To purge hate, we need hope of divine justice

Good Friday is a day to remember two opposites: an ultimate act of violence and its counter, a definitive example of non-violence. What could be more violent in scale than humans killing on a cross the One who had made them and who had appeared among them for a time as a man, Jesus Christ? And which individual had more powers than Jesus Christ to physically defend himself yet stayed non-violent?

When one faces injustice or violence at a personal level (that is, not as armed forces personnel), how should one respond? Is ahimsa, or a non-violent response, essential, or is it just optional, to be adopted depending on its tactical value on a given day and dispensed with on other days? Unfortunately, an ‘optional’ approach would be just play-acting, rendering meaningless any occasional acts of non-violence by the pretender.

Jesus called for an unfailing commitment to personal non-violence when he taught, "If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also." And he lived it out, according to his disciple, Peter, who wrote thirty years later, "When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly."

This is crucial to a life that avoids violent methods: the conviction that God will ensure justice, that is, vindication for the innocent and retribution for the violent, either in this life or later. Any selfish reward or fruit (phalam) is not the motive, because Christ’s death on the Cross made spiritual attainments unnecessary for anyone who follows him.

Forgiveness of sins, through Christ’s sacrifice, immediately sets a follower free to serve the world, free of selfish goals of ensuring one’s own salvation, which Christ’s death freely guarantees. And part of serving the world is to stop the cycle of violence by living non-violently, whatever the provocation.

Easter commemorates Christ’s rising from the dead—the vindication by God of Christ’s non-violent path and of his sinless life. Christ introduces people to this God of love as well as divine justice. True followers sense God’s love through Christ’s indwelling presence, which he promised his followers. Experiencing divine love is the only antidote to the hate that flowed on the Cross and which flows in the world today.