In the recently released movie, Taken, ex-CIA agent Bryan Mills’ daughter is kidnapped. I have not seen the movie, but in the trailer, while on the phone with the abductor, Mills hisses: “If you don’t [let my daughter go], I will look for you. I will find you. And I will kill you.” It appears, from the clip I saw, that the remainder of the movie follows Mills on an incredibly violent, retaliatory, killing spree as he searches for his daughter’s abductors. After killing over 30 people and grieviously wounding a dozen more, Mills rescues his daughter. Does the kidnapping justify the bloodbath? Jesus said, “You have heard it said: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person!” (Matt. 5:38-39). What would Jesus have to say about Bryan Mills' rampage? The passage above is Jesus’ exposition of Exodus 21:23-24 and Leviticus 24:19-20 which describe the law of just punishment: the punishment must fit the crime. Applying it specifically to situations involving personal injury, if you attacked someone and broke their arm, yours would be broken. At first blush this seems a bit uncivilized, but it’s really quite fair and reasonable. The same principle applied to other offenses: if you borrowed an animal and got it killed, you had to pay back the price of the animal. It’s about making restitution. But perhaps in Jesus’ day people were taking justice into their own hands and using the law of just punishment as justification for seeking revenge. That’s certainly how we usually understand “an eye for an eye.” If someone threatens you, takes advantage of you, or offends you, you are justified in pushing back, resisting, defending yourself. If someone hurts you, you hurt them back. Retaliation. But even the Old Testament taught that an individual is not to seek revenge (Lev. 19:18, Prov. 20:22). In Matthew 5 Jesus is fulfilling the law of just punishment by restoring it to its place and stopping the abuse of the law. The law of just punishment has nothing to do with personal revenge. Bonhoeffer writes: “The right way to requite evil, according to Jesus, is not to resist it.” I will probably never see Taken, but the film resonates with me as a father of daughters. I understand the anger that Mills felt and I think it is probably righteous anger. If someone took my daughters, I would feel the same way Mills felt and, in a way, I fantasize that I could, like Mills, take out the bad guys and take my girls back. But would it be right?