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38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
Principle/Perversion(practice)/Perfection
Principle: Law; not vengeance.
Referenced 3 times in the law...
That's why God designed law courts and judges and rulers, and why He gave us laws like this law, which in ancient times was called lex talionis, tit for tat, which simply means equal punishment for the crime. The punishment never exceeds the crime, that's what it's saying. It is to control justice so justice is fair and equal.
22 “When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman’s husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. 23 But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, 24 eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25 burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe. 26 “When a man strikes the eye of his slave, male or female, and destroys it, he shall let the slave go free because of his eye. 27 If he knocks out the tooth of his slave, male or female, he shall let the slave go free because of his tooth.
exodus 21:22
That's why God designed law courts and judges and rulers, and why He gave us laws like this law,
which in ancient times was called lex talionis, tit for tat, which simply means equal punishment for the crime.
The punishment never exceeds the crime, that's what it's saying. It is to regulate justice so that justice is fair and equal. Our tendency otherwise? Go beyond!
Deuteronomy 19
17 “Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. 18 Whoever takes an animal’s life shall make it good, life for life. 19 If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him.
Leviticus 24:
Human relationships and law courts are two distinct categories, and there are two distinct operations within each one.
we don’t want a human relationship to act like a court. We certainly don't want eye for an eye at home; our kids get in trouble for it. “She hit me so I hit her back.” This is not about an offense… but about an issue of law (not injured pride).
What if we did it like this this: your neighbor borrows something of yours and breaks it, so you go over, look around in the garage, and say, "Okay, what do you want me to break?" We don't operate relationships like that; our relationship focus is love and forgiveness and reconciliation… because that’s God’s relationship with us...
But nor do we want a human relationship to act like a court. We certainly don't want eye for an eye at home; our kids get in trouble for it. “She hit me so I hit her back.”
a person commits a crime; we don't want the court to say, "Oh, I'm so sorry that you did this, and I want to be gracious and merciful. You're forgiven; forget it. Just go out and remember that if you do it again, we'll forgive you again. If you do it again, we'll forgive you again, seventy times seven. We'll just keep forgiving you."
What if we did it like this this: your neighbor borrows something of yours and breaks it, so you go over, look around in the garage, and say, "Okay, what do you want me to break?" We don't operate relationships like that; our relationship focus is love and forgiveness and reconciliation… because that’s God’s relationship with us...
witnesses (perjury) “eye shall not pity”
18 The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely, 19 then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst. 20 And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. 21 Your eye shall not pity. It shall be life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.
imagine if a court acted as human relationships act; So ...
What if we did it like this this: your neighbor borrows something of yours and breaks it, so you go over, look around in the garage, and say, "Okay, what do you want me to break?" We don't operate relationships like that; our relationship focus is love and forgiveness and reconciliation… because that’s God’s relationship with us...
a person commits a crime - breaks the law);
we don't want the court to say, "Oh, I'm so sorry that you did this, and I want to be gracious and merciful. You're forgiven; forget it. Just go out and don’t do it again, but remember that if you do it again, we'll forgive you again. If you do it again, we'll forgive you again, seventy times seven. We'll just keep forgiving you."
This simple law, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth," is the foundational principle of all human justice.
All human justice is based on the fact that the punishment must never exceed the crime; reciprocal or less.
It is a law given by God to restrain vengeance: to take vengeance out of human relationships and put it instead within legally constituted authority so that it can be dealt with properly.
imagine if a court acted as human relationships act; and if human relationships acted act like a court of law. So ... a person commits a crime, we don't want the court to say, "Oh, I'm so sorry that you did this, and I want to be gracious and merciful. You're forgiven; forget it. Just go out and remember that if you do it again, we'll forgive you again. If you do it again, we'll forgive you again, seventy times seven. We'll just keep forgiving you."
But nor do we want a human relationship to act like a court. We certainly don't want eye for an eye at home; our kids get in trouble for it. “She hit me so I hit her back.”
What if we did it like this this: your neighbor borrows something of yours and breaks it, so you go over, look around in the garage, and say, "Okay, what do you want me to break?" We don't operate relationships like that; our relationship focus is love and forgiveness and reconciliation… because that’s God’s relationship with us...
But nor do we want a human relationship to act like a court. No, we don't want lex talionis at home. If someone wrongs you, if your neighbor borrows something of yours and breaks it, you don't go over and say, "So what do you want me to break?" We don't operate relationships like that; our relationship focus is love and forgiveness and reconciliation...
not easy!
In , Paul has been made a prisoner and is being held by the Romans in Jerusalem, but the Romans have no idea why. All they know is that the Jews want him held. Of course, the Jews are very angry with Paul because of his message about Christ. It is a very disconcerting thing to have someone going all over your city preaching that the person you crucified is none other than your Messiah, and that there is a new day, and the dawning of a new era, the church age. So they are livid about Paul, and they have managed to have him incarcerated. This particular captain of the Roman army, wanting to do his duty rightfully according to Roman justice, knows that he cannot keep a prisoner without a charge. So he seeks to find some kind of indictment against Paul to justify his incarceration.
30 But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them.
1 And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” 2 And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?” 4 Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God’s high priest?” 5 And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’ ”
28 “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
19 The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. 20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. 21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said.”
22 When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong; but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?”
What a different spirit. It's completely different. He said, "If I have done evil, and I deserve this, then tell me. But if I have not done evil, why did you do that?" You know what he was doing? He was forcing the man to think of his deeds before he did them. He wasn't thinking of Himself. He was saying, in effect, "You want to be sure that you have reason to do what you do and that it is valid." There is no retaliation.
When Jesus was reviled, Peter said, "When He was reviled, He reviled not again." He never reacted that way;Paul and Jesus are different. Jesus didn't sin, Paul did. What about you and me? How do we react to those kinds of situations? Are we like Jesus? Do we say, "You should think about those things before you do them. If I deserve them, fine. If not, why did you do that?" Or do we lash back?
Retaliation; getting even; sooth the anger within.
Jewish Perversion:
Where the Jews missed the point was that they took EforE out of the courts of law and put it in their personal lives, so this was the way they operated in their relationships - with vendettas, vindications, revenges, and vengeance. That's not the way God intended it. They had taken this and turned it into a cherished spirit of vengeance, an eye for and eye and tooth for a tooth. That was their mentality.
Here’s Jesus’ clarification for them:
“do not resist”
39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
Meaning? However:
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
11 But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
15 “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. 16 But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.
Jesus resists evil:
13 The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers sitting there. 15 And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen. And he poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
Matthew 18:15
So, now: what’s the meaning then?
39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
7 if service, in our serving; the one who teaches, in his teaching;
17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
This is about Vengeance against someone who has wronged you.
17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. 19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” 20 To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
romans 12:17-
18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Right cheek? Humiliation. Degrading.
Right cheek?
The Jews said that the most demeaning, contemptuous act was to slap someone in the face. To have a fight was to treat someone as an equal, but to just slap them was demeaning.
Even more so is to slap you with the back of his hand. Epitetus, a Roman slave, wrote, "A slave would rather be thrashed with a whip than slapped with the back of his master's hand." It was just demeaning. It's most interesting to look at verse 39, "Whosoever smites you on the right cheek," why did he use that? Because a right hand will always smack someone on the right cheek, if it is the back of the hand.
Declaration of independence.
romans 17:18
Rights: Dignity
39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
The right cheek being slapped would mean he was being hit like that, granted that most people are right-handed. In other words, when your dignity is taken away, when you are disdained, when you are dishonored, when you are demeaned, when you are arrogantly humiliated, let them do it again before you ever retaliate.
That's what it means. It doesn't mean just turn the other cheek. If that's all it meant, then just wait for two slaps, and take care of business. That's not the idea. What’s important is the spirit of non-retaliating, non-vengefulness, and forgiveness; and you don't have enough cheeks to carry on the illustration. The point He's making is this: when you are demeaned, dishonored, and your dignity is treampled, don't retaliate. Let it happen again.
Rights: Security
40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
What is He saying here? I believe the idea here is not to just hang around when people sue you. If people found out that Christians believe this wrongly, they'd start suing us all over the place and take everything we have. We'd say, "Well, take it. If you like my house, here's my car. Take anything." That isn't the idea; the idea is that there is apparently some justification for this person's suit. He is suing you for your coat.
the undergarment, It was like a shirt, only it was full-length; they didn't wear trousers as men do today. Women and men wore a long undergarment. Maybe a poor man would only have three or four of those, some people only had one.What the idea is here is that you've done something and you're being sued in court.
There is a place for that; the courts have to decide certain disputes. So what happens is that you don't have anything to pay except that thing that you're wearing. I mean, you're down to nothing. He's going to get the shirt off of your back. When he gets your shirt, just to show how big and full your heart is, and just to show how sorry you are that you ever did anything to cause him trouble, give him your cloak/coat too.
26 If ever you take your neighbor’s cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, 27 for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.
exodus
Rights: Liberty
41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
But there was apparently a little rule that they had, at least in Jesus' time, and that was this, which apparently happened quite often: when a Roman soldier asked a citizen to carry his pack, he could never ask any one citizen to carry it more than one mile or the equivalent. So what Jesus is saying is, "When someone infringes on your liberty, and says, 'Will you carry my pack one mile?' and he happens to be a hated Roman and you're a Jew, and he happens to be going somewhere you couldn't care less about, the opposite direction for you, and you're literally carrying the weapons of warfare against your people, and this is your avowed enemy and he asks you to go one mile, go two." This is what Jesus is saying.
Rights: Property.
42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
The final illustration is property. The last thing we hang on to is what we own, right?
7 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, 8 but you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.
deut 15
7 “If among you, one of your brothers should become poor, in any of your towns within your land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother,
Ramsey.
Jesus isn't prohibiting justice; justice belongs in the courts. But in human relationships, He wants us to be forgiving and loving. If our rights are stolen, the right of dignity, or security, or liberty, or property, we don't retaliate. We just commit it all to the Lord and act in love.
That's really the key. It's a biblical spirit, isn't it
It's a spirit of Abraham, who rushed to rescue Lot who had so cheated him.
It's the spirit of Joseph, who generously forgave his brothers and tearfully loved them - brothers who had sold him to slavery.
It's the spirit of David who, after being chased all over by an angry, evil Saul, to slaughter him, spared his life on two occasions.
It's the spirit of Stephen… he was lying there crushed beneath the bloody stones, and he asks that the sin of stoning him not be charged to those who did it.
It’s the spirit of Paul, who, after his conversion, writes of love and forgiveness in Romans and Corinthians.
And It's the spirit of Jesus, who said, "Father, forgive them."
may we never retaliate with less than love.
May the beauty of Jesus always be seen in us.
30 But on the next day, desiring to know the real reason why he was being accused by the Jews, he unbound him and commanded the chief priests and all the council to meet, and he brought Paul down and set him before them.
1 And looking intently at the council, Paul said, “Brothers, I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” 2 And the high priest Ananias commanded those who stood by him to strike him on the mouth. 3 Then Paul said to him, “God is going to strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting to judge me according to the law, and yet contrary to the law you order me to be struck?” 4 Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God’s high priest?” 5 And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’ ”
Acts 23:1
28 “You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
19 The high priest then questioned Jesus about his disciples and his teaching. 20 Jesus answered him, “I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in synagogues and in the temple, where all Jews come together. I have said nothing in secret. 21 Why do you ask me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them; they know what I said.”
John 18:19
22 When he had said these things, one of the officers standing by struck Jesus with his hand, saying, “Is that how you answer the high priest?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If what I said is wrong, bear witness about the wrong; but if what I said is right, why do you strike me?”
What a different spirit. It's completely different. He said, "If I have done evil, and I deserve this, then tell me. But if I have not done evil, why did you do that?" You know what he was doing? He was forcing the man to think of his deeds before he did them. He wasn't thinking of Himself. He was saying, in effect, "You want to be sure that you have reason to do what you do and that it is valid." There is no retaliation.
When Jesus was reviled, Peter said, "When He was reviled, He reviled not again." He never reacted that way;Paul and Jesus are different. Jesus didn't sin, Paul did. What about you and me? How do we react to those kinds of situations? Are we like Jesus? Do we say, "You should think about those things before you do them. If I deserve them, fine. If not, why did you do that?" Or do we lash back?
Retaliation; getting even; sooth the anger within.
40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
Matthew 5:4
Matthew 5
41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.