EAST CRAFTSBURY — I have a great friend and one of the sweetest guys I know. Unfortunately, he roots for evil sports teams: Yankees, Lakers, Alabama football, you name it. When he told me this in the early days of our friendship, all I could ask was, “How can you root for them?” He replied, “I like to cheer for greatness.” Can you believe that? Disgusting. (wink)
This is, of course, silly in the grand scheme of things, but it surely is something many of us have thought about our enemies and their fans: “How can you possibly root for them?” Christians are in an even harder spot, because we’re also commanded to pray for our enemies.
It’s one of Christ’s hardest commands, but I believe one of the most utterly important and heart-transforming. I also don’t want to pretend it isn’t hard for me too. I know best that we don’t start praying for our enemies from a place where we’re already perfectly loving people. I’m not suggesting anybody forgive someone they’re not ready to forgive, or disavow your sense of clarity about what is right and wrong, good and evil; the contrary. But as the facts stand, we’re given this inconvenient commandment to pray for our enemies regardless of how we feel about them.
How?
The Bible is of at least two minds about anger. On the one hand, it tells us not to hold onto it and avoid it when we can. On the other hand, there are many expressions of righteous anger all over Scripture, from Jesus to the apostles to the epistles to the Psalms and prophets and many other places in the Old Testament. We need neither pathologize anger nor idolize it.
Anger for the right reasons can be a true gift from God, a dose of moral clarity in a world full of moral confusion, and an energizing force of good. But we all know how it can be utterly destructive to ourselves and those around us. It is a dangerous thing for us to wield by ourselves.
When we pray for our enemies, we are not shaming our anger at all. We are telling God, “I have this anger, Lord, and I want you to control it. Not me.” And how can we trust him enough to do that? Because we know he is utterly with us when we come up against evil.
Have you ever had somebody be angry with you on your behalf when you really needed it? For many of us, maybe we remember a time when a parent or a friend at least once stood up for us when we couldn’t, telling a school administrator or a bully what’s what. It is so healing to know, feel, and trust someone else sees the same evil you see for what it is and is willing to name it for what it is. If earthly parents and friends will do this, your heavenly Father and your brother Jesus have your back more than you can ever know.
So how do we pray for our enemies? Not from a fake nice place, and not because we have to deny our anger. But because we know the Lord God is saying, “I’m with you. I see it too. Oh, I’m angry too. I know you’re hurting.” And he might also say, gently, “You have something to work on too.”
Sometimes literally all I can tell God is, “Lord, I want to pray for my enemies. Sorry, I can’t elaborate right now. But I know you want me to pray for them, and so here I am, praying for them.” Yes, I believe that’s a perfectly good place to start. And don’t limit yourself to your enemy prayer options. Sometimes, a prayer might be a prayer for a rebuke.. Sometimes, we might pray that justice arrives sooner than we think; we can pray for that, too. We also don’t have to stop praying for the people our enemies might be hurting; it’s not “pray for your enemies and don’t do anything to intervene in their harm.” Jesus did both.
But just start praying for your enemies regularly and see what happens. Not because you are getting soft on evil, but because you are letting God handle what we can’t alone. Not because you are losing sight of what’s important, but because you are gaining sight of what else is also important. Enemy prayer is not giving us compassion that ignores pursuing justice, but rather is fully trusting in God’s justice.
“How can you pray for them?” Because God sees us in the pain of our anger, and he can hold it so much better than we can alone. If Jesus Christ prayed for his enemies on his cross, we can pray for our enemies when we are too scared to take up our cross. If you can trust him enough, try to pray even for those you hate. You both need it. We all need it.
Reverend Joe Welker is the pastor of East Craftsbury Presbyterian Church, where he joined in August 2023. He is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (BA) and Harvard Divinity School (MDiv). Voices of Spirit is a regular column offering a variety of perspectives from spiritual leaders.
