I have a friend who is a primary school teacher, and recently she told me about something that had happened at her school. A boy in her class had been hitting people in the playground, and it had become necessary to talk to his parents about it. So one day after school, teacher, mother and child got together to discuss what was going on. My friend, the teacher, explained that the boy had been going around hitting other children at playtime, and that this was unacceptable. His mother immediately turned on her son and said, "Now look here! I've told you about this before. You must not hit other people. Unless they hit you."
It was one of those slightly awkward situations where the morals of a parent do not appear to match the morals of the school. No school wants to tolerate fighting of any kind. Even 'hitting back' is not to be encouraged. But … was the mother's response not a biblical one? 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth' - Jesus refers to that code of conduct in this morning's gospel reading.
And it's there, in the Old Testament, in more than one place. Leviticus 24 says: 'Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered.' Sounds fair enough, doesn't it? Exodus 21 goes a bit further, adding, 'hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.' And, as if this hasn't been emphasised enough, Deuteronomy 19 goes as far as it is possible to go, adding, 'life for life.' That makes a little boy punching somebody in the playground seem a bit tame, doesn't it?
And in case we are tempted to think, well that's only the Old Testament, so we won't take it too seriously - didn't Jesus himself say, in the very same chapter of St Matthew's gospel, 'Do not think I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfil.' Well perhaps the key word here is the verb, 'to fulfil.' It is this fulfilment of the law that is key in understanding Jesus. The law stands as written; the Church has kept those five great law books - what we call the Pentateuch - as the very beginning of our Bible. So, how is this law to be fulfilled? And - most importantly - what is Jesus talking about? These are big questions! Let's try to address them.
That passage we heard from Deuteronomy is packed full of prohibitions. Among them, You shall not … steal, lie, deal falsely, swear falsely, defraud, slander, hate, take vengeance or bear a grudge. And why not? Because God says so - but, more to the point, because God is holy. And so, in that same passage, amidst all the 'do not's we have two things to do. You shall … fear your God, and - yes, Jesus says it but it's here in Leviticus - 'Love your neighbour as yourself'. Why? Because, 'I am the Lord', says God - five times in this passage - and because, as he is holy, so should we be holy.
So, the first thing we need to remember is that the law in the Bible is God's holy law; not ours. We have received it, but he has given it - just like all his other gifts. Yes, it's true to say that many of the laws that men have made over generations are very much based upon biblical teaching. But the law given in the Bible is our starting point, and we need to treat it as such. If we don't believe that this is God's law then we might as well not take it seriously - and many people, of course, don't.
But, for those of us who believe in God, what this means is that when we break the law, we are sinning against God. It is not about us - or, at least, if it seems to be about us it is about God first and us second. What's that bit of the Lord's Prayer? 'Forgive us our sins - as we forgive those who sin against us.' We are asking God's forgiveness because we've sinned against him; and, given his forgiveness, we are called to forgive those who, incidentally, have done wrong against us. You can't say one bit without the other.
So, it's God's law. This means that if we follow God's law we are following him, walking in his ways and serving him. Likewise, if we break God's law we are abandoning him, straying from his ways and sinning against him. And, this being the case, it is he - not we ourselves - who will render judgement. We are ultimately in his hands - not the hands of others. And that's a good thing; something to encourage us. Remember that.
There's a passage towards the end of the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 32, known as 'the Song of Moses'. It comes just after Moses has handed over responsibility to his successor, Joshua. Moses, let's be honest, has had to put up with rather a lot of nonsense from the people of Israel, and he's not afraid to talk about it - or maybe even to sing about it (!). But the Lord - his God and theirs - is perfect. So this is what Moses says, 'The Rock, his work is perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God, without deceit, just and upright is he; yet' - he continues - 'his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him, a perverse and crooked generation.' - that's all of us, and let's not forget it.
God rescued his people from Egypt, and how did they repay him? By worshipping idols and sacrificing to demons. So it should come as no surprise that God is angry. 'Vengeance is mine, and recompense for the time when their foot shall slip.' And that's why St Paul echoes, in Romans 12, 'Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.' Some people - including many Christians - don't like the idea of God's wrath. Probably because the image of an angry God is one that they find upsetting. Probably, also, because when they think about God being angry they think about people they know - and themselves - being angry, and how unpleasant that can be. Anger; wrath - surely, are bad things - un-godly things. Or are they?
What we need to remember is that God's wrath is a holy wrath. Of course God is angry - Jesus himself is angry; he doesn't hide that when he turns over the tables of the money-changers in the temple. But God's anger is a good anger. It is the anger that says that the world as it is - this beautiful world that he made and that we have damaged - simply will not do. It is the anger that says that we, his children - those whom he has made in his own image - need that image to be restored in us. To put it bluntly, we need sorting out. And it is God himself who can do it; not us.
So, Jesus says, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you … if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also." You see, it's not up to us to get our own back; vengeance belongs to the Lord. His vengeance is a good vengeance; and his vengeance, thanks goodness, goes quite a bit further than simply paying us back for our sins. His vengeance deals with the problem that is at the very heart of each one of us; the problem of sin. A holy God has to deal with sin; and his wrath is that holiness in action.
When Jesus came to us two-thousand years ago he taught God's law. But he didn't stop there; in his own words he came to fulfil the law and the prophets. And he himself lived out what he taught us. 'Go the extra mile'? Jesus did. 'Love your enemies'? Jesus did. 'Pray for those who persecute you'? Jesus did. Turn the other cheek'? Jesus certainly did.
'Eye for eye, tooth for tooth … life for life?' Doesn't Jesus fulfil even this part of the law? You see, in loving his enemies, Jesus went to his death on a cross. He gave his life, not just for one life, but for your life, and for mine; for the lives of everyone who had ever lived, and for the lives of everyone who will ever live.'I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly,' says Jesus in St John's gospel. And not just life abundantly here on earth, but life abundantly for ever and ever. His life for our sins. That's the holiness of God's wrath; he takes upon himself the full effects of our fallenness by giving himself.
'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth'? - getting one's own back? Well, God does in fact get his own back. Quite literally. He is our God, and we are his people. We are his own, and he gets us back - and at what great cost!
So praise and thanks be to God for his Son, our blessed Lord and saviour, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Peter Edwards
|
