Hate

In the online missions class I am taking, one of our more recent lessons asked us if we could see parallels between the story of Jonah and the Ninevites and how the modern Church views Muslims. Jonah hated the Ninevites for their cruelty and oppression and he knew that if he shared God's message of the coming judgment with them that they would repent and God would forgive them. Not wanting this cruel, barbaric people to experience the Lord's mercy, Jonah angrily said that he would not go. And when eventually he did go, it was with a very bad attitude.

I had never thought about it being a parallel but I can see how the two could be similar. While it is not wrong to be angry over the sins of oppression and murder, I think that often the Church takes it too far and becomes angry and even hateful toward the Muslims themselves rather than the sin that has been committed. Perhaps we feel justified by thinking that if the Muslims hate us so much that they want to exterminate us, then it is alright to look on them with hostility. We view the person as the enemy rather than the sin in their hearts. We do not see them as individual people but we judge them by the extremists who hate us and murder and rape their own people.

Personally, I know a Muslim woman who died of cancer just last month. She was a very sweet, caring person and I would give anything to be able to share with her the love of Jesus now. I only saw her a few times but not once did I even attempt to share Christ with her. It breaks my heart that she died without knowing Christ as her Savior and that I did not even attempt to share the Lord's forgiveness and grace with her while she was alive. God, forgive me. Sumar, I think of you so often and I am so sorry that I let you down. My regret cannot bring her back nor can it save her soul.

I think that the church needs to look past the exterior and see the person for who they are. Not Muslim, black, white, Catholic, or Protestant but someone made in the image of God. Someone dreamed up by the Creator and created for a specific purpose. Someone with such incredible value that Jesus willingly died for that one person that they may not perish but experience eternal life and freedom. Instead of focusing so much on the crimes and sins of our Muslim neighbors, we need to pray for them and look for ways to reach out and show the love of Christ to them. If we 'repay evil with evil' we are not doing God's will and He cannot use us as He wishes. Have we forgotten the terribly misguided crusades of the middle ages? People back then committed terrible crimes in the name of Christianity and the Lord could not have been pleased by it. We are all made in His image, no matter what we look like or what background we come from but so often we judge based on what we see on the outside and forget that there is a real person with feelings and a soul underneath. May we all try daily to view others through the eyes of Jesus. He loves them and so should we. Let us not repay evil with evil but rather evil with good, as we have been commanded.