Sermon: Giving the Way of Jesus a Chance

The words “an eye for and eye” and  “a tooth for a tooth”  are sometimes quoted by people, even today, as though they are intended to be a blueprint for justice.  We do well to recall the comment made by Mahatma Gandhi, one of the greatest and most respected of all world leaders who said  “That way, the whole world would be blind and toothless.” 

Gandhi was however not the first to comment on these words,  in fact Jesus commented on them.   It was probable that there were people around when Jesus was preaching his message who held in great importance the principle of taking revenge on others.  Jesus had indeed heard people talking about this and had seen for himself the state in which society found itself  because people considered taking revenge as the answer to their problems.  In very ancient times revenge was an accepted means to justice but in truth it did not work.  Rather than being the law of a civilised society, it appeared more like the law of the jungle, but still people persisted by going back to the old saying,  “an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth”

Jesus makes it quite clear that this is not his way as he says.  “Do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you.”  .   These words have been interpreted by many as weakness as they point out, “If you don’t stand up for yourself, you will get downtrodden.”    Jesus’ message does not come easily to our present society in which revenge and an unwillingness to forgive seems to be the order of the day, but let’s ask ourselves,  “Is this improving our society?”  Does the “revenge culture” really make the world a better place?  Jesus says that it certainly does not.

When we see acts of violence and a resulting  retaliation, this sets off further retaliation, it goes on and on.   We call it tit for tat.  It never brings a peaceful solution.  In the same way when words cause offence,  if there is retaliation or revenge follows then relationships break down.  That does not make the world a better place either.

Jesus continues by quoting another ancient saying.  “Love your friends and hate your enemies.”   Jesus reverses this saying by telling his hearers,  “Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you ”  This would have been very difficult for many to accept then as indeed it is now.  Does it make any sense?    Would people  really want to love their enemies?    Jesus explains this by asking people to consider how much God loves them and how dependent on God is every human on this earth.    What if the sun stopped shining?   What if it stopped raining for ever?  Life on earth would come to end – for everyone.  We are all on the same planet.  God makes the sun shine on us all.  In other words, God loves every person on this earth – even the people who hate God,  even those who deny his existence.

Someone once said to a Christian friend,   “ I don’t believe in God.”   “Don’t you?” he replied,  “Well, God believes in you! “

So Jesus makes it very clear that God loves good and bad alike.  Remember the words of Jesus “God so loved the world…..”   He didn’t say God just loves the good people. 

Jesus concludes his words on these old sayings be calling on his hearers to strive for perfection as God is  perfect.    We know that we shall never reach perfection, at least not in this life, but if we really try to follow the message Jesus gives us then at least we have a chance of becoming the person God wants each of us to be.   Hatred and revenge have been tried since the beginning of history to solve the world’s problems both locally and globally but this way does not work.  We may well find that taking no revenge and loving our enemies may against all the odds actually work.  Let’s give the way of Jesus a chance.