Revenge

At a glance

The chapter heading text (KJV)

“Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also… Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.”

Matthew 5:38–42 KJV

Summary

Bonhoeffer treats ‘resist not evil’ as belonging with the sayings on murder, adultery and oaths already examined: the old law of proportionate retribution is not abolished but pushed to a depth where personal right and personal injury simply stop being what the disciple is defending. Giving up the right to strike back, to sue, to refuse an unreasonable demand, is presented as an elaboration of the Beatitudes' meekness rather than a new and separate rule.

He is unusually direct about the difficulty this raises. Read simply as advice for how society or the state should handle evildoers, non-resistance looks like it would let injustice run unchecked — and Bonhoeffer refuses to turn the Sermon on the Mount into a political blueprint that could be applied wholesale to civil law or self-defence in general. The command is addressed to individual disciples in their personal dealings, growing out of their own experience of costly grace, not a manifesto for governing a nation.

The deeper justification, for Bonhoeffer, is Christological rather than tactical. Non-violence is not primarily a wiser strategy for defeating evil than violence would be; it is possible for disciples because Christ has already defeated evil at the cross through suffering love, and to renounce retaliation is to share, visibly, in that finished victory rather than to gamble on a technique that might or might not work. Suffering, once again, is not misfortune to be minimised but the very shape Christ's victory takes in a disciple's life.

He extends the logic outward to giving generously to those who ask and lending without calculating return, treating both as further instances of the same renunciation of self-protection that runs through the whole chapter. None of it, he insists, is meant as a rule to be applied mechanically without wisdom or love for the person in front of you — but the default posture of a disciple, formed by the cross, is to release a grip on personal rights rather than tighten it.

Key points

• Jesus does not abolish the principle of proportionate justice; he pushes it to a place where the disciple simply stops defending personal rights and injuries.
• Bonhoeffer refuses to read this as a political programme for how states or societies should handle evildoers — it addresses disciples in their personal conduct.
• The justification for non-resistance is the cross, not a claim that non-violence is a cleverer tactic: disciples share visibly in a victory over evil that Christ has already won.
• Suffering under this logic is not misfortune to minimise but the actual shape Christ's victory over evil takes in a disciple's life.
• Generosity toward those who ask and lend is treated as the same renunciation of self-protection, applied to possessions rather than to personal injury.

Related Scripture

• Romans 12:19–21
• 1 Peter 2:23
• Luke 6:27–31
• 1 Corinthians 6:7

For reflection and discussion

1. Where do you find it hardest to release your grip on a personal right you feel entitled to defend?
2. Bonhoeffer distinguishes personal non-resistance from a political programme for the state. Does that distinction help or complicate how you think about justice and evil in the world?
3. Can you think of an instance where absorbing an injury, rather than retaliating, actually testified to something beyond a clever strategy — to a victory already won?