In our last installment, we explored the importance of justice and how the ancient near-Eastern tenet, "An Eye for an Eye, and a Tooth for a Tooth" was an efficacious principle for the pursuit of reciprocal justice -- specifically the principle of proportional retribution. This principle places a limit on what is just recompense to account for a misdeed, rather than allowing a vengeful overreach of retaliation, which in turn can escalate and deteriorate trust.
An Eye for an Eye, and a Tooth for a Tooth is good.
But then came Jesus.
Yeshua HaMashiach uprooted everything, turned everything on its side. Chapter 5 in the Gospel of Matthew records:
Before I continue, just take a few moments and take that in. Its full implication. Its full gravity.
The Light of the World -- or one of human history's most remarkable and important people, who dramatically changed the course of all human history forever, to those of you who don't believe -- establishes a moral operational code that the vast majority of believers and nonbelievers alike have failed to remotely come close to honoring with obedience.
People don't turn the other cheek. When I hear people cite it, they usually mean merely, don't retaliate, but let it not be lost on you that taken literally, He's actually insisting that you willfully allow unjust physical attacks to continue.
People don't do that. Christians don't do that. Ostensibly there are a few monastic types who have withdrawn from society, who might. But not the rest of us.
Are we doing it wrong? Have we Christ followers failed to heed his words and truly follow Christ?
The Moral Insufficiency of The Law
What Christ is saying here is that the Law, alone, is not enough. It's a deficient moral standard.
Six times in The Sermon on the Mount, from which the passage above comes, Christ says, "You have heard it said." He's speaking to the highest proclaimed moral standards of the day, and demonstrating how they -- even they -- fall short.
You have heard it said -- don't murder.
You have heard it said -- don't commit adultery. Don't break oaths. Love your neighbor.
Then He drops the But: But I tell you. Even being angry makes you subject to judgment. But I tell you. Even lust in your heart is adultery.
But I tell you. Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.
Let's use the example of divorce to illustrate. This will show us the You have heard it saids are the highest proclaimed moral standards of the day. The best that human virtue could offer.
31 “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ 32 But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
It's easy to miss this one; English translations obfuscate what the Koine Greek already obscures: two separate words and concepts used in Hebrew and Aramaic. Kerithuth is divorce. But Shalach is to send away.
See, Jewish Law held that "One witness is not enough to convict anyone accused of any crime or offense they may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. (Deuteronomy 19:15)"
A noble legal standard, broadly, but in the case of adultery, there tend to not be enough witnesses to secure a conviction. So the vindictive workaround became, Shalach, to send away. No divorce. Just send her away.
Let's not miss how vindictively cruel this was. A devastating fate, women had no rights, power or social standing to shelter or provide for themselves, and any man who came to her aid would be guilty of adultery -- she's still married.
So putting wives away, whether unfaithful or merely suspected, was tremendously spiteful and harmful. Put-away wives were screwed.
And many honorable and ethical people of the day saw this despicable practice and protested against it: "‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’"
A compassionate thing to implore, certainly. But Christ went further: "But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery."
Jesus is is saying here, go above & beyond the law. The law is not a moral standard. It's a legal standard, for settling disputes, keeping peace and suing for justice. The law, alone, is not enough for a person to morally & ethically abide by. He's calling us to something more. Something higher.
So don't murder, sure. But that doesn't mean contempt for your fellow humans is not itself contemptible. Don't commit adultery, sure. But wantonly casting your desires around on others is to neglect your spouse of the affirming and rewarding intimacy marriage is meant for. And don't vindictively shalach, put away your wife. But even if you divorce her, that's harmful and dishonorable, likely tremendously selfish. Unfaithfulness is a natural exception, because what is marriage but an exclusive commitment.
So "You have heard it said...but I tell you" is by no means a rejection of the law, the legal standard. Christ did not forsake the commandment not to murder in order to condemn anger. He didn't forsake love for neighbor just to get us to love our enemies.
And he isn't rejecting, overruling or superseding Eye for an Eye:
So Eye for an Eye is good. Good for individuals seeking justice, good for the guilty, for plaintiffs, and of course for society. Not sufficient, morally. But good. And if you heartlessly just rely on a legal standard, as you interact with individuals and society, that's not going to foster healthy or meaningful relationships.
The Moral Insufficiency of Morality
Now Jesus still set an unachievable ethical standard when he implores, "But I tell you." Can you truly avoid ever getting angry? Can you truly honor every commitment you ever make? Are we seriously expected to literally encourage more physical assault when we are assaulted? A full clearing out of our possessions when we're robbed? Complete subjugation to immoral hegemony? Can this possibly be the standard for entry into eternal life?
I can't fathom this being so. Sexual attraction is natural, inevitable, and while it can certainly be controlled and guided, which is beneficial, and while unrestrained lust is certainly very harmful, I can't fathom gouging out our own eyes just to achieve a higher moral code.
Not to mention how such a moral standard conflicts with the doctrine of grace and Christ's purpose for coming, for dying, for resurrecting, to atone for people's sin. It's certainly rhetorical, and Jesus was a master of rhetoric.
That can be easily missed millennia later, in other languages and within other cultures. The point is not to establish an impossible moral standard. The point is that even a sufficient moral standard is itself impossible to achieve. And that the highest moral codes of the day were half what might be deemed sufficient.
The most fervent religious pursuits for righteousness don't just fall short: they idealize and venerate a moral standard that itself falls short, and then they still can't even abide by a lower standard.
So Eye for an Eye is a legal standard, not a moral one, and certainly is not alone morally sufficient. But neither is Turn the Other Cheek morally sufficient even if it were a tenable principle to operate by: to allow and even embolden injustice can hardly be impeccable.
Now to regard every micro-transgression against you as an injustice that must be atoned for is a legalistic standard that, again, is not morally sufficient. So we must aspire to Christ's higher moral code. Even knowing we won't achieve it. Because achieving it is not the point. Jesus literally said, "be perfect," and we know we failed at that before we learned to speak in complete sentences.
Forgiving injustice against you is good. Not retaliating is good. Yet justice is good, and fostering injustice through tolerance can be very bad. Avoid legalism, and beware abiding by legal standards with no higher moral code, compassion, mercy or grace.
That's His broader point. And I can be certain about that, because he said so: "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."