Settling the Score

CBN.com - Just seven days prior, he had done it again. Brett Favre showed the world why he is one of the most-talked about athletes in America. His team was 20 yards away from the end zone, with only seconds left on the clock and no timeouts—they were just moments away from losing.

After dropping back in the pocket, scanning the field, a lineman lunged toward him at the same second a spiraling football left his hand. Favre laid on the ground after taking the hit, liked he had done hundreds of times before, to see his pass connect with a receiver streaking across the back of the end zone as the final seconds ticked off.

Favre had done it again. With no time left on the clock, they’d won the game in one miraculous, falling-to-his-back, across-the-field, laser-rocket-pass. And unlike the stoic Tiger Woods who gives a mere fist-pump after sinking a clutch putt, Brett Favre jumped from the ground, ran up and down the field hugging his teammates, high fiving coaches and acting like one of those wild college students being called from the audience on the Price Is Right.

Just like a kid playing backyard football against the neighborhood rivals, Brett Favre plays the game with a sense of abandonment that has endeared him to millions of fans.

But just a week after “the play”, Favre again was at the center of attention for the sports world. But the topic wasn’t his last-second passes, his upcoming 40th birthday or his team’s undefeated start.

It was revenge.

The week following the last-second victory, Favre and his new team, the Minnesota Vikings (who he signed to just a few weeks ago), would be playing the Green Bay Packers—the team Favre had played at quarterback for 16 years. But, as the press saw it, this game wasn’t just a division rivalry. This was a chance for Favre to finally get vengeance on his old team.

Favre didn’t just used to play for the Packers; Favre was the Packers. When the 22-year-old Mississippi-born quarterback arrived, he transformed the team into an NFL powerhouse, winning a Super Bowl and becoming a perennial playoff contender. But, after 16 years and a final trip to the NFC championship game, Favre decided he would retire—well, at least, at first.

When Favre decided he didn’t want to actually retire, and he wanted to return to Green Bay the next season, the Packers informed him that he would no longer be a member of the team. They were going with a younger quarterback. Instead of welcoming him back after a summer off, they traded him to the New York Jets—an AFC team the Packers would never play.

It was a bitter break. After 16 years of gridiron glory, the Packers no longer wanted Brett Favre, and the bad blood was clear.

That’s why the game was so big. After spending a year on the Jets, Favre would be playing against his old team, the team he’d been the face of for over a decade—and he was now a member of a new team: the undefeated division rivals of the Packers, the Minnesota Vikings. The fellow mid-Western team just a few hours drive away.

Interview after interview leading up to the game asked the football legend the same questions: Is this what he has been waiting for? Did he come back for revenge? Was all the press, all the drama, all the hot afternoons practicing with a high school team in Mississippi (which he did between seasons), just leading up to this moment where he could get vengeance on the team that didn’t welcome him back?

For the most part, Favre took the high road in all the interviews, and gave the standard answer—this is just another game, and he’s preparing for it like he does for all of them. He played down the idea of vengeance, and maintained that he just wanted to help his new team win. But the press—and much of the public—seemed enamored with the idea of revenge.

In a way, our culture seems obsessed with revenge, on and off the field. Popular movies, TV shows and sports drama are built around the idea of vengeance. And I think it’s more than just that it can be a compelling sub-plot. I think that the reason our culture is obsessed with the idea of revenge, is because deep down, we don’t like injustice.

Unfortunately though, too often it seems that we confuse an intolerance with injustice, for a moral case for vengeance.

Especially in American culture—a society that maintains such a sophisticated legal system and a high emphasis on seeing justice served—we feel entitled to justice. And when it seems like an injustice has been dealt—especially against ourselves—revenge almost becomes a sense of duty (or, at the very least, an entitlement).

But, scripture tells a different story when it comes to the idea of revenge.

says, “Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God.” One translation says, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.”

When we decide to take revenge into our own hands, we are doing more than just being disobedient to a command. We are stealing from God. “Vengeance is mine”. When we make it our own, we taking from God what he has said is rightfully his.

It’s interesting that in the verses leading up to this, we are commanded to live justly. “If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously … Don't just pretend to love others. Really love them … Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good … When God's people are in need, be ready to help them ... Always be eager to practice hospitality.”

It’s interesting that just after we are told to “Hate what is wrong,” we are told to “Bless those who persecute you. Don't curse them; pray that God will bless them” and to “Never pay back evil with more evil.”

You see, God makes a clear distinction between hating things that are evil, that are wrong, that are unjust and extracting our own payment of revenge. No, we are told to bless those that wrong us. We are called to ignore our human need for retribution, and do something divine—bless. Sure, it’s not easy being kind to those who have wronged us. But, God has bigger purpose. Doing what is easy, what feels good and what feeds our desires, rarely benefits us—most of the time, it actually hurts us.

We’ve all had people wrong us. Maybe it’s not as high-profile (and ultimately as trivial) as Favre and Packers, but vengeance is part of our human nature. And that’s exactly why we should fight it.

In a few weeks, Favre will return to his former home stadium—the legendary Lambeau Field in Green Bay to face off with his old team again. And undoubtedly, reporters, sports writers and armchair commentators will all be talking about Favre’s revenge once again. And this time, like he did last time, I hope Brett Favre keeps taking the high road. Vengeance is too easy. Anybody can seek revenge. It’s a lot harder to forget the past wrong, and play the game for a bigger reason.

 

Send Jesse your comments on this article.