MUTUAL LOVE SERIES – “Bless those who curse you” (08/18/2025)
It’s a long story which I won’t get into, but when I was quite young, I asked one of my teachers about the Klu Klux Klan and their use of scripture to justify what they did. Specifically, I asked if God was really like that, picking some over others and sending the some to persecute the others. She didn’t answer me. Instead, she took me to the very small library at St. Joseph Academy in Waycross, Georgia, pulled a thick black book off the shelf, the bible, and told me, “I don’t know how to answer your question. Perhaps you will find the answer in here.”
And so, at a very young age, I read the bible. I must admit, it wasn’t easy. It put my “precocious mind” to the test. I plowed through all the “begets” and eventually I made it to the stories I remembered hearing about Jesus. And I read the gospels with great interest. When I was done, I was pretty sure that Jesus was teaching that God is the God of love and mercy and that He called us to reconciliation and forgiveness.
And then a man came onto the national scene that behaved differently than most people in the public sphere that I had witnessed. He preached love and forgiveness and offered nonviolent resistance to hate and injustice. His name was Martin Luther King Jr. He seemed to believe and to live out loud what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount, to love one’s enemies and bless them, to pray for those who hate you and persecute you, and even to do good for them despite their hatefulness. And I must admit, I liked Mr. King and hoped that he would be able to make the difference in our world that Jesus preached.
Martin Luther King Jr. and his movement was largely responsible for the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But then he was shot and killed the week of my 18th birthday – April 4, 1968. At the time, I thought that it was the end of Mr. King’s work and ministry. But the work he started didn’t end that day.
As I continue to look at the meaningful list of duties of disciples in Paul’s Letter to the Romans 12, verse 14 reads, “Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.” When I read that line, I always think of Martin Luther King Jr., but my mind doesn’t stop there because over time I have learned of so many others who have blessed those who persecuted them rather than hate them, understanding that forgiveness is crucial to righting wrong relationships in our world and in creating new beginnings that are transformative. Jesus himself asked the Father to forgive those who were crucifying Him.
As I consider our modern world and society, I must admit that I am concerned about the public rhetoric and the division that marks our time. I pray that we may pick up the LORD’s teaching, to love one another, not just those who like us and agree with us. I pray that we can reclaim goodwill for all and learn again to respond nonviolently to challenges in our society. I pray that we will once again see that the only way to break the cycle of division and hate is to move toward love and unity even though we are diverse, knowing there is one LORD over us all who created us all – diverse as we are.
I have hope. As we go forward on our spiritual journeys, let us hold to the hope of what is possible if we love one another as the LORD calls us to love one another. It might surprise us.
Until tomorrow, let us all love well.
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