WE SHOULD KNOW BETTER Gospel of Matthew 5:27-30 :
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. If your right eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it away from you. For it is better for you to that one of your members should perish than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna. If your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off, and throw it away from you. For it is better for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.”
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To cut your own leg or to pluck your own eyes advice or commandment sound very bizarre. If Jesus really meant that, then the requirement could have caused loosing limbs and eyes in many. If it would have been declared as a mandatory procedure in every single case, then it would have rendered close to everybody on Earth to become maimed and mutilated.
Obviously it can not be the ruling of Jesus, as it literally sound, because it would be unnatural and extreme. Nonetheless, according to the Gospel he said that, so the question is the real meaning of it. It happened many times that prophets, sages, rabbis and Jesus himself, used similes, metaphores and parables to emphasize a message, where the literal meaning was just the wrapping of the real message under the cover. Like the disciples had to open the gift box to see what is inside of the box. Thus, we may wish to do a little scrutiny.
The cutting off limbs or plucking out the eye as a self inflicted punishment for someone's sins is such a nonsense that it belongs to the “it would be better if you” category wisdom literature, together with the turning of the other cheek requirement. This is a spiritual realm of the category of “it would be better”, as it is a metaphorical and even parabolic approach, which used to carry deep messages, even when the literal meaning feels extreme, even moreover when it is bizarre indeed. The parables in these cases go for the extra miles, to try to motivate the stubborn to change course and do the right thing, which is keeping God’s commandments, not by the letter, but in the spirit they were given to save the human soul to be able to merit Heaven.
Nonetheless, for example, it is very hard to define how far the turning of the other cheek should go, but it is definitely also in the realm of the it would be better, which continues with the warning of the “or else”. The ancient sages say that if you know surely, that the enemy is coming to kill you or your family, to destroy your livelihood, to burn down your town, to devastate your country, then even the preemptive strike is not only allowed, but it is an obligation, as you can not stand idle when innocent lives are in grave danger.
Surprisingly, the turning of the other cheek requirement and the obligation of the preemptive strike do not really contradict each other, because they apply to different realms.
Just as it was said by a former American president on the television, that he always respected the idea Jesus had conveyed in the Gospel, like the turning of the other cheek, but he was not able to approve it as a real life military policy for the defense department in order to repel hostile activities and keep the country safe, for it would not have worked. For sure, that they did not even try it for minute, how it would work.
Nonetheless, Jesus could not have ever meant that in every real life situation you must turn your other cheek to your attacker in order to receive submissively and without any resistance the next slap or the next hit or the artillery pounding or the airstrike.
But, if he said it, we have to give him some preliminary credit, that he knew his stuff, thus, we should take a closer look at his recommendation. The solution of this is connected with his saying, when he said that “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, ‘You shall not murder,’ and ‘whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment (…)
If we reciprocate its meaning, it might be clear that even in a justified case of self-defense, when we must actively defend the lives of our loved ones, the safety of our town and country, still we are not allowed to be carried away by anger, hatred, vengeance, vendetta, and to commit sinful crimes like indiscriminate punishment, to use unproportionate force to eliminate threat, because if we do, we awaken not only the monsters sleeping in our hearts but we also surely invoke the wrath of God against ourselves, as God is always punishing transgressions with perfect impartiality.
So when Jesus advised his disciples and the people in general that please cut your arm if it causes you to sin, or pluck your eye out if that is that one causes you to sin, it is wrapped in the conclusion at the explanatory end, that “For it is better for you that one of your members should perish, than for your whole body to be cast into Gehenna.” He said that ‘for it is better for you’, but it meant that ‘it would be better for you’, because here Jesus was talking about the eternal life and the meriting the admission into Heaven, whereone has to be very careful not to lose the path how to get there. The mere possibility of losing Heaven and the eternal life, should be treated by people with such an anxiety, as it would be the case of losing a limb or the eyesight. And that is the real point.
Following blindly the letter would do nothing good, because the spirit of the advice of Jesus goes parallel with the teaching of Moses, who says in the Book of the Deuteronomy, chapter ten, that “Circumcise therefore your hearts, and be no more stiff-necked. ” It must be obvious that as the bad desires and the decisions to commit sin come from the heart, so the very cleaning of the heart is pivotal, and cutting limbs or body parts can not help in it. Nonetheless, with the extreme wording Jesus wanted to warn the hardened impenitent that serving the body will lead to sure perdition.
The other aspect of our text is when Jesus commented on one of the squarly prohibitive commandments in the Ten Commandments, as it says that You shall not commit adultery, which is the sin of the breach of the marriage covenant by cheating. Some decent people say that I did not do anything wrong, like ever, but they also maintain, that it is unavoidable to have, or even impossible of not having some involuntary thoughts.
For sure, it has been a great achievement already when someone was able to restrain himself by not acting upon his errors in judgment, and the thought has never become a deed. Almost all civil jurisdictions would acquit any people, who successfully avoided doing something wrongfully, as they were just pondering on it.
However, Jesus adds, that “I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart.” He must have been right, because it is fortunately included in the Ten Commandments, as the last commandment among the ten, that ‘you shall not covet’. Apostle Paul promptly repeated it: ‘For I wouldn’t have known that coveting is a sin, unless the Law of God had said, “You shall not covet.” ’ The Lord wants us wholly holy. So may we love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our might. May the Lord be praised, not by the letter, but in Spirit,
AMEN
