Rev. Michelle Manuel & Shelby Olive

Matthew 5:38-40

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; 40 and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; 41 and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. 42 Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

Reflection:

I’m sorry, Jesus, but none of this makes sense. I feel more comfortable with the proverbs that instruct resisting evildoers until the cows come home. But this teaching, THIS teaching is turning everything upside down. And quite frankly none of this sounds fair. Are you implying that I should live life in a way that isn’t surprised by or retaliatory towards those who are very obviously in the wrong? 

Why is this such a hard pill to swallow? I’m sure there are a lot of reasons, but what might be the most uncomfortable, most dissatisfying, is that it’s just not fair. Where is our justice? Why do we have to monitor our own behavior when we weren’t in the wrong to begin with? Does this mean we lose all of our boundaries and become doormats (no — but that’s another devotional for another day)? This all leads us to ask: Without fairness, where is justice? 

This passage falls near the end of the Sermon on the Mount—the sermon that actually turns everything on its head. If this passage seems off-putting just wait for the following verses where Jesus commands us to love our enemies. Yes, it’s this passage that instructs us to throw everything we know about fairness out the window. 

The kingdom of God is not about fairness.

The kingdom of God is about love. God’s very essence is love (1 John 4:8), and Love has come to dwell among the people. Love is now teaching the only thing love can teach— to offer love. 

Love doesn’t make sense. Love isn’t fair. Love is just love. Love pours itself out for the other, even the other that is unclean, unrighteous, an “evildoer.” Yikes. But what Jesus shows us time and time again is that without love, there is no justice at all.

So who are the evildoers among you? Who has gotten “the chop” in your heart? Who deserves the worst in your opinion? This passage would suggest that what they need is love. Carry their pack however far they need it and even farther. Is someone coming for you? Give them the shirt off your back. Has someone rubbed you the wrong way? Stick around and keep showing up.

We need not set wisdom aside when loving our neighbor, but what if we let Jesus push us a little further into considering loving those who’ve become “enemies” to us? Boundaries are important, but how might we reflect today on getting a little less fair today a lot more loving?

Prayer:

God,

Time and time again, it seems that we learn in new ways how unfair life is. We recognize the desire you have placed within all of us to see all things made right again, but we also recognize the ways we have made an idol out of fairness at the expense of the love you call us to exemplify. Remind us that it is only by your love that wrongdoing — from the littlest trespass to the most egregious evil — can be cleansed. Amen.