Friday 26 January 2018

Psalm: Psalm 8

Background

This is an immensely rich passage of Scripture setting out the principles of compassion and deferred gratification. Think chiefly about the general good, not your own. Do not decide your course of action by the short-term advantage to yourself. Take the long view—the very long view! In particular, do not count yourselves virtuous because you are ‘nice’ and ‘kind’ to your friends. Such virtues can be found in many people who make no claim to be Christians. Likewise, we know that there are those who claim to hold the name of Jesus dear whose attitudes and conduct leave us bitterly disappointed.

The message here, surely, is that we are to cast our merciful and loving net much wider, to include our enemies. Here Jesus is talking not simply about tolerance toward those who take a view of life that is different from our own. That is no more than ‘live and let live’. Underlying this version of ‘tolerance’ can often be found a qualification that is rarely made explicit: ‘as long as they play by the same rules’. Surely Jesus’ injunction to love your enemies refers to people who seek to do you serious harm, ie people who are not willing to play by the same rules.

Now that is a real challenge, especially when the enemy is perceived to be not my enemy personally, but the enemy of things I hold very dear—my family, my nation, even the gospel and the Christian faith. Somehow or other—and I make no pretence that this is a no-brainer—we have to fit all these into one and the same framework, if only because Jesus gives us no warrant to do otherwise.

To Ponder

• Jesus was once asked: “Who is my neighbour?” (Luke 10:29). Perhaps we could helpfully ask ourselves: who is my enemy?
• What does this Gospel reading say about the response expected of us?