Blessing our enemies is non negotiable

Blessing our enemies is non negotiable. 

Many of you I am sure have seen the horrible news about knife attack against Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel in Sydney Australia. One of his priests was also injured, as well as some of the congregation. But Praise God no one was killed. 

It is normal and natural to have experienced anger and/or outrage over what happened. No one should ever have to fear being able to attend a place of worship, wondering if they’ll be attacked or killed. What happened was evil and inexcusable. Full stop. It does most matter what religion or denomination they belonged to, people have the right to feel safe in a place of worship. 

However, what many of us forget as Christians is we are called to not just be normal. We are called to be abnormal, called to live a life of supernatural grace. Our righteousness needs to be above and beyond that of others (Matthew 5:20). We are in the world but not of this world (John  25:19? Romans 12:2), we have been called and set apart from the world by Jesus himself to be his witnesses in the world, sanctified in truth (John 15:16-21). But this also means we are called to respond differently than the norm as well…. 

We are told to love our enemies, do good to those who hate us, pray for them and even BLESS them (Luke 6:27-28, Matthew 5:43-48, Romans 12:14,). This is something that we have heard so often that it’s easy to take for granted, or dismiss. But when we are confronted in our real life and it personally affects that - then we easily forget these teachings of Jesus and want revenge. This is where prayer and grace are essential. Because it is natural and normal to want revenge for theo who have deliberately hurt us or our family and loves ones. But to be able to resist our nature, and pray for them, to bless our enemies … this is beyond our human capacity! This requires grace and the strength of the Holy Spirit living within us (Romans 8:11). 

But what does it mean to bless? It means to wish then well, to wish them happiness and peace. It can hard to do this on the best of days for our own family members who stress us out and annoy us, let alone our enemies! But this is what Jesus teaches us to do, tells us we have to do as his disciples. It is a non negotiable. 

Now if we struggle so much with bitterness and anger against family members, or people at work we dislike, politicians or even the random person who walks slow in front of us at the shops! How will we be able to respond if we are ever in a situation like what happened in Christ the Good Shepherd Church in Sydney? If someone attacked you with a knife and stabbed you, could you honestly say you could bless them and forgive them? What about if they attacked your husband or wife or children? Could you still say you could forgive them and bless them? 

If we are honest, most of us would answer with a loud NO. 

It would be an act of heroic virtue to be able to forgive and bless someone who physically attacks us or our loved ones. Yet this is what Jesus expects of us all, and has given us the power to do through the gift of the Gospel and His Holy Spirit. He did not put limitations on who we don’t have to forgive. We do not have any excuses, we are commanded to live eachother, love others, bless those who curse and persecute or attack us. This is real Christianity! This is the harsh reality of our faith put into action in real life. 

This is why a defining characteristic of Christianity has always been the witness of the martyrs. In their death, they became living witnesses to all the world of the love of Christ that means more to them than anything in this world. The history of our martyrs is that they died either praising God, praying for their persecutors or blessing them. But they did not try to curse them or call upon God for vengeance. Nor did the pray to God to kill their enemies - instead they submitted themselves into God’s hands and thanked him for counting them worthy to die for the Gospel. 

So please take time to consider this recent terrible event and reflect upon how you are reacting to the news… 

- Are you instinctively wanting to write angry posts online about extemist terrorists? Or are you praying for the conversion of the attacker? 

- Are you asking for justice and vengeance for the victims? Or are you praying for them during this time of need for healing and consolation? 

- Are you instinctively responding by thinking “yep typical, another attack from these people from certain ethnic groups and/or religions, they’re all evil and we need to get rid of them”. Or are you praying to God to take away the bitterness and judgement in your heart, and asking God for the grace to pray for the repentance of the perpetrator and also for those who will be blamed for his actions and considered guilty by association? 

It does not matter the circumstance or situation. We are always called as Christians to pray for all, to seek after peace, do good (not just talk about it online), and to be a blessing to all in the world so corrupted by evil and sin. 

It is disappointing and disheartening to see people respond to this tragic event by saying “oh well, but he’s not a true bishop is he? Isn’t he a Nestorian or something?”. 

My response to that is “so what? If even a Nestorian behaves more Christlike than you do, then what does it say about you spiritually?”.  

I urge you all my fellow believers, not to let injustice and evil take away your joy and peace of heart. Yes it is normal to be angry and upset at unjust things, absolutely. But we also need ti understand that we cannot remain angry and bitter - because it makes us self righteous and hard heartened, eventually destroying us spiritually because we no longer have charity within us. Without love we are not Christian’s. Anyone can be angry, but true Christians forgive and bless and have love. Without love, everything we say or do is just empty and meaningless (1 Corinthians 13:2). 

We must all pray at all times (1 Thessalonians 5:17). We need to pray for those who annoy us, those who hurt us, and even those who trigger hatred within us. Those who we disagree with theologically or philosophically or politically. We don’t have to like them, but we must love risk and pray for them. We must never dehumanise those who are against us, because in the process we dehumanise ourselves by allowing hatred to rule in our heart and thus grieving the Holy Spirit within us (Ephesians 4:30-32)

Fight the good fight (1 Timothy 6:12), do good works for your enemies (Romans 12:21), bless those who curse you (Romans 12:14) - this is the way of the Cross. This is way of Jesus and his beloved disciples. May the world always know we are disciples of Christ (John 13:35), living as the true Sons of God (1 John 3:1-3).

In our current days, all us Christian’s are united by the bond of the “ecumenism of blood” as Pope Francis has stated. The outside world does not understand the internal historical, theological and doctrinal divisions between all the different denominations. It just sees us as follows of Christ, and so somehow we are “different” to them. Now is the time to unite in our prayers together, supporting eachother as fellow believers in a world becoming increasingly more hostile towards us. Death, persecution and attacks are always a possibility for us merely for believing in Christ. This was true for the martyrs in ever generation of the church, and it is still true for us today in 2024.