Thursday morning, I started my quiet time shortly after I woke up, and I went through my process of prayer before reaching a section called supplication, which is where I ask God for things.
On Thursdays, I pray for the United States and obviously, prayers for Charlottesville were in order, so I asked God to be with everyone affected.
Most people would probably have meant the injured, the family of Heather Heyer, and the various law enforcement involved in the city, as well as the city’s citizens. I meant all of those things and I want God to be with all of them, blessing them and holding them close to His heart as they become survivors of this tragedy and struggle.
The thing is, I also want God to be with the Nazis. And not “be with” as in “bring down judgment.” I mean that I want Jesus to love them fiercely and to save them.
Why?
Because I am absolutely crazy. That’s what loving Jesus does- it makes you crazy.
The type of crazy that makes me write things like this: I deserve Hell just as much as Nazis do.
No, I have never run over an innocent person with my car. No, I have never punched someone simply because I disagreed with them. No, I have never called someone less-than-human because of the color of their skin.
My above statement is still true, though, because I am a sinner. Nazis are sinners too, which means they need Jesus, just like I need Jesus. We all need Jesus because God wants perfection and none of us are perfect.
Jesus was perfect, though, which means we all need Him to cover us so we can come to God.
The best part is that Jesus loves us no matter what.
Even if we don’t think we need Him, He loves us. He loves us so much He died for all of us- even the Nazis in Charlottesville. The hatred they stand for breaks His heart, as does the violence, but He still loves them. Salvation is still theirs if they choose to walk away from themselves and their sin, which is the same deal offered to all of us. There are no “levels of sin” in God’s kingdom.
Need proof?
Romans 3:23 explains that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We have all been where those Nazis are- trapped in a sinful lifestyle, ignorant of the grace and love available to us through Jesus. And since someone once told us about Jesus, we need to tell them too.
Tell them through words and through loving actions and forgiveness, whether they want it or not. Or if you’re not a Christian, try to forgive anyways. It will make you the bigger person and free you from the deep, dark pit that is hate. That is where the Nazis live, and we do not want to live with them. We want to help them. They need our help, whether they know it or not.
I don’t know any Nazis. No one from my community showed up in Charlottesville that I am aware of, so I can’t take their hands and show them the love Christ has shown me.
I can pray for them and for their families though, and trust that the God of the universe knows what He’s doing.
After all, Jesus stopped Saul on the road to Damascus after he had spent years murdering people he did not agree with, and salvation was offered to him despite the horrendous things he had done (Acts 8-9). And who did Saul become?
Saul became Paul, who wrote roughly half of the New Testament and served as a missionary to so many countries I cannot possibly list them here.
One of these Nazis could be on a similar road of hatred and even if you are not a Christian, you must be able to agree that loving them is important. The only way we can show them what their ideas truly are- hate-, is to show them something they can have that is better- love. As Martin Luther King Jr. said: “hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
I will continue to pray for the Nazis. Will you?
