Few passages of the New
Testament have more of the essential teaching of Jesus on how we ought to
behave in the world than the one I just read.
In short, Jesus raised the bar on how people ought to treat each other to
a much higher level than what is generally accepted.
In essence, to be
Christian is to be different, to stand out, to swim against the stream, to hold
oneself to a higher standard, to be "the light of the world and salt of
the earth" - otherwise we are no better than "pagans," we are no
better than unbelievers. Sadly, most who call themselves "Christian"
don't even know that Jesus raised the bar on human behavior and therefore they
do not even attempt to measure up to his higher standard! Some
even think the Church ought to lower these high standards to better match the
level of our behaviors or be ignored altogether!
You
have heard it said...but I am saying something different to you...
Jesus begins his teaching
today by citing the world's oldest law---"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth." That law is known as the Lex
Talionis, which can best be described as the law of “tit for tat.” This law
is found in the Code of Hammurabi, who reigned in Babylon from 2285 BC to 2242
BC. The principle is clear and apparently simple----if anyone inflicts an
injury on anyone else, and equivalent injury shall be inflicted back on him.
Even though it is not universal, that law was absorbed into the teaching we
find in the Old Testament.
As savage as it may
sound, this law was, in fact the beginning of mercy. It, at least, limited
vengeance. Before that law, unlimited vengeance could be taken not only on the
perpetrator, but anyone in his family, including death for a minor slight. "An
eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" deliberately limited vengeance. The law lays it down that only the man who
committed the injury must be punished, not his family members, and that
punishment must be no more than the equivalent of the injury inflicted and the
damage done.
Another thing is worth
noting here. This law never gave a private individual the right to extract
vengeance. It was always a law that was laid down to guide a judge in a court
of law in assessing punishments and penalties for violent and unjust deeds.
Still further, this law
was never, at least in semi-civilized society, carried out literally. Very soon
after the law was written and accepted, the injury done was assessed at a money
value and the injury was assessed on five counts - for injury, for pain, for
healing, for loss of time and for indignity suffered. Sounds remarkably modern,
doesn't it?
As advanced as it was for
its time, Jesus comes along and obliterates the very principle of that law,
because retaliation, however controlled and restricted, has no place in the
Christian life. Jesus abolishes the old law of limited and controlled vengeance
and introduces the new spirit of non-resentment and non-retaliation.
You
have heard it said... but I am saying something different to you...
To take the words of
Jesus today in a crude literalism is to miss the point, as is the example I am
very familiar with down in Russell County several years back. A man took a
chain saw and cut off his right hand because, he said, "the Bible said
that if your right hand is an occasion of sin, cut it off!" Jesus was, of
course, using a middle eastern exaggeration of speech to make the point that we
must get serious about rooting out evil from our lives.
To take these words of
Jesus in a crude literalism is to miss the point, as in the case of
"turning the other cheek and offering no resistance to injury." He is
certainly not advocating physical and emotional abuse! If a car runs over you,
don't just stand there and let it happen again and again! The first thing to do
is to get the hell out of the road and don't let them do it again! The next thing, after recovery, is to resist
trying to "get even" or "carry a grudge." The
ability to resist getting even will strangely enough help you, not
the perpetrator! For a serious Christian, taking offense can be just as bad as giving
offense. We are supposedly called to a higher standard than the rest of the herd! One cannot have a full life under the shadow
of bitterness!
To opposite of crude
literalism is to dismiss what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is teaching his followers that they
must live at a higher level than what is generally accepted. In the case of
"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" if we lived that way, we
would all be blind and toothless in no time! What he is saying is to stop taking
any revenge at all! Find out where the hurt that would drive them to do such
things is coming from and try to help them heal it, if possible! Both Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.
showed us that nonviolent resistance can bring down oppressive governments and
change the hearts of nations, while violence only begets more violence.
I am not a Gandhi or a
Martin Luther King, Jr. but I have my own way of living this gospel. In my work
as a priest, I come across some amazingly wonderful people, but once in a while
I come across some pretty nasty people.
I have figured out a long time ago that the best tactic to take is not
to punish them back, in the sense of giving back to them the treatment they
give you, but to "kill them with kindness." It doesn't always work,
but it works more times than not! Their meanness usually has nothing to do with
me or what I have done or failed to do, but what I represent and what has been
done to them by others that I remind them of! "Killing them with
kindness" is my version of turning the other cheek, offering no resistance
to injury and loving my enemies.
In my work at the
seminary, I teach a class called "Transition Out of the Seminary and
Into Ministry" to those about to be ordained. One of the things I teach them is "how
to leave the seminary." I teach them how to thank the kitchen workers and
cleaning staff who cooked for them, washed their dishes and cleaned their
toilets. I teach them to forgive the
monks, professors and each other for not being perfect, instead of carrying
grudges for the rest of their lives. The
last class is dedicated to the "spiritual practice of blessing
people," the habit of looking for good things to affirm in others, rather
than always looking for things to condemn. It is my version of trying to love
all people, not just those who love me.
And, you, what about you?
How do you try to live the challenging words of Jesus in today's gospel? Jesus is our model! He loved us without
condition. It is not easy for any of us, but Jesus offers his own Body and
Blood to strengthen us to do for each other what he always does for us - love each
other without condition!
No comments:
Post a Comment