NOTES for Mat 5:33-48
Sometimes, when reading the Sermon on the Mount, it may seem that in explaining the Torah, Jesus changes and even abolishes some of its rules and provisions. Indeed, how else are we to understand, for example, the prohibition of revenge (vv. 38–42) or of divorce (vv. 31–32)? Yet the situation with these provisions of the Old Testament Law is not so simple. Of course, the Torah does indeed permit revenge (Ex 21:23–25; Lev 24:19–20) and divorce (Deut 24:1–3). But these provisions should hardly be regarded as instructions or a guide to action. For in cases of bodily injury, for example, the same Torah provides other ways of making reparation (Ex 21:18–19). Evidently, the principle of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ is more a restriction, a kind of concession to the norms of customary law that were widespread among the Hebrews even before the Torah appeared. Revenge was widespread everywhere in those days, and the principle of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ was intended to keep it within certain bounds. The ideal, of course, would have been to renounce revenge altogether, but this ideal remained unattainable not only in the time of Moses, but also in much later times. Jesus, however, proposes precisely a complete renunciation of revenge, without any concessions to human weakness (vv. 39–41). The point is specifically to renounce revenge—in this case, revenge for a public insult, as a slap delivered in front of everyone was considered to be. It is the same with divorce: Jesus Himself explicitly says that the right to divorce is nothing other than a concession to human sinfulness, to human ‘hardness of heart’ (Mt 19:7–8), and He Himself does not intend to make such concessions. This refusal to compromise may seem harsh to the point of cruelty if we forget the essential point: Jesus’ aim is nothing less than to make His disciples and followers like the heavenly Father (v. 45). But such likeness is possible only if a person’s relationships both with God and with other people are relationships of love, and of a love that admits neither exceptions nor compromises (vv. 43–48). Evidently, without such love one cannot enter the Kingdom. The Savior calls us to banish from our lives everything that could prevent us from entering the Kingdom.