Read Along
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used with permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’
A farmer is walking a country road. A Roman soldier comes up behind him, drops a heavy pack at his feet, and tells him to carry it. The farmer can’t refuse. Under Roman rule, a soldier could force a local man into service.
But Jesus tells that farmer, “If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.”
And a few lines later, He quotes something else people had heard: “Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” The first half is in the Law of Moses. The second half isn’t. No law of Moses says, “hate your enemy.” So where did people hear it, and what does Jesus put in its place?
This is episode six of twelve on the Sermon on the Mount. Last time, Jesus asked for a word that holds, at the wedding altar and everywhere else. This time, Matthew five, verses thirty-eight to forty-eight. It’s the last two of the six times Jesus sets something people had heard beside His own words, and it carries the hardest command in the sermon: love your enemies.
Start with the line everyone knew.
“Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth” appears three times in the Law. In Exodus, it sits in the same law as a fine that “the court allows.” In Deuteronomy, it comes after this: “The judges must make a thorough investigation.” So the rule was given to judges. It kept a punishment from going beyond the harm done. One eye, not a life. One tooth, not a whole family.
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