Love in the midst of war

Matthew 5:43-48 (NLT)

43 “You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. 44 But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you! 45 In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike. 46 If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. 47 If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. 48 But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.

In these verses Jesus slightly changes a law most people have heard that they should love their neighbors and hate their enemies. Instead they should also love those who are against them just as the Father in Heaven loves each and every person. Jesus reminds the people that even those deemed sins can love as they do so why not attempt to be perfect as The Father in heaven is perfect.

The Bosnian War during the early 1990s pitted Bosnian Serbs against Muslims, making the sides bitter enemies. But after the war, journalist Chris Hedges heard a story of unusual kindness in the midst of savagery. Rosa and Drago Sorak, a Bosnian Serb couple, told Hedges that during the war the Muslim police took their oldest son, Zoran, away for questioning. He never returned.

Five months after Zoran's disappearance, his wife gave birth to a girl. The mother was unable to nurse the child. The city was being shelled and there were severe food shortages. Infants were dying in droves. The family gave the baby tea for five days, but she began to fade. "The baby was dying," Rosa Sorak said. "It was breaking our hearts."

But on the fifth day, just before dawn, the Soraks heard someone stomping up to their front door. It was their Muslim neighbor, Fadil Fejzic, one of the few people in town who owned a cow. He was wearing black rubber boots and holding a half a liter of milk. Other families insulted Fadil and told him to let the children of their enemies die. But Fadil, the man with a cow and heavy black rubber boots, kept showing up on their porch—for 442 days in a row, until the Soraks' daughter-in-law and granddaughter left the country.

The Soraks said they could never forgive those who took Zoran from them. But they also couldn't forget the kindness of their neighbor Fadil. Drago Sorak said. "The milk he had was precious, all the more so because it was hard to keep animals. He gave us 221 liters. And every year at this time, when it is cold and dark, when we close our eyes, we can hear the boom of the heavy guns and the sound of Fadil Fejzic on the stairs."

"Here was the power of love," Hedges concludes his story. "What this illiterate farmer did would color the life of another human being, who might never meet him, long after he was gone. In his act lay an ocean of hope." [Adapted Chris Hedges, War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning (Anchor, 2003), pp. 50-53]

We can see many signs of war in our world. King Solomon said it is Better to have wisdom than weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy much that is good. People can either make a difficult situation better or they can make it worst. Jesus calls on us to make life better for all. Love all those around us despite our differences and hopefully we can learn to live in harmony with each other.