Does Jesus Have It All Wrong?

Keywords: Forgiveness, Vengeance, Love, Forgiveness

Little Johnny was very upset with his brother, Willy. Before he said his night prayers, Johnny's mother said to him, "Now I want you to forgive your brother." But Johnny was not in a forgiving mood. "No, I won't forgive him," he said. Mother tried persuasions of every motherly variety, but nothing worked. Finally, she said, "What if your brother were to die tonight? How would you feel if you knew you hadn't forgiven him?" Johnny gave in -- or so it seemed. "All right, I forgive him," he said, "but if he's alive in the morning, I'll get even with him for what he did to me."

In His introduction to the "Sermon on the Mount," Jesus says, "Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets ... I have come not to abolish but to complete them" (Mt. 5:17).

In the Law, God had given His People an enormous capacity for good. Now, Jesus comes in the Spirit and man's capacity for good is expanded. Living under the new Law of Love, man's capacity for good is limitless. In Jesus, man has the capacity, for example, to break through the boundaries imposed by the old law of vengeance ...

Late one night, a cheerful truck driver pulled up to a road-side diner for some refreshment. As he was eating, three mean-looking motorcyclists roared up to the diner's entrance. The atmosphere became tense as they stalked in. Immediately, they selected the truck driver as the target of their meanness. One poured salt and pepper on his head. Another took his apple pie, placed it on the floor and squished it under a dirty boot. The third upset his coffee, causing it to spill in his lap. The truck driver said not a word. He merely arose, walked slowly to the cashier, calmly paid his check and made his exit. "That dude sure ain't much of a fighter," sneered one of the invaders. The waiter behind the counter peered out into the night and then replied, "He doesn't seem to be much of a driver either. He just ran his truck over three motorcycles."

That is what I would call "instant" vengeance. The revenge couldn't be sweeter. When you think about it, enormous amounts of time and effort are invested in the art of vengeance: to get even; tit-for- tat; you cross me and I'll cross you; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.In early Old Testament History, it was "a life for a life... a tooth for a tooth... a hand for hand... a foot for foot... a burn for burn... a stripe for stripe." On and on it went, splitting hairs to make the punishment fit the crime in almost every imaginable situation.

At first, vengeance was the rule not only with respect to enemies of Israel but also within the People of Israel. Later, the Rabbis forbade personal vengeance on fellow- Israelites, but not on non-Israelites. And then Jesus came and said a flat "No!" to vengeance. He commanded His followers to forgive their enemies and to suffer wrong rather than repay it. Christians, therefore, should not only not take vengeance on their enemies, they should repay evil with good. Revenge no longer belongs to man. Vengeance no longer is sweet. Revenge is sour.

So says Jesus in today's Gospel,

You have heard how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. But I say this to you: offer the wicked man no resistance. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well ... You have heard it said you must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you; in this way you will be sons of your Father in Heaven (Mt. 5:38-39,43- 45).

In abolishing the Law of Vengeance in favor of the Law of Love Jesus moves us into the ultimate learning experience. God, through Jesus, has taken up residence in the human condition. In Jesus and in his brother and sister human beings we are given the opportunity to explore the inexhaustible depths of one another's personhood and, thereby, to learn more about who God is and who we are.

The reality of another human being is inexhaustible. Each one of us is a mystery to the other: a mystery of joys and sorrows, hopes and fears, strange hurts and even stranger ecstasies. Not least of all we are a mystery to ourselves. It is, in The Apostle Paul's words, only in the Coming Kingdom that "we shall know ourselves even as we are known." But now is the time of exploration and discovery, if only in part.

All around us there are those who cry out for vengeance and savor sweet revenge. They continue to pile human disaster upon human disaster, but nothing is solved, nothing is learned. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Kids leave home because they hate their parents and parents can't wait until the kids clear out. We build a new jail and we need two more. One nation develops the capacity to destroy the entire world in a single blow. Another discovers how to do it two times over. And the race goes on from there. That is precisely the way it is in our world today. And God help us as a Church if we don't stop coming apart at the seams every time the Gospel of the Lord contradicts things as they are. Like all correct action, there is everything to gain and nothing to lose in forgiving. When we forgive those who have offended us, we are doing it not only for them but also for ourselves ... Perhaps the major difference between loving and hating is that to love somebody is to be fulfilled and enriched by the experience; to hate somebody is to be diminished and drained by the experience. Lovers, by losing themselves in their loving, find themselves, become their true selves. Haters simply lose themselves, diminish their true selves.