Resist not evil

Monday 3 of Lent

Readings: 2 Kings 5:1-15; Psalms 41, 42; Luke 4:24-30

When violently attacked by a mob, Christ just walks away; he simply leaves his attackers behind. It might be said, then, that Christ is following his own commandment: resist not evil. But what sense is to be made of that refusal to resist evil, that preparedness just to walk away?

It cannot be that Jesus is happy for there to be evil in the world. That would be crazy. In fact, he himself endlessly asks people to change their hearts and minds. He never denies that evil is evil or pretends that it is good. Christ wants evil to be overcome - only he does not think it can happen on the terms in which people often conceive that victory.

The overcoming of evil in human hearts is to happen by allowing it to run its course. Interpersonal violence, in particular, is not to find the resistance that it wants. It is to become powerless because it meets no opposition. Only in this can violence meet an opponent for which it is no match. Violence cannot attain its aim of creating more violence, if it is left alone.

If Jesus had struck back at those who strike him, would it not have conveyed the message that violence is acceptable? The assault of the angry Jews is condemned instead by not being met with assault. In this way Jesus shows their violent anger for what it really is. He gives no excuses to those who indulge in aggression and injustice. By this means, he hopes to remove those things from their hearts.

Sometimes people say that Jesus’ command ‘resist not evil’ cannot be justified in the light of experience, that it is just an ideology which is out of touch with the realities of life. Of course, it is true, Jesus is not providing an absolute rule for every sphere of life; there are some spheres in which it is right to resist. But – in general – it seems to me the command not to resist evil is very closely in touch with the realities of life. It was because Jesus understood only too well the internal mechanisms of violence and other evils that he told his disciples not to resist.