Matthew 5:38-48
"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
We are coming to the end of Epiphany season for this year. One more Sunday and then we will move into Lent. To paraphrase one commentator I read this week, “We have been sitting on the hillside with Jesus, listening to his Sermon on the Mount for several weeks now – it’s almost time to come down and then what?”
So far this month, we have had the Beatitudes, the lesson on Salt and Light, and, last week, the reminder that we cannot call each other “fool” without causing grave harm both to the other and to ourselves.
In today’s reading, Jesus is referring to an ancient teaching: Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered. This particular version is from Leviticus, but this concept appears in several places with the Hebrew Scriptures, in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. It is an important enough law that it is repeated several times and places.
Although it can sound pretty harsh to our ears today, it was actually a step forward in achieving justice at the time it was promulgated in that it mandated that the punishment for an offense could not be harsher than the original injury. If someone broke your finger, for instance, you could break their finger, but you could not chop off their hand. We take baby-steps toward justice.
This was the Law, but Jesus, as usual, is telling us that the Law may be OK, but that it doesn’t begin to go far enough. The Law provides for the minimum acceptable action. As citizens of the Kingdom of God – that new thing that Jesus is ushering in – we are called to uphold the Law and more – usually, much more. With Jesus, there is always that ‘and more’. As people of the Kingdom we are called to be changed, transformed. If we are still standing where we have always stood then we are not getting it at all.
Do we love our neighbors? Well, okay, everyone does that – even tax collectors do that -- but do we also love our enemies? If someone tries to steal our coat do we give them the coat -- and our hat and scarf, too? If the Reign of God is to become actuality in our world then these are the sorts of over-the-top actions that are going to be required of us.
It comes down to this: Are we committed to the Law, or are we committed to God? As another commentator asked this week: Does the Law simply render judgment on the dealings of people with each other, or does it create among us the possibility of true community? Do we hurt our enemies back in the same measure in which they hurt us? Or do we love our enemies?
First -- and I believe, most importantly -- we need to be very careful about just who actually is our enemy. Today marks the 75 anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 – a move that in one stroke criminalized over 120,000 perfectly innocent people and led to their being imprisoned for several years in primitive conditions. Yanked out of their homes with little or no warning, they were herded onto buses and trains and hauled away like cattle. Some had their homes waiting for them when they were finally released at the end of the war – in Sonoma county, no one lost their property simply because their neighbors cared for it and defended it for them while they were gone – but I gather that makes Sonoma county fairly unique. Most of those incarcerated never regained their own property which was simply stolen while they were locked away. At the end of all of this, not one single Japanese-American was ever found guilty of a single treasonable act.
Though they were punished severely, they never were our enemy – just the victims of racist hysteria.
I spent yesterday afternoon at a gathering sponsored by the Sonoma Co. JACL (Japanese-American Citizens League). It’s purpose was to remember the signing of 9066 but it also had a broader purpose. The Japanese organizers, some of who had been children in those camps, are seeing an ominous repetition happening in our country today. They are reminding people of what was done to them because they see it happening again, this time with other groups of people – Mexicans, Muslims, LGBTQ – being demonized and turned into the enemy.
People who have lived among us for decades – American citizens, many of them – are suddenly being portrayed as dangerous to us all – demonized with no evidence – just, in the vast majority of cases, racist hysteria.
As followers of Jesus – as builders of the new Reign of God – we must be careful of laws and legalities, as well. Every indecent thing that was done to the Japanese-Americans during WWII was entirely legal – because laws were passed to make those actions legal. But legal or not, they never were right. They never were just. They were wrong.
Here in California, Hispanics have lived and worked among us for decades – it is only recently that we have been hearing the cries of “illegals!” as if that is somehow synonymous with everything that is evil in the world. Why? Why now? Whose pockets are gaining by this?
Jesus made it very clear to us 2000 years ago that there are laws, and there is God’s Law of Love – the one in which God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
And that ‘more’ thing that we are called to – that going above and beyond the Law? If you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?
What more are you doing than others? More than the "tax collectors"? A lot, I hope. I hope that we all are loving beyond our comfort zone. Seeing each other - all of us others - as brothers and sisters -- children of God. And I hope we are speaking out -- denouncing and refuting those who wish to divide us into us and them. I hope we are loving and praying for and welcoming, first and foremost, the innocent, but also those who haven't heard Jesus' message yet - the one that says so clearly we are to love one another.
So far this month, we have had the Beatitudes, the lesson on Salt and Light, and, last week, the reminder that we cannot call each other “fool” without causing grave harm both to the other and to ourselves.
In today’s reading, Jesus is referring to an ancient teaching: Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered. This particular version is from Leviticus, but this concept appears in several places with the Hebrew Scriptures, in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. It is an important enough law that it is repeated several times and places.
Although it can sound pretty harsh to our ears today, it was actually a step forward in achieving justice at the time it was promulgated in that it mandated that the punishment for an offense could not be harsher than the original injury. If someone broke your finger, for instance, you could break their finger, but you could not chop off their hand. We take baby-steps toward justice.
This was the Law, but Jesus, as usual, is telling us that the Law may be OK, but that it doesn’t begin to go far enough. The Law provides for the minimum acceptable action. As citizens of the Kingdom of God – that new thing that Jesus is ushering in – we are called to uphold the Law and more – usually, much more. With Jesus, there is always that ‘and more’. As people of the Kingdom we are called to be changed, transformed. If we are still standing where we have always stood then we are not getting it at all.
Do we love our neighbors? Well, okay, everyone does that – even tax collectors do that -- but do we also love our enemies? If someone tries to steal our coat do we give them the coat -- and our hat and scarf, too? If the Reign of God is to become actuality in our world then these are the sorts of over-the-top actions that are going to be required of us.
It comes down to this: Are we committed to the Law, or are we committed to God? As another commentator asked this week: Does the Law simply render judgment on the dealings of people with each other, or does it create among us the possibility of true community? Do we hurt our enemies back in the same measure in which they hurt us? Or do we love our enemies?
First -- and I believe, most importantly -- we need to be very careful about just who actually is our enemy. Today marks the 75 anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 – a move that in one stroke criminalized over 120,000 perfectly innocent people and led to their being imprisoned for several years in primitive conditions. Yanked out of their homes with little or no warning, they were herded onto buses and trains and hauled away like cattle. Some had their homes waiting for them when they were finally released at the end of the war – in Sonoma county, no one lost their property simply because their neighbors cared for it and defended it for them while they were gone – but I gather that makes Sonoma county fairly unique. Most of those incarcerated never regained their own property which was simply stolen while they were locked away. At the end of all of this, not one single Japanese-American was ever found guilty of a single treasonable act.
Though they were punished severely, they never were our enemy – just the victims of racist hysteria.
I spent yesterday afternoon at a gathering sponsored by the Sonoma Co. JACL (Japanese-American Citizens League). It’s purpose was to remember the signing of 9066 but it also had a broader purpose. The Japanese organizers, some of who had been children in those camps, are seeing an ominous repetition happening in our country today. They are reminding people of what was done to them because they see it happening again, this time with other groups of people – Mexicans, Muslims, LGBTQ – being demonized and turned into the enemy.
People who have lived among us for decades – American citizens, many of them – are suddenly being portrayed as dangerous to us all – demonized with no evidence – just, in the vast majority of cases, racist hysteria.
As followers of Jesus – as builders of the new Reign of God – we must be careful of laws and legalities, as well. Every indecent thing that was done to the Japanese-Americans during WWII was entirely legal – because laws were passed to make those actions legal. But legal or not, they never were right. They never were just. They were wrong.
Here in California, Hispanics have lived and worked among us for decades – it is only recently that we have been hearing the cries of “illegals!” as if that is somehow synonymous with everything that is evil in the world. Why? Why now? Whose pockets are gaining by this?
Jesus made it very clear to us 2000 years ago that there are laws, and there is God’s Law of Love – the one in which God makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
And that ‘more’ thing that we are called to – that going above and beyond the Law? If you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax-collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others?
What more are you doing than others? More than the "tax collectors"? A lot, I hope. I hope that we all are loving beyond our comfort zone. Seeing each other - all of us others - as brothers and sisters -- children of God. And I hope we are speaking out -- denouncing and refuting those who wish to divide us into us and them. I hope we are loving and praying for and welcoming, first and foremost, the innocent, but also those who haven't heard Jesus' message yet - the one that says so clearly we are to love one another.
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