I often admit that some of the teachings of Jesus are very difficult to follow, and humans prove this every day. Like loving one’s enemy or turning the other cheek. Even loving your neighbor can often feel impossible. In Matthew 5, which is probably the most famous version of the Beatitudes (the Blessed Sayings), Jesus taught that anger is the same as murder – that looking at someone with lust is the same as adultery – that we shouldn’t resist someone doing evil – and those are just a few of the impossible teachings. 1 Peter reiterated that hating someone will get us sent to hell, because hating someone is the same as being a murderer – his words, not mine. Common sense tells us that there has to be more to these lessons, but we cannot deny their existence. We are much more comfortable with metaphors.
Both Jesus and the writer of 1 Peter also tell us that love is the most important thing, and even the most curmudgeonly among us can point to a place or time or event that we love. Jesus, in the same chapter of Matthew, also said, “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?” It seems that love is not dependent on having the feeling returned, and it is neither familial nor romantic love that satisfies Jesus in this case. 1 Peter goes on to tell us that if we have the world’s goods and refuse to help people in need, we don’t understand what real love is. Jesus told His disciples – and us – that not helping people who are struggling or hungry or in prison will send us to hell. If we see someone in need and don’t help them, we don’t really love them. Yikes!
Hate sends us to hell. I can tell you that I – and a lot of good people I have known over the years – have experienced hatred. For me, it was always connected to the way someone was treating others, whether it was by being abusive or greedy or controlling or some other bad thing. I have known a lot of bad people who I think might have ended up in hell – is that hatred? Jesus might say so. Those feelings, thankfully, eventually went away, but for a moment, I felt justified in them. Hate is something anyone can experience, and it is often reasonable, but like holding a grudge, hanging on to hate only injures the hater. And it can’t heal the person we are upset about. Hate is also not the same as dislike, just as the command to love is not the same as like, which Jesus never tells us we must do. I don’t like every person who comes to the church for help, but I must love them. If I don’t, I am in danger of hating them, and that hatred will only injure me. Because God’s love cannot live in a person who hates – there is no room for both. It isn’t easy, but it is necessary.
Prayer – Merciful God, heal us when we feel hatred towards others, and teach us to love those who seem unlovable. Amen.
Today’s art is “Self-Hatred” by Rolando Duartes.