2005-02-18
Good Morning Faithful Readers,
Christ’s next subject in the Sermon on the Mount is revenge. It’s a tough one; no doubt about it. Yet, He wouldn’t have discussed this, making His will clear in MT 5: 38-42, if He didn’t think it necessary for us to examine our own lives against His perfect one. Let’s begin with our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount teaching on this subject. “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But now I tell you: do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your left cheek too. And if someone takes you to court to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two miles. When someone ask you for something, give it to him; when someone wants to borrow something, lend it to him.” From what I can tell this is the first real statement about taking a passive response to hostility that comes up in the Scriptures. Although he never believed Christ was His personal Savior, Gandhi did base his passive resistance approach on Christ’s teaching. When one realizes the accomplishment of India’s independence from British control came out of that, its power can be seen.
There is much more to say about Christ’s teaching, and I promise to return to it. But I’m led to recall comments made by Dr. Wm. Bakus in his book, Learning To Tell Myself The Truth, about the mechanism that Satan uses to fuel anger. Satan is identified in JN 8: 44, “You [Pharisees] are the children of your father, the devil, and you want to follow your father’s desires. From the very beginning he was a murderer and has never been on the side of truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he is only doing what is natural to him, because he is a liar and the father of all lies.” Dr. Bakus explained that it all starts with something bad happening to a person which makes him very angry. Eventually, he either takes sinful hostile action or for a time his anger dies down. But Satan causes the person to remember his anger and fuels it all over and over again. It’s like a vicious cycle, and the only way to interfere with it is to put God’s perspective into the picture. Satan loves it when we are angry and our anger is out of control. He wants us to engage in sinful thoughts and behavior. But, as believers in Christ, we must remember that we have the same power that God used to raise Christ from death to life to win out over Satan in Christ’s name [EPH 1: 18-20]. The problem is that relatively few of us realize this and gather the courage to beat Satan at his mean-spirited game. Remember that if Satan can’t get us angry just by making us remember what initiated the original anger, he’ll dress up the memory to fuel the anger with an inaccurate one which does that job. Satan is cunning, as we see in 1PET 5: 8, “Be alert, be on watch! Your enemy, the devil, roams around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
A now-deceased member of my family was invited to his cousin’s home for an overnighter when they were boys back in the ‘20’s. The two boys had a terrible fight, and my relative went home. For the ensuing 30 years, these two people had nothing to do with each other. Every time there was a chance for them to reconcile, Satan stepped in and reminded them of their anger. This went on into their adulthood, of course, and each man finished his education, one becoming a doctor and the other becoming a chemical engineer. Their separate lives converged again after the 30 years were up at a cocktail party in which each was invited without the knowledge of the other. They were introduced to each other by their host (who had no idea of what had transpired) and each realized how stupid he would appear if he didn’t act cordially to the other. Later, they worked out their differences and remained friends until the end of my relative’s life. I have left the most interesting feature of this story for last. I asked my relative if he could tell me what the original squabble was about. Neither he nor his cousin could even remember! All he remembered was his anger.
What this shows us is the futility and uselessness of holding a grudge. The only one served by this is the devil. O how the devil loves to establish a stronghold! The example I shared here is a very simple form of revenge, refusing to interact with someone previously close to you. There is much more to say about revenge, a subject I can’t possibly cover in one message. Christ asks us to review our own lives, not to establish guilt feelings, but instead to allow us to uncover sins of which we are not conscious. These grudges fester beneath the surface and are the means by which the evil one keeps our evil thoughts and misbehaviors in progress. As believing adults who are called to test our own thoughts and actions against the foundational ethics of the word of God, we are called into an important process of self-examination. This process must be done with openness and honesty. It might mean facing some emotionally painful truths about ourselves. However, it is a cleansing of sin out of our lives and therefore, something which pleases our Lord. We must answer this call, knowing all the while that our Lord loves each and every one of us with all His heart. He wants to bring us home to Him for a life of eternal bliss and fellowship with Him [JN 6: 39-40].
PRAYER: O Lord, With our limited human perspective, You find it necessary to repeatedly tell us that we need to focus on the great sacrifice of Your Son that You made for us. His suffering, death, and resurrection was for all of us. We owe it to You to expunge the sin in our lives, so that we can live to please You and carry out Your purpose for our lives [EPH 1: 4-5]. Some of us were carefully taught as children to hold a grudge. This certainly doesn’t conform to Your will, so clearly stated in RO 12: 2. As adult believers, we must walk away from the idea and the practice of holding grudges and taking revenge. You mentioned Your will in this matter as early as LV 19: 18, “Do not take revenge on anyone or continue to hate him, but love your neighbor as you love yourself. I am the Lord.” PR 20: 22 has told us, “Do not take it on yourself to repay a wrong. Trust the Lord and He will make it right.” The same concept is restated in RO 12: 17, “If someone has done you wrong, do not repay him with a wrong.” Dear Lord, we stand before your throne today with the understanding that You have called us to examine our thoughts toward others and our behavior in light of Your will. We dedicate ourselves, knowing that You have called us to lives of holiness [1 PET 1: 16], to doing this task, no matter how much emotional pain we have in the process. Throughout Your word You have told us that You love us and that You want us to one day return to You for a blissful eternity. We understand that we must keep both Christ’s Atonement and the goal of returning to You by glorification in mind as we work through our feelings about others. Reconciliation and not our taking of revenge is Your way. Your Son made that clear in MT 5: 9, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” We acknowledge Your Sovereignty over our lives, Your righteousness, and Your right to issue the command for us to work through the process to expunge the sin of revenge from our lives. You deserve nothing less than our praise and thanks for Who You are and for what You do for us. In Christ’s Holy name, I pray. Amen.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the subject of next week’s message will be more on revenge. The Scriptures have a lot to say about this important and often painful subject. There are some actual experiences with revenge that I plan to share too. Please review PR 20: 22 above, because it contains a promise that I can tell you from first-hand experience is a true blessing for us. Without compromising this person’s privacy, I will tell you that he did me some serious wrong. It lead to very undeserved, profound negative consequences for me. I chose to walk away from his wrongdoing and from him without holding a grudge or taking revengeful action. I’m far from perfect; it’s just that holding grudges isn’t part of my character. Later, the Lord stepped in and took action to stop some of this unrepentant person’s evil behavior. I didn’t have to do a thing about it. The Lord will do the same for anyone who believes in Him and obeys His commands. So, we can take comfort that. Knowing about PS 37: 23-24 has given me much comfort, as I hope it will you. “The steps of the godly are directed by the Lord. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will not fall, for the Lord hold them by the hand.” If you have been one to hold a grudge, go through the process of ridding yourself of this sin. Then, hold out your hand to the Lord, and He will delight in taking it. PS 33: 22, “Yes, Lord, let Your constant love surround us, for our hopes are in You alone.”
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn