Jesus had compassion for the crowds, because they were harassed and helpless. I can relate.
I don’t really know the context, but an acquaintance of mine criticized someone who publicly said, “At the heart of non-violence is love.” She said that this person was missing the point. I didn’t know them well enough to prod for further details, but I can’t disagree with the sentiment by itself. I’ll go further to say that at the heart of violence is love.
When Jesus warned that brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, it is because of love shown to those outside the family, or love shown to those who the family doesn’t identify with. My violent brother, who won’t even speak to me anymore, has countless times called me a “bleeding heart liberal” for exactly this reason.
A recent conversation about the shit that’s going down was getting a bit too theoretical for my tastes, far too often ideology gets in the way of reality. So I decided to offer a truth at the risk of sounding like I was saying, “some of my best friends are black.” A woman I love dearly is an African-American mother of a teenage son with autism. Her son does not pick up on social cues. Any encounter he has with cops is bound to go badly, to say the least. Anytime he leaves the house she is TERRIFIED he will be killed by the police. If this truly were the land of the free, no mother would have that fear.
And the fact that I was hesitant to tell this story of someone I love, was not because of fear of accusations from African Americans, or condemnation of conservatives like my brother, but because of my friends in what passes for the left in this country. For many of them if you’re not in lock-step with everything they think, or even how they say it, you’re summarily dismissed. This brings us back to restrictions on who you can legitimately love. Jesus told us Love our enemies. This does not mean you need to be polite or kind or respect their property. It means in extreme terms there should be no limits on our love.
And this may be cynical of me, but I sincerely wonder if the recent protests would have been as large as they were if we hadn’t been under a stay at home order for months. It’s been a long time since the most powerful politicians actually cared for what the people think in the least. We’ll see how many of the promises in response are empty. My compassion for the harassed and helpless crowds extends to concern about all the folks who will get sick because of protests during a pandemic.
Yet I firmly believe that these protests going all the way back to Ferguson is the work of the spirit, the spirit of the love of God who has heard the cries of the oppressed. And it is for love of the oppressed that you should be angry and outraged and take action. For: there are wolves with no love in their hearts within as well as without. They will put restrictions on who you should love. Be wary of them and love anyway, or to put it another way, be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.
