Love’s Response To Hate

One of the most diabolical criminals of his day, and the first big time American

gangster, was also a very impressive pulpit orator. John Murrell as a youth was caught

for horse stealing, and after a public whipping he was sent to prison. He declared eternal

vengeance upon society for this, and while he was in prison he studied theology. When he

was released he assumed the garb of an evangelist and began to preach. His eloquence

gained him quick popularity, and soon he had an unique racket going with a highly

organized gang. One of his schemes was to greet people in front of the church and

compliment them on their beautiful horse. This was a signal to his helpers as to which

ones he wanted stolen during the service. Before his career ended he added

counterfeiting and murder to his list of crimes, and all the while he was preaching the

Word of God.

He was an obvious example of the great contrast that can exist between what a man

professes and what he practices. Profession is the easy part. The real test comes in

practice. We need not limit this failure of practicing what is preached to sham

clergyman, however. Leon C. Prince has recorded the experience of others. He writes,

“A New England navigator who had charted the dangerous reefs of the Massachusetts

coast who wrecked his own vessel on a sunken rock which he himself had described and

of which he warned others. A surgeon on one of the Arctic expeditions of the last century

who earnestly and repeatedly cautioned his fellow voyages against the peril of yielding to

the almost overwhelming impulse to sleep, but the surgeon himself fell asleep and

perished.”

History is filled with such glaring inconsistencies, and we need look at further than

our own lives to add to the evidence that man is far more able to learn the truth than to

live it. It is so much easier to proclaim than to practice. Shakespeare has Portia say, “I

can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow

mine own teaching.”

In the light of this fact of human nature it is with great assurance and satisfaction that

we turn our eyes upon Jesus in whom we find perfect consistency. No one ever made

such startling statements as Jesus. No one ever set such high standards of character and

conduct. If we could not look at his life as an example of what He taught, we would have

to dismiss His teaching as dreamy idealism and sentimental nonsense totally irrelevant to

the real world in which we live.

How could we honestly bother to consider Christ twice once we heard Him say, “Love

your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for

them which despitefully use you, and persecute you,” if we say that he could not practice

what He preached? No can make such radical statements and hold anyone’s respect

whose life does not back them up. Thank God for the cross and the record we have of it,

for not only is our salvation dependent upon it, but the reality of all Jesus taught is

dependent upon what we see and hear at the cross.

We want to focus our attention on the first word of Christ that He spoke on the cross,

for here we see the idealism of Christ made real, and His life conform to His lips. If all

we had was the record of His life, and not His death, men might dare to doubt the

sincerity of His teaching. They might point out that it is easy to say love your enemies

when you are walking from village to village with crowds of eager listeners. It is nothing

to set on a mount with friends and disciples all around, and talk about praying for those

who hate you. But the record of the cross leaves critics facing a scene that removes all

doubt.

The first word on the cross demonstrates in a manner unsurpassed love’s response to

hate. It proves dogmatically that Jesus meant every word He preached, and those who

claim Him as Lord need to take everyone of them seriously. Only the blind and deaf

could stand at the cross and hear this word of Christ and not respond with the Roman

Centurion who said, “Truly, this was the Son of God.”

This word of Christ is composed of two parts. First is His intercession for His

enemies, and second is His interpretation of His conduct. We have then His response

and the reason for that response in this word. We want to focus our attention on the first

part only, which is His response of-