Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-april-26-2024
Matthew 5:27-28 and 38-48
Adultery
27“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Eye for Eye
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 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.
Love for Enemies
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48 Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Most of our Reflection today is going to focus on two parts of the listed reading that deal with how we’re to respond to hostility. But first, I want to pass along a couple of thoughts on the two verses that deal with the topic of adultery.
These passages follow on the teachings we thought about yesterday, in which Jesus says that indulging in anger is the moral equivalent of murder. In the two verses we’re looking at today, he makes a similar point about lust and adultery. It seems to me that his point, in each case, is that indulging in sinful thoughts will eventually lead to sinful actions.
However, I think it has to be said that these verses are often misused to lay a guilt trip on anyone who experiences physical attraction to a person other than their spouse. That’s not what Jesus is saying, it seems to me. The phrase translated “looks at a woman lustfully” is more correctly translated “looks at a woman for the purpose of lasting after her.” It’s not about seeing someone and experiencing attraction. But if you reach for your binoculars when the neighbor lady goes out to sunbathe, you’re looking at her for the purpose of lusting after her. You’ve taken the first step along David’s path to sin with Bathsheba.
When it comes to what Jesus teaches us about responding to hostility, he starts by quoting the famous saying, “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.” In our world, this saying is commonly used as a justification for taking revenge on those who do us wrong, but its original intent was to limit revenge, not to justify it. The original point of the saying was that a response to an act of violence should never exceed the real injury done – that the response should be proportional, as we would say today. So it probably says something about our natural craving for revenge that the meaning has changed as it has over the years. But in this passage, Jesus commands us to lay aside that craving for revenge – even for proportional revenge.
And then Jesus gives his famous commandment about ‘turning the other cheek.’ Some Bible scholars have pointed out that Jesus specifically refers to someone striking you on the right cheek. And since most people are right-handed, striking a person on the right cheek means hitting them with the back of your hand. And in the ancient Near East, that was intended more to give insult than injury.
Then Jesus goes on to list several other cases where his followers are to be willing to voluntarily sacrifice our rights. If a person demands your shirt, give him your coat, too. If a person demands you to carry a burden a mile (as a Roman soldier had the power to do), Jesus says to carry it two. If a person asks for a loan, give it to him. (And I think we’re supposed to understand that you don’t expect to get the money back.) My sense is that we’re being told to do what Jesus himself did on coming into the world in human form – to sacrifice our rights in order to serve others.
However, it’s also interesting to think about the fact that in each of the cases Jesus mentions, the response he commands allows us to seize control of the encounter. If someone compels you to carry something a mile, then the second mile is traveled on your own authority.
Jesus then commands us to love our enemies. Bible scholars say this might be the most distinctive aspect of the teachings of Jesus – most of what he taught can also be found various places in the Laws of Moses, but the commandment to love our enemies was much less common in Hebrew tradition.
And when we encounter this commandment, it’s important to stop and remind ourselves that Jesus isn’t commanding that we love our enemies in the way we commonly understand the word ‘love.’ The Greek word that’s translated ‘love’ here is the word agape, which isn’t about intense affection – it’s about taking responsibility for the welfare of another person.
So the whole point of what Jesus is saying here is that we’re to do what we can to help those we don’t like, just as we would help our family and friends. Obviously, that goes against just about everything the world teaches us to believe about responding to hostility.
Of course, when we obey this command, we’re imitating Jesus himself. Jesus went to the cross for those who hated him as well as for those who loved him. And some of those who were his most bitter enemies would eventually be so won over by his love that they became his most devoted disciples. The apostle Paul is probably the most notable example.
Lots of people who read this passage read what Jesus says about ‘enemies,’ and they think of people from foreign countries who might attack us in some way, or at least try to work against the interests of our nation. But I don’t think Jesus was talking about enemies in this sense – I think he was instructing us on how we are to deal with those who give us trouble on a day-to-day basis.
I think the one case where enemies at war fall under within this command from Jesus might be cases like the one Abraham Lincoln described in his second inaugural address. The Civil War was coming to an end, and Lincoln was urging that the country extend forgiveness and mercy to those who had rebelled in such a long and bloody fashion. That call for forgiveness and mercy strikes me as the most Christ-like expression of love for enemies in the history of our nation.
Let’s pray. Lord, we pray that by your Holy Spirit, you will give us the strength to follow Jesus in turning the other cheek in the face of hostility, and to greet those who consider themselves our enemies with love and mercy. Help us day by day to be more and more able to love even those we do not like. Amen.
Have a great weekend, and worship God joyfully on Sunday!
Henry
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