An Eye For An Eye - Matthew 5:38-39 Series

Matthew 5:38-42 "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

The Pharisees’ Application of the Law: Revenge

The Problem of Revenge

As it started to get dark the young woman began to worry. Where was her husband? They had only been married a few weeks, but still, this was so out of character for him to be so late getting home. Finally she went out to look for him, and was horrified to find him, not far from their little cottage, lying dead in the street – murdered.

Not far from there another woman was working hard to finish up her share of the housework before her husband came home. (I say, “her share” because she was just one of her husband’s two wives.) Anyway, just as she was finishing up she heard something, and looked out to see if it was him. And she was alarmed to see he was wounded. As she and Zillah ran out to meet him, they were surprised to see he was smiling – like he had just won the lottery or something. When they got out to him he broke into laughter as he announced his happy boast. Genesis 4:23-24 Lamech said to his wives, "Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. 24 If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times." That is the very first Bible story after Adam & Eve and Cain & Able. Human history has been a story of revenge and retaliation from the beginning until now.

When someone hurts us there is an instantaneous reflex to want to get even. Actually, that is what we claim to want. We say we are just getting even, but evenness is really the last thing on our mind. If someone slaps you across the face, what is the natural impulse of your flesh? To slap that person with the same force and then be done with it? Would you then walk away thinking, “Everything is just fine now – there has been perfect justice carried out”? No. If someone slaps you in the face you want to punch them in the mouth. We have all heard the stories of someone from one tribe injuring someone from an enemy tribe, and that second tribe comes back and murders someone, and then the first tribe goes and wipes out the entire village. Revenge has nothing to do with justice. Nobody ever murdered someone because they got murdered. The sinful human heart even takes pride in escalating revenge.

The ugliness of self-love

One kid hits another kids once, the second kid retaliates by hitting the first kid five times, and at that point he thinks, “Now we’re even.” But does the first kid think they are even? No – he feels like he owes some retribution, and so when he gets even, the other kid does not think things are even at all. We tend not to be very objective about what constitutes evenness. A teacher sees two little kids fighting and takes one of them aside and says, “What happened?” and he says, “Well, it all started when he hit me back.” That is how it feels when we are in a fight. Everything was just fine after what you did, but then they had to do and retaliate. When we have the impulse to take revenge, that is not a noble remnant of divine justice in our hearts. It is nothing more than the ugly, wicked sin of self-love.

2 Timothy 3:2 People will be lovers of themselves

And what happens when people become lovers of themselves? Just read the rest of the paragraph.

They become…

lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God

Self-love is an attitude that says, “My preferences are supreme. My comfort is the greatest good. The happiness or wellbeing of other people is irrelevant. The glory of God is irrelevant. What matters is ME, and nothing else.” Think about it – when someone really hurts you, and you have that instant reaction of the flesh that says, “I just want to strike back” – how focused are you at that moment on that other person’s joy or wellbeing? It is the farthest thing from your mind. When we have the impulse to retaliate we are not thinking about what is best for the other person at all. Nor are we thinking about what would most glorify God. Someone hurts us and self-love takes over and suddenly we think we are God. Not in those terms of course. We do not literally say “I am God” – but what else is it when we behave as though our will and our desires were supreme – more important than everyone around us and more important than the Lord Himself.