The story
of Balaam in Numbers 22-24 is perhaps most famous for the talking ass. The Moabite king Balak is nervously watching
the approach of the Israelite horde that had so recently laid waste to the
armies of Sihon and Og. Divining that
military prowess alone may not do the trick he calls on the prophet Balaam for
a curse to deter his enemies. After the
comic misadventure with his famous ass, Balaam arrives and proceeds not to
curse but to bless Moab’s
enemies. A distraught Balak tours Balaam
around the Israelite host like a real estate agent pointing out the advantages
of a new property, but to no avail.
Balaam can only speak blessings, not curses. Finally the exasperated Balak cries out,
“Neither bless them nor curse them at all!”
But Balaam can only bless.
This
passage cannot help but bring to mind the most startling thing Jesus ever said
(well, one of the most startling anyway): “Love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heave. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the
good and sends his rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:44,
45). Now of course this passage has been
sonorously intoned and generally ignored over the first 2000 years of Christian
history. But it stubbornly,
uncomfortably remains a command of Jesus, marked out in some Bibles in red
letters. It is the kind of passage, as
Wendell Berry puts it, that gives rise to “biblical exegesis.” By this he alludes to the tendency of my
beleaguered discipline to evade or explain away difficult texts. I would protest, but throughout those aforementioned
2000 years the critique has often been true enough, especially with regard to
the Sermon on the Mount.
And so the
question remains: was Jesus really serious about our blessing our enemies? Sadly (or happily) I think he was. And this, I think, is a gift that we
Christians, that is the church, have to offer to the world. I fear this gift has often gathered dust in
our theological and intellectual closet.
We have been embarrassed to share it; fearful once the ribbon and paper
are removed we will be looked at with scorn or bemusement. But the events of recent weeks in the Middle
East have reminded me how desperately this gift of enemy blessing is
needed. Three Jewish boys are kidnapped
and murdered in an act of inexcusable brutality. The cries for revenge are as inevitable as
they are understandable. And then a
Palestinian boy is found murdered and set afire. As I write no blame has yet been assigned for
that horror, but the suspicion is that it is yet another revenge killing. In the face of such crimes to bleat about
blessing and loving enemies may sound, to say the least, inadequate. And yet, I have to ask if the cyclical Jewish/Palestinian
story of bloodshed and violence, outrage and revenge has gotten them, or the
world, anywhere. What might it mean for
them to step back and refuse to curse, but bless?
In the
United States our political, religious, and social right and left wings have
settled in a mutual mud-slinging contest that is as alarming as it is
idiotic. I say idiotic because it is
frequently (or even largely) based on simplistic slogans, purposeful
misapprehensions and out and out lies. We, of course, have different kinds of
enemies: political enemies, religious (and irreligious) enemies, and even
intellectual enemies. Depending on where
we stand, those enemies have different names.
In his book Unapologetic: Why
Despite Everything Christianity Can Still make Surprising Emotional Sense Francis
Spufford argues that for Christians especially this means that we cannot look
at other Christians and say “no kin of mine.”
He writes, “I find Sarah Palin, for example, ridiculous and terrifying .
. . but I can’t just shun her. . . . I have to believe that she’s got something
right, that she’s a member like me of the body of Christ, in need like me of
the grace of God, and as sure as to receive it. She is, despite everything, a
sister. And I have to recognize her as
such, while being very glad that Alaska is a long, long, way away; and to hope
that, in the same way she would recognize a brother in me, despicable, gunless,
high-taxin’ Euro-weenie that I am.”
So we bless
our “enemies” even if we think they are wrong.
That is, I repeat, our Christian gift to the world. So God bless Richard
Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens; God bless Mark Driscoll and John Piper; God
bless the bishop of Rome and the Archbishop of Canterbury; God bless John
Boehner and Ted Cruz; God bless President Obama and Nancy Pelosi; God bless
Israel and God bless Hamas; God bless the United States and God bless
Iraq. God bless red blooded, gun totin’
Americans and God bless “gunless Euro-weenies”; God bless you and God bless
me. Perhaps Tiny Tim had it right after
all, “God bless us every one.” With
Paul, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the
eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as
far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:17). In other words, bless, don’t curse.
