Revenge

Revenge is almost universally understood to be a bad thing; yet when someone takes revenge in a story, we love it.

Seriously – The Count of Monte Cristo: Edmund, the protagonist, gets betrayed by his best friend, and the entirety of the rest of the book is Edmund trying to ruin his friend’s life in a similar fashion.

Braveheart: William Wallace’s wife gets killed, he destroys England.

The Odyssey: Odysseus’s wife is pursued by hot, young suitors, his food is eaten, and his wine is drunk while he is off fighting one-eyed monsters and sirens; and, to no one’s surprise, he comes home and kills them all.

The story of Joseph: Joseph’s brothers throw him into a well and then into captivity; but when Joseph is made second in all of Egypt, he subjects his brothers to his power by framing them, imprisoning one of them, making them go home to bring their father there, and by utilizing that authority the threat of which caused his brothers to sell him in the first place.

The list goes on and on. In fact, more often than not, any story with a plot will have a healthy dose of revenge in it.

The reason this kind of vengeance strikes a chord in our hearts is because instilled in us is the ancient maxim “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.” That law is at the root of our understanding of justice. All systems of law are based on it: if you commit thus and such a crime, you will be punished in thus and such a way. Because our hearts are so attuned with this, any miscarriage of justice in which an evil person is set free or a good person unavenged is considered an outrage. This is why any movie that leaves a villain unpunished is not worth seeing. Or if it is worth seeing, it’s very difficult to enjoy.

At the very core of every human’s understanding of the universe is a scale that measures positive and negative actions; if someone adds a negative action to someone else’s scale, then that scale is out of whack until it can take a positive back. Humans are extremely sensitive to justice because they are experts at reading the scales. We know what justice is, and that’s why we want to see William Wallace burn England to the ground: because it will level out the scales, settle the score, make wrongs right.

But sometimes our thirst for justice is misplaced. And we often forget that vengeance is not ours, but the Lord’s. In fact, I think sometimes what we deem to be “an eye for an eye,” is not the same as what God considers it to be. I think God is a better judge than we are.

Therefore Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

If you do not resist an evil person, then you leave the justice up to God. But if you resist an evil person, then they have received their punishment in full. Taking justice into your own hands 1) tells God that you consider your justice preferable to His and 2) often leads to a miscarriage of true justice. If you think that you know how to right your own wrongs better than God, then you have no idea of God’s hatred for sin. He hears all pleas for justice and He will fight for your cause.

Only good can destroy evil. And God is good.

Paul writes, “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord. On the contrary: ‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.’ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

It’s good that we like revenge. But we ought to know that only God’s revenge satisfies, and only His justice is good.