The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

 

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

 

Heart Transformation for Love, Part One – Responding Not in Kind:  Mt.5:38 – 39

 

5:38 You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, do not resist an evil person… 

 

Eric* thought he had the right to defend himself at all costs.  In his opinion, his ex-girlfriend was acting crazy.  Sure, they had had a difficult breakup.  But it was bound to be hard because they were part of the same group of friends.  A combination of her personal brokenness and his clinginess made the situation bad.  She had gotten a police restraining order on him!  Now he couldn’t even be at the same dorm parties as she was.  Over time, Eric did see more clearly how he had contributed to the situation, or not seen things in her.  Eventually, Eric felt Jesus was fundamentally asking him to give up the right to defend himself on the same level as her attack.  He respected her wish for distance.  He stopped speaking badly about her to others.  When he heard about her slamming him, he just shrugged.  Occasionally he explained his side to people if they seemed like they were really interested in him as a person.  What began to matter to him was the possibility that she might one day come to Jesus; he wanted to be sincerely glad for that if she ever went that route.  Knowing he wouldn’t be the friend to help with that, Eric felt content praying for her.

Here’s a similar situation:  At first, Susan* thought she had the right to cut off the friendship.  She had been the secretary for her college sorority.  The treasurer had made a verbal slip; she disclosed that she was stashing a little extra from each sorority event.  She ignored Susan’s request to stop and come clean.  Since Susan felt like they held a public responsibility of trust, she had gone ahead and told the other officers in the sorority (the right thing to do, in my opinion).  The treasurer was confronted and eventually asked to step down.  Most of the other women were quite angry.  The other sorority officers maintained a cold formality towards the ex-treasurer, as they felt they had the right to basically cut off their friendship without saying that they were doing so.  But Susan allowed Jesus to shape her response; she gave up her right to just ostracize her.  Every few weeks, Susan met her for coffee.  Their friendship continued.

But what does it mean to ‘not resist an evil person’?  In what sense?  Are we to be passive bystanders to other people committing evil, either against us or others?  No!  Let me make some preliminary comments as we look at this section in the next few reflections.  Before we interpret this to the extreme of being a doormat, or passively letting others commit evil (e.g. sexual harassment, taking our belongings, etc.), let’s see what Jesus is actually saying. 

In this passage, Jesus contrasts not resisting an evil person with the Old Testament law of lex talionis, an eye for an eye. This appears in three places in the Torah as an outer limit of proportionality for what a victim can request as a compensation for harm (Ex.21:22 – 23; Lev.24:19 – 20; Dt.19:21). Exodus 21 sets the tone for the other two occasions. "An eye for an eye" is not referring to retributive justice, of inflicting the same harm on another for what they've done to you.  Notice the context.  Exodus 21:18 - 19 is the first case of physical harm, and the offender has to give financial compensation, and "shall take care of him until he is completely healed."  Exodus 21:28 - 36 gives another case of physical harm, and once again the offender has to give financial compensation to the victim or victim's family.  So the context of Exodus 21 makes clear that the Jewish law is about restorative justice.  "An eye for an eye" means that if I damage your eye, I become your second eye.  Ancient Jewish rabbis and scholars made a joke, in fact:  If a blind man injured the eye of another man, you can't blind an already blind man!  So this principle of "an eye for an eye" cannot be about retributive justice, the inflicting of equivalent harm. It is restorative justice, allowing the victim to request a proportional compensation for healing or lost time, lost productivity, etc.

By going deeper than this principle as stated in the Jewish law (which is the pattern in each of the six cases of Matthew 5:21ff.), Jesus is reshaping what it means to be God’s people. We are not to do the same thing to someone else, i.e. to inflict the same injury on them which they did to us. That is already taught in Jewish law. Also, Jesus had already taught about anger and reconciliation (Mt.5:21 – 26). So, we are supposed to approach someone if they have hurt us, to try to work out what reconciliation would mean. Later, Jesus will teach about confronting a Christian person who sins (Mt.18:15 – 17). In the church, there are appropriate measures to take to get recourse, be heard, make a case, etc. If there are appropriate measures outside the church, i.e. with the appropriate legal authorities, those measures can be considered, too, though with caution and reluctance (e.g. 1 Cor.6:1 – 8). What Jesus says below will have a bearing on how we do that. In each case, Jesus calls us into a more creative response involving his love.