Now, more than ever, living in America it can be hard to follow Christ. If I’m being totally honest, as we ramp up for another presidential election it can sometimes become easy to look around and be frustrated by the restraint that Jesus expects from those who follow him. In a world punctuated by an excessive lack of any restraint, it can feel like anyone who holds themselves to a higher standard is hamstrung.
As someone who follows Christ, I sometimes lament that I don’t have the luxury of saying what I want to say to people because I’m not just representing myself, I’m representing God. I sometimes wish I didn’t need to filter the things I post on social media, and sometimes I lament that my convictions can seem to rob me of the satisfaction of taking revenge, holding grudges, or brutally roasting somebody who is begging for it.
Because of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, when somebody wrongs me or misrepresents what God is like I need to remind myself that I’m not an independent agent. I represent God and his unconditional love for all of humankind, and my interactions with the world should reflect him, not my own sense of self-righteousness.
Especially in youth ministry, there is one Scripture passage that is appealed to quite often to justify revenge:
“Whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. Whoever takes an animal's life shall make it good, life for life. If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him. Whoever kills an animal shall make it good, and whoever kills a person shall be put to death. You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the Lord your God.”
Leviticus 24:17-22 ESV
At first glance, this passage seems to command the wronged party to exact their revenge on whoever hurt them. If somebody breaks my arm, it’s only fair that I get to break the arm of the offending party. As a father of young children, I see this sentiment voiced multiple times a day.
“You broke my toy, so I get to break yours!”
But when Jesus comes on the scene, he seemingly corrects the law given in Leviticus when he says (among other things): “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also” (Matt 5:38-39 ESV).
Jesus reveals that the sentiment in the Levitical law was not to guarantee the satisfaction of taking revenge. Interestingly, when we look at the larger context and the ethical thrust of the Mosaic Law (that is, the Law given to Moses from God), we see that the stipulations we find in Leviticus 24:17-22 are likely put in place to limit the extent of revenge which would be taken.
As a father of small children, I am painfully aware that the default human tendency (fallen such as we are) is to hurt the offending party worse than they’ve hurt us.
“You broke my toy, so I’m going to break two of your toys. That’ll show you.”
The heart of these regulations is not for the offended to take justice into their own hands, but rather to prevent a vengeful heart from spiraling out of control, leading to more violence and sin.
This simple point is profound.
God does not encourage revenge, but recognizes that the human tendency, because of our sin, will inevitably be to want to inflate the punishment so that it is disproportionate to the crime. The Mosaic Law regulating retaliation is a band-aid, a compromise that falls well short of the ideal coexistence that God intends for his people.
That is not to say that God’s Law given to Israel was defective or flawed, as if God changed his mind and improved it based on new information previously unknown to him. God obviously didn’t give the Law and then realize that turning the other cheek was more loving than taking an eye for an eye.
But what we see is rather God recognizing the fallen state of humanity and pragmatically offering guidelines that would limit sin and vengeance, knowing that someday Jesus would come and fulfill the law through his death and resurrection. In doing so he would usher in a new covenant; one in which God’s law was not external but internal. God would write his law on the hearts of those who follow him, and God himself would dwell in them and help them to keep the law.
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