When I was in elementary school, a bully got the best of
me. It lasted for over a year until we
moved to a different town. The kind of
humiliation that comes with being bullied by someone else impacts people in
different ways.
For me, I vowed never to let anyone bully me again even if
it meant getting beat up. This meant for
some close calls later in school but I never felt that same kind of antagonism.
What it left in me was a sense of embarrassment over my
past. I thought about getting even. I thought about going back to the old
neighborhood and challenging him to a fight.
There seemed to be some wrong that was done to me that
needed to be righted. I wanted
justice. I wanted him to hurt just like
I had been hurt. An eye for an eye after
all.
As I matured, I realized that these fantasies about revenge were
not helping me. I was not growing as an
individual. In fact, they were holding
me back.
I realized that I needed to forgive the bully whether I ever
spoke to him in person or not.
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| Batman remains a popular figure due to an ideal of vigilante justice. Most people are under the illusion that vengeance will make them feel better. |
It was difficult but I asked God’s help and I was able to forgive. My guess is that I had thought a lot more
about him than he ever thought about me.
But after I forgave him in my heart, I quit thinking about him. It became less embarrassing as I recognized
that I was just a child. I realized the
pain that he must be going through in order to inflict pain upon others.
Certainly, if this was behavior that was continuing rather
than in the past, this would be a different situation. But it was something that had ceased. It was only continuing in my mind. It’s a terrible thing to let someone have
that kind of influence over you.
And so as I consider God’s justice, I think that this means
something different than human justice.
We try to even things out but God deals in mercy and forgiveness. We experience the forgiveness of God more fully
when we have dealt with truly forgiving another for a wrong done to us. Isaiah reminds us that God’s covenant is
everlasting. As we look toward the
nativity once more, we see that God is willing to be vulnerable so that we
might know divine love. Even
though this seems maybe one-sided or unfair, because of the love God has for
us, God may feel that we are getting what we deserve.
Grace.
And so Christmas gives us a glimpse of God’s justice.
In Christ,
Sam
"Batman" by Ed Merritt via Flickr.com. Used under the Creative Commons license.
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