It may have been King David’s lowest moment. His son Absalom was leading a revolution against him. Absalom was a charmer and had convinced many that David was too old and ineffective to lead. When Absalom stormed the city with his troops, David and his army left Jerusalem and left the palace vacant. David decided he would rather be humiliated in retreat than to be involved in a bloody civil war against his own son.
What a horrendous moment this must have been for Israel’s most celebrated king. On the way out of Jerusalem, David must have thought, It can’t get any worse than this. But it did. A commoner by the name of Shimei taunted David as he fled the city. Shimei stood on a hillside throwing clods of dirt and stones at the king and cursing him saying, “God is finally getting even with you for what you did to King Saul, you bloody traitor!”
One of David’s men snarled, “Let me go up and run that impudent coward through with a sword.” David’s response was incredible. He said, “No. Don’t kill him. Let him go. Maybe I’m just getting what I deserve.”
If that were the end of the story, we would hail David as a great man—how noble to forgive such an offense. Well, David was a great man, but that’s not the end of the story. I wish it were. But David couldn’t forget so easily that wrong that was done to him. He couldn’t let go of those words Shimei had said. The memory of that offense festered in David’s mind for years. On his deathbed, about a decade later, David speaks his final words to his son, Solomon in 1 Kings 2:8:
“Remember you have with you Shimei, son of Gera, the Benjamite from Bahurim, who called down bitter curses on me the day I went to Mahanaim. When he came down to meet me at the Jordan, I swore to him by the Lord: ‘I will not put you to death by the sword.’ But now, do not consider him innocent. You are a man of wisdom; you will know what to do to him. Bring his gray head down to the grave in blood.” Those were David’s final words. David had not forgotten, nor had he forgiven, and now in his death he gets his revenge.
Yet before we get to hard on him, have we done the same? Have you ever held on to some hateful feeling, wishing you could get back at a person. Have you ever held a grudge and instead of seeking peace, you sought to get even. If you have ever been hurt, if you have ever had anyone treat you badly then you know what it is like to have that emotion inside you.
A part of you says you want to forgive that person and let go because you know that is what you ought to do, but the pain runs deep and there is that part that wants to see that person pay for what they did to you. You want to see them hurt like you hurt. You want to see them go through what you go through. You want to see them pay for what they did.
And it makes sense from a worldly standpoint. If you hurt me, I get to hurt you. What goes around comes around. It comes so natural to us. We can even throw the bible in there to back it up. “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” It sounds good on the surface, but eventually it leads to an unending cycle of violence and pain.
But as Christians, Christ has called to a higher standard. Jesus said, You have heard it said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say unto you, love your enemy, and pray for those who persecute you. I remember the time when my eyes really first lit up to this. It was the Sunday after 9/11, I was asked as the pastor to talk to the teenagers of the church about what had happened, and I was all set. I was ready to talk about how God is no fool, a man reaps what he sows and how these terrorist were not going to get away with anything, justice will be served and all that. But when I opened it up to conversation about what they thought about it, a young man named Jamie Beard, who was only 15 at the time, shocked me when he said, “we should pray for them because they obviously don’t know Jesus and we should pray that they come to know Him so they won’t do things like this.” I was floored, I caught myself before I said anything, but I wanted to scream I will never pray for them, but I knew he was right. This 15 year old kid was light years ahead of me in this department.
This morning I want us to look at something Paul said in his letter to the Roman church, and its not easy to take. In a world where no one is supposed to get the better of you, and where we always are supposed to have the last word, we read these words, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
I’ve got to confess that I had a hard time with this text this week. Growing up my hero was Clint Eastwood. Clint didn’t take any slack from anybody. If you shot him, he not only shot you, but he shot your family, burned your house, and spit on your dog. In our house growing up, my brother and I were taught that we were never to start a fight, but don’t back down from one. Don’t hurt others, but don’t let them get away with it. This is not easy, but it’s the way God has called us to live and it truly is the best way to live, so let’s look at his passage and learn what we should do when people are mean to you.
Now the first thing you notice there us that you are not to repay evil for evil. When somebody wrongs us, our first instinct is to wrong them back. If you are driving down the road at night and the person coming the opposite directions shines their bright headlights on you, what is your initial reaction? For most people, the first thing they do almost without thinking is that you shine yours lights back at him. Give him a taste of his own medicine. In our worldly way of thinking, we get this idea that if its done to us then it automatically allows us to retaliate. And it comes so natural. If you have kids living in your house then you’ve heard this before, “why did you hit your sister….she hit me first.” And that supposedly makes things right. Well Paul would say if you want to follow Christ then it doesn’t make it right. Paul would say, rise above that tit for tat philosophy. Just because someone does something to you doesn’t mean you get to do it to them. Don’t repay evil for evil and don’t try to get even.
But we do don’t we. We may not come out and say it, but we do little things to get even with people. It may be something simple like a little jab or the last word. Chicago Cubs outfielder Andre Dawson once had to pay $1000 fine for disputing a strike called by umpire Joe West. He felt the call was wrong and that he was justified in arguing it but the league felt he went to far. They fined him $1000 but to get in that one last jab, on the memo line of his check Dawson wrote that the check was a : “Donation for the blind.”
But some carry it much farther than that. So far that it consumes them and causes them to do the unthinkable. They go far out and away to get even with someone who has hurt them. When I was in boot camp for the navy there was one man who stood out from the rest, his name was Brock and he stood out because among us young kids he was actually a man, an old man (I thought he was old at the time). When everybody else was in their late teens or early twenties, Brock was the ripe old age of 35, the oldest a person could be and join the military. But Brock wasn’t some loser, he told us that he had a degree in law, had a great job making a six figure salary, but he and his wife went through a bitter divorce, and she managed to get an alimony payment that would be half of his income, so Brock quit his high paying job and joined the Navy just to get back at his ex-wife. All that just to get back at someone. And you could tell it wasn’t enough for him, he still hated her with a passion.
The motto, "Don’t get mad, get even," may sound cute, but its devastating to those who seek to practice it. People who seek revenge tend to hold on tightly to their bitter feelings. They are filled with resentment and anger. They are never at peace, and filled with hate. And that eats away at them.
You see part of the reason why God tells us not to try to get even is because He knows the damage that does to us. If we hold grudges, if we fail to forgive others for what they have done to us, then it is only hurting you. It is like you are carrying acid around in a bucket and looking for some way to dump it on them to get revenge. But the acid is eating a hole in the bucket and it is spilling all over you and eroding your personality, your contentment, and especially your spiritual walk with God.
That’s why we are to let go of that resentment. We all have that Shimie in our life that has hurt us, and like David we have carried that grudge for way to long, and its time to let it go. Maybe it was someone who said something about you. Maybe it was someone who lied to you. Maybe that person has done something that has torn your world apart and life will never be the same. If so, Turn that person over to God. Take it out of your hands and give it to God.
And that is what Paul says, don’t seek revenge, but leave that up to God. Remember when I said that kids tend to fight and one hit one first and all that, the thing we always tell our kids is if they hit you, you come and tell me about it and your mother and I will take care of it. You worry about yourself, let us deal with her. That’s what Paul is saying God wants us to do. Let me deal with it.
Now this doesn’t mean that we should ignore wrong doings, nor should we seek justice through the criminal justice system, because in the next Chapter Paul deals with that, but Paul is saying if someone insults you, don’t insult them back. If someone gossips about you, you hold your tongue. Don’t try to get even. If someone is mean to you, you be nice to them. Instead, you live out this concept of love, even to those who hate you. (Tell story about the day the Lesbian avengers came to town at Stuart Brisco’s church)/.
Jesus said to love your enemies and to do good to those who would do harm to you. How do you respond to some one who is mean to you. By doing good to them. Try it. Next time someone at work won’t talk to you, smile at them and get them a cup of coffee. If someone is talking about you behind your back, give them a compliment in front of the boss. Don’t be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good. The story is told of a man many years ago who found his neighbor’s horse in the middle of his field. He was so angry about it that he took the horse to the public pound. Meeting the owner soon after this, he told him what he had done and added, "If I catch him there again, I will do the same thing."
The neighbor then replied, "Well, the other night I looked out of my window and saw your cattle in my field. I took your cattle and drove them over to your house, and put them in the barn, and fixed the gate. If I catch them there again, I will do the same thing." The man was reportedly so struck with his neighbor’s soft reply that he at once took the horse out of the pound and paid the charges himself.
You see, that is how we overcome evil in this world, not by becoming evil ourselves, but by overcoming evil with good. Our purpose as Christians is not that we get even with everybody, but that people see Christ living in us, working in us, to the point that they in turn seek out Christ. Imagine the impact it would have if every person went out this week and gave up their right to get even with people. If someone cuts you off, imagine if you didn’t sound your horn and extend to them a one fingered wave, but instead let them in and wave and smiled at them. Imagine how it would be if you everybody here went to Wal-mart, and instead of complaining about the long lines and the associates lack of motivation (I notice these things to), you complimented her in some way and asked her how she was doing. We could go on and on, but you get the point. Don’t overcome evil with evil, but overcome it with good.
Ray Steadman once told a story about how this principle played out. A boy he knew who was in the army was a Christian and had formed the habit of praying beside his bed before he went to sleep. He kept up this practice in the army, but he became an object of mockery and ridicule to the entire barracks. One night he knelt to pray after a long, weary march. As he was praying, one of his tormentors took off his muddy boots and threw them at the boy, one at a time, hitting him on each side of his head. The Christian said nothing about it, and just took the boots and put them beside the bed and continued to pray. But the next morning, when the other man woke up, he found his boots sitting beside his bed, all shined and polished. It so broke his heart that he came to that boy and asked him for forgiveness. That led, after a time, to that man becoming a Christian.
Don’t be overcome with evil but overcome evil with good, and our example for this is Christ. Upon the cross, men spat on Him, cursed at Him, mocked Him, and tortured and crucified Him; yet not once did He curse back. Not once did he strike back at them, instead He prayed for them. He loved them and he prayed for them. And He did the same for us. While we were yet still sinners Christ died for us, and when we have deserved wrath, He instead has poured out blessing after blessing. Now let us do likewise.
