Sermon – Destroying Your Enemies
Genesis 33:1-12; Luke 23:32-38
Farmville Presbyterian Church
7/28/24
We have spent the last two weeks considering what to do with those who are against us, even our enemies. This week it is how to get rid of our enemies.
At my home, it has been ants lately. The hot, dry weather has driven ants into our home for a few weeks. They stream in from some random location. One of the more interesting spots was my daughter’s room, magically appearing at one place in the carpet with no discernable trail. Despite my best efforts to comfort our insect sensitive daughter, she still contended that they looked like baby spiders. So the ant bait came forth. There are far, far fewer ants now in our home. Our larger solution for our larger enemies is not that different. Not that we are baiting them with poison, but we are disposed to eliminate them.
The more “civilized” response is just beating someone into weakness or submission. The Civil War is a good example of this. The North even let the South leave with their guns. They were beaten, surrendered, and trusted to play nicely. I’m not so sure that worked very well.
In another context, how many of us believe we will never hear from Al-Qaeda or Isis, again? Will the Houthis really just give up one day? Beating an enemy into a surrender and lasting peace only works if they are willing to abide by the agreement. History is says something different, however, if sowing salt into the losers’ farmland, hauling key portions of a population into slavery, or cutting off important fingers of fighting men is any indication. Even the brutality of the Romans with crucifixion only postponed at least two rounds of violent revolution in Israel. The exceptions were post-WW2 Germany and Japan, but Germany was split into two countries for decades (one of which remained an enemy), and Japan capitulated only after watching many, many of their lives disappear instantly in nuclear cataclysm.
If we want to think like the world tends to think, then the only way to ensure that our enemy will no longer be a problem is to destroy them. Otherwise, we give them time to rebuild and for us to develop more lethal weapons, but our enemy list is not shrinking. I would suggest it is growing.
We are far too comfortable with destroying others, with treating those who are against us with contempt and malice. I myself was outraged on September 11, 2001. Looking back, I’m not sure how our national response made the world a safer place. More locally, our love of guns seems to have very little impact on our safety and security. When I see open carry, it actually makes me feel less safe. At the recent Republican convention, it was perfectly permissible to have any kind of gun in the “soft” security zone outside the convention center, but tennis balls among other things were not permitted. Those dangerous tennis balls. Our obsession with guns will not make the world a more loving place.
Dangerous times also define our stories today from Scripture. In Genesis, Jacob is finally returning home after decades of being away. When he left home to begin a new life, it was in a dramatic hurry because he had stolen his brother’s birthright. As the older brother, Esau should have gotten most of the family wealth, including the blessing and the promise of God passed down through father Isaac. Jacob literally impersonated his brother and stole the birthright through lies and deceit. And so, he fled very quickly. Esau was the hunter, the warrior, and he wanted blood when he found out.
Jacob expected it to be ugly when he returned, and he planned to pay off his brother with lavish gifts, but Jacob is also crafty. He sees his brother coming toward him with a big group of fighting men. Jacob has four wives at this point and children by all of them. This is a big, big family. He puts his least favorite wives out front with their children to meet Esau first. Then, his next least favorite wife with her children. And his favorite wife is back in the back with their child. Talk about a canary in a coalmine. If Esau attacks the first group, then he can get away with whomever is most important. If they get through safely, however, then he will probably also be ok.
Esau does something completely unexpected, though. Even though Esau promised to kill Jacob a few chapters previously, he embraces Jacob now. He hugs Jacob and weeps on him. He refuses Jacob’s guilt offering gifts and welcomes him home. This is a completely unexpected result. No one saw this coming. Esau forgave Jacob (who still cannot believe it). The trickster is nervous about walking back with Esau still and asks to delay with a lame excuse that his people are weak. Esau is sincere, however. True forgiveness is so unexpected in the world.
That is also what Jesus shared on the cross in a situation even more unexpected. Who forgives the very people who are killing you for something you never did? That is absurdity upon absurdity, but there is something incredibly important and incredibly special and profoundly needed about this.
We would not probably remember what happened in October of 2006 in Nickel Mines, PA, but we would remember if I brought up an Amish school and a shooting that injured 5 and killed 5 – all girls. Charles Roberts was a milk truck driver who carried out those murders. He knew that community and still unleashed that evil. The community responded by attending his funeral, embracing his family, and giving to them what they needed to survive financially. They forgave.
On June 17, 2015, Dylann Roof attended a bible study at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC. He attended the Bible study, and then murdered nine people in a mass shooting he hoped would start a race war. At his sentencing, however, members of the church who experienced his hate and violence spoke up with tones of forgiveness and prayed God’s mercy on him.
Sadly, examples of true, radical forgiveness are not very common. This is sad because forgiveness is the only way we can in good faith get rid of our enemies. We get rid of them by freeing everyone from the shame and guilt and hate. We get rid of our enemies by no longer considering them enemies. Our enemies disappear when we see the other as a human being who needs God’s love and ours.
Forgiveness is the single most important way that we resemble God. This is how we are most like God. We can forgive anything we chose to forgive. No one can take that power away from us. No one can steal that freedom. We are just as free as God to forgive whatever we choose to forgive. This is one magnificent way we show we understand God’s heart.
What I found especially interesting is that forgiveness is fundamentally about relationships. We need God’s forgiveness so that we can have a right relationship with God. We also need to treat others with forgiveness so that we can have better relationships with them and God. The Apostle Paul underscores in his writing to forgive as we have been forgiven. It is our moral imperative to be a forgiving people. This will make the world a better place, a more loving place.
Yes, I entirely understand and appreciate how difficult this is. It is not natural to forgive. We may never see the person who needs forgiveness or talk to them. It might not be safe to be around that person. But we do not have to be there to express our desire for freedom. We can still forgive people in our hearts, releasing them from shame and guilt and hatred. We can forgive people from a place of safety and wisdom. This does not mean we throw the brain out the window, but when Peter asked Jesus how many times we should forgive our sister or brother, the answer was very clear – every time. Even if we must live with the scars and nightmares.
…Unless you believe there are people out there who are so worthless that they do not deserve forgiveness. That is a real, human reaction. That is a normal, natural response. We very quickly judge others, especially those who hurt us, and we carry grudges to our grave. If we do carry unforgiveness, though, our relationship with God is also hurting – maybe broken. The same Jesus who taught us to pray for forgiveness as we have forgiven, understands that we are all on equal footing here. No one deserves forgiveness for anything that we have done, and yet, we are all given forgiveness because we are precious in God’s sight – every single one of us can embrace the full forgiveness of our Heavenly Father.
We could tell God that God is wrong, that so and so is not deserving of forgiveness. That seems pretty arrogant. Or maybe we like having enemies. Maybe we are so used to keeping an angry spirit or resentful heart that we don’t know how to release it. There is only one way, and it is easy. We let it go. We forgive. We are all sinners and we are also all in God’s grace.
Let us pray…. Amen.