Matthew 5.38-48
2/23/2014
The
confirmation class asked me just this past Wednesday "So what are you
supposed to do if someone comes up to you in school and punches you in the
face?" I answered, "Come to church this Sunday. You just might hear what Jesus has to say
about that very question." At
least, that's how I remember it. I
apologize to our students if I misquoted them.
You see, we got into a discussion about the "Golden
Rule." You all have probably heard
it before. It's the "Do unto others
as you would have them do unto you" rule.
That's a great rule, don't you think?
Those of us who have children have probably taught it to them in one
form or another as they grow up. It
makes a lot of sense too. It helps to
teach our children to be nice to other people and respect those who are in
authority over them, but it probably does one thing above all else. It helps develop empathy as they grow and
become people in their own rights with their own personalities. When I say empathy, I mean that they are
gaining the ability to consider what it's like to be another person. This is an essential skill to
develop in our children as they grow.
Now let's
face it. Our children when they are
first born are little monsters. I love
kids, but it's true. Our children, from
when they are first born to the time they begin to be able to consider the
"other" around him or her, have a worldview so small that in many
ways they believe that they are the only thing in the universe that matters,
and that if they cry long enough and loud enough, they will get what they want
or need. This really isn't an opinion
that I have. Kids brains truly haven't
developed to the point of being able to consider the world beyond
themselves. You can see it in the way
that babies even learn to count. They
don't begin life being able to count one, two, three, four, five, six, seven,
eight, nine, ten. They literally begin
counting by observing what's around them.
And what do they see? They see
one hand, then another hand, and then everything else. So they count one, two, everything else. Again, they see the world as revolving around
themselves. But that's where teaching
the Golden Rule to our children helps them to develop an understanding of the
world around themselves.
When you
begin to think about the statement, "Do unto others as you would have them
do unto you." not only do you have to consider what you would like to
happen to yourself, but also have to take the crucial step of considering how
words or an action might be received by another person - a person whose mind
you cannot access. You have to begin to
imagine what it's like to be that person, and that right there is where we
begin to see what exactly empathy is: considering what it's like to be another
person. And this is where the words that
Jesus is speaking to the disciples and to us come into play for us this
morning. He is asking to not only consider the other person, but he
is also asking us to confront the humanity of the person before us AND take action to make them consider
our humanity as well. So, for the
confirmation students, this just might be where you might hear an answer to the
question you asked on Wednesday. The
only problem is that it might not be the answer that you or any of us would
really want to hear come from the one that we call "Lord and Savior."
"You
have heard that it was said. 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth..." For the past few weeks,
Jesus has been confronting the disciples and others gathered around him about
their preconceived notions of what it means to live a righteous life by the
laws that seem to help make the world make sense and protect what we have and
what we have gathered. In every
instance, Jesus took those laws, those sayings and made them cut even deeper into
to show us exactly how unrighteous we can be.
This week, is no different. Jesus
brings up a saying that gives people a sense of comfort that justice can be had
in their lives. He brings up the notion
of retribution as justice, and Jesus will not let this one be. He states clearly that retribution like
"an eye for an eye" is not and will not be his way in the world. O,
how we act as if this would not be true.
We want desperately to be able to hurt the ones that have hurt us. We don't want Jesus' command here to be true,
because that it completely unfair when we hurt and the other doesn't. We want them to feel what we are
feeling. We want to pervert the Golden
Rule to mean that actions that have already happened to us can and should
happen to others. But that is not what
that rule states. Even when we've been
hurt, it still calls to treat others as we want to be treated. But Jesus' reason for subverting "eye
for an eye" is for no less reason than to create a new reality within the
world where we confront our attacker with our humanity as we confront his or
her humanity.
That's what
the whole business of turn the other cheek, give your cloak, and go the extra
mile are all about in our reading for today.
Their about taking an action that confronts the person who would
subjugate us and removes the power that they would try to wield over us. We turn the other cheek not as a way to
passively accept and not escalate the situation, but instead as a way to make our
attacker see that we are human beings with the same rights as anyone else, that
if they want to keep on attacking they'll have to confront their actions. We go the extra mile, not as a weird way to
pay attention to every little detail like we so often think it must mean, but
instead it's original concept was to embarrass the Roman soldier who could
conscript anyone they pass by to carry all his gear by making him confront the
humanity of the person he has conscripted.
Perhaps
more than anything, Jesus calls us to love not just those that are easy to
love, but also those that we hate and pray for those who persecute us. We can hold onto hate so intensely in our
lives. We can make it something controls
our every actions and dominate how we live our lives. And how does Jesus end all of this? By calling us to be perfect as our heavenly
father is perfect. Oh! Is that all I have to do Jesus? I guess I'll just pack my bags and go home...
But I don't
think that this is Jesus' only point. I
do think that a part of what Jesus is doing is confronting us with the delusion
that we can make it on our own, but I think we would be remiss to not notice
how these commands become apart of how Jesus lives his life - a life that
ultimately leads to his death. Jesus
confronts evil in the world by exposing it for what it is. Jesus confronts violence in the world by
showing us that it cannot and will not have power over him. Jesus confronts hate in the world by showing
us that his love for us and the whole of creation extends beyond our ability to
fathom as he comes bringing a love that seeks to bring and give life even to
those who would be called enemies.
In Jesus'
life, teachings, and death, he shows us a way of living where the self
decreases and the other increases. He
leads a life where he is deeply concerned for how others want to be treated,
and he also shows us a beloved beautiful thing.
Jesus' life becomes the perfection that is finally, ultimately
demanded. Simply put, God will not
abandon us to the dump heap of history.
Our part, then, becomes not about how we can live out our life perfectly
enough for God, but in finding our own ways that we can decrease our demands
for ourselves and increase the life for those all around us. So what are we to do if someone comes up to
us in school and punches us in the face?
Maybe just maybe, we don't give violence for violence, but rather
confront the situation that life can not only increase for us who have been
hit, but even for the one who has attacked us so that he or she might also live
a life free from violence and hatred.
Maybe. What do you think?
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