A Blind and Toothless Society
We have all heard the line that Jesus speaks about in the Gospel today (MT 5: 38-42), “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Sometimes people use it in defense of their actions with the justification that it is in the Bible. And, they are correct it is. But let’s take a moment to look at the history of the saying before we plunge into its call for us today in our life.
The origin of the saying is not Biblical but the Code of Hammurabi. Babylonian King Hammurabi believed it was revealed to him by Shamash, the Babylonian god of justice. Its origins are from the Babylonian pagan gods. It is quoted in the Old Testament several times in Deuteronomy, Leviticus, and Exodus.
But the important thing for us is how Jesus used it and what it means for us today. Jesus was not using the quote as a goal or a point of righteousness. He is taking a law from the Old Testament and making it more. Remember, in another place in scripture, Jesus also says, “I have not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it.” This is one of those times when Jesus takes a law from the Old Testament and makes it more. He fulfills it. Jesus gives new depth and meaning to the old law and calls the people to a higher level of justice.
How many times do we hear the saying, “Without justice, there is no peace?” It seems; lately, we listen to it a great deal. It is the battle cry of the protestors. Placards and Billboards proclaim it in bold letters.
I think what Jesus was saying was it really goes the other way around. We need to build peace with one another before there is true justice. If Jesus was in the protests today, I think His sign would say, “Without peace, there is no justice?” Jesus was calling us to a different way of thinking and feeling that applies both in His time, throughout the centuries, and very much now.
We cannot legislate peace. No law will force it, demand it, or ensure it. Peace comes from a place far different than the rules of society. Peace comes from the heart; it comes from deep human respect for the other. It comes from love. Loving the other, even the stranger, enough to grant them dignity and respect. That kind of life-attitude cannot be legislated.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus is calling people to be more. He is telling them that the letter of the law is not the answer. Jesus is calling them to a new state of the heart. In this new state of heart, we presume the good in the other without judgment and respond to the other as we would to one, we dearly love.
Jesus is telling us that if the one you love slaps you on one cheek (let’s, consider that figuratively rather than literally), you turn and offer the other. Anyone who has ever been hurt by someone they love knows that hurting back always makes the situation worse. It always escalates the difficulty. The figurative slapping just goes back and forth. If you do something that hurts me, and I strike again to hurt you. When we are hurt by someone we love, we need to pause and then walk back into the relationship and work it out with love. Even if that means being slapped again. There is no faster way to deteriorate love than by “slapping back.”
If the one we love were to ask us to go with them one mile (or to the grocery store, or take them to the doctor), we would graciously go two. When one we love imposes a need on us, we most often respond with a generosity of spirit that is excessive. We willingly do what they need, and more. We, with joy, “go the extra mile” to help them. Love removes the limits. Love lifts the minimum required attitude and replaces it with doing as much as we can to help.
When one we love asks a favor of us. We respond with generosity. We wouldn’t only give our coat but our shirt as well, even if it wasn’t asked for. Perhaps that is where the saying, “He’d give you the shirt off his back.” came from. We hear that phrase often when positively describing another’s character. That is the character that Jesus is calling us to in the reading. It is a character that leads with love and responds with abundance.
What Jesus is saying is to change your heart, so there are not outsiders and insiders. Develop a spirit of generosity that doesn’t measure whether someone deserves love, assistance, or kindness. Jesus is telling us to develop the heart of God, who stands ready to turn the other cheek when we slap out at Him in anger, or deny him, or refuse to stand up for Him. Develop the heart of God. the heart that walks the hardest miles of our lives with us and carries us until we have the strength to walk on our own again. Develop the heart of God, a heart that loved so much that he came to live with us and die for us.
Where there are peace and love, there will be justice.
In God’s unending love,
Gwen
