The Power of Restraint

I recently watched a National Geographic program on U.S. national parks that showed footage of bighorn sheep, which engage in horn-butting battles during mating season. Given the immense force of these collisions, you would think the sheep would experience concussions, but over time they have developed horn and skull structures that protect them from brain damage. Butting horns is what bighorn sheep do, and because their behavior wasn’t going to change, their bodies evolved to protect them from the consequences of that behavior.

Compared with other animals, humans have not had to develop physical adaptations to protect us from our sometimes destructive behavior. Environmentalist and author Bill McKibben explains it this way: “The turtle does what she does, and magnificently. She can’t not do it, though, any more than the beaver can decide to take a break from building dams or the bee from making honey. But if the bird’s special gift is flight, ours is the possibility of restraint. We’re the only creature who can decide not to do something we’re capable of doing. That’s our superpower, even if we exercise it too rarely.”

From a spiritual perspective, Jesus showed remarkable restraint when he was arrested, tried, and convicted on false charges; he did not defend himself or call on legions of angels to rescue him. As he hung on the cross, he also refrained from condemning those who put him to death but asked God to forgive them.

Jesus did not attempt to protect himself because he had learned to trust in a loving, merciful God who would not abandon him, even in the face of suffering and death. His resurrection shows that God’s love cannot be contained by the grave. Jesus used the tools of nonviolence and love, not an impervious physical body, to overcome the human tendency to seek power, prestige, and wealth. As we face the forces of greed that lead to so much human suffering and destruction of the earth today, we can trust that the tool of restraint expressed through nonviolence and love will allow us to be victorious as well.