Living Virtuously - Taming the Desire for Revenge

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. (Matthew 5:39-41, ESV)

For many people, applying Jesus’s teachings in the Sermon on the Mount are just plain difficult. Christians may be able to repeat the Beatitudes, but few can remember exactly what the Sermon on the Mount teaches. Yet, if I understand the gospel at all, I believe that this is the very heart of Jesus’s message and it is imperative for Christians to live according to these teachings. We know that the Spirit is given to us to recreate us into really spiritual men and women, living in a world of darkness and evil. The Spirit is God and the Scripture plainly teaches, “for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” ( Philippians 2:13, ESV) We can only know what kind of person He wants us to be by looking again and again at the Sermon on the Mount. There is the essence of spiritual living in one sermon.
It would seem that one of the more difficult teachings is overcoming the desire to seek revenge or giving “tit for tat.” When we have been wronged, often totally uncalled for on our part, we would really like to lash out at the person who injured us. And we are even devious in the ways in which we express that desire. “Lord, please forgive the guy who smashed my car in the parking lot today. Please do something to bring him down so he knows that he is full of sin and hurting others.” We pray like that. No real forgiveness on our part, but rather a real desire for God to strike that person back. Oh, yes, we want the perpetrator to become a Christian and we really hope God will bring some terrible calamity on him so that he will wake up and turn to God. Notice, though, that we really want that terrible whatever to come upon that person!
Jesus said to turn the other cheek. When we read that, we are thinking of someone walking up to us, hitting us across the face and then, as really good Christians, we will just turn our cheek and let them hit the other, too. But that isn’t really the way things happen, is it?
Week before last, I was walking my dogs down the alley behind our house, as I do every morning, when we were attacked by a Pit Bull mixed dog belonging to one of the neighbors. We have been attacked before, but no injuries happened. The dog is kept behind a steel fence, but when the owner backs his car out, he opens the gate and doesn’t bother to put the dog in the garage temporarily or on a chain or whatever. So we have been attacked, not once but several times. This time, though, he bit deep into the shoulder of my Lab, leaving a deep puncture wound. I took her to the vet and spent almost 400 dollars for blood tests, an overnight stay in the hospital, a minor surgery to put in a drain, etc., and antibiotics. I called Animal Control, which I have done in the past after my wife and daughter were chased by the animal, and lodged a complaint. I took my bill to the door of the house, not once but three times, but both the people from Animal Control and I have had the same response; no one comes to the door. This leaves me with a feeling of anger, that the owner will not take responsibility for his own actions. My unspiritual self wants the bill paid, especially just before the holidays.
But what would Jesus tell me to do? I think He would tell me to drop it, to suffer loss. Going the extra mile is to be defrauded of time. To turn the other cheek is to suffer personal injury, whether physically or mentally. If we buy into pop psychology as dished out on television, we could convince ourselves that it is for the other person’s own good to make them pay, to make them be responsible. Human rights are not the same as Christian rights. The Christian has the right to suffer loss, to suffer harm, to return good behavior for evil behavior. These are the rights we should staunchly defend as Christians.
That we live in an age of increasing irresponsibility is a given. Nations are irresponsible, politicians are irresponsible, parents are irresponsible and on and on goes the list. By turning the other cheek, we show the greater responsibility. I have been in situations where I was wrongly accused and you probably have, too. Let us promise to turn the other cheek, thereby disarming the power of Satan. We must believe that it is Satan who is the real adversary, the one who wants the power. He wants us to seek revenge, to give the other person “what’s coming to him.” We serve the Risen Jesus and help to disarm Satan by living like Jesus, turning the other cheek. How can we read the trial scene, when Jesus did not even open His mouth to defend Himself and think that we should be any different? To live our lives bathed in His blood, life incarnadine means to deal decisively with our desire for revenge, to get even, to make things right in our eyes. That is the sermon that this world desperately needs to hear and every Christian should be preaching it, every day.