Revenge

Jesus says to turn the other cheek. He says to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. He says that if the powers of this world force you to do something that you'd rather not do, you should do it twice as long as they require. Why does he say this? Who would ever seriously want people to do such a ridiculous thing?

When I take revenge, I am becoming just as bad as the person who wrongs me. I am doing nothing but inflicting harm, am doing no one any good, am doing nothing other than asserting my power and letting the bastard know that he can't hurt me without paying. He is not more powerful than I am. Revenge heals nothing but the pride that only leads to further acts of violence and domination. Revenge makes the world a worse place to live for everyone, worse perhaps even than "undeserved" violence, because the idea of revenge and of justice convinces us that destruction can be good. "Destruction is sometimes necessary, because if we didn't destroy in the name of justice, how would anyone ever learn how bad destruction is? If we don't kill murderers, then how will anyone learn what a dispicable thing it is to kill?"

But Jesus says to turn the other cheek. Jesus says to let go of pride, to be willing to fail the test to which your strength is being put. He doesn't say to be happy that both your cheeks have been slapped or that you're two miles away from your destination. He doesn't say that we should go out of our way to be injured. He doesn't say that we should allow our wounds to fester, untreated. He says that we should seek to heal our wounds, and he tells us what we already know: hurting the other does not heal us.

And when he said it, he meant it. He meant that I should act that way. He meant that everyone who wanted a part in his kingdom should act that way, even those followers who find their way into the most powerful office in the world, even those followers who find that their nation has lost thousands of citizens in one senseless attack. Jesus said that to those kinds of people, too, and he wants them to put aside their pride, too. He wants them to say, "You're right, whoever did this, that we're not invincible. I know that you and your entire organization have greivances, that you have been let down by the world, that you can only speak through violence. I know that you must have been desperately sure of your correctness when you sent your own men to their deaths and when they complied. I know that you hate us, that you hate me, and I forgive you and pray that God will give you the grace to know what you've done, to really know, and to feel the same sorrow that I feel not and to be saved in your sorrow."

A nation whose leader could say that, then simply continue the works of healing and of mourning, and that nation alone, could claim to be a Christian nation.