Jesus Died to Save Muslims

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34 ESV)

Even though this is probably one of the most famous verses in the Bible I’m not sure we get exactly what is being illustrated here. The event takes place in Luke’s account of the crucifixion of Jesus. As a Christian I cannot help believing this is the most profound act in all of history. It is impossible for words to convey the magnitude of what is recorded here. We can only dance around it with the some superlative language knowing that whatever expression we make falls short. Here is the supreme act of love: that God, whose people turned their backs on him, who have made themselves his enemies, now makes the ultimate sacrifice of himself (Phil. 2:6-8) in order to reconcile them to his grace. In this verse, in the midst of the horrific endeavor, he forgives even those pounding the nails through his hands.

It is too easy to forget that this act, the center of the Christian faith, was made necessary by the fact that as humans we are incapable of redeeming ourselves. All humans are slaves to sin. Paul tells us: “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God." (Ro. 3:10-11) This is crucial to the gospel because sin makes all equal. All. Every single human being in the world. Without Jesus, we are all under condemnation. But with Jesus we can all share in God’s glory.

Those of us who are chosen by Jesus (Jo. 15:16) now have the privilege to follow him. Follow him where? To glory, yes, but by the same path that he followed: through the cross. We are called to love as he loved. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jo. 13:34-35)

Now I think it is really important to consider at this point who Jesus means by “one another.” We want to think it means the people we live with in our little neighborhoods or maybe even our countrymen who look like us and talk like us and pretty much are like us. But Jesus didn’t die only for “his” people, the Jews. He spent his life hanging out with people “respectable” Jews didn’t want anything to do with, and he died for people the Jews despised: Romans, Greeks, people of all nations, even those who ultimately nailed him to a cross. (Mt. 28:19)

In no place does Jesus tell us we should hate. He charges us to love our enemies (Mt. 5:43-48). In fact, the place where he commands us to love our enemies is the only place where he also commands us to be perfect, just as the Father is perfect. Perfect in love. Perfect in complete self-sacrifice. What could the Father’s perfect love be other than dying for his enemies, as Jesus did? And we are commanded to love our enemies in this way.

Now, when we hear that we are to love our enemies we are likely to think we are supposed to feel affectionate feelings for people who may really want to hurt us. So I think it is good to remember that love is not expressed as an emotion but as an act. I think this was well stated by Martin Luther King, Jr., when he described the love he envisioned overcoming the scourge of race hatred in the American south:

In speaking of love at this point, we are not referring to some sentimental or affectionate emotion. It would be nonsense to urge men to love their oppressors in an affectionate sense. Love in this connection means understanding, redemptive good will. When we speak of loving those who oppose us, we refer to neither eros nor philia; we speak of a love which is expressed in the Greek word agape. Agape means understanding, redeeming good will for all men. It is an overflowing love which is purely spontaneous, unmotivated, groundless, and creative. It is not set in motion by any quality or function of its object. It is the love of God operating in the human heart.[1]

We are all made in the image of God, but because of sin without Jesus we are all his enemies. As Christians, knowing that we are sinners saved only by grace, and commanded as the redeemed to love as Jesus loved, it is impossible that we can hate anyone, including Muslims. If the Church and its members do not relate to the world with agape love in the same unconditional, self-sacrificial way that Jesus relates to the world, then it is not the Church of Jesus Christ. If the world cannot look at the Church and see Jesus, it is not Jesus’ Church. Jesus died to save Muslims, too. (1 Jo. 2:2)

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[1] Martin Luther King, Jr., “An Experiment in Love,” 1958, in James Melvin Washington, ed., A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr., (San Francisco: Harper San Francisco, 1991), 19.