Regardless of why people follow Jesus, nearly all would admit two things about him: One, he didn’t have a lot of success hanging out with the religious folks of his day and Two, he didn’t spend much time attempting to win these people over, either!

As a matter of fact, in the gospel of John, the enemies of Jesus were most often simply referred to as “the Jews.” This was code speak, not so much to point the finger at a particular ‘race’ of people, as much as a certain ‘type’ of people – i.e., religious people. Those were the people to whom Jesus, the Jew, ministered. It might have been ‘on behalf of’ all humanity, but it was a particular mission to a particular people and therefore, contained a very specific message for their time: Basically, don’t mix religion and empire or some really nasty things are going to come down upon your head.

A lot of what Jesus taught was as popular then as it is now, which is to say ‘not very.’ For instance, when Jesus speaks of loving one’s enemies, that’s usually greeted with polite nods and affirmations but not necessarily always put into practice – especially in the heat of the moment.

Regarding religious people, I must admit that they often bug me as well. I don’t find it admirable when I see them praying in public restaurants, etc. I receive that as a sign of exclusion, not embrace – sort of a ‘look at us, we’re in the Jesus club and you probably aren’t but should be so surely this public prayer will convict you of that or, if it doesn’t, at least you’ll know that we’re more righteous than you.’

Or maybe they accost you with religious language, not realizing that the words they are using are some two-thousand years removed from their original context and therefore basically ‘meaningless’ (e.g, ‘Is Jesus your Lord and Savior?’) I could go on, but you get the point.

For Jesus, the outwardly religious most often constituted his enemies. And yet he said to love them and even pray for them when they persecute you. Why would he say this and even more, how could he do it? I can’t imagine praying for the forgiveness of those who just nailed me to a tree. Honestly, I gag thinking about forgiving people just for wearing their religion on their sleeve!

But that’s what he did.

And things like that are what make his life so fascinating a study.

I think Jesus said and did those things because he knew that our enemies are simply people who do not yet know who they really are. Enemies are people who have yet to discover their true self, their true nature. This is the “for they know not what they do” part of his forgiveness. They aren’t responsible for their insanity toward us, whether that comes in the form of their judgmental arrogance or, at times, their extreme violence toward us.

This is why we are an enemy to no one. We are to understand the truth within, the divine nature in which we now reside. We love the clueless because we once were clueless ourselves – and in some ways, always will be – and it is through our love that the enlightenment often comes.

Love your enemies! For through this, they just might come to see who they really are.