This is just a quick blog post to share a story that really
moved me. Around this time last year, ISIS released a video in which they
beheaded 21 Egyptian Christians because they refused to renounce their trust in
Jesus. A few days later, Beshir Estafonos Kamel, the brother of two of the men
who were killed – Samuel and Bishoy, aged 23 and 25 – called into a Christian
television programme, and said he wanted to thank ISIS. He thanked ISIS for not
cutting the sound feed on the video as his brothers and the other men cried out
the name of Jesus in their final moments.
He said that Christians have been being persecuted since
Roman times, but that we have been taught to love our enemies, and bless those
who curse us.
The host asked him how his family was doing, and he said
that he had been speaking to his mother about it earlier – she was an uneducated
woman in her sixties – and he had asked her what she would do if she saw in the
street one of the men who had beheaded her sons. She had said that she would pray
for them, that God would open their eyes, and invite them into her home.
The host then asked Beshir if he would be willing to pray
for those members of ISIS, there and then. And he said yes. He prayed, once
again that God would open their eyes.
And I wanted to share this because I think this is something
that the world desperately needs. The kind of tolerance that isn’t exclusive to
well-educated Westerners under 50. The kind of tolerance that runs so deep
literally nothing can shake it. The kind of tolerance that doesn’t only put up
with people who agree with us, but is willing to love and forgive those who do
things that we believe with every fibre of our being are wrong. The kind of
tolerance that invites the ‘enemy’ into our home and prays for them.
Thinking about this I’m so aware that I’m nowhere near as
loving of the people who disagree with me as Jesus is, and if I want to be like
him as his disciple, his apprentice, I’ve got a lot of growing to do yet. But
that’s where I want to go.
I wrote some considerably fuller and more articulate
thoughts about this a while ago, which I’d love you to give a read if you’re
interested in this question of tolerance:
http://stuckontherooftops.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/mysterious-errands-and-root-of-peace.html
http://stuckontherooftops.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/mysterious-errands-and-root-of-peace.html
And if you want to hear the interview itself, it’s on here: http://www.sat7uk.org/announcements/brother-of-egyptian-christians-murdered-by-islamic-state-prays-for-killers-live-on-sat-7
