In an op-ed piece in the New York Times this week, Sarah Vowell comments on the beginnings of Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States. Reagan signed this holiday into law which seems fitting given that his political ethos shared a common text with Dr. King. For both men, the Sermon on the Mount provided vital inspiration for their understanding of political activism. Whereas Reagan focused upon revitalizing the American image of a city on a hill, King emphasized the radical love Jesus calls all his disciples to. As Vowell puts it:

Here’s what Dr. King got out of the Sermon on the Mount. On Nov. 17, 1957, in Montgomery’s Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, he concluded the learned discourse that came to be known as the “loving your enemies” sermon this way: “So this morning, as I look into your eyes and into the eyes of all of my brothers in Alabama and all over America and over the world, I say to you: ‘I love you. I would rather die than hate you.’ ”

Go ahead and re-read that. That is hands down the most beautiful, strange, impossible, but most of all radical thing a human being can say. And it comes from reading the most beautiful, strange, impossible, but most of all radical civics lesson ever taught, when Jesus of Nazareth went to a hill in Galilee and told his disciples, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you.”

If there is a test for whether love is real, this is it. Love must surpass our likes to include our dislikes. Love must go beyond our friends to include our enemies. Does this degrade what we mean when we say we love? No. Rather, Jesus punctuates all our self-satisfied notions of love with a question mark. You think you love people? Consider those snide comments about those you disagree with, or those who have hurt you. Consider whether you could honestly say King's words: "I would rather die than hate you." King so internalized Jesus's words that they became embodied in his own life and political practices, and Vowell helpfully reminds us that this radical love is what Martin Luther King Jr. Day is about.