Eye For An Eye By Pr Chris When someone does you wrong, how do you respond? Many of us were taught it and asked to recite it when we were younger, yet I’m curious to know how truly meaningful the Lord’s Prayer is to us. While we might mean it when we ask, “Give us this day our daily bread,” especially when we’re in a financial tight spot, but when put to the test how well do we do when we entreat, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors”? Ameneh Bahrami provides an excellent example. Ameneh, an Iranian, lost her sight and suffered burns to her face, scalp, and body in an attack carried out by a man who was mad because she refused to marry him. Where she comes from it’s the legal right of victims to ask for a strict enforcement of Islamic law, under which an attempt is made to reach a settlement with victims or their families. If no agreement is reached then qisas, or eye-for-an-eye retribution, is enforced. So, blinded and disfigured by the acid thrown into her face Ameneh found herself standing above her attacker in a hospital operating room as a doctor was about to put several drops of acid in one of his eyes in a court-ordered payback. The man waited on his knees and wept as the inevitable was about to happen. But the doctor realized that Ameneh wasn’t comfortable and asked whether he should proceed. It wasn’t long before Ameneh pleaded with the doctor to spare him stating she had forgiven him. During this gripping scene broadcast on Irans state television, Ameneh Bahrami demonstrated what it meant to forgive her debtor. Jesus proposed the solution to revenge and this gracious attitude when He said: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you…whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” (Matthew 5:38, 39) In other words, Christians shouldn’t fight for what they consider to be their rights, but they will always, contrary to the norm, express their willingness to submit to injury rather than the opportunity to inflict it. Is Jesus asking more from us than we can give? While He never invited injury (and neither should we), on the cross He dramatically revealed this merciful spirit when He asked His Father to forgive those who put Him there, therefore asking no more of us than He Himself was willing to offer. Truly, this was a pure expression of divine love and something God desires for us to convey to our enemies as well. Remember today, everything God asks us to do He gives us the ability to do. So instead of seeking to get even, get into the habit of experiencing how divine it is to forgive your debtors.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 09:13:57 +0000
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