An Eye For An Eye

Well, let me begin this morning with a question. When you hear the phrase, and I for an I and a tooth for a tooth,
what's the first thing that comes to mind? Well, likely the first thing that comes to mind is what we can call the law of retribution.
That is to say, getting even. You heard me, I heard you. You take from me, I take from you. You insult me, I insult you in return.
An I for an I and a tooth for a tooth. And that certainly is how the Pharisees understood this passage from the Old Testament.
They were convinced that God in this Old Testament injunction not only made allowances for getting even, but that in fact he was commanding us to get even an I for an I and a tooth for a tooth.
And as is so often the case, they were, however, sadly wrong in their understanding and their interpretation of this Old Testament passage.
And they were wrong for two reasons. First of all, the passage is addressed corporately and not individually.
Now, if you really know your Bible as well, you will know that the phrase and I for an I and a tooth for a tooth and all the other components that were part of it a life for a life and a hand for a hand and a foot for a foot and all that sort of thing.
Now, that occurs three times in the Old Testament. It occurs in Exodus chapter 21, it occurs in Leviticus chapter 24, and it occurs in Deuteronomy chapter 19.
And in each instance, it is not directed at individuals, but rather it is part of Israel's legal code.
Exodus 21, one begins with these words, these are the laws that you are to set before the people of Israel.
It is part of Israel's legal code because for Israel as well as for any nation to observe law and order, God has instituted the power of government.
The power of government involves the legislative branch, the setting of laws that dictate behavior.
It includes the judicial branch, judges who decide whether you're breaking that law or not, and also an area of law enforcement.
It's the way God has chosen since the days of Noah to rule the world. For people to live together in harmony, evil has to be restrained, righteousness has to be encouraged, and God's way of doing that among the nations of the world is by establishing governmental authority.
So when God in the Old Testament says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, he's not talking about personal moral behavior.
Now, he is saying this is the law that is going to keep the nation from bogging down into chaos, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
The Pharisees made the mistake of taking that which was corporate and applying it to themselves.
That was their first mistake. Their second mistake was in that understanding that one of the purposes of this legislation was to uphold justice, that is to say to make sure that justice was done.
Now listen to me really carefully because the temptation when you read these phrases is to say you get as good as you give an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That's the part the Pharisees picked up on.
And it is true that governmental authority in the exercise of justice is called upon to punish evil in correct proportion, eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth so that people will stand in fear, not give in to their darker impulses and law and order may remain in a community or in a society.
But now again listen very carefully there is another side to the question of justice and there is another side to tooth for a tooth and eye for eye.
And here is what it is that it is critical to understanding the passage and why Jesus does what he does with it.
Eye for eye and tooth for tooth also tells us that the punishment ought not to exceed the crime because of course that's the tendency of human nature.
You hit me, I hit you back harder, you hit me back harder, I hit you back harder. And before you know it our relationship spirals into an ever deepening spiral of tit for tat.
And the Old Testament legislation was a legislation that applied to everybody rich and poor, slave and free, everybody got treated equally.
Were you punished for your crime? Yes. But you were punished for your crime in proportion to the crime that you committed.
Not like in the days of Victorian England where if you were a poor beggar and you stole somebody's loaf of bread they would hang you for stealing that loaf of bread, a punishment out of proportion to the crime that you had committed.
Very important to understand and an important area where the Pharisees missed the heart and the intent of Old Testament legislation.
It was never God's idea in this Old Testament legislation to enable us to carry on vigilante justice. No where in scripture. Do you ever find God authorizing an individual to take matters of justice into his own hands because that produces a destruction of the human fabric.
David after he was anointed king of a Israel and God was raising him up on the throne of Israel didn't dare reach out his hand to the Lord's anointed but rather waited out his time for God to exercise judgment, a legitimate lay.
The Pharisees were wrong and Jesus comes along in this passage then as he does so often and he not only corrects their misunderstanding and their misinterpretation he takes us back to the heart of the matter.
That's why he says you have heard that it was said I for I and tooth for tooth but I tell you do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek to her to him the other also and if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak as well.
He forces you to go one mile go with him two miles give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
I remember I said a few moments ago this is one of the most controversial passages in all of scripture and one of the most misapplied and misinterpreted passages of scripture.
He used to justify anything from pacifism to anarchy and everything in between a pacifist is a person who believes that it is always wrong to use violence to resist evil.
I remember James Loney the Christian peacemaker teams activist who sometime back had been kidnapped by the rebels in Iraq and was eventually released.
He was in the news a little while ago don't know if you heard the story but absolutely refuses to go to court and testify at the trial of these kidnappers and he gives about two reasons for that one is that he doesn't believe the Iraqi justice system is very transparent.
But mostly because he knows these men if they are convicted will almost certainly get the death penalty because they killed you will recall one of the people that they had captured.
And he doesn't believe the death penalty or ever to be applied he is a pacifist through and through based in part on his reading and his understanding of this particular passage and we can respect his position we can respect the position of many other people who are pacifists.
But you will notice in life that like most things it's extremely difficult to maintain that position consistently when life and liberty are threatened and we'll talk more about that in a little bit.
Now an anarchist and anarchist is a person who rejects the rule of law what who doesn't believe in governmental authority.
And if you're familiar at all with the famous Russian writer Leild Tallstoy you may recall or know that he is categorized listen to this as a pacifist Christian anarchist now that's quite a mouthful.
He's pacifist in the sense that like Lonnie he doesn't believe in the violent resistance of against evil and the violence is the important thing to catch up or pick up on there.
And he is an anarchist and a Christian anarchist because he doesn't believe that we ought to have any government except the direct government of Goa.
And so he rejects having soldiers, he rejects having the judiciary, police and all that sort of thing.
And again based in part on a reading of this passage where Jesus says I tell you do not resist an evil person.
And again we need to be respectful of other people's positions because many people pay a high price to walk this out with a degree of integrity.
But that doesn't mean we have to agree with our interpretation of the scriptural passage.
They make in some ways the same mistake the Pharisees and the teachers of the law made when they looked at this particular passage because this passage does not talk about a judicial response to evil.
It doesn't address the issue on a corporate level as to whether a nation ought to have soldiers take up arms or whether there ought to be legislation against people who are evil.
The emphasis is on this personal human tendency that we all have that when we are wronged we want to fight back and we want to hide under an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth as the Pharisees did.
And Jesus comes to you and to me and he says listen if you're going to be a follower of mine then when you are confronted by injustice and violence in your personal life he says I want you to learn to develop my mindset instead of fighting back with everything that is within you.
I want you to learn to so die to yourself that you can trust your father in heaven to look after you.
Paul later on put it this way and that famous passage in Philippians chapter two he says your attitude should be the same as out of Christ Jesus.
Who being in the very nature God did not consider equality with God a thing to be taken by force but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness and being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death even death on a cross.
Let me pause here for a moment and just double check with you to see if you're if you're tracking with me this is very critical at the risk of sounding repetitious.
This is not about law and order this is not about do you join the military or can you become a policeman this is not even about if a robber comes into your house.
Are you just going to let him do whatever you want to do again we'll talk a little bit more about that as time goes on now this is about this human instinct.
You hit me I hit you and I'm going to hit you harder than you hit me until we see who's the boss and Jesus says I want you to be like me.
I want you to learn not to resist evil not to give into that impulse but to to model my character and my likeness.
Now just to make sure that we understand what it is that he's trying to communicate Jesus now goes on and he gives us four practical examples of what this looks like in the real world.
And the first example that he gives us is that example of turning the other cheek he says someone strikes you on the right cheek turn to him the other also and this is one of these phrases that you know every pagan in North America knows it's right up there with judge not less you be judged turn the other cheek and we all go aha in the world is going to do that but now listen carefully.
Most people are right handed and if somebody who is right handed strikes you on the cheek what cheek are they going to hear not your right cheek but your left cheek.
You say what's the significance of that well I'll tell you what the significance of that is if a right handed man or woman is going to slap you on your right cheek they either have to go through this kind of contortion or more likely they are back handing you like this.
Now a back hander does two things number one it hurts more because now you're getting hit with the knuckle and it carries an additional element of insult because it's dismissive any slapping in the face is an insulting experience.
But to be walloped like this is even more dismissive than being walloped like this and just as an offside it's for that reason that I recommend parents never to slap their children in their face because slapping always contains an element of humiliation and insult if your child needs discipline then do it properly in the place that the Lord has designed.
For some good experience of discipline now this business of being hit on the cheek refers to personal injury and insult not only of a physical nature but also of an emotional nature and what is your natural reaction when somebody hurts you like that.
And it doesn't even have to be a slap in the face it can just be you know a slight in passing it can be a critical voice it can be a place where well you know what happens.
Our sinful self rises up experiences pain and nobody needs to teach you and me to become angry and a want to fight backs and that you're and whether or not we actually take and have the courage to step into that and to get even or whether we just suffer in silence or whether we ever have the opportunity to step into it and get even.
Our hearts do a slow bird and that kind of resentment that kind of anger that kind of you know I want to get even with you that can linger in our hearts for a long long period of time because it offends our sense of justice.
We have been wronged and hell hath no fury like people that have been wronged.
Now here's what Jesus says when somebody hits you on the right cheek turn to him the other role saw that is to say on the one hand he says I want you to get rid of of this whole notion that you're the most important person in the universe and that you have a right to feel the way that you're feeling.
I want you to so learn to die to yourself and to be alive in Christ that how you live your life in relationship with other people is not determined by am I going to be kept safe and feel good in the midst of this if need be in obedience to God I will step out and experience suffering and pain if need be for the glory of God.
Because you see that's what Jesus did he didn't fight back when it came to personal injury or to personal insult.
And yet can all understand how much we need Jesus and how much we need to power the Holy Spirit to transform our hearts if you consider just how easily we get our dander up and how we want it our own way.
Now does that mean you just let anybody beat you up that wants to beat you up does that mean of a robber comes into your house and they want to take everything that you've got.
You just stand by and sing glory hallelujah songs well no obviously not and if not today that at some other point Lord willing we'll look at the practical out workings of that this is nothing to do with law and order.
This is nothing to do with restraining evil in society this has everything to do with my heart and my attitude what I'm personally being mistreated are you with me in this very important understand because we're called to be the followers of Jesus.
And this is how he lived even those will see later on he was not a pacifist he took on evil and was not afraid to judge it or to condemn it.
All right is if that's not clear enough he now goes on to give us a second illustration and he says if somebody wants to take your tunic by suing you then let him have your cloak as well now a tunic is like an undergarment it's like like a shirt and your cloak of course is your your coat.
And under Old Testament law you could sue somebody for the tunic presumably because they had more of them but you could never sue them for their overcoat you could take their overcoat as as surety or a guarantee a pledge for what they owed you but only for one day.
And you had a retarded by nightfall you know why because that might be the only blanket that he would have for that night and so you were not allowed to take it from him.
And so this issue that Jesus is raising here about suing for a tunic and giving him your coat not only deals with our attitude towards possessions but more especially our attitude towards security.
And again what happens when somebody threatens your security or my security well in Adam outside of the grace of God we immediately become protective we live in a world where we know that our security lies in in getting the things in life we need that make us safe and secure and then by trying to hold on to them as best as we can.
And when somebody comes along and he threatens that security takes away my financial stability takes away my shelter takes away my you know the fortress within which I hide and where I find my stability.
Well then number one our anxiety goes through the roof and number two we try to desperately hold on to what we have and we will scrap and fight to keep somebody from taking from us what it is that we have.
And Jesus says if you're going to be one of my people if you believe in a father in heaven who looks after the birds of the air and the lilies of the field then you begin to understand that your security in life does not come from all the things in which we hide and on which we lean.
The security of life he says comes from your father who is in heaven who is promised to look after you and to provide all of your needs and so instead of having this grabbing clutching response and attitude he says you can let it go why because you know that your father in heaven is going to look after you better than you can look after yourself.
Again does that mean injustices don't matter does that mean we just let anybody clean us out no that's not the issue the issue is what is happening in my heart am I anxious am I clinging am I hanging
in there for all that it's worth or do I have the attitude of Jesus who emptied himself knowing that our exaltation comes from God the father you see why Jesus doesn't have a lot of followers.
You see why living the Christian life according to the servant amount really takes the power of God's Holy Spirit because it runs contrary to every inkling every tendency every impulse of the human heart.
Well Jesus is concerned that we don't get it so he gives us still a third example and that is the example of going the extra mile.
He says if someone forces you to go one mile go with him two miles and this deals with our attitude towards legislation particularly when it's unfavorable.
The phrase extra mile comes from a provision under the Roman rule that if a group of Roman soldiers had a load that needed to be carried and they didn't want to carry it themselves they could take anybody they ran across in the population and forced them to carry the load.
But they could only carry it one mile because remember the Romans were sticklers for law and order and they to keep that law from being abused it was limited to going that one mile.
And the primary biblical example of somebody being forced to carry a load is who Simon of serenity when Jesus was on the way to Golgotha and he could no longer carry the cross and Simon was there watching this take place and so they picked him out of the crowd and they made him carry the cross that's the legislation that's being talked about here.
Now you can imagine that was pretty unpopular and you can well imagine you're you know busy with your daily activities and along comes this Roman soldier and he doesn't just say well you know please can you help me and I'll pay you double time.
Now it's like you get over here drop what you're doing carry my load and carry it all the way for that mile.
Now if you ever been in a situation where somebody tried to tell you what to do when you were doing something else and you didn't like it what happens inside well I don't need to spell it out do I.
You don't exactly sit there going glory hallelujah Lord God Almighty I thank you for this opportunity to serve my hated conquerors.
Would you? No I think you'd rather sit there and you say go to you know where and if you had no way out which probably you wouldn't if you didn't want to lose your head you'd carry that load saying some pretty nasty things in your head.
And when you came to that mile marker you knew your mile was up and you would drop the load spit on the ground and high tail it out of there because you knew you had done your distasteful due.
Now that's natural and Jesus he comes along and he says well you know anybody can live that way but he says if you're going to be my disciple you know what I want you to do I want you to go the extra mile.
Not only do I not want you to grumble that mile that you have to serve but I want you to have an entirely different attitude towards injustice an entirely different attitude towards how you're being treated.
Why that testimony it would be to the Romans if a Jew would do that load cheerfully and what a testimony it would be to the world today. If you and I instead of being all bent out of shape because things aren't going our way we would go the extra mile.
The kid who says I'll not only do your dishes mom I'll clean the floor hook that would be a miracle now isn't that.
Or the husband who says I'll not only cook the meal today but why don't you take the rest of the week off and I look after the kids.
That also would be a miracle now and you can multiply example upon example and you begin to get the drift of what Jesus is getting at.
So he says turn the other cheek let them take your cloak go the extra mile and then he says in connection with the lending of money.
Here's how he puts it give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from here and this of course deals with our sense of ownership.
It more specifically deals with our financial stability and then does the tunic and the cloak although there is some overlap in these two areas.
What happens when you and I are confronted by somebody in need well you know if we feel generous and if we have enough then maybe we'll give a little bit.
Particularly if it makes us feel good about ourselves but if it threatens our own security threatens our own stability then our sense of self justification.
Our sense of this is mine I worked for this you don't have a right to this it all kicks in and it dictates to us what we do and not the will of God as revealed in Scripture and worked out through us by the Holy Spirit.
Now again does that mean we just indiscriminately squander our resources give literally to everybody who begs from us or who is in need that's not the issue.
And again we'll come back to that Lord willing at a later date the real issue is my attitude of possessiveness my attitude that says this is my security this is what I worked for this is what is mine.
And I can do with it what I want to do and Jesus says to you and to me you want to belong to me you want to demonstrate faith in a living God who has promised to meet all the needs of his children according to the riches of his glory and Christ Jesus.
And he says you learn to die to this sense of ownership this sense of my own well being is my primary agenda now then you begin to understand that everything that we have is a trust given to us by God that he wants us to be good stewards of for his glory and he wants us to use it in faith to honor him.
And to meet the needs of others and to just illustrate this I want to come back one more time to the story of Hudson Taylor talked about Hudson Taylor you will call last week converted in England the middle of the last century soon upon his conversion felt called to go to the mission field in China.
And as a young man as he was preparing to go to the mission field he was going through the disciplines that he needed to go through to live in a strange country among a foreign people without any visible means of support and so he was not only learning the medical arts and and learning to do with as little as he could but he was also learning to walk by faith and trusting that God would meet his need.
And so he tells the story very soon upon his Christian conversion that became pivotal in his life to learn to trust God for all of his needs.
He met a man one Sunday night as he was engaged in ministry who asked him to come see his sick and dying wife because they were poverty stricken and here is how Hudson Taylor tells it in his own words.
Up a miserable flight of stairs into a wretched room he lit me and all what a sight there presented itself to our eyes four or five poor children stood about their sunken cheeks and temples all telling unmistakably the story of slow starvation and lying on a wretched pallet a poor exhausted mother with a tiny infant 36 hours old moaning rather than crying at her side.
Oh thought I if I had two shillings in his six pence instead of half a crown which is all the possession that he had left.
How gladly should they have one and six pence of it or half of it but still a wretched unbelief prevented me from obeying the impulse to relieve their distress at the cost of all I possessed.
It will scarcely seem strange that I was unable to say much to comfort these people I needed comfort myself.
I began to tell them however that they must not be cast down that though their circumstances were very distressing there was a kind and loving father in heaven but something within me said you hypocrite telling these unconverted people about a kind and loving father in heaven and not prepared yourself to trust him with half a crown.
I was nearly choked to talk was impossible under these circumstances yet strange to say I thought I should have no difficulty in praying.
You asked me to come and pray with your wife I said to the man let us pray and I knelt down but scarcely had I opened my lips with our father who art in heaven.
Then conscience said within there you mock God there you kneel down and call him father with that half crown in your pocket.
And such a time of conflict came upon me then as I have never experienced before or since how I got through that form of prayer I know not but I rose from my knees in great distress of mind.
The poor father turned to me and said you see what a terrible state we're in sir if you can help us for God's sake do it just then the words flashed into my mind give to him that asks of you.
And in the word of a king there is power I put my hand into my pocket and slowly drawing forth the half crown give it to the man.
To joy all came back in full flood tide to my heart I could say anything and feel it then in the hindrance to blessing was gone gone I trust forever he goes on to say not only was the poor woman's life saved but I realized that my life was saved too.
It might have been a wreck would have been a wreck probably as a Christian life had not grace at that time conquered in the strivings of God's spirit been obeyed.
I will remember how that night as I went home to my lodging my heart was as light as my pocket the lonely deserted streets resulted with a hymn of praise which I could not restrain when I took my basin of porridge before retiring I would not have exchanged it for a princess feast.
I reminded the Lord as I knelted my bedside of his own word that he who gives to the poor lens to the Lord I asked him not to let my loan be a long one I like that or I should have no dinner the next day and with peace within and peace without I spend a happy and restful night.
The story goes on to say that the next morning's meal brought him a gift four times as great as he had given to the poor family and Hudson Taylor goes on to say I then end their determined that a bank which could not break should have my savings or earnings as the case might be.
A determination I have not yet learned to regret if we're faithful to God and little things we shall gain experience and strength that will be helpful to us in the more serious trials of life.
It was that experience coupled with a number of other similar experiences that established in his mindset the determination to trust God for all that he would need on the four admission field and I said last week by the time he died some 51 years later
800 in some missionaries were laboring in China over 200 preaching stations were established and hundreds of thousands of converts had come to faith in Jesus all because he had learned to turn the other cheek to let people take his cloak to go the extra mile and to give to those who needed it more than he did.
[Music]
More I come to you than my heart be shaved, renew, flowing from the grace that I found in you.
[Music]
More I come to you than my heart be shaved, renew, flowing from the grace that I found in you.
More I come to you than my heart be shaved, renew, flowing from the grace that I found in you.
[Music]
More I come to you than my heart be shaved, renew, flowing from the grace that I found in you.
[Music]
More I come to you than my heart be shaved, renew, flowing from the grace that I found in you.
More I come to you than my heart be shaved, renew, flowing from the grace that I found in you.
More I come to you than my heart be shaved, renew, flowing from the grace that I found in you.