Do You Grieve for Your Adversary?

As I continue on my journey in Moody Graduate School this fall, my various assignments, readings, and papers have taken me to places I have seldom visited. In one class we are to write a paper on the Sermon on the Mount, commonly referenced as the Beatitudes. In another class (Old Testament Literature and Themes) I am reading through various Psalms of David. Certainly these two activities would not be related, right?

Wrong! Psalm 35:11-14 says:

Malicious witnesses come forward;
They question me about things
I do not know.
They repay me evil for good,
making me desolate.
Yet when they were sick,
my clothing was sackcloth;
I humbled myself with fasting,
and my prayer was genuine.
I went about grieving as if
for my friend or brother;
I was bowed down with grief,
like one mourning a mother.

So when Jesus declares in Matthew 5:44 "But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you..." I have to wonder how I missed this connection before. As David is called "a man after God's own heart" (1 Samuel 13:14), it amazes me to think Jesus was very much the "son of David." Jesus echoes God the Father's heart as the "exact representation" of the Father (Hebrews 1), and David's heart foreshadowed that of Jesus.

Thus, as a follower of Jesus I must allow both the Old Testament and New Testament to speak clearly. I confess that it's rare when I weep for my adversary as if he were my friend or brother. What may be even worse, I seldom pray for Christian brothers with whom I may be in disagreement. As Jesus continued in the sermon in Mt. 5:46-47, "For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don't even tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing out of the ordinary?"

It is time that I do what is out of the ordinary. It's also time for the Church do the same. In our valiant efforts to be "people of the Book" we sometimes whack that Book on the heads of those who may be on the other side. Let us grieve as if for our friend. Let us be genuine in our prayers and love for those who persecute and deride us. Let us have the heart of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world.