Smoodock's Blog

For the past four themes, Jesus had been addressing broken relationships. both between men and God and men and their brethren. For the most part, however, he addressed human relationships, but with the idea of honoring God within those relationships. In his fifth distinction, which he made between what he taught and what the scribes and Pharisees taught, Jesus more or less summed up what he had already said. What was expected in a good relationship, vis-à-vis one in which there is much agreement? In contrast, what would one expect to see in a bad or broken relationship, when offenses and insults are frequent, when vows and promises are not kept, where reputations are destroyed, or when a court of law is used to satisfy a presumed obligation or offense? Good relationships are enjoyable and satisfying, but how does one address those that are injurious, disappointing and seem to be without hope of any good or fruitful end?

Jesus began by referring his disciples to what they probably heard taught by the Jewish authorities, vis-à-vis “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy” (Matthew 5:43). While such teaching isn’t found in the Oral Law (Talmud), it seems to have been taught by the Jewish authorities of the first century AD. For example, in the Qumran community it was taught in the Manual of Discipline that members should seek God and obey Moses and the Prophets, so “they may love all the sons of light, each according to his lot in God’s design, and hate all the sons of darkness, each according to his guilt in God’s vengeance.”[1] While the Qumran community was a Jewish sect that separated itself from perceived compromises in Jewish life, their teaching did affect folks who weren’t members of their society, and this can be understood in the manner in which the Jewish authorities treated Jesus. They hated him for no good reason, except to say they disagreed with him, and they feared his influence over the people. Later, these same Jewish authorities manifested their hatred for Jesus’ followers by including their teaching in what is called the Amida Prayer,[2] which, in effect, stopped Jewish Christians from worshiping with their Jewish brethren:

“For the apostates let there be no hope, and may the kingdom of the arrogant be quickly uprooted in our days, and may the Natzarim and minim instantly perish; may they be blotted from the book of the living, and may they not be written with the righteous. Blessed are you, Lord, humbler of the arrogant…”[3]

In contrast, Jesus taught his disciples to love their enemies, those who hate, curse and slander them, and those who persecute them, because the Lord God causes his blessings to fall upon the righteous and the unrighteous together. He loves everyone, even those who have rebelled against him, and if we wish to be like our Father (Genesis 1:27), and be known as his children, we need to behave as he does (Matthew 5:44-45).

Think about it, if all you do is love and welcome those who love and welcome you, how can you be distinguished from anyone else in the world? Don’t even the tax collectors, contextually evil men, love and welcome their own (Matthew 5:46-47)?

The point is, strive to be like God, our Father (Genesis 1:27), and he is perfect, meaning he is fully mature (like ripe fruit). He doesn’t need to do more to be complete, and that is what we, as Jesus’ disciples, need to aspire to (Matthew 5:48).

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[1] Alex P. Jassen, “Rule of the Community,” in Outside the Bible: Ancient Jewish Writings Related to Scripture: Translation, ed. Louis H. Feldman, James L. Kugel, and Lawrence H. Schiffman, vol. 3 (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society, 2013), 2929.

[2] The Amida Prayer was discovered in the genizah of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo (see footnote #3 below), an entire section was devoted to cursing enemies. This prayer was said three times each day, four times on the Sabbath, and five times on High Holy days. Here, they curse Christians (Natzarim).

[3] David Instone-Brewer, Prayer and Agriculture, vol. 1, Traditions of the Rabbis from the Era of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004), 97–101