Paul’s words could not be clearer. There are no mincing
words, no equivocations or rationalizations. We
are not to seek revenge. Instead, we are to do good
works.
As difficult as we find these instructions to follow today,
I am sure they were every bit as difficult to follow when Paul
spoke them to the Thessalonians in the first century, and
when they were uttered thousands of years prior in Leviticus
19:18 and Proverbs 20:22.
"See that
none of you
repays evil
for evil."
—1 Thessalonians 5:15a,
NRSV |
Jesus knew just how difficult it
would be for us to accept this teaching,
to practice what he preached.
After all, he was both human and
divine. Sure, he had said it dozens of
times, in all sorts of variations: “Love
your enemies” (Luke 6:27, NRSV);
“if anyone strikes you on the right
cheek, turn the other also” (Matthew
5:39); “forgive others their trespasses”
(Matthew 6:14). But he knew
he would have to show us how it
was done for us to get it.
SPONSORED LINKS
 Hope and Forgiveness
Three days after Jesus was crucified,
he did not come back to earth with
an army of cross-bearers who were
ready to crucify all those who made him suffer. No, Jesus
came back with a message of peace, forgiveness and hope.
Jesus did love. He lived—and died—for us, giving us the
ultimate gift of his example. Yet we still didn’t get it. We
needed to hear Paul tell us not to repay “evil for evil” (1 Thessalonians
5:15a) in order to remind us what we have to do.
Paul reminds us again in Romans
12, “Do not repay anyone evil for
evil” (v. 17) and “Do not be overcome
by evil, but overcome evil with
good” (v. 21).
You would think with over 2,000
years of practice under our belts that
the actions of Jesus and the words of
Paul would have finally gotten
through. But we still hold grudges,
seek revenge and fight wars. The
cycle of evil and all that comes with
it—loneliness, bitterness, anger and
hatred—follow.
The famous British poet W.H.
Auden commented perfectly on the
cyclical and unending nature of evil
in his powerful poem titled “September 1, 1939”:
I and the public know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done
Do evil in return.
We all know plenty of horror stories of what happens when
someone repays one wrong with
another wrong.
I don’t know when it will end,
but Jesus gives me hope. Besides his
own example, he sends me plenty of
amazing people who choose peace
and love instead of revenge.
For example, my friend Valentino
Achak Deng is one of the now-famous
Lost Boys from Marial Bai,
Sudan. In the 1980s, when Val was
no more than eight, he witnessed
the murder of children, mothers and
fathers in a civil war. He watched as
his village was burned by murahaleen (Khartoum-sponsored militiamen).
Val and other orphaned boys
were forced to flee and then live in
refugee camps for over a decade.
Given many opportunities to join soldiers and fight against
those who killed his people, Val chose peace. He’s now back
in Sudan, building a school and a hospital.
I look to people like Val, Paul and, most importantly, Jesus
in moments of weakness, when I
am most vulnerable to snap an
unkind or cutting retort (I am disturbingly
adept at it) or wish ill on
people who have harmed me or
loved ones.
If we truly want the cycle of evil
to end so that there finally is peace
on earth, it has to begin somewhere.
As the song “Let There Be
Peace on Earth” says, “Let it begin
with me.”
Mary Curran-Hackett is an assistant book editor
at St. Anthony Messenger Press and teaches
English literature at the University of Cincinnati:
She met Val when he spoke to her students. |
