This blog follows the daily bible readings of the Catholic Church

Reading 1,  1 Kings 21:1-16

1 This is what happened next: Naboth of Jezreel had a vineyard close by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria, 2 and Ahab said to Naboth, ‘Give me your vineyard to be my vegetable garden, since it adjoins my palace; I will give you a better vineyard for it or, if you prefer, I will give you its value in money.’

3 Naboth, however, said to Ahab, ‘God forbid that I should give you my ancestral heritage!’

4 Ahab went home gloomy and out of temper at the words of Naboth of Jezreel, ‘I will not give you my heritage from my ancestors.’ He lay down on his bed and turned his face away and refused to eat. 5 His wife Jezebel came to him. ‘Why are you so dispirited,’ she said, ‘that you refuse to eat?’

6 He said, ‘I have been talking to Naboth of Jezreel. I said, “Give me your vineyard either for money or, if you prefer, for another vineyard in exchange.” But he said, “I will not give you my vineyard.” ‘

7 Then his wife Jezebel said, ‘Some king of Israel you make! Get up, eat and take heart; I myself shall get you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.’

8 So she wrote a letter in Ahab’s name and sealed it with his seal, sending the letter to the elders and notables of the city where Naboth lived. 9 In the letter, she wrote, ‘Proclaim a fast, and put Naboth in a prominent place among the people. 10 There confront him with a couple of scoundrels who will accuse him as follows, “You have cursed God and the king.” Then take him outside and stone him to death.’

the way to deal with evil

11 The men of Naboth’s city, the elders and notables living in his city, did what Jezebel ordered, as was written in the letter which she had sent him. 12 They proclaimed a fast and put Naboth in a prominent place among the people. 13 The two scoundrels then came and confronted him, and the scoundrels then publicly accused Naboth as follows, ‘Naboth has cursed God and the king.’ He was then taken outside the city and stoned to death. 14 They then sent word to Jezebel, ‘Naboth has been stoned to death.’

15 When Jezebel heard that Naboth had been stoned to death, she said to Ahab, ‘Get up! Take possession of the vineyard which Naboth of Jezreel refused to sell you, for Naboth is no longer alive, he is dead.’ 16 When Ahab heard that Naboth was dead, he got up to go down to the vineyard of Naboth of Jezreel and take possession of it.

Gospel, Matthew 5:38-42

38 ‘You have heard how it was said: Eye for eye and tooth for tooth. 39 But I say this to you: offer no resistance to the wicked. On the contrary, if anyone hits you on the right cheek, offer him the other as well; 40 if someone wishes to go to law with you to get your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.41 And if anyone requires you to go one mile, go two miles with him. 42 Give to anyone who asks you, and if anyone wants to borrow, do not turn away.

Gandhi, who revered Jesus, said that if you didn’t have the courage to oppose evil without violence, opposing with violence was better than no opposition at all.

In the face of the story of Naboth, we can rightly ask where we would be, if nobody  resisted the evil of people like Jezebel and Ahab.

What on earth did Matthew mean by “not resisting an evil person”? The verb in the Greek is “antistenai” which means to stand against, to withstand, to resist. (Notice, I’m asking about Matthew, because Jesus of course didn’t say “antistenai” as he would have preached in popular Hebrew, not Greek.)

Matthew’s gospel shows a feisty Jesus who resists evil people with very forceful words, and refuses to modify his own behaviour to suit the demands of the powerful. Matthew certainly didn’t see Jesus as offering a spineless response to evil people. Rather, the command not to resist must be seen in the context of the “eye for eye, tooth for tooth.” This Old Testament command was meant to limit violence, that is, in resisting, violence must not go beyond justice, but it’s easy to see how it could be used to justify appalling crimes (“They raped our women so we’ll rape theirs”). As Gandhi also said, “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” In this context, “not resisting” means not responding in kind. Perhaps if you don’t immediately punch the man who’s punched you, he’ll be so surprised, he’ll stop. Maybe if you give a free gift to the person suing you, he’ll be ashamed of his greed. A soldier who bullies you by making you carry his pack, may be completely disarmed if you volunteer to carry it an extra mile. And maybe none of that will happen and you’ll be beaten up, lose your shirt in court, and carry Roman packs all day, but at least your behaviour will not have been determined by evil people. And of course, like Jesus we should denounce evil people as forcefully as we can, and gather support against them.

Would this work against people like Ahab and Jezebel, or for that matter, against the Nazis, or Mr. Mladic in Bosnia?

There are days when I think that in the name of God all you can do with such people is shoot them like rabid dogs. Then I remember that’s the Old Testament answer, and that my whole salvation depends on God not reacting in kind to my evil, and on Jesus’ courage in practicing what he preached.