Pursuing Christ

Folks say that when pursued, there is a natural fight or flight response in animals and humans.

One of my children had hurt one of her sisters. As soon as I was told, I was angry and I immediately sprang to action. I can still hear my thoughts, “Where is she; we are going to deal with this right now!” In this case, I was in hot pursuit.

In a jealous rage King Saul threw a spear at David in hopes of killing him. King Saul’s jealousy stemmed from David’s popularity as Israel’s beloved warrior. David had to run for his life. However, King Saul discovered David’s hideout and took his army to destroy him. He was in hot pursuit of David; the hunter in pursuit of the hunted. (Read about this in 1 Samuel 18-24.)

A word was used in New Testament to describe one who is in pursuit of another: persecutor. Examples from Ancient Greek literature include a hunter chasing after his prey, or someone avenging the murder of another. In a legal context the same word was used for a prosecutor.

When “I” am the one being pursued, the terms persecutor and prosecutor seem quite fitting.

Jesus taught his followers:

Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

—Matthew 5:44-45

Enemies are those who are hostile toward you. They may not carry pitchforks and torches, wave swords, or fire guns, but they have turned against you. They may not physically chase after you, but they persecute you. They are in pursuit!

Jesus asked his disciples to do something that was unnatural and difficult. It is easy to make rationalizations and skip over His teaching:
“Love my enemies!?”
“Pray for those who are in hot pursuit of me!?”
“Absurd! They don’t deserve it! I’m the victim.”
“How can anyone be expected to follow through on such a teaching?”

Most of us can think of a time when we could have been described as a persecutor; perhaps like the parent-child illustration. It is my guess that whenever we are the one in hot pursuit, we believe that we are justified in our action.

Now, consider a question:
Is it possible that when we have been persecuted, the persecutor believes they are justified? Even in a fit of jealous rage, it is possible that they just don’t realize what they are doing?

These questions are raised, not to imply that an evil person is not responsible for their sin, but to lead us to the solution that Jesus chose, a solution motived by love:

And when they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” 

—Luke 23:33-34

Jesus, the Son of God, put into practice the very words he taught. As Christians, we are children of God. For that reason, we ought to have the same attitude as our older Brother, Jesus. 

But how?

When we set our gaze on the cross of Christ, we will be able to see souls instead of the pain we feel from others. We will recognize that the difficulties that our enemies cause pale in comparison to what the enemies of Jesus did. When we die to ourselves and surrender to King Jesus, we will draw strength and courage from Jesus to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. It is ultimately dependent on what we chase in life.

May we choose to pursue the character of Christ.


Mark Stinnett

February 11, 2024