Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 is a regimen in achieving a righteousness that surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees. What is wrong with the scribes and Pharisees' righteousness? The Torah, or levitical law, achieves justice through what is called the lex talionis, which we could describe as "eye for eye, tooth for tooth." (Ex. 21:24) This is justice because it guards against excessive vengeance. If you knock out one of my teeth, I can't knock out all of your teeth.
Jesus comes teaching a different law: if someone slaps you, turn the other cheek. On first glance, this seems like a dismissal of the lex talionis. But how can this be true justice? Its in-dignifying enough to be slapped once. But twice? And the person gets off scott-free? But if we look more closely, we see that Jesus' new law fulfills the lex talionis. Retribution hasn't been sworn off. The disciple of Jesus has offered to take the retaliatory slap as well.
This gets at the heart of what is wrong with the lex talionis. In a different world perhaps, "eye for an eye" would end a feud. The retaliatory slap closes the loop and nobody's mad anymore. But that's rarely the case. Instead, the feud takes on different forms.
This is the weakness of Torah. Designed to limit the violence of flesh, it instead becomes flesh's accomplice in perpetuating violence. Thus we have the saying: "an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind." This is the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. It only seeks to curb the effects of flesh, to clean up the mess it leaves behind.
But Jesus' way does end the feud. The disciple may feel like a victim turning the cheek to receive not only the first slap but the second, but this is not really the case. Peter Leithart writes:
"Following these instructions also, subtly, restores the dignity of the person who gets slapped. The slapper wants to treat the slappee as a victim, the object of oppression. The slappee has no choice, no dignity. But when the slapped person turns the other cheek, he wrests initiative out of his opponent's hands. Instead of suffering the shame of being a victim, the disciple takes initiative into his own hands - disciples offer their cheek, remove their undershirt, go a second mile, give to whoever demands (Mt. 5:40-42). In doing so, the disciple also exposes the bully for the brute that he is; turning the tables in a way brings shame on the oppressor." (Delivered, 141)
In this way, the righteousness that Jesus is teaching does not only curb the effects of the flesh. It overcomes the flesh. Living this way targets the flesh in such a way that permits the enemy to be reconciled as a friend. This is true justice - a community "whose life together constitutes a continuous critique of and assault on fleshly division and exclusion, phallic pride and bravado." (Delivered, 144) Imagine if a whole community lived this way! It's the best kind of community to be a part of.
It is a recapitulation of all that Israel was meant to be. Israel was called to be God's means for reuniting the whole world to God. Through his representative, the king of Israel, God would use Israel's law to bring restoration to the whole world. When Jesus comes, he forms an Israel within Israel, twelve disciples from within the twelve tribes of Israel. Where the original Israel had become exhausted and defeated in the battle against flesh, Jesus brings fulfillment to their charter by renewing Torah's assault on fleshly patterns of life. He drives out evil spirits. He delivers vulnerable flesh from the dominating powers of the devil. He heals blind, lame, and mute. Where the original Israel had become a system which gratified the scribes and Pharisees and excluded everyone else, Jesus' new Israel consists of the poor, weak, and vulnerable, and the Scribes and the Pharisees are on the outside looking in.
In Matthew 18, we find this:
"At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, "Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?"
"He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me." (Matt. 18:1-5)
Leithart comments:
"Children become model citizens of the kingdom, exemplifying mature human life. The weak become exemplary, because in their desperate dependence and neediness they display the reality that most human beings cover over with a show of force and achievement, to make a good showing in the flesh." (Delivered, 143)
Finally, Jesus himself is crucial to this new society. He is the kingdom's king. Who is Jesus, after all? Much of what the people around him were wondering is if he were a new king like David? David's significance is that at a certain point in time, all of the promises to Abraham were determined by God to go through David. Before David, Israel stands as a nation on their cumulative obedience. Samuel says in 1 Samuel 12:14 that the king's obedience or disobedience, while important, was not central. Under David and his descendants, this is different. In his covenant with David, God calls David's future son, Solomon, a "son," as in God's son. Up to this point, only the nation of Israel has been described this way. Now the fate of the nation depends much more on the obedience or disobedience of the king. In a significant way, the king doesn't just lead Israel. He represents Israel. He is Israel. In the same way, Jesus doesn't just lead his new Israel. He is the new Israel. He is the new David, the new Solomon, the Davidic king whose kingdom is the nucleus of a just human society, weak people who he delivers from the power of the devil who he then gives authority to deliver others. Within the world of flesh, they live by the Spirit, by the authority and power of the man at the center of their community - Jesus, the man who lives in the flesh entirely by Spirit. He is just and he builds a community of justice around him.
He is God come out from behind his temple veil. He will be struck. And like he taught his disciples, he won't strike back.
No comments:
Post a Comment