The Death Penalty, Revenge, Exploitation, and True Justice
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Matt 5:38-42.
On Wednesday, President Donald Trump overruled Secretary Pete Hegseth’s intention to live-stream the execution of convicted and confessed murderer Nidal Hasan for the slaughter of 13 individuals and the wounding of 30 others in an act of domestic terrorism at Fort Hood in 2009. Hasan, who is paralyzed from the waist down from the shootout during his capture, is still scheduled to face a firing squad at Fort Hood on December 3. Then, on Thursday, a 16-year-old gunman entered Silver Rail Elementary School in Bend, Oregon, and killed three children, ages 5, 8, and 11. Two other 7-year-old children and a teacher were also critically injured by the gunman. The tragedy ended when the shooter was confronted, shot, and killed by an armed bystander.
Both situations have sparked a repeated national conversation on the death penalty, revenge, and justice. They force us to ask questions about the meaning of cruel and unusual punishment, incite understandable feelings of outrage over injustice, especially to innocent children, and even a desire to have “taken care of that ourselves.” They also raise important questions not only about how Christians should approach criminal or civil injustice, but also about what it means for servants and leaders in the public square of a fallen world to live as citizens of the Kingdom of God who are participating in Christ’s mission of making all things new.
The Death Penalty
In order to appreciate the point that Jesus is making, we must first make certain that we properly understand the well-known passage(s) he is quoting. Jesus is quoting from the Law given by God to Moses at Mount Sinai:
22 “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23 But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. Ex 21:22-25.
This is repeated and rephrased again in Leviticus, while the people of God are still at Mount Sinai:
17 “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. 18 Whoever takes an animal’s life shall make it good, life for life. 19 If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. 21 Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, and whoever kills a person shall be put to death. 22 You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the LORD your God.” Lev 24:17-22.
After forty years of wandering in the desert, as the former slaves who experienced all manner of injustice at the hands of corrupt power are about to enter the Promised Land, the people are again instructed:
15 “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established. 16 If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing, 17 then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the Lord, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days. 18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. Deut 19:15-21.
In their context, these passages are not demanding the presence of the death penalty in society; rather, they are justly limiting the application of the death penalty within a society.
Revenge
The people of God were intended to live by fair and just laws that practiced true justice instead of emotionally driven retribution. While the death penalty could be applied in specific cases to the perpetrator, it could not be extended to his family. God’s justice must also convey a punishment that fits the crime proportionally, rather than satisfying the victim’s desire for disproportionate response. Leviticus 19 makes this clear within its disordered retelling and expansion of the Ten Commandments:
15 “You shall do no injustice in court. You shall not be partial to the poor or defer to the great, but in righteousness shall you judge your neighbor. 16 You shall not go around as a slanderer among your people, and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbor: I am the LORD.
17 “You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD. Lev 19:15-18.
This approach to justice would set the people who lived in the Promised Land apart from all other societies of the Ancient Near East where one’s place within the societal power differential determined the punishment someone faced for in criminal or civil court. The Law promised that both the poor and the powerful were treated equally and fairly in court. When that promise fails, people go looking for “justice” elsewhere.
As we see in the opening scene of The Godfather (which made an appearance in the previous devotional), Bonasera, an undertaker, comes to Don Corleone seeking justice for his daughter’s sexual assault. Because of their connections, the assailants are given suspended sentences by the courts. But Bonasera trusts that the Godfather can deliver justice. In his grief and anger, he asks for both boys to be killed, but Vito refuses because the daughter is still alive, so death would not be justice. He agrees to have them beaten instead. That is not to say that the mafia was the embodiment of truth and justice—far from it. But part of the reason that people sought their protection and help was for justice, even if it came at the expense of the law. Vito understands proportion, but he delivers it privately. Justice that was meant to be weighed by judges instead becomes an indebted favor granted by a Don.
The virtuous and flourishing society was to be built on justice.When it isn’t, the same instinct takes over but in more “respectable” places- like the Hill or a Cabinet agency. In government, a political loss sometimes results not in rethinking messaging or strategy, but motivating a plan of retribution with the defeated willing to wait bitterly in the tall grass of the public square to get even and hoping a newscycle will amplify the pain inflicted.
The virtuous and flourishing society was to be built on true justice – not disproportionate response.
Exploitation
With that in mind, we can see that Jesus is not intensifying the response of the offended, but intensifying the grace of the offended. The passage includes the extremely important phrase, “39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil.” Jesus is using the Law given at Sinai to the former slaves without agency or recourse, as a means of expanding their response to the injustice they experience through living in a fallen world while also naming those who commit injustice as evil. This passage, of course, raises the question: is Jesus calling Christians to embrace the evil acts of exploitation and injustice committed against them? The answer is complicated.
The reality of life in this world is that we are subject to the realities of being fallen, finite, and fragile. But the suffering that comes from these is not from injustice committed against us; that comes from being fragged — unintentionally or intentionally wronged, with or without malice. Jesus does not ask us to do something he was unwilling to do. When he was falsely accused, betrayed for money, publicly beaten and humiliated, he endured without retaliation. We embrace the injustice of being fragged by others in the same manner that Jesus did — graciously and knowing that vindication would come at the hands of his Father, not himself. He even stopped his followers from retaliating in his name when he told Peter to put his sword away and restored the ear of Malchus that Peter had just cut off in an attempt to stop the temple guards from arresting Jesus. Instead, Jesus reminds his disciples:
47 While he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the twelve, and with him a great crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. 48 Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; seize him.” 49 And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. 50 Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. 51 And behold, one of those who were with Jesus stretched out his hand and drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. 52 Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. 53 Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? 54 But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” Matt 26:47-54.
In First Peter, the very same person who resorted to violence (John 18:10) writes a pastoral letter advocating for faithful presence in the face of unjust power differentials and exploitation. But that is not the whole answer. Christians are also called to advocate for those experiencing exploitation (Prov 31:8–9): the disabled (Lev 19:14), the sick (Ezek 34:4), widows and orphans (Isa 1:17; James 1:27), children (Matt 18:6), the poor (James 5:4), the homeless (Isa 58:6–7), people of despised ethnic groups (Gal 2:11–14), and even those who have violated sexual ethics (John 4; John 7:53–8:11). It also includes following the instruction of Jesus to navigate life with a certain amount of cunning when he tells his disciples, “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matt 10:16).
We are also called to overcome evil with good (Rom 12:21) and not allow people to run roughshod over them because of their youth (1 Tim 4:12). Interestingly, both of these are achieved not through responses of power but through living as the righteous—a righteousness that Jesus defines as a call to “turn to him the other [cheek] also.” 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
True Justice
Bruce Cockburn has a mildly famous song in which he recounts various injustices that have occurred in the world, with each triggering a rage that he answers with the refrain, “if I had a rocket launcher, some son-of-b**** would die.” That is not unlike the response of James and John to a situation they were rightly upset about:
51 When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. 52 And he sent messengers ahead of him, who went and entered a village of the Samaritans, to make preparations for him. 53 But the people did not receive him, because his face was set toward Jerusalem. 54 And when his disciples James and John saw it, they said, “Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?” 55 But he turned and rebuked them. 56 And they went on to another village. Luke 9:51-56.
Rather than firing off rocket launchers, calling down fire from heaven, or planning political retribution, servants and leaders in the public square are positioned to act as agents of righteousness and flourishing through their work in pursuing true justice. Christians are motivated to gracious and faithful presence in the public square by the gospel, which is defined as Jesus taking the full measure of the just penalties for our thoughts and actions of vengeance, acts of exploitation of others, and circumventing of justice ourselves, upon himself in order that we might live by faith alone. This frees us to embrace the call of Jesus to encourage the good, repair the broken, create the missing, and oppose the evil, even when it costs us more than we are obliged to pay.
As Psalm 73:21-22 makes clear, without Christ, we are just as deserving of God’s judgment as Nidal Hasan and the Oregon school shooter.
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