Lent Day 38: April 21--Maundy Thursday

For this Maundy Thursday devotion, we welcome guest blogger John Harris, who is also my husband! John reflects on what it means to" love our enemies."

Lenten Reflection for Day 38

Date: Thursday April 21, 2011 (Maundy Thursday)

Author: John Harris

Bible Passage:

Luke 6:27–28 (NRSV)

²⁷ “But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.

Reflection:

“Love your enemies...!!!” In his humorous tale, The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis relates how two devils, an uncle and his vastly inexperienced nephew, go about tempting Christians to turn their backs on God. In one amusing example, Uncle Screwtape admonishes his nephew that despite his “patient’s” Christianity being tested by being drafted into the World War II British Army, beware of trying to inflame hatred of the Germans in this particular Christian.

Screwtape writes, “The results of such fearful hatred are often most disappointing, and of all humans the English are in this respect the most deplorable milksops. They are creatures of that miserable sort who loudly proclaim that torture is too good for their enemies and then give tea and cigarettes to the first wounded German pilot who turns up at the back door.”

“Blessed are the ‘milksops,’ for they will be called children of God.” Blessing those who curse or abuse us is hard doctrine, particularly for American Christians who historically have not suffered tyrants gracefully. After all, we hold in contempt world leaders like Neville Chamberlain who refused to draw a line in the sand to monsters like Adolph Hitler. Chamberlain’s name has become a synonym for appeasement.

So what is a Christian “milksop” to do? Do we become conscientious objectors, pacifists who refuse to take part in just causes and watch innocent people succumb to evil. Bonhoeffer, himself, was executed for taking part in a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler. Do we turn the other cheek and watch 6,000,000 Europeans go up in smoke?

I do not believe that Jesus is asking us to ignore evil in the world. He wants us to stop the evil and then offer our enemies “tea and cigarettes.” He is asking us, to paraphrase President Lincoln after Lee’s surrender at Appomattox, to let our enemies “up easy.” We need always to listen to our enemies and let them “up easy.”

Prayer: Jesus, it is hard to let our enemies “up easy.” It is too easy to repay evil with evil. Open our hearts to listen to our enemies and to repay them with kindness. Amen.