Israel & Palestine: Love For Neighbor and Enemy
The Bible commands us to love our neighbor and our enemy. But what does that look like for a region that has been at war for centuries?
TRANSCRIPT
INTRO
Over the last 2 weeks, we’ve spent time looking at the Israeli/Palestinian conflict through biblical themes. Some of themes we’ve looked at include land and covenant, and power and oppression. Today we’re going to conclude the series by looking at the situation through the theme of love for neighbor and enemy. In seeking a Christian perspective on this current conflict, I think we have to consider what it means to love our neighbor and enemy.
BRIEF HISTORY BETWEEN ISRAEL AND PALESTINE
But before we get there, in case you’ve joined us for the first time and don’t know the details of the Israel/Palestine conflict, here’s a really quick recap of what’s going on. Israel and Palestine have been fighting each other for the last 70 years over land. Before 1948, Israel was not a country, but there was support for creating a national Jewish homeland, especially after the Holocaust when 6 million Jewish people were killed.
The powers that be decided to divide Palestine’s land to create Israel, primarily because historical Israel existed there. Since then, there’ve been several wars including the most recent one that began on Oct 7th when Hamas, a Palestinian political, religious, and terrorist group, launched a surprise attack on Israel. Israel responded by declaring war on Hamas. Since the war began, many countries have been concerned about Israel’s extreme actions that have harmfully impacted many Palestinian civilians. While most American evangelical Christians fully support Israel.
THINKING THROUGH COMPLEX ISSUES WITH A BIBLICAL UNDERSTANDING
Unfortunately, many American evangelical Christians are in support of Israel solely based on a literal interpretation of Genesis 12:3,
“I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse.”
And while the Bible does say that, it also says many other things that I think we, especially as Christians, need to consider.We’ve explored the complex dynamics of this conflict. We’ve considered how we might respond. And we’ve even thought about what we can do when some of these dynamics show in our own lives.
While a portion of our Christian brothers and sisters believe it’s a simple decision of supporting one side over the other. I don’t think it’s that simple. Sometimes it’s more nuanced and we need to see the different layers through our biblical understanding to determine what God wants us to do in the world and in our own lives.
Yes, the Bible does say to bless Israel and it also says in Matthew 5:9 that we should be peacemakers. The Bible also speaks about issues of justice, mercy, and oppression. Specifically in Exodus 23:9, God tells His people to not oppress others because they know what it’s like to be oppressed. If the majority of Christians believe Jewish people have a divine right to live on Israel based on Genesis 12:3, I think it’s just as fair to hold them to Exodus 23:9. That they shouldn’t oppress others because they know what it’s like to be oppressed. So far, I’ve argued that if we accept a literal interpretation of blessing Israel by supporting them even when they are doing questionable things that violate the lives of others, we cannot ignore what these and other passages have to say. So today, we’re diving into one of those themes that we can’t ignore and that is love for neighbor and enemy.
ORIGINS OF LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR
The concept of loving your neighbor is widely regarded as the golden rule in life. Many ethnicities, religions, and cultures have a version of it. Judaism and Christianity both draw from the Old Testament and in Leviticus 19:18 it says,
“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbor as yourself.”
This was a commandment that God originally gave to the Israelites so they could be holy. There was a rift in their relationship with God. They just completed the construction of the Tabernacle, a tent created for God to dwell with them. But while Moses was up on Mount Sinai receiving the 10 Commandments, the Israelites constructed a golden calf and worshipped it instead of God.
Leviticus is a book full of God’s instructions on rituals, roles, and responsibilities for the Israelites to follow so they can be holy and be in God’s holy presence. A part of living a holy life meant they needed to honor God and others so God provides 4 different verses in Leviticus 19 to instruct the Israelites how they should relate to one another. This is what verses 13, 15, 17-18 say,
13 “‘Do not defraud or rob your neighbor.
15 “‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly. “‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the LORD.
17 “‘Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.
18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.
WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR?
Each verse offers instruction on how the Israelites are to treat their neighbor. So it’s very clear that loving their neighbor has been a part of their religious life, but a common question that comes up is this. Who is my neighbor? Is it the person who literally lives next to us? Or is it broader like how Mr. Rogers uses neighbor to describe a large community connected by similarities?
In Luke 10:29, we find a religious expert asking Jesus to interpret who was his neighbor. If we take the 4 verses in Leviticus, it appears that the neighbor is someone within their community who is like them. In verse 17 it says a fellow Israelite is the neighbor and in verse 18 it says the neighbor is anyone among your people. Similarly in Matthew 5:46-47, Jesus talks about this passage too and points out that the neighbor is commonly understood as someone of your own. Verse 46 and 47 it says, “If you love those who love you” and “if you greet your own people.” This has led some to believe that the Jewish understanding of neighbor is narrow and limited to someone who is like you. But Rabbi W. Gunther Plaut offers his perspective regarding who a neighbor is. This is what he says,
“Some Christians have also tried to show that the saying of Jesus is more truly universal and inclusive than that of Leviticus. They argue that “neighbor” in Leviticus (19:18) means “fellow Israelite” which is true enough; but they apparently overlook the commandment of verse 34 which requires us to show the same love to a foreigner resident in the land. There is no evidence that Jesus had a broader outlook (see Matthew 15:26).”
If we read further on in Leviticus 19, we do find that the definition of neighbor is expanded to more than just a person like you. In verses 33-34, this is what it says,
33 “‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. 34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”
God expected the Israelites to treat the foreigners the same as the native-born. The Israelites were not supposed to show favor for one over the other. They were expected to show the same love to both natives and foreigners and treat them both as neighbors.
An essential tenet of Judaism and Christianity is that all humanity is created in God’s image, therefore, the definition of neighbor encompasses all humanity. Now, this would be a great solution, but the reality is Israelis, Palestinians, American, and whoever is in the mix aren’t neighbors anymore. They aren’t even strangers anymore. They have become enemies. And while it can be challenging to love a stranger, it feels impossible to love an enemy. But of course, this is something that Jesus talks about. Jesus challenges us that when we love others who are like us, it doesn’t fully reflect who God is in our life. In Matthew 5:45, Jesus offers this illustration to explain God’s love.
“He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
Jesus is differentiating his love from the world’s love. His love encompasses all. Both the evil and the good. The righteous and the unrighteous. Loving those who look and act like you is normal. But loving those who are like and different from you is godly. So Jesus offers this concept of loving neighbor and enemy, which I think we have to explore as we consider how we should think about the Israel/Palestinian conflict.
A CHRISTIAN PERSPECTIVE ON LOVING THE NEIGHBOR
While there seems to be universal agreement to treat others like how you’d treat yourself, most other people would be hesitant to love their enemies. In some quick searches that I did about how others view Jesus’ command to love the enemy, some considered it irrational and even irresponsible. Others say it’s impossible and unrealistic. But here is Jesus’ take on it. I mentioned earlier how an expert in the law asked Jesus to define who was his neighbor. And, earlier, during scripture reading, we read the Parable of the Good Samaritan. This is Jesus’ perspective on what it means to love the neighbor and the enemy. Let me summarize for us.
An expert of the law seeks to identify who is his neighbor so he can determine if he has fulfilled the command or not. He does this by trying to distinguish who is and isn’t his neighbor. For the expert, his responsibility to love others was reserved for those who were a part of his community. But Jesus responds by offering this parable. There are 4 characters in this parable. The first is a man who was attacked by robbers and left for dead on the side of the road. Next is a priest and then a Levite, and finally, we get a Samaritan. Priests and Levites came from the same tribe of people. They all came from the tribe of Levi. Priests were qualified individuals who led religious ceremonies and rituals like offering sacrifices for the people. And while all priests came from the tribe of Levi, not every Levite was a priest. Instead, Levities who were not priests had a significant role in supporting the priests. They assisted the priests with ceremonies, cleaned up and maintained the worship space, and taught the law to others. Both the priest and Levite were unique because they were to considered to be more godly than others. They had a responsibility to direct others to be more like God so they were supposed to be the good guys in this story. They were supposed to help the man who was beaten, robbed, and left for dead, but neither one of them did. It’s the equivalent of me and another ministry leader ignoring someone in need.
But, then we get the Samaritan. The Samaritan was not a neighbor. Samaritans were seen as renegades who disobeyed God’s law. They worshipped God from a different place than the Jews. They were Jews but they were seen as sinners who abandoned the faith and married outside the ethnic culture making them unclean and half-breeds. Samaritans and Jewish people were openly hostile towards each other. We see evidence of this in John 4 when Jesus approaches the Samaritan woman for water and the woman replies by asking why Jesus, a Jew, is associating with her, a Samaritan. The Samaritans were the enemy so when Jesus introduced the Samaritan as the one who came to rescue the man who was robbed and beaten everyone was shocked. Not only did the Samaritan rescue the man, but he also took him to an inn, and gave the innkeeper enough money to cover 2 months stay so the man could recover.
It was shocking to the people who heard this parable. No such thing would ever happen, especially between Jews and Samaritans. They were enemies.The point that Jesus made in this parable was to show that love for your neighbor isn’t motivated by our definition of who our neighbor is, but it’s motivated by our compassion. Skye Jethani offers this perspective from his daily devotion,
“The story forces us to consider the modern-day priests and Levites in our own culture—religious people who use the appearance of devotion to God as an excuse for not showing compassion to those in need. I was disheartened by a recent conversation with a pastor who reported his church members objected to the church’s plan to send relief funds and supplies to Middle Eastern refugees. Such aid, they said, was the first step toward the resettlement of Muslim refugees in their community. In other words, a desire to protect their faith was the excuse for not practicing their faith. Like the priest and Levite, however, I suspect the real cause was a tragic lack of compassion. Here’s a simple rule of thumb: if your faith in Christ stops you from helping others you’re doing it wrong.”
This is why we have to consider the biblical theme of loving your neighbor and enemy. If evangelical Christians believe they have to support Israel because of their devotion to the Bible but overlook showing compassion to Palestine who is in need, I think something is wrong. It has to be both. Skye Jethani continues with this,
“Jesus’ lesson is critically important—love is determined by our identity not the identity of the person we encounter…Like the legal expert, we are asking all sorts of boundary questions: Whom should Christian business owners serve? What kind of person should Christians welcome? Which groups should Christians help? These questions all focus on the identity of the other person or group. Regardless of the other person’s identity, when determining whom to love we ought to focus on a different question: What kind of person has Christ called me to be?”
And I agree. I think we should be asking this question as we think about how we should respond to the war. Should we support Israel simply because the majority of evangelical Christians are? Or should we be living out our lives reflecting what kind of person Christ has called us to be? Jesus has called us to be peacemakers. Jesus has called us to care for the oppressed. Jesus calls us to be compassionate to our neighbors and our enemies.
So take a moment and think about how you can be compassionate to others. How can you demonstrate your love like the Samaritan and to both neighbor and enemy? And in a bit here, I’ll pray for us.