BIBLE STUDY #30
SEVENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
FEBRUARY 20, 2011


Gospel Matthew 5: 38-48

Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.
When someone strikes you on your right cheek,
turn the other one as well.
If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic,
hand over your cloak as well.
Should anyone press you into service for one mile,
go for two miles.
Give to the one who asks of you,
and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.

“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,
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?
Do not the tax collectors do the same?
And if you greet your brothers only,
what is unusual about that?
Do not the pagans do the same?
So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

The Gospel of the Lord

Reflection

We’re in that part of Matthew’s Gospel called the Sermon on the Mount, which goes from 5:1 to 7:29. This is the first of five discourses that are a central part of the gospel’s structure. This sermon consists of the Beatitudes, the new righteousness (with illustrations), a section of good works, and three warnings. The section about the new righteousness consists of teachings concerning the law, anger, adultery, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and love of enemies. Last Sunday we heard about the first four of these teachings. This week we hear the last two.

These last 2 teachings concerning retaliation begin with “You have heard that it was said” which refers to what God said to the Israelites when he gave them the Law at Sinai. The words in Italics immediately following it are from the Pentateuch (or the Torah, the first 5 books of the bible).

Jesus teachings are radical and sometimes deepen and spiritualize the Torah. He also changes the Torah, as with his teachings on divorce, oaths and vows, and retaliation.

The first teaching says “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” This is what God told the people to avoid unlimited and unrestricted blood lusts and feuds. It commands proportionate retaliation. God said that retaliation was permitted, but restricted.

Jesus teaching changes all this. He says, “But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.” No longer are we allowed to retaliate. God initially restricted retaliation, then Jesus brings it to its logical conclusion of no retaliation. In this teaching, Jesus actually changes the letter of the Law. He actually prohibits any court action to gain retribution or compensation. He undermines civil society by bringing in the otherness of the kingdom. He is not proposing a new human order, but is introducing eschatological morality, the morality of living in God’s kingdom.

This is a tough teaching for us since our society is based on rights and responsibilities. If someone hurts or offends us in any way (whether real or perceived) our first reaction is to retaliate. How often do we offer no resistance?

Jesus is calling us to a higher level of holiness. If we are to be holy, we need to stop thinking in worldly terms and start thinking in kingdom terms. We can’t do this on our own, but only with the grace of Our Lord.

This doesn’t mean that we can’t defend ourselves legally, financially, physically, or spiritually. For example if someone tries to steal our identity, we don’t have to give it to him. It does mean that we are generous to a fault with all we meet. This command has to do more with our actions than with those of others. We can’t control what other people do; we can only control what we do.

The second teaching says, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. There is nothing specific in the Old Testament that said to hate your enemy, but the command to love is only extended to your neighbor, which was assumed to be your fellow countryman. Therefore, by default, you could hate your enemy.

Jesus response to this is to tell us to love our enemies, a natural extension to not retaliating. He even tells us to pray for our enemies. I’ve always said that you can’t remain angry for long with someone if you pray for them.

This is a further call to holiness. God loves all people without limit (the sun shines and the rain falls on the good and the bad). We are called to be God’s children, and as such, we imitate our heavenly Father. It is not good enough to love those who love you; anyone can do that. We are called to share our love with all people.

What do we mean by love? Society and the media tell us that love is about our feelings for each other (isn’t that what Valentine’s Day cards are all about?). They tell us that the type of love that Jesus advocates is not possible. How could I have good feelings towards someone who has hurt me? Scripture tells us that love in its purest form is not a feeling but an action. Think about it this way: Can you love someone but not like them? Certainly! Remember when you were 16 and your Mom forbad you to go somewhere? You were probably pretty mad, but you still loved your Mom. Why? Because she proved her love to you by her actions. No matter what happens, you know that she loves you. God has proven his love by his actions – sending his Son to suffer, die, and rise for us. It is loving actions that bring about loving feelings. How can you not feel good about someone who is always doing good things for you? But then Jesus raises the bar, so to speak. He says that we are not only supposed to love our neighbors, but also to love our enemies. We love our enemies through forgiveness, through not seeking revenge, by treating them with kindness, and by not trying to hurt them, in other words, by our actions. It doesn’t mean we have to like them. It doesn’t mean that we need to be around them. But loving in this way is the path to Christian holiness.

These are ideals that we strive for in our lives. That is one nice thing about our faith – it teaches us truths that do not change over time. They are true yesterday, today and tomorrow. Therefore we have standards by which to conduct ourselves and also measure ourselves, standards set by God that draw us to holiness. We know what is lacking and what to do about it.

We won’t be able to do this by ourselves, all the time. And it is not easy. It takes a strong person to live like Jesus. It is our prayer, sacraments and good works that draw us closer to God and give us the strength to follow Jesus. We need to develop the good habits of living in the kingdom. Just as we can develop bad habits, we develop good habits through repetition. The first time is difficult, but it gets easier and easier over time to live like Jesus. This is because of God’s grace strengthens us and encourages us.

Jesus calls us to love our enemies. It is easy to do in the abstract, but I have something I want you to do to test how much you can love. I want you to forgive all those people in your circle of friends, family, and co workers who have hurt you. This is a good start to being holy.


Fr. Phil