The place: Bangladesh.  The year: 1995.  A Muslim man named Abu Bakkar was not liked very well in his village.  Maybe it was because of his personality.  Maybe it was because he wasn’t a very good Muslim.  No one in the village liked him.  But what Abu eventually did made the other villagers hate him…

He became a Christian.

Some Christian men visited his house and told him about Jesus.  He was brought to faith in Jesus as his Saviour.  And that is what really angered his village.  The village leaders met and decided that what he did was so bad that they would have to kick him out of their village and burn down his house.  They formed a group of 25 men and went to his house.  In the dark of night, they were sneaking up to his house to take him by surprise.  There was gonna be violence.

Doesn’t that make you angry?  Don’t you wish you could scream at those men to leave him alone?  Don’t you wish you could defend this poor, unarmed man?  And wouldn’t we, if we were there, do just that?  Defend him?  Kick the ruffians out?  This was a cruel, unjust situation!  And we hate injustice, don’t we?

Think about it.  Moments after 9/11 happened, who on this side of the ocean did not want some immediate form of retaliation…to show that we will not stand for the injustice of killing thousands of innocents?  Or suppose you see a man on the news convicted of producing child porn… and then you see him one day at the park… talking to your son.  What would your first thoughts be?  Tell me you wouldn’t want to go and choke him!  Or someone murdered your child.  And then one day, you come face to face with him.  Tell me honestly that there wouldn’t be some impulse deep down to want to beat him with whatever was available to you.

We don’t do well with injustice, do we?  How about a few more realistic examples?  Have you ever been slapped hard across the face?  Doesn’t anger flood in so furiously fast that you want to lash out with ten times the force you were nailed with?  Or someone filled with road rage honks at you and gives you some universal sign language as they go screaming by you on the 401.  Isn’t there some part of you that just wants to slam your car into theirs?  Or do something to hurt them back?  Or how about when a colleague at work completely humiliates you in front of others to make herself look better?  Have you ever wanted to just slap her directly in the face?  Or retaliate in some way to put her down, too?  It’s no fair to be treated unjustly!

Whether it is spouse showing a cruel lack of love toward you, or someone getting the better of you on the hockey rink, illegally smashing you into the boards, and the ref doesn’t call it… we can’t stand injustice!  Our sinful nature wires us to want to strike back!  For some of us, it might be with our fists.  For others, it might be with our words.  Or our silence.  But we have all struggled with the desire to strike back when we have been treated unjustly.  This is not love.

How’s this for injustice?  The most perfect man who ever lived, a peaceful man who did nothing but help others and heal others, was spending a quiet night of prayer with his friends in a garden.  And in the middle of this serene setting, a loud, obnoxious group of armed men and paid ruffians come stomping in to arrest this Teacher and haul him off to a mock trial where they were going to condemn him even though he was obviously innocent. They were going to persecute Him because of what He taught about the Son of God.  If you hadn’t heard this story before, your blood would be boiling.  But here is what would make it boil over.  The man leading the charge, the one who would identify Him as a criminal by kissing Him… was one of his friends!

Now, I am not a fighting guy.  But that might make me want to take a swing.  How about you?  And how did Jesus’ followers feel about it?  They asked Jesus, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?”  Now, there is something interesting about how this is worded in the original Greek.  It doesn’t say “followers.”  It says, “those who were around him.”  When those who were around him saw what was going to happen, they asked if they should strike with their swords.  In all of the verses preceding this, even the ones that talk about how they were sleeping, Jesus’ friends were called “disciples.”  But here, it just says “those who were around him.”

I wonder if that is because they weren’t acting like disciples.

They asked if they should lash out in violence to defend Jesus.  But how many times had Jesus taught them that isn’t the right response?  “But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Mt. 5:39)  “But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Mt. 5:44) “For all who draw the sword will die by the sword.” (Mt.26:52).  So the answer to their question should have been quite clear!  Jesus’ followers don’t resort to violence or revenge!  But these men were not acting like his disciples, because before Jesus could even answer, one of them acted.

Let me ask you:  Do you ever find yourself in a difficult situation, in which you turn to God to ask Him for help and guidance, but then before He answers, you do what is obviously against his will anyway?  And maybe you don’t wait for the answer, because you know you don’t want to hear it.  Have you done that?  Peter did.

But he isn’t identified as Peter.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke don’t identify the one who lashed out with his sword as Peter.  Only John does.  Some have speculated that since the first three Gospels were written while Peter was alive, they might have been leaving his name out to protect him from potentially being prosecuted.  And then John, who wrote his Gospel after Peter was already dead, could finally name him.  That’s a possibility.  But remember what “Peter” means.  It means “rock.”  As in rock-solid faith in Jesus.  I wonder if Luke just couldn’t call him Rock because he wasn’t acting like Rock…

Peter’s action most definitely showed a lack of trust in Jesus, and everything Jesus was about.  And the same thing is true when we are filled with an angry fury to exact revenge on those who have committed an injustice against us.  God says in Micah 5:15: “I will take vengeance in anger and wrath upon the nations that have not obeyed me.”  And in Deuteronomy 32:35: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay.”  Friends, it isn’t up to you and me to slam the road rage driver off the 401, or to neuter the child porn dealer, or to blow up the house they are growing marijuana in down the street.  It isn’t up to you to one-up your spouse with a nastier comment after she hurt your feelings, or ruin the reputation of the co-worker who disrespected you at work, or slice the ear off the blasted enemy who is coming to arrest your best friend, the innocent man you look up to more than anything in life.

But that is what Peter did.  And then there was a horrible bloodbath, resulting in one missing ear and a couple scrapes for the bad guys, but all 12 of the good guys lying dead…

No, it didn’t end that way, did it?  But it certainly could of with Peter’s outburst.  So why didn’t it?  Because Jesus stepped in with a different response:  “NO MORE OF THIS!”  No more anger and hatred!  No more violence and revenge!  No more retaliation!  No more trying to one-up the other!  No more showing a lack of trust in Me and what I am doing here!  No more showing a lack of trust in God – that He is the One who will dispense justice!  No more of this!  This isn’t love!  The Greek words actually say: “Suffer this violence against me.”  In other words, my friends, you have to permit this to happen!

No more of anger and violence!  I am suffering these things for you.  So I want you to give these things up!  Give up your right to revenge.  Give up your grudges and lack of forgiveness.  Give up your bitterness and fighting back.  Give up the certainty that you are always right.  No More of This! Why?  Because I am giving up my right to revenge.  And I am God!  I have the right to carry out justice on these hoodlums.  I have the right to cut off more than their ears.  But I am giving up that right.  Why am I giving up that right?  Out of love.  So I can love you by dying for you.  By suffering all the things you deserve.  You think you suffer for injustices?  I am going to suffer for them all!  This is LOVE! So the least you can do is give up your right to want revenge for the comparatively tiny and insignificant injustices against you!

And friends, if Jesus hasn’t yet completely convinced you what REAL LOVE is, his next action certainly will.  He touched the man’s ear and healed him.  He not only waives his right to put a beat down on this group of men unjustly arresting Him, but He lovingly heals one of them!  And that’s why this situation didn’t turn into an instant blood bath.  This is love!

I have always wondered, why 60 years later, when John is writing his Gospel, he mentions the name of the servant whose ear was cut off.  Malchus was a slave.  The lowest rung you could be on in that society.  It is out of character that a slave’s name would be mentioned.  Unless… some of those John was writing to knew Malchus.  I can’t help wondering whether Malchus became a Christian.  Wouldn’t you?

Do you remember the 25 Muslim men I was talking about in Bangladesh who were sneaking up on Abu Bakkar to burn his house down and throw him out of their village for becoming a Christian?  Well, as they got closer to his house, they could hear him praying.  He was actually praying for the whole village!  Asking Jesus to forgive everyone in the village.  Asking Jesus to forgive these men, because they didn’t know what they were doing.  Which made them angry because they were certain they knew what they were doing.

But when they rushed into his house to attack him, for some reason they couldn’t explain, they weren’t able to.  And then they got scared and turned tail and ran back to their own houses.  One of them, Idris Miah, could not sleep when he got home.  He kept thinking about Abu’s prayer.  About how he said they didn’t know what they were doing.  Was it true?  Was he right?  He tossed and turned but couldn’t get this experience out of his mind.

Finally, at 3:00am, he couldn’t take it.  He went back to Abu’s house and said, “Who is Jesus?”  Abu told Idris how Jesus gave his life for sinners, how He went to the cross to pay the penalty for every one of our sins.  How He had secured forgiveness for all of us – even Idris.  After three hours of hearing what Jesus had done for him, Idris asked Jesus to forgive him.  The Holy Spirit, working through this great news, brought Idris to faith!  He rushed to his house and shared what happened with his wife and she also became a Christian along with his children!

Why?  Not because Abu retaliated when his home was broken into at midnight.  Not because he launched some well-aimed nasty words at these ruffians.  And not because he cut one of their ears off and scared them away.  It was because he showed love – caring about them.  The same way Jesus did.  So friends… hatred, violence, revenge, grudges… No More of This!  Give it up for Lent and give it up for good!  Look at what Jesus gave up for you.  This is love!   Amen.