Forgiveness is better than a poke in the eye

The wish to get our own back on someone who has done us wrong is an attitude we usually learn in the school playground. It may be part of growing up, but that’s where it should stop.

In April, two significant news events showed revenge and forgiveness in a new light. During the first state visit to the UK by an Irish head of state – unthinkable during the years of armed conflict – President Michael D. Higgins said that both countries could ‘take immense pride in their work towards peace in Northern Ireland’.

April also marked the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda. In three months in 1994, an estimated one million people were killed. The country was left in ruins and its people traumatised.

A survivor of the atrocities, who came face to face with the killer of her father and brother, said: ‘The past is gone. It’s time to look to the future. Revenge is pointless – what does it achieve?’

What a difference to the eye-for-an-eye, tit-for-tat, attitude that is so often invoked!

Originating from the law God gave to Moses, over the years ‘an eye for an eye’ has been taken out of context and used as permission to commit callous crimes at will.

Originally, it related to the suggest punishment for the serious injury to a pregnant woman resulting in premature childbirth: ‘You are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot’ (Exodus 21:23, 24 New International Version). It was a measure for damage limitation, not a command to get your own back.

Jesus uses the expression as the starting point for a new understanding of forgiveness. 
He says: ‘You have heard that it was said, “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.” But I tell you … if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also … Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you’ (Matthew 5:38–44).

Many people live by the maxim that revenge is sweet. But for those who choose to practise it, forgiveness is even sweeter

UK & Ireland War Cry 10 May 2014