“And they clothed Jesus with purple, and platted a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, and began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees worshiped him.” Mark 15
Surely all the universe watched in stunned awe as they witnessed this abhorrent behavior of the religious establishment toward the Creator of all things. No one could ever say Jesus asked us to do anything He Himself did not do. He said, “Resist not evil.” Matthew 5:39 He did not resist!
Surely it is the most difficult counsel ever spoken. When someone hates me it is natural to hate him or her back. But Jesus knew that hate kills not the hated but the hater. The evil thoughts we have toward another do not harm them, they harm us, the thinkers. Those thoughts literally ravage us with the results of our self-induced stress. If we can turn away the event is over. If we strike back we not only continue the battle, most of the time we take it to a higher more violent level.
How interesting that Jesus did resist evil when He saw it happening to others. It was only when it happened to Him that He silently took it.
His counsel to, “resist not evil” was not a call to turning a blind eye to injustice or to cowardly behavior. It was a call to courage: courage to do the right thing for others and courage to be the right thing for ourselves.
Written by Roger Bothwell on November 2, 2003.
Spring of Life, 901 Signorelli Circle, St. Helena, CA 94574