God’s Living Word Today - Monday, June 15, 2020

God’s Living Word Today - Monday, June 15, 2020

[1 Kgs 21:1-16 and Matt 5:38-42]
"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." [Matthew]

 It has been said that if we all lived by the maxim ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ everyone would eventually be toothless and blind. The desire for revenge and retaliation when someone hurts us can be very strong.   Is it the old saying, "I don't get mad.  I get even?"  If we have any responses in our head or heart towards getting even we are facing the challenge of being a Christian.  The Sermon on the Mount goes beyond external behavior into the recesses of the mind and heart and says that revenge and "getting even" are wrong - period!  Reasonable defense, yes.  Revenge, no. 

Jesus gives to us six examples of the conduct demanded of the Christian disciple. Each deals with a commandment of the law, introduced by You have heard that it was said to your ancestors or an equivalent formula, followed by Jesus’ teaching in respect to that commandment, But I say to you; thus their designation as “antitheses.” Three of them accept the Mosaic law but extend or deepen it; three reject it as a standard of conduct for the disciples.

Father Dennis