Is Revenge a Dish Best Served Cold?

'Revenge is a dish best served cold' is a saying attributed to a French novel of the 18th Century, but frequently quoted in the 21st. It probably came out of stored vocabulary once again following the events of the last month in Israel and Iran. The reasoning is that if you are wronged, attacked or slighted by an enemy, you should keep them waiting, stewing and fearful, not knowing when or how you might take your revenge. The presumption is, however, that revenge is a good and desirable thing, something that will satisfy both honour and the clameur to hit back when assaulted.

Not wanting to be drawn too far into the political morass of the Middle East, I just want to take a moment to ponder the question 'should revenge ever be on the menu?'. For the Christian, - the follower of Jesus of Nazareth, the answer has to be 'no'. The advice Jesus gave to his disciples was radical: ‘You have heard that it was said, “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth. But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also"' (Matt. 5:38-39). If this was not enough of a stinger, Jesus sent a sidewinder too - ‘You have heard that it was said, “Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.” But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you' (Matt 5:43-44),  

One man who had in his youth been a devoted Jewish intellectual and zealot, and had attacked members of the infant Christian faith without mercy, Saul of Tarsus (later Paul the Apostle), warned scrapping church members about their behaviour. 'If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other'.

Nelson Mandela had more reasons than most to take revenge on his persecutors and enemies. Jailed for treason in 1962 he served decades in harsh detention facilities, constantly abused and humiliated. Yet, after 30 years he was freed to become South Africa's first black president. He is reputed to have said: “Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”

Whilst I know that in war all of the above become so difficult, perhaps even impossible, yet in the daily commotion and sometimes dreadful assaults of our busy lives, we can choose whether we seethe with an unhealthy longing for revenge, or learn to 'turn the other cheek'. This is stuff that we cannot achieve alone. We need the spirit of the risen Christ to be in us, to change and empower us, to live that kind of radical life where, for us at least, revenge is neither served hot nor cold - it's completely off the menu.