“Stop, no more! We will NOT retaliate.
Choosing not to retaliate: difficult, hard… impossible? Hard and difficult, yes; but not impossible, I should think.
Three Israeli students are abducted and murdered. A sixteen-year-old Palestinian boy is brutally murdered (burned alive?!) in retaliation.
We all know that it won’t stop there. More death and mayhem is sure to come. Neither side will stop retaliating.
Neither side wants to appear weak and vulnerable or defeated and crushed. There is anger, pride, hatred, a desire for revenge; each side retaliating in a determined effort to assert their strength and superiority over the other. As if to say, “We will have the last word. We will settle this dispute on our terms, in our way, and you (the enemy) will beg for our mercy when all is said and done. We will conquer or be conquered!”
It is a desire to totally subjugate the enemy. Actually, it’s worse than that. For some, it is a desire for the complete annihilation of the enemy—to wipe them off the face of the earth!
This is why the life, works, and teachings of Jesus the Christ are as relevant today as they were over two-thousand years ago when the Roman Empire occupied Palestine: Love your enemies, turn the other cheek; vengeance is mine, says the Lord. Many think these words of Jesus are ludicrously impracticable, useless nonsense.
But is the alternative any less ludicrous: Fight to the death! Kill or be killed! Destroy and annihilate! That is, has that approach resolved anything? Obviously not!
Alas, even many Born-Again, Bible thumping, the-Bible-is-the-inerrant-Word-of-God, Evangelical Christians, believe that Jesus’ teachings about loving one’s enemies and turning the other cheek and all that shouldn’t be taken too seriously or approached too literally. It goes to show how extra-ordinary are the teachings of Jesus. Such is the real power (and therefore real threat!) of Jesus’ words. We’re afraid to take them at face value.
Did Jesus really mean what he said? Of course he did. Why would he say it, if he thought it truly impracticable and unrealistic?
Did Jesus naïvely believe that his approach was a simple and easy answer to dealing with conflict? Certainly not: “For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:14).
Difficult does not mean impossible or unrealistic. It just means it is hard to do. Good accomplishments are often difficult to do. Being bad and doing the wrong thing is often much easier than being good—doing what’s best, doing what is right. This is as true for nation-states and people-groups, as it is for families and individuals. The high road is much, much more difficult to take than the lower road. And yet! The higher road is always the most fruitful, beneficial, and successful—having the best possible results. Indeed! Any and all great religions teach as much.
This is why we must make a distinction between the teachings, proclamations, and pronouncements made by various religious leaders. If they teach vengeance, hate, and condemnation of others in a mean-spirited self-righteous manner—especially towards those who disagree with them or reject their beliefs—beware! Jesus had this to say about such: “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles?” No, they are not! (See Matthew 7:15-16.)
Jesus’ teaching also contradicts the naturalistic survival of the fittest mentality. In a ruff and tuff all naturalistic world, weakness is bad. And seeking peace by being forgiving and non-retaliatory, for example, is seen as utterly weak, in both personal and national relations. The norm is fight or flight: Fight if you’re sure that you can take them down, flee if you can’t.
And so Jesus teaches an alternative, counter-intuitive third-way that appears weak on the surface, but actually requires great inner strength, much depth of character, and a wide breadth of faith: Love your enemies—rather than demand an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth. (See Matthew 5:38-48.)
It’s safe to say that Jesus’ teachings are as relevant in today’s world as they were at the time of the Roman Empire. And notice, the Roman Empire is gone. But the life, teachings, and works of Jesus continue to be relevant and influential in today’s world. And this is despite the fact that many of Jesus’ followers often fail horribly at living up to Jesus’ call toward a better way of living, the Way of Christ.
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