Hate is exhausting.  Hate, negativity, unforgiveness, a critical spirit…they all require excessive amounts of energy and only serve to drain us.

In Mark 11 and 12, the chief priests, teachers of the law, and the elders, the Pharisees, the Herodians, and the Sadducees all bombarded Jesus with questions.  Not questions being asked out of a sincere desire to know God’s truth, but questions meant to trick or entrap Jesus…as Mark 12:13 says, “to catch him in his words.”  These questions were rooted in jealousy and their hatred for Jesus, and a murderous hatred, no less.  Mark 11:18 says, “[They] began looking for a way to kill him….”  

In the movie “The Help,” the character of Hilly Holbrook is constantly exhibiting hatred, negativity, and unforgiveness toward the black house help in civil rights-era Jackson, Mississippi.  At the conclusion of the film, when Hilly accuses the house maid Aibileen Clark of stealing silver and threatens to have her arrested, Aibileen says to Hilly, “You're a godless woman. Ain't you tired, Miss Hilly? Ain't you tired?”  With that statement, Aibileen is alluding to the point in my introductory statement.  Hate and all its ugly accompaniments are tiring.  And without saying so, she’s implying that there’s a much easier, less cumbersome alternative – the way of love.

I tend to believe this was the feeling Jesus had toward all those who desired to arrest Him and even take His life.  I can imagine Him saying to them, “You’re a godless bunch.  Aren’t you tired?”  I believe Jesus desired for His accusers to lay down their exhausting, all consuming hatred in exchange for love.  As He said in Matthew 11:28&30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy-laden and I will give you rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Jesus wanted them to come to embrace the love of God and one another.  In fact, this is the point He made in Mark 12:29-31 – to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself.  I notice in particular the word “strength.”  We are to expend our strength, our energy, our efforts on loving rather than wasting it on hating.

“Father, relieve us from the heavy loads we heap upon ourselves when we harbor ill feelings toward others.  Help us to release those attitudes and exchange them for the much lighter ‘burden’ of love.  In Jesus’ Name.  Amen.”