Oh, it's true, the guard was quoting Scripture correctly. You won't find any talk at all about loving your enemies in the Old Testament Law. Here is what you will find: "If there is serious injury you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." (Exodus 21:23-25) And another version of the same thing, stated even more harshly, "You must purge the evil from among you. Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." (Deuteronomy 19:19-21)
Such legalism resonates with the feelings of many Americans these days. There is a mood of vengeance among us. People claim they won't have "closure" until the murderer get the death penalty and dies. "Closure": meaning, I won't find peace with anything less than "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life." Just another version of the Old Testament Law.
The Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh was convicted of murder and other charges in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. It was the deadliest act of terrorism on U.S. soil, killing 168 people and injuring more than 500. McVeigh, 32, is scheduled to die by lethal injection, in the first execution by the federal government in 37 years. Recently news reports are saying that the government has received 250 requests from victims and relatives who want to watch Timothy McVeigh die, and is considering a closed-circuit television broadcast of the execution. They want "closure". They want "eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life."
Commenting on the old Law of retribution, Mohandas Gandhi quipped, "If everyone followed that rule, the whole world would be blind and toothless." Not to mention dead! Closure is no answer to what ails us. The Kingdom of God, as proclaimed by Jesus, is. You have heard it said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. That's our Lord-both his teaching and his very life.
Bud Welch owns a service station in Oklahoma City. His daughter, Julie Welch, was killed in the bombing of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building, April 19, 1995. Bud is no fancy theologian or politician, yet he has become an active and passionate critic of the death penalty. He says, "All my life, I had always opposed the death penalty. I'd often been told over a cup of coffee with friends that if something violent ever happened to one of my family members, I'd change my mind. They would always use Julie as an example, because they knew how close we were. They would say, 'What if you get a call tonight that Julie was raped and murdered in Milwaukee?' That's something a father just can't sort out in his mind, that anything like that could ever even happen. They said, "If that happens, you'll change your mind about the death penalty."
In fact, for a while after the Oklahoma City bombing, Bud changed his mind on the death penalty. He admits he was so full of hate and rage over the bombings that killed his beloved daughter and all the others, he himself longing for a chance to kill McVeigh and Nichols, the perpetrators. But then, one day, after months of hate, rage, too much drinking and misery, something began to change inside of Bud Welsh. He says, "I had this anguish about what was going to happen. The trials hadn't even begun yet, and I was asking myself, once McVeigh and Nichols are tried and executed, what then? How's that going to help me? It isn't going to bring Julie back. I realized that the death penalty is about revenge and hate. And revenge and hate is why Julie and 167 others are dead today." And so, Welch concludes, "It is time to turn away from revenge, hate, and killing. It is time to turn away from the death penalty." [In an open letter to Oklahoma Governor Shaheen.]
Living the gospel as Jesus taught it, Bud has met with McVeigh's parents and grieves with them for their boy. Revenge never brings closure, only more misery into the world. The way to life is to love our enemies and do good for those who hurt us.
This amazing new life is wonderfully brought out in Eugene Petersen's paraphrase of our Gospel. He captures the life-giving meaning of what Jesus taught. Listen carefully:
I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You'll never-I promise-regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Father lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we're at our worst. Our Father is kind; you be kind. Don't pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults-unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don't condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you'll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you'll find life given back, but not merely given back-given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way.
This isn't abstract theory or a teaching for weaklings. In our struggles to be Christians, and not savages in disguise, the issue of enmity in our families, on the school playground and on the job is often only too real. People do terrible thing to others, and sometimes to us. Let us as honest as Bud Welch and admit we quickly become filled with hatred and rage when someone hurts us or those we love. But let us also be Christian enough to pray to Christ to help us want, not the closure of revenge, but the new life of the Kingdom of God. Those who finally admit to their own wily and wounded humanity at the foot of the Cross of our Lord, discover that life in the realm of God is so much better than retribution-seeking "closure".
At the Cross-eternal symbol of the horrors we suffer and inflict on others--enemies learn how to become friends-friends with each other and, at last, with God. Amen.