A question came up recently from an individual who was participating in the Catholic Church’s Christian Initiation process: “How does a gentile, which I am, embrace the history of Jesus teaching that he came to the lost children of Israel when that is not my history or story?
It is important to understand that Jesus was a Jew speaking to Jews within the story of Israel when he says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy,'” and then commands them to love their enemies. Here he is engaging Israel’s Scriptures and traditions, speaking from within a particular covenant history. Yet the New Testament also presents Jesus as doing something that extends beyond ethnic Israel. The question for any non-Jewish person becomes: How do I receive a story that is not originally my story?
One answer comes from the imagery St. Paul uses in his Letter to the Romans. In chapter eleven, Paul describes Gentiles as wild olive branches grafted into Israel’s olive tree. The image is striking because Paul does not say that Gentiles replace Israel or create a new tree. Rather, they are welcomed into a story already underway.
Therefore, a Gentile does not embrace Jesus by pretending to be Jewish or by erasing the Jewish roots of the faith. Instead, the Gentile receives Israel’s story as an adopted member of God’s family. The history remains Israel’s history, but through Christ it becomes the history into which Gentiles are invited. Jesus teaching here is not detached from Israel’s history. Rather, it reveals what Christians believe was always God’s ultimate purpose for Israel: that through Israel’s Messiah, blessing would reach all nations.
The command to love enemies becomes universal because God’s mercy is universal, as we read at the end of the Gospels, how the risen Christ sends his disciples to “all nations.” The particular mission to Israel now becomes the means by which the universal mission emerges.
The God who gives sun and rain to all people creates a family larger than any one nation. The command to love enemies flows from that same divine generosity: God’s love reaches beyond the boundaries we naturally draw, including the boundary between Israel and the nations.