Matthew 5;38-endSt. Barts 2020

I went to boarding school.

Most people had politics summer to the right of Genghis Khan.

Hang em, flog em, that kind of thing...

That’s the kind of environment I was brought up in.

Whenever there is report about some murder or something.

They quote from the old testament.

An eye for an eye… that’s what I say!!!

It can sound very convincing…

Trouble is, things are a bit more complicated than that.

Especially if you take it literally.

There are two problems with taking it too literally today.

Firstly, if we do... it is not as ‘just’ as it sounds.

Let’s just take ‘an eye for an eye’.

Losing an eye is significant harder for a one eyed man than for a two eyed man.

In fact, From the earliest times they did not actually take eyes etc. 

Instead they took the equivalent in money.

If you took someone’s eye you paid them the value of an eye.

You might call it 10^th century BC compensation culture. 

They could not even blame America.

If we take it too literally, an eye for an eye etc is maybe not as just as it appears.

The second problem with getting too literal is that we are reading it out of context.

Today it seems horribly barbaric.

All that taking of eyes and teeth does not fit well with us.

It makes the Bible sound brutal and harsh.

That is a misunderstanding.

It was written 3000 years ago and things were different then.

Before this commandment when people were aggrieved they sought justice in much harsher ways.

If you hurt someone they might do something really over the top or even kill you.

The purpose of ‘an eye for an eye etc. was to restrict revenge.

If someone took your eye, you could only take their eye.

That is all you could take.

You were not allowed to go further.

In other words, what sounds really barbaric to us was actually one of the first ways of limiting barbarism. 

Instead of arguing for revenge, the Bible is restricting revenge.

Perhaps the old testament is more civilised than some had thought….

Anyway, fast forward a thousand years to Jesus.

He knew that the saying was to restrict revenge.

But he goes even further.

You have heard it said and eye for an eye etc.

From now on if someone strikes you and the right cheek, show them the left one too.

If someone takes your shirt, give them your jacket as well.

Time for a little honest talk.

This is really hard.

I cannot say I have ever met anyone who really does this.

I find preaching about it makes me feel rather inadequate. 

But what does it mean?

Two things to say straight away.

As I understand it, Jesus said this with individuals in mind.

He was not talking about the legal system.

Jesus isn’t saying that people should not be punished by the state if they break the law.

He is not saying there should not be armies or police.

As the BCP puts it ‘for the punishment of wickedness and vice and for the maintenance of true religion and virtue.’

Jesus is not talking about the state.

Instead he is talking about us as individuals when other people mistreat us.

Having said that, it is still extremely difficult to do.

Secondly, he is talking about an insult rather than physical assault.

Nonetheless, it is hardly any easier.

If someone insults us once we are supposed to let them do it again.

If we are press ganged to walk one mile we are supposed to go two.

If someone takes one thing from us we are supposed to let them have another.

I don’t know about you but I find this almost frightening.

So what does it mean?

Really hard.

Let me give some advice...

Well I think the key comes in the last verse.

Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.

Now, we might not be perfect but God in Jesus has been perfect for us.

We might find these verses hard to do but God in Jesus has done it.

And has done it for us…

We might find insults hard to bear but Jesus took all the insults they could throw at him.

And still said Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.

God does not just go the second mile for us. 

He gave us more than his last rolo, a box of chocolates or a bunch of flowers.

He gave us his only son.

Some people are easy to love, some are harder.

God loves everyone, both the bad and the good ones

Some bits of people are easy to love, some not so easy.

Some bits of us are easy to love, some not so easy.

God loves all of us, even the bits we are ashamed of.

If we can take on board that God loves us this much.

Perhaps we can tentatively try to love others the same.