Do not be overcome
by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Romans 12:21
I came across a story this week of a man who was a big
gardener. His new neighbor saw him
digging a hole in his back yard. “That’s
a pretty deep hole”, the neighbor said, “What are you going to put in it?” “I am replanting some of my corn,” was the
quick response. “But you surely don’t
need such a deep hole to plant a few seeds of corn,” the neighbor replied. “I surely do,” replied the gardener, “The
seeds are all inside one of your chickens.”
Sometimes we go to great lengths to get revenge! It just comes so natural to us – when someone
hurts us in any way, we want to get back at them. We want to “get even” and settle the score
with our enemies and rivals. The fact
that vengeance is so intertwined into our sinful flesh makes the words of
Romans 12:21 seem strange to us.
God does not want us to seek revenge on those who hurt us
but to “overcome evil with good”. How do
we do that though? The Lord gives us
numerous examples in Scripture of how to overcome evil with good, but none of
them seems to be more shocking to us than the Lord’s Words in this Sunday’s
Gospel lesson from Matthew 5:44, “But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you.”
Pray for those who persecute us? Absolutely, that’s what Jesus instructs us to
do. We have to admit though, we don’t
always do this perfectly. But thanks be
to God – our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ has done this perfectly for us – on
the cross! Jesus Himself prayed from the
cross, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing.” What great love Jesus showed for us and all
people as He did not seek revenge on those who were crucifying Him, but instead
bore the full weight of our sins and died the death we deserve in order to give
us forgiveness and eternal life!
May our Lord’s love not only be our example – but our refuge for forgiveness where the evil of our sin is overcome by God’s perfect goodness!
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