The Greatest Sermon Ever 7 On Vengeance

The Greatest Sermon Ever 7 On Vengeance

Matthew 5:38-42 New International Version (NIV) Eye for Eye 38 "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'[a] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

So, there are two great dangers in the studying of this text. One is to say that this teaches us to be completely passive never resisting evil people, and I would argue that that misses what Jesus is emphasising and would be for Jesus to not only contradict the Law that He is describing in this passage, but more so would be to undermine the very heart of God.

The other error would be to then jump to the opposite of this and try and reinterpret what Jesus is saying to fit the fact that we must always stand up for justice and must resist; defend your rights and stand up for yourself.

So, you might have picked up that this is going to be tricky; so I will need you to put your thinking caps on and follow me through what Jesus is saying!

So lets start with what Jesus is addressing when he says;

"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth."

Jesus is referring to…

1. The Law of Justice

This is one of the oldest Laws in existence. Called Lex talionis or the Law of retaliation or reciprocity.

This phrase, along with the idea of written laws, goes back to ancient Mesopotamian culture, so in other words it is very, very old!

It is also called the law of equal justice. We find this in the Law (Torah) in Exodus 21:24

"eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise."

Now, on the surface of it all, we both agree and disagree this law (almost instinctively), because on one level justice matters, right? I mean if someone takes something from you, there should be some level of retribution. We want people to pay when we have been violated.

This is effectively the primary level of Justice. No one would, if they were a victim of crime, advocate that retribution, or some level of payment for the crime should not be given out. In fact to demand so would be unjust.

But the other problem here is the idea that when we demand vengeance we have a great problem with escalating violence; as Ghandi was said to have said; "An eye for any eye leaves the whole world blind."

So we are left with a crisis; to retaliate or not to retaliate; that is the question.

Essentially this is the law of fairness - and this beats in the heart of every person ever! Because justice matters deeply. The problem we have is that we are so bad at meeting out justice, as human beings. We almost always overreach or do injustice in our seeking of fairness.

And effectively this was the debate of Jesus' day, and it still remains the debate today.

And I love how Jesus both answers this, and is the answer to this. Jesus' looks right into the heart of the law and sees it for what it is it is a demand of love.

2. The Demand of Love

So, and this is important; when we resist evil and demand our rights and call for personal justice, where are we acting from? Are we coming from an objective place that is actually seeking justice or are we coming from a selfish place that is demanding our own. If you are honest we are demanding our own. And that is what I find so fascinating about this passage on all the accounts that Jesus calls us to respond none demand governmental judicial intervention; for example Jesus didn't says when someone kills a family member just forgive the guy, it's okay. No to say so would violate the very core of the nature of Justice.

Every example Jesus uses is an example of personal injury that if we loved the other we would happily incur. And so the call is three fold, however, you can apply it in a number of ways.

But the demand of love demands that we firstly;

a. Love others more than your honour

The first reality Jesus points to is if an evil person is against you, if someone slaps you on your face do not resist or retaliate. Now, again, this is not in the instance of personal safety or the safety of one's loved ones this is a matter of being humiliated.

I mean let's be real a slap on the face is far from lethal. It is an insult. And it was a great sign of disrespect in Jesus' day. And I guess today as well. So Jesus tells us to let it be, to in fact embrace the insult and ask for another one; I mean turn the other cheek is essentially saying do it again.

Now, let's look at this; if someone slaps you across the face, I mean everything inside of you wants to get your own back. But slapping the other person back does that actually help? If I am honest, only if you get in such a slap that you essentially knock him out, but does that actually solve anything? No, It escalates the problem, because, I haven't retaliated with justice, I have gone above what was done to me.

Jesus says our response to humiliation is to embrace our humiliation, to allow myself to be humiliated so as to avoid going into evil myself. How do we possibly do this? Well, through incredible self-security and self-deprecating love.