Jesus speaks about a radical form of intercession in the Sermon on the Mount:
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. (Matt. 5:43-45 ESV emphasis added)
Conventional wisdom, Jesus says, urges us to love those who love us (e.g., our neighbor) and hate those who hate us. The norm is to do unto others as they’ve done unto us. Yet Jesus is building a counter-cultural community. We are called not only to display kindness and compassion in the face of those who adore us, but also in the face of those who abhor us. We are to love even our enemies, even those who are the source of our deepest wounds.
And what concrete form is our unexpected esteem to take? Intercession. Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Jesus can think of no greater expression of genuine concern for the antagonists in our lives than intercessory prayer.
It’s important to recognize that the phrase “and pray for those who persecute you” does not refer to imprecatory prayer. The Psalms are filled with examples of righteous people praying for their enemies—but praying for God to smite them! Jesus invites us not to imprecatory prayer for our enemies but to intercessory prayer. It’s the difference between “Bash them God!” and “Bless them God!”
Think right now about someone who has hurt you: a spouse, a child, a parent, a former friend, a coworker or a classmate. Now, pray positively for that person. If you can’t think of anyone who has hurt you recently, James Bryan Smith suggests this: pray for a competitor. Specifically, pray for the success of a competitor.[i] Change the adversarial relationship of the marketplace to one on compassion and kindness.
