 Bridges J. Trusting God Even when Life Hurts. Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress; 1988.4 Ferguson SB. The Sermon on the Mount: Kingdom Life in a Fallen World. Edinburgh, UK: The Banner of Truth Trust; 1987.5 Bonhoeffer D. The Cost of Discipleship. New York, NY: Touchstone; 1959.6 Foxe J. Foxe's Christian Martyrs of the World. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.7 Stassen GH. Healing the Rift Between the Sermon on the Mount and Christian Ethics. Studies in Christian Ethics. 2005;18(3):89-105.8 McLaren BD. The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the truth that could change everything. Nashville, TN.: Thomas Nelson; 2006.

spiritual DiscipliNes & saNctificatioN

Spiritual disciplines, or practices, are a means by which we put on the new person. They are “regular activities that are in our power, [that enable us to] become what we could not be by direct effort. If we …follow Jesus in what he did …we will find ourselves led and enabled to behave as he did when he was ‘on the spot’” [1].

In Romans 8:28-9 we learn that God uses all things for the purpose of conforming us to the image of Christ. There are some things we can only learn experientially, “real change—down in the depth of our souls—is produced as the tenets of Scripture are worked out in real life” [3]. We cannot grow in patience and long-suffering without circumstances that cause us to long-suffer. Likewise, if Christian “love is not determined by the loveliness or the attractiveness [one] finds in its object” [4], then it cannot be born in us without someone unlovely to love.

Our role in the process of sanctification is to work with the Holy Spirit to implement the virtues that He himself is working on in us through various circumstances of life. This is where spiritual disciplines come in. If the Holy Spirit identifies patience, longsuffering and love as virtues that He wishes us to develop, then when our patience is tested we should practise responding with patience, longsuffering and love.

uNDerstaNDiNg the practice

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “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” (Mt 5:44-5). Jesus draws a parallel in character between those who love their enemies and the Father who is non-discriminating in his love for both the righteous and the unrighteous.

Bonhoeffer wrote that when we pray for our enemies, we go and stand alongside them, and make prayers to God on their behalf. Prayer for enemies does not ensure that they will desist in their behaviour, rather by praying for them we overcome and take on

their distress and poverty, their guilt and perdition …and [plead] to God for them. We are doing vicariously for them what they cannot do for themselves. Every insult they utter only serves to bind us more closely to God and them. Their persecution of us only serves to bring them nearer to reconciliation with God and to further the triumphs of love. How then does love conquer? … it is not the disciple’s own love, but the love of Jesus Christ alone, who for the sake of his enemies went to the cross and prayed for them as he hung there. In the face of the cross the disciples realised that they too were his enemies, and that he had overcome them by his love. It is this that opens the disciple’s eyes, and enables him to see his enemy as a brother [5].

Jesus did not just preach love of enemies; he lived it out on a daily basis. This was most compellingly demonstrated on the cross when Christ prayed “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Lk 23:34).There have also been many examples from history of Christians who have lived this out. This was displayed in Stephen the first martyr’s prayer for his enemies as they stoned him [4]. It was also displayed in the hospitality of Polycarp who made his captors dinner before they took him to be burnt alive [6].

traNsformatioN

The goal of praying for enemies, is not just a replacement for retaliation, it is not a primarily passive stance. Instead, the Sermon on the Mount is structured around threefold “transforming initiatives”, from Matthew 5:21 to 7:12 each of the fourteen teachings climaxes with transformation [7]. The point, it seems, is not to suffer endlessly under ceaseless abuse. Instead God wills that “[people] should defeat their enemies by loving them” [5]. Willingness to suffer is part of the picture, as it provides a platform from which peacemaking can take place [7]. However, the Sermon on the Mount “introduced radical new ways of responding to injustice: nonviolent resistance, conflict transformation, and active peacemaking” [8]. Transformation in such situations flows out of an “assertion of compassionate justice and firm determination disciplined by faith in God's strategy of deliverance”, not self-assertion [7].

a prayer for our eNemies

A paraphrase of the priestly blessing from Joshua 6:24-26 is a possible blessing that could be prayed for enemies, and those who hurt or persecute us:

LORD please bless [name] and keep [him/her/them]

LORD make Your face shine upon [name] and be gracious to [name]

LORD turn Your face toward [name] and give [him/her/them] peace.