| by Jonathan Kuttab But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, (Matthew 5:44) Jesus’ command for his followers to love their enemies is one of the hardest tasks he placed on his disciples. Many Palestinian Christians currently wrestle with the commandment to love their enemies when it comes to Israelis actively involved in persecuting them and committing untold horrors upon them. Some argue that love is an emotion they cannot control. “I’m sorry but I just cannot love them” blurted one old lady at a Sabeel bible study. Despite this reasonable gut response, the commandment to pray for our tormentors is very specific and direct, and calls for an action: praying. It has nothing to do with emotions. The theological basis for this commandment is clear. When we pray for our enemies, we find it harder to demonize or dehumanize them. We have to think of their best interests, and try to build up empathy for them. Prayer denies us the comfort of tribalism and the simplicity of splitting the world into “us” and “them” perpetuating binary cycles of violence, revenge and hatred. Praying for our enemies does not mean at all that we approve of their actions, or that we accept their excuses or justifications, or downplay the impact on us or our compatriots or on innocent victims of their evil actions. Neither does it mean that we cease to tirelessly work to put an end to their unjust behaviour. We pray for them despite all their wrongdoings because, as followers of Jesus, we believe in the humanity of every person. So how are we to pray for them, and who then are our “enemies” that we need to pray for? It cannot be all Israelis, or especially all Jews, as some of them are our best allies who also oppose our oppression (refer to my previous post on Righteous Jews). We might consider our enemies as those 62% of Israelis who believe we should be treated like Amalek (to be mercilessly exterminated). It might also apply to the 82% who believe Palestinians should be deported from Palestine through forced “voluntary emigration” after their livelihoods are destroyed and their territory made unlivable. It might apply to the 76% who according to a recent poll said they were not bothered at all by Palestinian children starving. For those, we need to pray that they be delivered from the Jewish-supremacist ideology they learnt in their schools and institutions which teaches them that they are entitled to domination and exclusive control over the Land and its indigenous population—and that through divine promise, Balfour generosity, Western guilt, or sheer power, they believe that they deserve to be in charge. We need to pray that they be healed from the historical traumas of past anti-Jewish bigotry and of the feeling that they will always be hated and never enjoy true equality anywhere where they are not in power—to be healed from the mirage that their security can be obtained only through “blood and iron” and the creation of overwhelming deterrence over Arabs and Palestinians. We need to pray that they be healed from the scourge of racism that allows them to dehumanize Palestinians and treat them with disdain and superiority. We pray that they be given the vision and the courage to imagine a better future based on mutual respect and coexistence, not on domination and control. Prayer gets harder when we try to pray for such apparent monsters and war criminals as Netanyahu, Gantz, Ben Gvir, Smotrich and the sadistic soldiers who post their war crimes on social media and who mock and gloat over the suffering and destruction they create. Yet these people who are currently oppressing us are precisely who we are commanded to pray for. It seems there are none so evil that God has given up on them, for God continues to shine God’s love on the righteous and the sinners alike. What makes this commandment so difficult is that prayer is not just the expression of desiring good things and blessings for our enemies, but also that by making these prayers, we are positioning ourselves to form a different relationship to our enemies. Daoud Nassar, of Tent of Nations, painted on a rock in his farm the slogan “we refuse to be enemies”. Jesus himself refuses to treat Samaritans as enemies, and even on the cross was asking God to forgive those who were torturing him. As Phil Yancey said in his book on prayer, that when we pray, we are also committing ourselves to be God’s instruments to bring about the results we are praying for. While in praying, we are placing the matter in God’s hands, yet prayer is not merely making a wish and asking God to bring it about, but at some level, it requires of us a willingness to be the vehicle to bring about the results we pray for. |
