Getting Even

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:14-21 ESV). “I don’t get even; I get ahead” is a sentence I have heard many times in reference to repaying the hurt and evil done to us. The Apostle Paul has something to say about that in our reading today. Look again at the highlighted verses. I suppose the only human comfort in this verse is that God will get even for us and by being good we can “heap burning coals on the heads of our enemies.” I mean, that would really hurt, wouldn’t it, to have burning coals heaped on your head? I wonder how the Apostle Paul can write this seemingly vindictive verse, especially when he is trying to summarize the transformed Christian life. And how does showing kindness to an enemy heap burning coals on his or her head? Paul is quoting from Proverbs 25:21-22 here. That Old Testament text may reflect an ancient Egyptian ritual, whereby a guilty person, in order to show genuine repentance, would walk around with a basin of burning coals on his head. In any case, the burning coals image is intended as a symbol of the burning pangs of shame, guilt, and repentance. Paul’s phrase here essentially means, “Kill your enemy with kindness.” If we are kind to those who least expect kindness from us, we will indeed be overcoming evil with good. It may not be easy, of course, to bless those who persecute us, but vengeance is something we must leave up to God. Our task is to fight evil with practices of peace. I suppose there is nothing harder than doing that. Tokyo police recently arrested a man who was upset over being denied entrance to graduate school 14 years ago. Since that day he has averaged about 10 phone calls a night, between the hours of 8 p.m. and 2 a.m. to the former professor whom he blames for his lost opportunity. Those 14 years of annoying phone calls totaled up to over 50,000 calls. I wonder if he had spent that time and energy in making the same number of calls or contacts to prospective employers or other schools how his life might have been better served? It has always been interesting to me to see how God works when we take “the high road” of integrity and kindness. He does level the ground at the Cross. We never need to worry about getting even. Try sugar; it always catches more flies than vinegar!