A few weeks ago I came across the story of a man in the northwest United States who was so upset with his neighbors, so angry about some situation, that he drove a bulldozer through his neighborhood, crushing cars and flattening houses in his path. Somehow, someway he was offended, felt taken advantage of to the point that the only thing he thought he could do was to destroy everything that everyone else had.
While perhaps not as extreme, we unfortunately see stories like this too frequently. You don't have to read the Bible or even believe in God to have an internal feeling that screams "that's awful" or "there is a better way" when those who are innocent are crushed by someone simply because they have the power to do so.
The reason that feeling of running to the innocent, defending those who are desperate is so hardwired within us is because there is a different way.
In the story of Jesus told by Matthew, Jesus is teaching to a crowd and he reminds them of how they live in a culture that screams equal punishment for equal crime. If someone causes you to lose, you can cause them to lose in equal amounts. If someone hates you, feel free to hate them back. In this culture and our own, he says there is a different way.
Jesus identifies that there are going to be things that happen to you that you are not looking for, don't want to experience and are not for your best interest. There are going to be people who don't like you. People who will in fact identify themselves as your enemy and may even go the extreme of making your life difficult.
You may not be able to control a situation or a person who is pressing down on you, but what you can control is how you respond.
Sometimes you receive the offending blow. Sometimes you release your rights to being peaceful. You love and pray for those who hate you. You do these not to fulfill some weird moral code. You do them because that is what God would do.
Grace and faith remind of the blows that were received for us. Of the enmity between us and God that exists but can be removed. Grace reminds us that while we may be on the receiving end of the strain at one point, we were the initiators.
Rob Hurtgen is a husband, father, minister and writer. Read more from him at robhurtgen.wordpress.com.
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