Topics: Courage; Decisions; Enemies; Evangelism; Love; Ministry; Persecution; Sanctification; Spiritual Formation; Witnessing
References: Matthew 5:43–44; Luke 6:27, 35; Acts 7:55–60; Romans 12:20
Bible college professor Yohanna Katanacho, who pastors a small church in Jerusalem, is subjected to much persecution. Israeli soldiers who patrol the city looking for potential terrorists impose spontaneous curfews on Palestinians and have the legal right to shoot at a Palestinian who does not respond quickly enough to their summons.
Yohanna tried and failed in his attempts to love his enemies. The Israeli soldiers’ random daily checks for Palestinian identification cards—sometimes stopping them for hours—fed Yohanna’s fear and anger. As he confessed his inability to God, Yohanna realized something significant. The radical love of Christ is not an emotion, but a decision. He decided to show love, however reluctantly, by sharing the gospel message with the soldiers on the street. With new resolution, Yohanna began to carry copies of a flyer with him, written in Hebrew and English, with a quotation from Isaiah 53 and the words “Real Love” printed across the top. Every time a soldier stopped him, he handed him his ID card and the flyer. Because the quote came from the Hebrew Scriptures, the soldier usually asked him about it before letting him go.
After several months, Yohanna realized his feelings toward the soldiers had changed. “I was surprised, you know?” he says. “It was a process, but I didn’t pay attention to that process. My older feelings were not there anymore. I would pass in the same street, see the same soldiers as before, but now find myself praying, ‘Lord, let them stop me so that I can share with them the love of Christ.’ ”
—“When Love Is Impossible,” Trinity Magazine (Fall 2005)