Monday in the Eleventh Week of Ordinary Time, June 14, 2021

Matthew 5:38-42

Jesus said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”

The principle of “an eye for an eye” marked a major turning point for law and justice in ancient society.  It limited the punishment that a person could receive to one not greater than the crime he had committed.  Originally, this was enforced within social classes: if a person assaulted another of a higher class, the punishment would be more severe.  But the imposition of an equal punishment prevented personal vengeance which might result in an act far worse than what was committed originally, such as a cut on the hand avenged with death.  The principle was further refined and made more fair in the Mosaic Law, in which it was applied to all the classes, and allowance was provided for the wronged party to receive some other compensation, such as property, from the person who committed the crime.  Jesus goes further still, fulfilling the ordinance, saying, “Offer no resistance to one who is evil.”  He elaborates: “When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.”  This sounds difficult to carry out.  In fact, it would mean the end of civilization.  The Lord here employs hyperbole in order to make a point: that his followers are not to exact revenge at all, nor may they to provoke anyone to anger, baiting a person into violent behavior in order to justify violence in return.  The sweeping command the Lord Jesus gives makes it clear that his followers must be absolutely innocent and without malice in all their dealings with others.  It also means that “an eye for an eye” must be fulfilled or completed in the sense that any justly ordered punishment, must be tempered with mercy.  The purpose of such punishment cannot merely be society exacting revenge in place of the individual, but also for the correction of the wrongdoer with an eye to his conversion.

“Turn the other one to him as well.”  Jesus teaches his followers that the one who endures unjust suffering is stronger than the one who inflicts it.  This cuts right across the notion that “might makes right”, so prevalent in ancient and in modern times.  The Lord reinforces this with his speaking of giving one’s coat to one who unjustly desires his tunic, and going a second mile with one who presses a person to go one mile.

“Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”  The Lord continues to employ hyperbole: his followers are to act generously, and to recall what surplus wealth is for.  It is, of course, impossible to give everything to everyone who asks, but the follower of Jesus does what he can for one who asks.  The Christian acts with prudence with what he has, first caring for himself and those for whom he is responsible, then fellow Christians, and then others.  What the Lord does that is new is to encourage his disciples to be generous with these “others” even apart from the alms to the desperately poor that the Mosaic Law and the Prophets mandate.

In all that the Lord Jesus says here, he shows himself as he is to those who hear him: the Lawgiver who surpasses Moses, the authoritative leader, the Teacher who instructs on mercy, the one who is the Lord.