Retaliation, Teenagers, and the Cross

I spent last week with 20 junior high youth from our church as we did acts of service and love in downtown Austin. The week was sponsored by Group Workcamps, and we enjoyed ourselves. I did look forward to returning home for some long naps after my adventures in TeenagerLand.

Throughout the week, I noticed a very peculiar and disturbing pattern that is so prevalent with teenagers, but truly indicative of human society as a whole. It's the pattern of retaliation. The script goes something like this:

Teenager 1: "You're stupid."

Teenager 2: "nuh-uh. You're stupid."

Teenager 1: "Your mom's stupid too."

Teenager 2: "Whatever, you're a dork."

Teenager 1: "I know you are but what am I?"

Teenager 2: "You're stupid and your arm hurts."

Teenager 1: "What?" .... "Ouch" (teenager 2 lands a punch on the upper arm.)

Teenager 1: "Oh yeah, you're stupid and your leg hurts."

Teenager 2: "Get away" (as teenager 1 chases teenager 2 through halls and gives a swift kick to the backside of teenager 2)

Teenager 2: "My leg hurts, but your mattress is flat..." (as teenager 2 dives onto teenager 1's air mattress with a thumbtack and begins to hack away)

Teenager 1: "You just wait, you dumb dork."

The pattern starts off small and then begins to escalate. You call me a name; I call you a worse name. Your feelings get hurt and begin to punch me. I begin to kick you. You begin to tear up my property; I become enraged and go for your property. By the time the adults have separated us, we're sitting bruised, with burnt underwear and a flat mattress to sleep on.

This happens so much in our own world. We are a world of retaliation. You wrong me, so I wrong you. But I just don't wrong you in the same level of wrong; I wrong you even more so that you are intimidated to wrong me again. But that doesn't deter you and you come back even stronger, and I must react even more.

In some cases, folks bypass the intermediate levels of retaliation and go straight for the clincher -- murder. It's the rage we see on our highways. You cut me off back there, so I shot you in the face. It's the anger we see on our streets. You called my wife names, so I stuck you in the stomach with my knife. It's the burning desire to be bigger and better than you so all may know that I have the power in this world.

It's also extremely against the way of following Christ. I told the teenagers that if they truly wanted to be Christian, they'd have to get off this need to retaliate. I asked them if Jesus retaliates, and someone piped up, "No, he even forgives the thieves on the cross."

YES! On the cross, Jesus lays aside the need to get back at the world. On the cross, Jesus defeats our world of retaliation with a different kind of retaliation. Jesus retaliates with LOVE.

On the same trip, our youth minister was pranked (rather amateurish pranks, but nonetheless, pranked). He and I talked and we had a great plan of retaliation to get back at the kids. But that morning in worship, we were asked to live under this verse from Colossians 3: 15 -- Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts.

And it did rule. In fact the peace of Christ ruled in our hearts and changed our schemes to include retaliating with love. We stood up at worship that night with a big bag of stuff. Folks in the front row began to move away from us out of FEAR of what we were going to do. We had talked enough in the morning to build the anticipation for them. They wouldn't know when, or wouldn't know how, but we were coming from them.

The problem was that Jesus came for us that day through his WORD and cast a new vision for us. Retaliate, yes, but with acts of love. So out of the big bag of stuff, I reached in and threw out tons of candy at the kids. We told them about the cross. We told them how Jesus chooses to engage this world. Not with another prank that shames, humiliates, and discourages others, but with the greatest act of love that gives us new life--by enduring our humiliation of him and redeeming it through his ultimate trust in the God who promised to raise him from the dead.

It's the hardest way to be in this world today. We want to blow each other up; but Jesus says to hug those who harm us.