Retaliation or Mercy?

~~~ 2 Corinthians 6:1-10 ~~~ Psalm 98 ~~~ Matthew 5:38-42 ~~~

 

When I first began teaching

 I was expected to administer corporal punishment

to unruly students in my third grade classroom.

I remember one day in particular standing in the Principal's office

 with a young boy who was mostly non compliant.

 I was handed the wooden paddle, told him to bend over,

hooked a finger from my left hand into one of his belt loops

and the swats commenced.

 

On this particular day after the child

was sent to sit in the foyer to wait

I was informed by the principal that I did not paddle hard enough.

 From that day forward I never brought another student

 to the office to be disciplined with the paddle.

I could never understand how such a display of power, control,

and pain belonged in our schools.

 

Physical punishment connected to education seems to send

the wrong message to the child.

Violence is not the way to get cooperation.

 

In today's gospel we have the well known verse...

An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Jesus is suggesting that his followers take the complete opposite approach.

When you have been wronged do not retaliate in kind.

There is wisdom in the saying two wrongs do not make a right...it is not logical.

Certainly Jesus never reacted with violence.

 

He reached out to those who disagreed with him and later

 to those who persecuted him.

When someone wrongs you this is your opportunity to rise above

what your initial reaction of retaliation might dictate.

 

 

As a follower of Christ we know

 that we are given the sufficient grace to respond with mercy.

No one said this would be easy.

No one said this would feel right at first.

We all want justification for our actions, especially when we have been wronged.

 

Paul is such a beautiful example of what our attitude should be...

We cause no one to stumble in anything,
in order that no fault may be found with our ministry;
on the contrary, in everything we commend ourselves
as ministers of God...

 

It takes a certain amount of detachment

to control ones desire to justify our taking 'an eye for an eye'.

 

Proverbs 24:29 sums it up for us...

Do not say, “As they did to me, so will I do to them;

I will repay them according to their deeds.”

 

If we retaliate, then we are contributing

 to the continuation of the culture of wrong doing.

 

It is only possible to follow Jesus

 if we are determined to respond to our enemies with kindness and mercy.

This may never come as our natural response,

but rather our response through the intention of our heart.

 

Our commitment to Christ requires us to also be merciful.

My prayer is that I will be up to the task when I am challenged to engage mercy.

I know there will be times when I will need an extra helping of grace.

So I ask, 'which is easier; retaliation or mercy?'