A Community of Non-Retaliation
For Meditation (Corey Widmer)
Of all the sections of the Sermon on the Mount, this little section may be one of the most challenging and misunderstood. Jesus addresses an Old Testament Law that appears at least three times in the Torah: “an eye for an eye, and tooth for tooth.” This is sometimes called the lex talionis- or the "principle of exact retribution.” While it sounds brutal to modern ears, this law was actually given in order to accomplish two important things: to curb retribution that did not fit the crime and to stop self-appointed vigilante action. It was a law for those enacting justice to help define justice and restrain the human tendency toward revenge.
By the time of Jesus, this law was being employed instead as an excuse to get personal pay back against those you hated. So Jesus is not speaking against the law, per se, but how it is being abused. Over against the human tendency to get revenge, Jesus commands his followers to be those who refuse retribution. He is forbidding retaliation that accelerates the pattern of violence and hate.
But this is where things can get tricky on an interpretive level. Some have taken Jesus to mean that we are not supposed to do anything in the face of evil. His statement “Do not resist an evil person,” is often taken to mean passively surrendering to evil. But in the original language and context, Jesus is more accurately saying “Don’t repay evil for evil,” or “Don’t try to get even with.” Then, with his three examples, Jesus shows how the disciple instead can take creative and surprising action against the evil doer to expose their deeds as what they are and to help bring about peace and even redemption. Jesus calls for a radical, non-violent confrontation with evil that endures suffering but for the greater purpose of exposing evil and redeeming the one who commits it. Of course, this kind of redemptive suffering is most powerfully expressed in the person of Jesus, who confronted evil and overcame it through the weakness of the cross.
As you prepare for worship this week, consider the following:
Have you heard the phrase “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” before? What have you thought about that phrase? How does this explanation make you think differently about it?
Where do you see the principle of revenge and retribution around us? In culture? Media? Politics? Church? How is Jesus calling us into something different?
Think of a time in your life when you faced something painful and your first instinct was to get revenge. Can you imagine a more creative approach that might surprise or disarm the one who hurt you?
Can you think of examples in history or literature of people who sought to follow a non-violent approach of resistance?
Matthew 5:38–42
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.