Word of the Week: Vengeance

It’s probably raining. There’s definitely dramatic music in the background. One character stands alone on screen just brooding. There’s always brooding. All this is an appetizer to the entrée of vengeful things to follow. I don’t have a specific movie in mind. Do you? There have to be at least a hundred that follow this familiar recipe. Some take a different track than others, but there’s a whole industry making movies about someone who has been wronged getting payback. Taken does it through firefights. Pretty Woman does it on shopping trips. But either way, Hollywood loves getting even.

In 1 Peter 2:18-25, the apostle teaches us something different. He teaches us not to get payback, but to endure unjust suffering. Christians give up their right to get even with others because God gave up his right to get even with us. When mankind made Jesus suffer unjustly, he didn’t respond with vengeance. He responded with faith. Speaking of Jesus, verse 23 says, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued to entrust himself to him who judges justly.” Jesus had every right to defend himself or to state his case, but he didn’t do it. Instead, he endured for our sakes.

If I make it my responsibility to right every wrong and see that everyone gets what they deserve, I’m actually revealing a lack of faith. I have to do it because I believe deep down that the Lord won’t do it or, if he does do it, he won’t do it up to my standard. I don’t trust him to judge justly.

Brothers and sisters, let’s look to Jesus. He trusted his Father to judge justly. He trusted his Father to see every wrong that afflicted him and to make it right. How would our lives change if we trusted God like that? Home life could be less passive aggressive. Work could become less hostile. We could finally extinguish that burning discontent that comes from being wronged. God has it in hand. Can we endure while we wait on him to handle it?