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Sermon: The Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany (A) - 20th February 2011
St Aidan's Anglican Church West Epping 8:30 am
Readings: Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18; Psalm 119:33-40; I Corinthians 3:10-17; Matthew 5:38-48
Today we have some of the hardest teaching of Jesus. It is hard in the sense that it is difficult to do. Jesus is showing us another way to live. He is showing us a way of living which is contrary to our normal way of living, perhaps contrary to our own desires. All through this passage Jesus is talking about keeping the law, and how we should do it. But his approach is quite radical. When we keep the law we are tempted to do as little as possible and still remain legal.
When we see a speed sign for 60 kph we may still travel at 62 or 63 and still feel we are keeping within the law. When it comes to tax time, we hunt out every receipt as we work our way through tax pack looking for every deduction or we hire an accountant to make sure we don’t pay one more cent than we have to. This is what I mean when I say when it comes to law-keeping we are tempted to do as little as possible.
Yet throughout this sermon Jesus teaches us something quite different. He expands the impact of the law as widely as possible. He uses two examples, murder and adultery. Both are forbidden of course. But when it comes to murder, he contrasts that to anger. We are still in danger of judgment if we are angry with our brother. So to keep this commandment we not only need to consider murder, we need to check our anger as well. I don’t think I have a problem with murder. But anger is another matter. So when I read the commandments, they will still apply to me.
Again, we have the question of adultery. Under this heading Jesus includes lustful thoughts. Again, at first I could assume I have no problems with this commandment. But then watching the wrong TV show, or an image might appear during a movie and it might easily conjure up lustful thoughts. So again, suddenly this command had relevance for me. Jesus has a way of understanding the commandments that no one else had considered before. His approach to law is so different. He wants us to consider the full implications of what the law has to teach us about how we should live.
We see it again in today’s reading with the saying “Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.” This comes from Exodus 21 which reads, “If there is serious injury you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wounds for wound, bruise for bruise.” And this was radical in those days. The point was that when there was an injury, retribution must be limited. The punishment must not go beyond the original injury. It’s aim was to limit what could be done to the offender. So if you lost an eye, you could not take out both eyes of the offender, or both eyes and a hand. It may seem brutal to us these days. It may seem like a rough justice. Yet even today there are those who would want to go further. Now and again we hear of people who want certain offenders incarcerated for life – “Lock them up and throw away the key.” Yet when they say this they have usually gone way beyond eye for eye and tooth for tooth.
But look where Jesus goes with this. He seems to be using this teaching in the situation where someone is claiming their rights. So if you have offended someone you might claim that the punishment can be no worse than the harm done. Then he gives three examples, striking on the cheek, being sued and being forced to go one mile. These seem quite enigmatic and culturally bound. So what is happening here?
According to Jewish law a master was permitted to strike a disobedient slave across the cheek. However, the rule was that only one blow was allowed. In the second example, the person is probably being sued for a debt and the court has ruled that the person must pay the debt by giving up their shirt. It was a way of expressing bankruptcy. In the third example, it seems to be referring to the right of a Roman soldier to demand that a person carry his equipment for one mile. He could only ask for the one mile and no more. So in each situation the person is suffering some sort of consequences, either a blow to the cheek, the loss of a shirt or the carrying of the equipment.
But Jesus raised the question of what should your attitude be once the blow is struck, once the debt is paid, or once the equipment has been carried. In other words, what should your attitude be once you have fulfilled your duty? Again Jesus is saying, don’t stick to the letter of the law. Don’t be arrogant and boast that now you have suffered the punishment no one can touch you now. Rather he is saying, just as we need to be generous in applying the law to ourselves, so we need to be generous in the application of the consequences.
But this runs contrary to our nature. We don’t live like this. Would you ever pay more taxes than you needed to? If you received a parking fine, would you pay twice what you owe? We don’t do that. I imagine if any of us were ever sued we would pay no more than what we were required to pay. So this teaching can cause difficulties for us and difficult to apply in a practical setting. Perhaps the easiest way to think of it is in terms of a spirit of generosity. When you are at work, you should work hard to give your employer a good days work. That is your obligation.
Several years ago a French woman wrote a book about her work. She claimed that in the office where she worked she really had done almost nothing for ten years and she had gotten away with it. She had turned up each day but she had done no real work. People criticised her when her book came out but they had problems sorting out what it was she had done wrong. People weren’t too concerned she had cheated her employer, after all, she had worked for the government.
So we could say that Jesus doesn’t want us to be like that. If we are employer we should give good value to those who pay us. Or we could take the example of the Queensland flood appeal. We know we will have to pay a special levy, if it gets through Parliament. But we can do more than that. We can demonstrate a generous spirit by giving more to those in need. Or we could take the example of those who are retired. Many retired people use their time to do volunteer work. Apparently, Australia is one of the best countries in the world for volunteers. But this is another opportunity to demonstrate generosity no matter what age we are.
But how far do we take this generosity? For Jesus there are no limits. He says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” Because in the end, this is the kind of generosity we see in God himself. We are to be like our Heavenly Father. We are to bare the family likeness. Because this is the generosity that God shows to us, this is the kind of love that God lavishes upon us. When he blesses us he doesn’t do it stintingly, or grudgingly. Rather, he is a generous lover.
Last week John Paul Getty III died aged 54. He was a billionaire. At the age of 16 he was kidnapped and held for ransom for nearly six months. Eventually, his grandfather paid the $3 million ransom but made his grandson pay the money back. With all his wealth, the grandfather showed no generosity, even installing a pay phone in his own home. We can be thankful our Heavenly father is not like that. That in all things he shows his generosity. The challenge for us is to follow his example, to show our love in practical ways. That we show generosity with our money, our time, and our lives.