Seventh Sunday of Ordinary Time: Revenge

Today’s Gospel continues where last Sunday’s left off. They’re from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, a moral exhortation that can be rightly considered the Christian code of conduct. He says, “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil….” “An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth’ comes from the Law of Moses (Exodus 21), a moral code that states, ‘you did this to me, so I will enact the same offense against you’.

While the idea of forcibly removing eyes and teeth seems barbaric to our modern sensibilities, this new standard that came through Moses was a big step toward civility. Prior to that law, when a member of one tribe injured a member of a different tribe, the vengeance exceeded the original offense. If someone stole the lamb of another person, the revenge might be to steal the offender’s wife and child.

The Law establishes through Moses brought about a more proportionate and civilized response, and was the moral code Jews upheld when Jesus was born. Then Jesus took it much farther, saying, offer no resistance when someone commits offense against you. Early Christians found this command difficult, and we still do. When we or someone we love are violated or offended in some way, revenge is born in our hearts like the beginnings of a weed, taking root and spreading through our hearts like an infestation.

I can recall too many occasions I’ve nurtured bad thoughts and desires, pondering how to hurt or embarrass someone else in retaliation—often in email or other electronic communications—wanting to prove my point, exercise my hurt. Lost in that moment was the reality that it usually meant matching bad behavior.

And we can all think of ways that in the name of Christ, revenge is exacted: killing abortion doctors or executing criminals on death row. It’s a response to a blood-thirst, momentarily quenched, but providing no real or enduring solution. For sure, real problems require a response, but Jesus says that revenge is not the answer.

When we think of the overwhelming conflicts in our world, they can usually be traced to a time when one group violated another. We see it in the tensions in the Middle East. We see it in our nation’s political parties. Everything that follows, each new layer to the complex problem, is a form of revenge, back and forth. A famous quote warns, “When you kill one enemy, you then must plan for the one hundred enemies you have now created…a mother and father, brothers and sisters…a wife and children, friends and neighbors….be ready to face the angry revenge that comes from the grief (of those) who knew and loved (your enemy).” And as he does with anger, I have no doubt the devil loves when pride and a lack of trust in God’s providence causes us to turn against one another.

But let’s be clear: Jesus is not calling us to merely a mere doormat and suffer abuse unnecessarily. In fact, there’s a certain passive resistance to each one of the examples in today’s Gospel, that are subtly referenced, if we understand the cultural dynamics of his day. Think of Gandhi’s famous salt march, and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s bus boycotts and restaurant sit-ins. While a response may be necessary, evil vengeance is not.

There are enough things that violate our conscience and demand a response: murder of the unborn, slave labor of children, trafficking of young girls, cruelty to animals, and so much more. Any of these realities can easily give way to a desire for revenge, especially when it’s our child, our daughter or son. We have a moral obligation to consider what we can justly do about it and to act accordingly. But beyond that, we have no choice but to turn to God for strength and to trust in His Providence.

Jesus says, “… I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.” Clearly, this command to rise above the evil perpetrated against us is not so much for the benefit of those upon whom we might exact our revenge, but instead for ourselves. The purpose of Jesus’ command is to protect our hearts, that they might not be shaped by anger and hatred, but instead be hearts for God. For it is from such hearts that he will live in us and that His Kingdom will be built.

[1] Anwarshah Anwary, Freedom-A Journey Through Afghanistan-The Anwarshah Anwary Story