Vital Choices - Vengeance or Reconciliation 4/11/43

Scripture: Romans 12: 9-21

Text: Romans 12: 19 “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

“Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” There are some portions of the Bible that we receive eagerly, because they bring comfort, encouragement, hope. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” [Psalm 23: 1]. “My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and earth.” [Psalm 121: 2]

“I will not forsake thee.” [Hebrews 13: 5]. “I have redeemed thee.” [Isaiah 43: 1]. “Fear not.” [Luke 2: 10]. “Rejoice.” We read with satisfaction passages which include these expressions.

There are other portions that are hard to take. They impose duties, require control of our impulses, point to ways that seem severe to us. “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” [Matthew 10: 37]. “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” [Matthew 16: 24]. “Enter ye in by the narrow gate.” [Matthew 7: 13].

This text for this morning is one of those passages that is not easy to take. There is an intriguing appeal in the kind of justice that finds expression in the ancient law of “an eye for an eye;

a tooth for a tooth.”

If a neighbor’s hens ruin your garden, why not catch and kill them, and have a meal of roast chicken in place of the radishes and peas that will not be raised where the chickens scratched?

If Nazi soldiers have killed thousands of Poles, why shouldn’t Poles be encourage to expect that an equal number of Germans will be placed in Polish hands for similar treatment? Chinese cities have been bombed and burned by Japanese planes and troops. Why shouldn’t Japanese cities be bombed and burned at the earliest moment allied bombers can reach them?

The prospect of vengeance stirs one’s blood as though some primitive animal impulse leaped to the control of one’s being. Yet, what about vengeance for a Christian?

Jesus put a curb on it when he taught, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil (Moffatt translates it a little better - ‘that ye resist not injury’); but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” [Matthew 5: 38-39]. That doesn’t set well with most of us.

And here is that great first century follower of Christ, Paul, quoting the ancient word of earlier scriptures in a letter to the Christians at Rome: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

One of the hardest lessons for us to learn is found here; there is a moral order of God, definite, eternal, unchangeable. In His time and in His ways, an evil doer is punished (for God is just, and His mercy is for those only who repent.) Punishment is primarily His concern. So that there is no need for retaliation or revenge on our part. More than that, revenge is an evil that sears the soul of the one who seeks it, compounding an evil, rather than correcting or neutralizing it.

Now it is well for us to keep our heads level in such a discussion as this. A sentimental attitude toward a criminal is not Christian, either. It is foolish, to say of a stubborn, willful child who has done something definitely wrong, “Now I’m sure Willie didn’t intend any harm, so let’s let bygones be bygones, because he won’t do that again.” Forgiveness is premature and out of order, if there be no repentance - no change of heart. An evil-doer is headed for punishment, in a moral world, so long as he persists in his evil.

If Christian love forbids revenge, it also has no place for the sentimental emotion that forgets the moral welfare of its object. To forgive unrepentant Nazis for their barbarous treatment of Jews is neither just, nor is it good for either. An unrepentant nation, like an unrepentant person, is in line for punishment. Any other assumption is blind neglect or selfish laziness. For integrity of the moral law, Christians must do their best to discriminate between righteous men and wicked men and must act accordingly.

This does not set aside the missionary command of the Master when he said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” Neither does it mean that justice shall be set aside, pending acceptance and practice of the gospel. But the hope of the world and of individual people lies in justice and salvation.

Jesus was living among people many of whom regarded justice in its narrowest sense. He found no hope or interest in technical quibbles. When men degenerate their laws to mere technicalities, their law becomes less than justice and actually evil; so that Jesus spoke a truth to his listeners when he said “the strength of sin is the law.” Jesus said of himself, rather,

“I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” [John 12: 47].

There have been lurid pictures painted, by brush and pen, of Jesus coming in terrible and mighty judgment on the people of the world. A host of cranky, thriving little sects feed on the idea now that the “end of the world” is at hand; that Jesus is coming to earth again; that in one great cataclysmic sweep, evil and evil doers will be swept to eternal doom while righteousness and righteous people will thrive in eternal, unmolested bliss.

Let no one who wants to be intelligent or realistic - who really wants to know the truth - be fooled by any such easy escape from reality. God swept all of that into the discard long ago. His ways are hard and testing. His ways led a perfect Man to agony on a cross. And the suffering on that cross has never saved the disciples from suffering for redemption. The apostles died martyrs’ deaths. Roman Christians were burned, thrown to the beasts, persecuted and hunted and tortured. Christ is coming in the slow, hard, painful, soul-refining struggles of people in a world that is governed by God’s moral order.

What do those have to say who have found Christ’s way? A couple of centuries ago, John Wesley embarked in the Christian ministry. He was enthusiastic in his work, and severe in his judgment on evil doers. But he was not satisfied that he himself had found the way. After a very unsuccessful ministry in the colony at Georgia, he returned to England. Sometime later, still discontented and unhappy, he went by chance to a little Moravian chapel in London. While sitting there during a simple service he found his Christ. And he said later of the experience, “I felt my heart strangely warmed!” Instead of being struck or condemned for his life which he felt to be so wrong and unsatisfactory, he felt his “heart warmed.”

A Christian of our day, the oft-noted Kagawa, was born in miserable circumstances. It is said that he was an illegitimate child, frail and sickly in body. He was early left with his father’s neglected and wronged wife. Here he was unwanted and abused. He was shunned at school. Of a sensitive nature, this was all torment for him. The torment continued until he was in middle school. Then he was invited to the house of one of his teachers. It was a Christian home. For the first time in his life, he was warmly welcomed and met with sympathy and understanding. In this home, he first learned about the love of God and the teachings of a Man who meant so much to his new friends. He began reading the Bible. At length, under these influences, light broke on him, his melancholy melted away and he was saved from his misery. There was no crushing of stern judgment by his new-found Lord. Instead, Kagawa enumerates these among the things he owes Christ: Improved health, spiritual peace, the thrill of working with God in the building of His kingdom, the constant flow of spiritual power into his life.

Let us try again. What does the great apostle, Paul, have to say? Paul was a stern soul and life was no child’s play to him. Here is what he says: “God hath not destined us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us.” “God through Christ has reconciled the world unto Himself, refusing to count men’s offenses against them.” “So there is no condemnation any more for those who are in union with Christ Jesus.” To Paul, Christ was not judge but savior. These Christian experiences bear out Jesus’ own words, “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.”

The Christian sense of justice must be purged of vengeance. The Church must have in mind a decent and hopeful future as well as the sordid past. Christians ought to act so as to bring all men to repentance and amended life. The Church’s chief task is reconciliation - never of good with evil, but of people with people. Justice is not enough. It fails its own purpose unless out of punishment and suffering there comes a true reconciliation.

Something of agony there must be in the heart of every true disciple of Christ. Sharing the suffering love of God, he must occasionally lie awake at night as he thinks of the “eternal insomnia of God.” “It costs more to redeem men’s souls.” The gospel of love is stern and difficult - and it is the only permanent hope for an evil world.

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Dates and places delivered:

Pilgrim Church, Honolulu, October 15, 1939 (an earlier, much shorter version, extensively modified and expanded to create the version given here.)

Wisconsin Rapids, April 11, 1943