Vengeance is Mine, says the Lord

 

October 19, 2025

Today’s Gospel which tells us that God will “grant justice to his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night?”seems to feed into a belief that many of us may hold in our hearts, - a belief that God will punish those who have unjustly harmed us.  For example, haven’t we ourselves told others, or heard many well-meaning friends tell us, when there is some unjust suffering experienced because of somebody else: ‘Don’t worry, God will punish them for what they did to you. After all, God sees everything.’  And this retributive quality assigned to God is seen in all religions including, of course, Christianity.

Parallel to this, there is also the belief  among some of us  (many of us?) that some calamities in our own lives are perhaps acts of punishment by God.  Scriptures of many religions foster this idea too.  For those who are familiar with the Bible and give it credence, this, of course, is an idea that is fostered in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah where God seemingly burns up two entire cities because of their evil. It is a message that seems to be coming through in many other parts of the Old Testament which seems to paint for us the picture of an extremely vengeful God who punishes Israel’s enemies and even the people of Israel themselves, if they went against his commands.  Thus Moses is allowed to take the people of Israel out of Egypt only after God rains down plague after plague on the Egyptians. Recently a friend who changed her religion when she got married, confided to us that perhaps her ‘bad luck’ in life, including in her case, a son who became a paraplegic, was because she is being punished for her agreeing to give up her faith.   

The Old Testament’s lex talionis (i.e. tit-for-tat)  kind of justice also fostered this understanding, for it told the Jews how God wanted them to function, and so implied how God too functions: If any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. (Exod 21:23-25).  Historically, of course, this law was a significant improvement on previous forms of justice dispensation, because according to this law the punishment must be proportionate to the crime, and nobody was to be valued more - the eye of a rich man had exactly the same value as the eye of a poor man, and so forth.  So no dis-proportionality in punishment and no favouritism.  In our pilgrimmage of life as a human race, this was an improvement.

But as we journeyed towards experiencing a closer relationship with God, a pilgrimmage that is reflected in the books of the Bible, we notice in later books (Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Psalms) that there is an evolution. Despite keeping the eye-for-an-eye law, it added the teaching that no one should ‘take vengeance’ or even ‘bear a grudge’ against their people (Lev 19:18), as personal revenge was to be relinquished into the hands of a  God who would give justice (e.g., Ps 9:12). And so the book of Deuteronomy is quite clear; “It is mine to avenge; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them” (Deuteronomy 32:35). This is repeated in some of the letters in the New Testament, as for example: “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.”  Instead, “if your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink, for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads.” (Romans 12:19-20).   As a result, many of us seem to be willing to allow God to ‘heap burning coals on their heads’. i.e.  take vengeance on our behalf, because we console ourselves that God will punish them properly, better than we can.

 

But then Jesus comes in and offers us a further evolution in the matter of how to right wrongs, when he teaches: You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. (Matt 5:38). Again,  Jesus repeatedly insisted that God is a loving ABBA Father, who forgives unconditionally (Parable of the Prodigal Son). The parables of the lost coin and the lost sheep clearly speak of a God who searches for the lost sinner, rather than raining punishment on that person. And Jesus also taught that God is one who sends his rain down on the just and unjust without making any distinction.  This seems to go directly against an idea of God taking vengeance on our behalf, by punishing those who have harmed us or even when we sin.  

So how do we understand this whole theme of God granting justice to the faithful ones? - but in a manner that also takes on board the revolutionary new teaching that Jesus offered us?  One way of looking at these teachings is that the Old Testament’s  focus is on what will happen to the doer of the evil, whereas Jesus’ focus is on what happens to us, if we continue to harbor feelings of vengeance and resentment.

For the doer of evil, the world they create around them one cruel action at a time, is the justice/punishment they receive in return for their actions. God’s punishment is not a curse called out from above, but a natural brewing of an environment that depend on our own actions.  But what of the recipient of the evil? If the response of the victim is also one of vengeance, then s/he too contributes to the same kind of environment. On the other hand, Jesus’ teaching  to turn the other cheek is a powerfully evocative way of speaking about what should be our internal response to wrongs that are inflicted on us. It is not to be taken as a teaching about how we should physically respond.  And we know this because Jesus himself does NOT turn the other cheek when he is slapped during his trial (John 18:23). The teaching is rather a call to let go of our resentment, and to choose to create a deep sense of wellness in us by doing good to the one who has harmed us. So if we can let go of the resentment, the justice we will receive is that we will be healed of the agonizing pain, - a pain of resentment and vengeance that never really goes away and remains festering in the deepest recesses of our hearts, even when the perpetrator is legally or otherwise punished. Nelson Mandela once spoke about resentment that lies at the root of our desire for vengeance like this: “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”  Therefore, even the choice not to take revenge on our enemies with the firm belief that GOD will give our ‘enemies’ the punishment they deserve is not really a pious act, but only a way to feed into our own desire for vengeance, and doesn’t heal us at all. It holds on to that resentment that has the potential to poison us. But the wonderful thing is that if we choose to be healed of the resentment, we too can heal the world around us in some small ways, even to the extent that sometimes the perpetrator too could be healed. I have come across many such stories of real people who have managed to do this. For example, the story of Linda White, a woman whose daughter was raped and killed, and who moved from being an advocate for more stringent retributive justice to becoming an advocate for restorative justice, is one such story that touched my heart. (The story of Linda White) 

So justice to both, the doer, and the victim, are both influenced by the actions of these same persons involved. That is the “justice” that God allows. After all, isn’t it obvious that God’s promise to grant justice to those who have been harmed is always meant to make our world a better  place, not a worse one.

First Reading: Exodus 17: 8-13

Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim.  Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some men for us and go out; fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand.”  So Joshua did as Moses told him and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill.  Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed.  But Moses’s hands grew heavy, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on either side, so his hands were steady until the sun set.  And Joshua defeated Amalek and his people with the sword.

 

Second Reading: 2 Timothy 3: 14 – 4: 2

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it  and how from childhood you have known sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.  All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,  so that the person of God may be proficient, equipped for every good work.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I solemnly urge you:  proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage with the utmost patience in teaching.

 

Gospel: Luke 18: 1-8

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.  He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people.  In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Grant me justice against my accuser.’  For a while he refused, but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone,  yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice, so that she may not wear me out by continually coming.’ ” And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says.  And will not God grant justice to his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long in helping them?  I tell you, he will quickly grant justice to them. And yet, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?”