1 Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand, and w] boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also boast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. 6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 Indeed, rarely will anyone die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person someone might actually dare to die. 8 But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us. 9 Much more surely, therefore, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. 11 But more than that, we even boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. – Romans 5:1-11 (NRSVUE)
Who do I consider to be my enemy? How do I view my enemy? Paul suggests that our answer must begin with the affirmation: “while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of God’s Son” (Romans 5:10). With Paul’s theological claim as our lens, we will turn to John 4. There we will see a concrete embodiment of love extended to someone who would have been considered an enemy, or “the other.” In stark contrast, we witness the antithesis embodied in how the current U.S. administration is dehumanizing and slandering the “other.” My intent is not to debate specific policies, but to invite self-examination in how we view our enemies, and be mindful of how the U.S. administration is negatively influencing this.
The current U.S. administration is encouraging the dehumanization of “enemies.” Currently we are seeing this most prominently in the way the administration talks about and treats undocumented immigrants. The degrading language the President and his associates have used to describe those that they consider enemies of the U.S. government is reprehensible and should be called out. Whether or not you agree with particular governmental policies toward those accused of crimes, those who violate immigration law, or others labeled as enemies in some manner, we should not be okay with their dehumanization.
One does not have to search hard for examples of the administration’s tendency to dehumanize. President Trump on more than one occasion has referred to undocumented immigrants as “animals.” He’s gone as far as saying, “No, they’re not humans, they’re not humans, they’re animals.” And due to a recent scandal involving Somalian immigrants this abusive rhetoric has intensified toward all Somalians – undocumented or not. President Trump has gone on rants calling Somalian immigrants “garbage” and has suggested that they destroyed Minnesota.
Further, the portrayal of immigrants in general as “criminals” has increased exponentially under the current administration. The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights has published that “They [the Trump administration] are charging forward while using inflammatory language and baseless stereotypes…The mislabeling of all immigrants as “criminals” provokes the dehumanization of not only immigrants but all people of color.” Stereotyping immigrants as criminals – even if they are undocumented (which is a civil violation and not a criminal offense) – draws an unnecessary deep line in the sand between natural born citizens and immigrants.
In light of this context, the word “enemies” stood out to me in Romans 5:1-11. While we were still enemies of God, God died for humanity. We were enemies. We were on the other team, the other side. Yet, self-giving love is extended regardless. In my experience in the military, you are trained to kill the enemy. You don’t die for them. This reversal challenges ordinary assumptions about how we treat those we oppose and it points toward a vision of the world that can disrupt cycles of dehumanization.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us that not only are we to love our enemies, but what good is it if we only greet (or love) our own people? Even the pagans do that (Matthew 5:43-48). This new vision of the world is unique in how Christians are to treat the other – no matter if they are “our own people” or not. And given the explicit distinction that Jesus makes between the world and his followers in this command specifically, the love of enemies can be said to be the defining characteristic of Christ-followers in the Sermon on the Mount.
An example of this love appears in this week’s lectionary passage in John 4. Having established our Pauline lens of reconciliation, we turn to this narrative as its lived expression. As Jesus was traveling through Samaria on his way to Galilee, he entered a region marked by centuries of hostility. For context, the Judeans (Jews from the Southern Kingdom) did not get along with Samaritans, and this wasn’t just a short spat of disagreement. The northern kingdom of Israel was conquered and exiled by the Assyrians in 722 BC and the region was repopulated with Persians and a mix of other dispersed people groups from the Assyrian Empire. Surprisingly, Judean monotheism did prevail in the region but with some key differences: the rejection of any and all Scripture outside of the Pentateuch, and the rejection of Jerusalem as the place of worship and pilgrimage.
This was abhorrent apostasy to the Judeans and the division between them lasted hundreds of years to the point of the Judeans attacking Samaria in 127 BC and destroying the Samaritan temple on Mt. Gerizim. This was no trivial disagreement. Dr. Gary Berge summarized it well in his commentary saying, “By Jesus’ day, a smoldering tension existed between the regions of Judea and Samaria. Partly based on race and religion, it echoed many centuries of terrible political fights” (141).
So when Jesus was heading toward Galilee to get some distance from the Pharisees in Judea, it would have been odd for him to choose the route that passes through Samaria – a route usually avoided by Judeans. Even more so, it would be highly unusual, suspect even, for a Judean to interact with a Samaritan. And that’s exactly what Jesus did. Jesus fully recognized the profound differences and adversarial relationship between his people and theirs; nevertheless, we will see that he fully accepted them while they were still enemies of his people.
When Jesus sits by the well and a Samaritan woman approaches, Jesus crosses religious, ethnic, gender, and politically charged boundaries to not only speak to her, but to engage theologically with her. Even the woman is taken aback and says, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (John 4:9). To emphasize the absurdity of this interaction even more, the text includes a parenthetical saying, “Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.” John emphasized this difference – and included this entire narrative found only in his Gospel – as an expression of the universality of God’s mission.
The situation of Jesus crossing these strict boundaries to greet and love a woman while she was still considered the enemy or the other, resulted in not only her belief but that of her surrounding community. The Samaritans said to the woman that they believed for themselves too and gave Jesus the title “Savior of the world” (John 4:42). This powerful messianic title drives home John’s emphasis on the universality of God’s mission in the world. While salvation came from the Jews through Jesus (John 4:22), it is for all humankind – especially for those who are still our enemies.
Dehumanization of the other should not be tolerated by Christians because it inherently makes it more difficult to love “those we don’t share things in common with” (John 4:9). Political science professor Alexander Theodoridis says that “‘dehumanizing language’ can lead to people believing that those who disagree with them don’t deserve the same treatment or respect as those who agree with them” and that it often leads to “a precursor to treating a group differently.”
The current U.S. administration is drawing deeper lines in the sand to posture humans loved by God against other humans loved by God – by trying to strip away the very humanity of one of those groups. But we have seen in the story of the Samaritan woman at the well that Jesus is against prejudicial antagonism. The author of The Global Politics of Jesus, Dr. Nilay Saiya, reinforces that “Jesus explicitly rejected the belief in divine partiality, including distinctiveness between nations” and uses the story of Jesus first revealing his messiahship to the Samaritan woman as evidence (56). Jesus is aware of deep divisions, wrongdoing, and political strife but he does not let that alter the loving way he greets and loves those with whom he is told that he has nothing in common.
We should not allow the government to influence how we treat our enemy. Yet, this is happening all around us. I have seen Christians dismiss the humanity of people and refer to them in ways that portray them as less than human – modeling the same language from our top government officials. This harms not only the people who the Christians dehumanize but it also harms the Christians who are doing the dehumanization.
It is impossible to live out the defining characteristic of a Christian in the Sermon on the Mount – love of enemies – if you make your enemy into a detestable, less-than-human object. What good is it if we only love our own people? (Matthew 5:47) What good is it if we only speak kindly toward natural born citizens and not undocumented immigrants too? If we treat the “other” worse than our own people with whom we share things in common, we have missed John’s point in including the story of the Samaritan woman at the well. Even worse, we miss the power of the Gospel that Paul writes about in Romans 5.
Who is my enemy? How do I view my enemy? The U.S. administration is modeling the antithesis of how we should speak about and treat our enemy, regardless of what we believe they have done in the past. Whether or not we agree with a particular policy or governmental stance should not prompt us in following the government’s lead in dehumanizing people loved by God. Even if you consider them the enemy, were not you once the enemy of God? And what did God do while we were still enemies? God died for us. Let us view everyone through the lens that while we were still enemies, God reconciled us through Jesus Christ.
