Today’s prayer took me back to a 2023 Super Bowl ad. For real! A series of black and white photos of violent confrontations flashed on the screen, accompanied by the song “Human” by Rag’n’Bone Man. At the end of this mysterious sixty-second ad, the words, “Jesus loves the people we hate,” appeared as its conclusion. If you can remember back that far, Super Bowl viewers ranked it the second most engaging ad of the 51 commercials shown during the Chiefs-Eagles game. The ad provoked lively conversation, pros and cons, about its message and the group that sponsored it.
In his sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “You have heard it said, ‘love your neighbors’ and hate your enemies. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for them who persecute you” (Mt. 5.43-45). There is nothing about this teaching that is particularly hard to understand. What’s difficult is how hard it is to put into practice. We need Jesus’ help in loving people who have wronged or mistreated us.
Nicolai Velimirovic (1881-1956) was a Serbian Orthodox bishop arrested by the Nazis after they took control of the former Yugoslavia in World War II. They banished Nicolai and another Serbian priest to the Dachau concentration camp. He survived the ordeal and spent the remaining ten years of his life in America to support Serbian Orthodox churches. Earlier in his life, while Nicolai was living in a Serbian monastery overlooking Lake Ochrid, he composed a hundred prayers for devotional use. One of his prayers is about loving our enemies: