Breaking the Cycle of Violence
(How should we pray?)
a sermon based on Matthew 5:38-50
by Rev. Frank Schaefer

Is there anyone who benefits from the new recent clashes between Israeli troops and Hamas?  No, seriously; it’s not a rhetorical question.  Who really benefits from acts of violence and destruction?  Who actually benefits from acts of war or terrorism.

There is no way that anybody could have a benefit from this form of senseless violence.

I understand self-defense, defending your family, or your community and even defending your country, but what are they trying to achieve with tit-for-tat, eye-for-an-eye acts of revenge and counter revenge which has proven to be going nowhere?

Will there ever be lasting peace or a cease-fire in the Middle East? As long as I have been following the news since I was a young teen, it’s been the same pattern.  Something or someone attacked or provoked an attack and the spiral of violence resumed spinning again. After a while the protests from the international community gets so overwhelming that both sides (whichever sides) are pressured into another temporary truce.

Interestingly, my own perceptions and responses to the Middle East crises has changed over time.  I grew up in an evangelical Christian circle that taught that we must pray for and support Israel.  It was the biblical mandate. So I donated trees, prayed for Israel’s protection and got upset over the Islamic threat to God’s chosen ones.

Later on, I started to see a whole other side to the problem--the problem the UN partially created originally by displacing Palestinians and forcing them into shanty towns.  That didn't seem right to me either: a people who had farmed a land that had been in their family's possession for dozens of generations. Suddenly, in 1948 they're told: you're land is being claimed back by a nation that used to inhabit your land 2000 years ago. I still prayed for Israel, but I also included peace-seeking Palestinians in my prayers.

After several years of observing the situation escalate time and again, I find myself having developed a certain apathy and skepticism toward the Middle East violence. I have to admit that I am tired of praying for situations that don't ever seem to get better. I am about to give up on my faith--not in God--but in people, or at least in people's ability to change for the better.

And let's be honest: the Middle East is not the only place where the cycle of violence keeps churning; we don't have to look too far to find the same senseless principles of tit-for-tat in our own backyard. We are guilty of it just as much. We engage in retaliatory strikes and even justify pre-emptive attacks, which amount to first strikes (unless, perhaps, there is real evidence of an imminent strike by an enemy).

So, as we are going into another round of world-wide violence and counter violence at the beginning of 2009, I wonder how I should pray--or if I should continue to pray for peace at all

As a Christian and a minister I look to Jesus for answers. The first passage that comes to mind when I think of violence is Jesus' discourse on "Love Your Enemies"  Let's hear his words again in light of the current peace concerns.

[ Read Matthew 5:38-50 ]

Let's just come right out and say it: Jesus' command of turning the other cheek is just plain impossible, isn't it? It ranks right up there with another of his radical commands--the one about giving all our possessions to the poor. Who can actually do this? Why should we turn the other cheek? Wouldn't we invite our enemies to trample all over us and destroy us and our families?

Ok, so let me start with something I do like about this passage:  Jesus corrects the understanding of revenge that was prevalent in his time. I don't think that Jesus is  saying that the reading from Exodus 21:24 ("you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,...")  is wrong altogether.  Let's not forget that Exodus 21:24  is a quote from the Mosaic law code. This phrase is intended for judges of the law to deal with matters of personal injury; in this case: the injury of a pregnant woman who happened to be an innocent bystander who got hurt in a brawl between two angry men.

In other words, the original quote of "a life for a life, an eye for an eye" is to say that justice must be administered in court proceedings that does not discriminate between gender or social standing. A great passage indeed, especially considering that women had little rights back then. When it comes to court justice, according to Exodus 21:24, women are to be treated justly and equally. Amends had to be made. The punishment administered was to be in proportion to the body part that was injured.

It's lamentable that a great concept like this would be taken out of context to justify revenge. But that's exactly what happend.  It didn't take long for that to happen. By the time we get to an interpretation of the original "eye for an eye" passage from Exodus in Deuteronomy 19:21, it's about revenge exacted on your enemy and no longer court justice. By the time we get to first-century Judea, this passage had an added dimension of vigilante action.

So what is Jesus' answer to the tit-for-tat, "life for a life" type of escalation?  Turn the other cheek!  Jesus is saying: look you have got to stop the cycle of violence. Don't expect your enemy to stop, it's got to start with you.  Surely the great lyrics by hymn writers Jill Jackson and Sy Miller "let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me" are based on Jesus' words. 

I'm absolutely sure that Jesus knew that this wasn't easy to do; he knew that there are tremendous risks involved in making yourself vulnerable in a "unilateral disarmament," yet he said what he said anyhow. Perhaps Jesus was thinking: "what is the alternative?" He was certainly alluding to the fact that tit-for-tat vigilante acts will never, ever, work toward peace.

I think we all know that deep down. Growing up, I loved watching Laurel and Hardy. I remember one episode entitled "Tit for Tat" where Stan and Ollie opened an electrical store next door to Charlie Hall's grocery store. Hall thought that Hardy was making advances towards his wife, and destroyed a few items in Stan and Ollie's shop. Stan and Ollie leave their shop (without closing their door) to wreak havoc in Hall's grocery; while they were there, shoplifters looted their electrical store

Even street wisdom tells us that tit for tat doesn't work.

But is turning the other cheek really the answer? Well, it worked for Mahatma Gandhi and the people of India to gain independence from England; it worked for Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights movement in this country--even though it meant martyrdom for  Dr. Gandhi and Dr. King.

But there is more in this passage: Jesus continued in his discourse: "But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  that you may be sons of your Father in heaven." (Mt 5:44-45)

As though "turning the other cheek" weren't enough of a challenge, I am also supposed to love my enemy and pray for those who persecute me?

How "unreasonable" this command may be on first sight, who can argue against the appeal of Jesus' reasoning when he continued: "If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"

And here we have it: Jesus is expecting more of us.  He seems to presuppose the fact that as his followers we are to be different from the rest of the world. We are to strive for perfection and we are called to be change agents in this world. We are called to break the cycle of violence in the world as much as in our own personal lives.

Perhaps I should start to pray for peace more passionately again.  What would happen to the world if nobody cared? Who would try to break the cycle? Who would speak up for peace and love?  If everybody continued to do what seems to come "natural" to the sinful human nature nothing will ever change.

Perhaps the situation in the Middle East and in other parts of the world will continue it's down-spiral for a long time. Our responsibility as believers is to be different, to go against our human nature and to strive for divine status in our quest and prayers for peace. Isn't that what Jesus meant when he said: "Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect?"

Pray, therefore, but don't just pray for people and places far away. Pray also for yourself, because peace on earth does indeed start with you and me. Let us pray for peace in the world, but let us also show the world the peaceful way through our own lives.  Let us turn the other cheek, let us love and pray for our enemies as much as we pray for our friends.  It's what God expects of us. Amen.