You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth"

 

 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'  But I tell you not to resist an evil person.  But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.  If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.  And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.  Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'  But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?  Do not even the tax collectors do so?  Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."

 

- Matthew 5:38-48 

 

We are reading through the Sermon on the Mount, which is covered in Matthew chapters 5 - 7.  Yesterday we read that Jesus taught, "You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not commit adultery.'  But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.  If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.  And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell.  Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.'  But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.  Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.'  But I say to you, do not swear at all:  neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.  Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black.  But let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No.'  For whatever is more than these is from the evil one." 

 "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'  But I tell you not to resist an evil person.  But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.  If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.  And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.  Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away."   My study Bible comments that in contrast to the Old Testament (Exodus 21:244, Leviticus 24:20, Deuteronomy 19:21), Jesus warns not to resist violence with yet more violence.  Evil can only be overcome by good, which keeps us free from compromise with the devil and can bring our enemy under the yoke of God's love.  It then relates a story from the desert monks, in which one saint of the desert once found his hut being looted of its few possessions, and knelt in a corner praying for the thieves.  When they left, he saw that they had not taken his walking stick; he pursued them for many days until he was able to give them the stick as well.  When they saw his humility they returned everything and were converted to Christ.

"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'  But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.  For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?  Do not even the tax collectors do the same?  And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?  Do not even the tax collectors do so?"  My study Bible says that if we are freed from hate, sadness, and anger, we are able to receive the greatest virtue, which is perfect love.  The love of enemies, it says, is not merely an emotion, but includes decision and action.  It is to treat and to see our enemies as the closest members of our own family.  (See 1 John 4:7-21).

"Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect."  My study Bible calls this the summary statement of all that has preceded.  A Christian, it says, can grow in the perfection of the Father (Ephesians 4:13), which is shown by imitating God's love and mercy (compare Luke 6:36).  

Most people don't realize that the injunction of "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" was actually given in order to curtail vengeance.  It established a kind of justice not simply from a sense of appropriate retribution, but was more emphatically a sense in which it sought to limit severe retribution.  If we look at the Old Testament, we're given a story in which retributive vengeance spirals out of control, to become what we might call the prime problem and eventual outcome of the first murder, when Cain killed Abel.  (See Genesis 4.)   In order to protect Cain, who became cursed as a result, the LORD said that if he were murdered, it would be avenged seven times over, and placed a mark on Cain to prevent his murder.  But by the time we get to Cain's descendant Lamech, he brags in a song to his wives:  "Adah and Zillah, hear my voice;/Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech!/For I have killed a man for wounding me,/Even a young man for hurting me./If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold,/Then Lamech seventy-sevenfold."  Violence has begotten violence, and vengeance has become a way of life.  Genesis 4 ends with the statement:  "Then men began to call on the name of the Lord."  In a world in which violence has spiraled out of control thanks to retribution and vengeance, people begin to call upon the name of the Lord.  This is one way to read the text.   In places where we see out of control violence today, it is frequently due to the presence of gangs in which this sort of ongoing retributive "justice" continues.  Like Lamech, it becomes a type of "honor," a response to what might be seen as insult.  It is the opposite of Christ's teachings regarding our own understanding of our responses to insult and harm.  While the injunctions based on "an eye for an eye" curtailed vengeance for a sense of justice based on aims of restitution (for this is the sense of the Mosaic Law), Christ -- as He has so far throughout the Sermon on the Mount -- gets to the literal heart of the matter by focusing on the heart.   We are asked to consider our own responses to hurt and think about them.  What is the best way to respond?  Do we want to continue a cycle of retribution?  Would we rather put a stop to it with our own actions?  Do we want to try to maintain a sort of peace?  Above all, we should remember that the aim of the Law was community, and in the gospel of Christ the aim is community in which Christ is present within us and among us.  In Luke 17:21, Jesus teaches that "the kingdom of God is within you."  This phrase in the Greek, "within you," means both within and among you, indicating each of us and all of us:  in our hearts and in community.  So we should think of Jesus' teachings in today's reading:  before responding, we turn to that communion with God to find what is best for us.  I don't agree that this is a formula like a new set of rules:  it is, rather, a teaching for communion with God and relationship within community.  It is a sense in which our highest and first loyalty to God creates the community God wants for us.  This might include all kinds of responses such as discernment and discrimination (in the sense of thoughtful measuring), for He has also taught us to be "wise as serpents and harmless as doves" (Matthew 10:16).  But the deeper point here is that it is our relationship to the Father that determines our relationship to others, and this must be what we seek in our hearts, the place from which we find response to the world and to the things in it which challenge and hurt us.  One may be surprised at the effects of prayer on those who are hostile to us; it might not make us best friends but it does work to help to bring peace, both within us and among us.  Jesus' teachings also ask us to understand that material things are secondary:  they can be replaced.  Our lives themselves are made of deeper substance; and in true imitation of our Creator and our likeness to Creator we are capable of creating what we need and finding our way through life regarding the material in surprising ways (Luke 12:22-34).  A sense of what we're capable of with God's help gives us a more dynamic than static picture of our material wealth, and how it is used.  We go first to the relationship with God (Matthew 6:33).  Above all, Christ's teachings elevate us beyond the level of retribution to a powerful and dynamic relationship first with God, a participation in God's love, and from there a sense of ourselves which we seek to express in our relationship to the world.  Who are we really?  What do we choose to be?  With whom are we truly in communion?  How do we see ourselves in life?  It takes us out of merely victim status, and into participation, choice, commitment, and the capacity to act in ways that we choose rather than out of mere provocation.  Let us consider the ways in which His teachings liberate us and build up our lives with substance, for He teaches that we are so much more than we think we are, and He gives us goals which are worthy of that true substance.