Bending the Rules

"If anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he has done must be done to him." Leviticus 24:19

Bending The Rules
By Rev. William Dohle

Ahh!  My children are getting too smart now!

They have learned that sometimes when I give them a rule I will break that same rule myself a little while later.  Like...

I tell them to stay out of the cookies...but I sneak a cookie when they're not looking.
I tell them to pick up their stuff from the floor when they come home...only my stuff is all over the floor too.
I tell them to clean up their room...when my room is a mess.

The list goes on and on.  Invariably, it seems, there is always something that I'm doing(or not doing) that my kids should(or should not) be doing.  It just works that way.

They've tried to point it out to me.  They say, "Hey!" and "But you don't...".  I try to shrug it off and still keep the rule firm...but I think they're starting to catch on.  You see...

Rules are not as absolute as we think they should be.

This thought applies to biblical rules too, or so it would seem.  Take, for example, that one we know so well quoted from the book of Exodus.

"...if there is serious injury you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." Exodus 21:23-25

We usually know this rule as the "Eye for an eye" rule.  It says, in a sense, "Do to others what they have done to you."

The rabbis quickly point out that this rule is not meant to be taken literally.  It refers to a monetary fine imposed on people for the injury.  A "just" fee for injuries sustained.

And Christians will point out too that Jesus addresses this very command in the book of Matthew.

 "You have heard it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'  But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person."(Mat. 5:38-39)

And so we both assert: The rule doesn't mean what it says it does.  Either Jesus has thrown it out or we should just take it metaphorically.  One way or the other...the rule doesn't apply.

But still the rule is there.  "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth..." And we face the question: do we ignore it?  Do we dismiss it?  Do we make it into a metaphor?  How do we handle this?  People all over the world still live by this rule.  Do we adopt it as truth?

I think it should be said first that when this command was spoken it was one of grace.  In a society where an offense might not only get you, but your whole family and clan killed, a limitation on the punishment afflicted is a gracious one for the victimizer.  Only what is done to the offender may be done back.  Their family and their clan must be left alone.  Everyone pays for what they do themselves.

So the rule is good in some ways...but not good in others.  As Gandi has rightly pointed out, "An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind."  Even this commandment cannot apply in all situations.  For who of us have not offended our neighbor somehow?  Who of us have not burned them with our words, abused them in our thoughts, or hurt them with our actions?  If we were to take this command literally, each one of us should be left blind and hurting.

Even this command from God needs its exceptions.

Forgiveness is the exception to this command.  Forgiveness breaks this commandment in pieces.  It says: "You owe me an eye, but I will not take it from you.  I will forgive you the offense."  Forgiveness shatters this "eye for an eye" principle in pieces.  It refuses to take restitution, though it is owed it.  It refuses to punish, though it can.  Even a gracious punishment is unthinkable to forgiveness.  An eye for an eye goes unclaimed in forgiveness, for it is the grand exception to the rule.

If this is the case, then the greatest rule breaker of them all is God!  For we believe that in Jesus Christ, God forgives the world of its sin.  God forgives every single person.  God doesn't take an eye for an eye, a life for a life, or any other form of restitution.  Instead, God says: "I forgive you!"  God sets our sins from us, as far as the east is from the west we are told.  And God refuses to exact punishment upon us for them.

All thanks to Jesus Christ, we get to keep our eyes, our hands, and all our members because he is forgiveness in the flesh!

You gave the law at Sinai, Lord, and we struggle to understand and keep it.  Help us see and experience your forgiveness so that we may forgive others, instead of inflicting upon them the pain they have inflicted upon us.  Amen.