A Post for a Post

Often in this more reflective season of my life, I’m asked to recount some of the most difficult leadership moments during my time as President of Youth For Christ USA. That question isn’t hard to answer. I have a list—not a long one, but a list. Many of those moments revolve around being wrongly accused. Sometimes the accusation involved a specific decision or action; other times, it was an assumed motive or a misread intention.

Even as I write this, my pulse quickens. I remember the names, the conversations, the Zoom calls, and the letters from lawyers. Just as quickly, I remember my indignation. My hurt. And the well-constructed defense that rose so easily to my lips.

But a recent conversation pushed me to go deeper. Instead of simply recalling these wrongs, I found myself asking a different question: How would Jesus have responded if He were asked the same? Certainly, He could have compiled quite a list. And unlike mine, His would have been entirely, undeniably true.

Jesus wasn’t naïve. He knew that the very people whose toes He stepped on were determined to destroy Him by any means necessary. Truth was irrelevant to those who wanted to derail His mission.

Insults. Lies. Condescension. Disdain. Bitterness. Jealousy. Self-righteousness.

All of it fueled the engine of hate that drove hard hearts deeper into blind rage. Jesus received every weapon they had—both public attack and private sabotage.

And unlike me, when Jesus faced injustice, His palms didn’t sweat. His heart rate didn’t rise. His mind didn’t scramble for defense. That reality interrupts me every time I try to justify my reactions—those moments when my face flushes and my mind races toward what is neither healthy nor holy.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil.
But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
—Matthew 5:38–39

Retaliation was never the agenda of Jesus. Never.

Yet somehow it has become the default setting of our age.

You post about me? I’ll post about you.
You attack me? I’ll fight back.
You mock me? I’ll humiliate you in return.
You offend me? I’ll call you out—publicly.

No cheek-turning here. Not even among followers of Jesus. Not even within the family of God.

Self-control is treated like weakness. And no one wants to be weak. But in the face of the greatest injustice in human history, Jesus turned His cheek. Even as He acknowledged His power to retaliate—

“Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?”
—Matthew 26:53

—He chose restraint. Purpose. Mission. Obedience.

I love following Jesus into quiet places of communion, but it’s His posture on the battlefield that convicts me most.

An eye for an eye.
A post for a post.

This is not the way of Jesus. And it must not be the way of His followers.