Skip to main content

Wrong Revenge

  In September of 1982, relatively healthy people around the Chicago area began dying unexpectedly. Soon it was discovered they all had been poisoned with cyanide ingested from Tylenol they had taken.

Panic ensued.

  Tylenol was taken off the shelves and police searched for any clues to who had done the tampering. Authorities asked the public for any tips that might lead to the capture of the man involved.

   A local bar owner Martin Sinclair knew a man by the name of Rodger Arnold who kept cyanide in his home.  So he reported it to the police and Arnold became a suspect. Arnold turned out to have nothing to do with the tampering but the media attention and the stress of the investigation made him suffer a nervous breakdown. He felt his life had been ruined by Sinclair.

  So the next summer he waited outside the bar and when he saw Sinclair come out he went up and shot him. Only it wasn’t Sinclair, just a man that looked like him. He would serve 30 years in prison for the murder of a random stranger.

  A man so upset that anyone could think him guilty of indiscriminate murder went did just that in an attempt of revenge.


  So often in trying to make someone pay for a wrong we just end up hurting everyone else. Vengeance isn’t something we good at, best leave it to the experts

Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord.

Romans 12:19 

  Don’t make the mistake of thinking revenge is the answer.  Even if you ”get” the right person, countless others may be harmed. As we read in 1st Thessalonians 5:15 “See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.” Revenge doesn’t seek the good of anybody. It only adds to the body count.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Until Midnight

    In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back.       I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...

The Mighty Gulf

  It is hard to get people on two sides of an issue to come together. Each has their own viewpoint, their perceptive, their own foibles, their own understanding.  To gain any common ground there must be something in common. Something or someone that can bridge the gulf between the two.   Could there be a greater gulf than there was between God and man? How could a holy perfect God find a way to connect to the fallen, imperfect mankind? How can one without temptation connect to those who are beset by it? How could limited mortal beings understand an omnipotent eternal God?   In 1 Timothy 2:5, we read, “ For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus .” The phrase mediator here describes a person that bridges the gap, a go-between. Jesus was one who could stand in both worlds. A perfect holy one who can understand our temptations, a man who would die yet live eternally, One who was God yet became flesh and dwelt among us. ...

How Dare You!

    Lewis Keseberg was tired of all the accusations against him so he filed a defamation lawsuit against Ned Coffeemeyer the man he saw as responsible for the rumors. The court found that Ned had indeed called Keseberg a “thief and murderer” without any proof but it didn’t rule very strongly in his favor by only imposing a fine of one dollar.  Maybe they were lenient because Ned Coffeemeyr had earlier rescued Lewis Keseberg from a terrible situation.  Maybe it was because the accusations while not proven were highly likely.  And maybe because Lewis Keseberg had admitted to eating people.   Lewis Keseberg was one of the members of the infamous Donner Party, a wagon train that got caught in the Siera Nevada mountain and resorted to cannibalism to survive. Keseberg wasn’t known as a very good person before those events and they certainly didn’t help improve his image. But to sue the very person who saved you seems to define the kind of person he was....