From Letter to Spirit: God’s Aim

We’ve been talking for a few weeks now about the spirit of the law versus the letter of the law. We can get trapped into misunderstanding scripture because we read a verse and we think that the simplest meaning is the right meaning. So, we read a verse, for example, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” And we think, “If somebody smacks me, then I’m gonna smack them back right. That’d be the biblical response. If you hurt me, then I’m coming after you and I’m going to hurt you in the same way .”

However, we know that Jesus has some things to say about such actions. So, we start to get into this track of believing that all that Old Testament stuff it doesn’t apply anymore because Jesus came to establish a New Covenant, a New testament, to start it anew. I’ve heard that idea preached. I’ve heard it taught. I’ve heard it spoken around our community on sidewalks and in coffee shops and in restaurants. And it’s dead wrong.

Remember what Jesus says in Matthew 5? Jesus is really really clear about the relationship between what he is there to do and the Hebrew Bible or what we call today the Old Testament Read with me.

Matthew 5 17

“Do not think that I have come to a bow abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. For truly I tell you until Heaven and Earth pass away not one letter not one stroke of a letter will pass away from the law until all is accomplished. Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these Commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I tell you unless you’re righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

We have this modern notion that the Old Testament is old. It’s outdated. It’s not all in force. For example, you’re all violating some Old Testament laws right now if you read the letter of the law. How many of you are wearing clothes with mixed thread fabric in them? Like polyester or any blends? Well, you’re in violation of the Old Testament! Sorry, see you in hell, right? I’m joking, of course! It doesn’t work that way!

But you know that there’s something going on, right? That when you come across something like these fabric laws, that doesn’t add up, that you don’t understand, then something else must be at work. But what is it? What is going on?

It’s not like Jesus came and said, “Hey, you know that law about wearing clothes with mixed materials in them? Just throw that one out. I came to erase that one.”

No! Jesus says whoever breaks one of the least of these Commandments will be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus says you don’t get to wipe it away, you don’t get to throw it away, you don’t get to talk about it as the Old Covenant. No, you don’t get to do that. It doesn’t work like that. There’s something else going on.

I want to look at what is going on, how we understand what’s going on, and how can we get to the core of some of these more obscure Old Testament laws and teachings and stories. They may not make sense to us today and we may have a really hard time understanding them, but we must know that Jesus comes to fulfill them. What is the spirit of that law that should be continuing to guide us today? And how can we actually do what Jesus said to do which is to practice even the most minute of those sometimes weird laws?

Well, the first place I want to look is the first verse we just read. Jesus says, “I have not come to abolish but to fulfill.” There’s two important words happening here in this  passage. The Greek word for abolish. It means to destroy, to tear down, to stop, or to even just do away with something. Now, many of us just do away with lots of Old Testament teachings. We abolish what Jesus has come to fulfill. And that word, fulfill, is the next words for us to look at. The Greek word fulfill is about bringing something to completion. In other words, Jesus is saying, “I’ve come to finish all that stuff that you read in in the Hebrew Bible. I’ve come to to take what you were given and to make it complete, to actually make it come true.” This is the range of meaning within the Greek words that Jesus is speaking.

So, practically speaking, what does it mean that Jesus has come to make a law like “an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth” complete? How has Jesus come to fulfill that law? How is Jesus going to finish that teaching? How is He going to make it come true?

Here is where I need some help this morning. So I’ve asked a couple of young ladies to help me.

I have a beach ball. I need one person to move all the way to the back of the sanctuary. And I need one person to move right down the middle of the aisle. And the thrid person, you stay up here at the front with me.

If I give the person in the front the beach ball and ask you to throw it all the way to the person in the back, can you do that? No, of course not. A beach ball just cannot be thrown accurately that far. But let’s try it. See what you can do.

Person tries to throw the ball to the back of the room

Not too bad. That’s a pretty good throw, but it fell short. Actually, I was actually impressed with your aim because usually these things go off course and just kinda fall flat in the air. But you aimed, you threw, you used everything you had, and you didn’t quite get it there.

Sometimes we aim and despite our best aim we still come up short. We’re off to the mark. We don’t quite hit the target. All right, now let’s try again. But this time let’s use some help. First throw to the person halfway and then that person throw to the person in the back.

Ball thrown from front to halfway and then to the back accurately!

All right, there’s success! Thank you, folks. I appreciate your help.

So here’s the lesson: God’s word is always pointing us somewhere. God’s word has an aim, a goal. It’s pointing us in a direction trying to get us somewhere to show us how to live.

But here’s the thing: if God were to throw us all the way to the goal, we would fly off course and land flat just like that beach ball. We humans cannot get to God’s goal  all in one motion. We’re going to inevitably fall short. We’re not going to get it. We’re not going to understand. We’re not even going to be able to catch God’s law because it’s going to land in a place that we just can’t grasp yet. And this is not because of God reach or ability. No, it’s because of us. God chooses to us us to spread the Good News. And so often we have the word of God in our hands, just like that beach ball. And we try to throw it, to pass it on to someone else. But that person is just not within our reach. We throw it anyway, but despite our best aim, we’re off the mark. We miss. We come up short.

Brothers and sisters, there’s always a goal. There’s always an aim to God’s Word. There’s always a trajectory within scripture.

Or think of it this way: I learned that bow and arrow season opened this week. When you shoot a bow and arrow, what do you do? You’ve got to pull back and aim at a target, and then you release. Now, as you watch an archer take aim, can you pinpoint exactly where they are aiming their arrow? Probably, not. You might have a general frame of reference, but you could not be exactly sure where that arrow is going to fly.

Now imagine using your iPhone to take a burst of photographs for like three or five seconds in a row as the archer is releasing the arrow to document its flight path. If you were to look at every one of those pictures, what would you see? The arrow is going to be in a different place in every single photograph. If you were to look at any one of those photographs, would you know exactly where that arrow is going to land? No, any one of those photographs by itself could not tell you where the arrow is going to land. But, if you put them out in a sequential row from beginning to end, then you would be able to see the whole flight path. You could see exactly where the person aimed and how high or low they had the the bow in order to hit their goal. You could see the arrow arc through the air. You could see as it rose. You could see it plain off and then begin to fall towards it target. Every arrow has a little bit of an arc to it and with the pictures you could see the entire arc from beginning to end.

The word of God is like the arrow.

In this day and age, we love to pull out and utilize one little verse of scripture to make a point. We think that with that one little verse of scripture that we know exactly what God is trying to say to us. The truth is this: it takes that one little verse of scripture plus dozens and dozens of others to show us the aim, the intention, the way, the path, the target, the meaning, the Spirit of God’s Word.

Let’s look at the example I offered earlier from Exodus: an eye on a tooth for a tooth.

Exodus 21:22-25

If men fight and hurt a woman with child so that she gives birth prematurely, yet no harm follows, he shall surely be punished accordingly as the woman’s husband imposes on him, and he shall pay as the judge determines. But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

If you take that verse by itself, when somebody harms you, what should you do? Wound for wound, right? If you wound me, then I’m coming after you to wound you. It would seem that that’s what God is telling us to do. And then Leviticus steps in to reinforce this idea.

Leviticus 24:19

Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered.

Period. If you place Exodus and Leviticus together, then eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth is pretty clear. You want to be biblical in your actions? Then you just do to everybody exactly what they do to you. And as the saying goes, “We’ll all end up blind!” We understand that. So, then how would you interpret these passages? What exactly is going on?

In the case of Exodus 21, recall the situation that leads to the Exodus. Do you remember? In Exodus chapter one a new pharaoh comes into power and he’s afraid. Specifically, he’s afraid of the Israelites – their growing in number and strength. So, Pharaoh ssets out to stop their numbers and strength. He forces them into hard labor, in making bricks and mortar. They become slaves and the story ends in male child genocide.

Pharaoh enacted a policy that engaged violence that was far more than eye for eye. And this was the society that the Israelites were escaping. If you stole a loaf of bread, then we take your hand so that you can’t steal a loaf of bread again. The punishment was far worse than the crime in many cases and in many cultures at this time. So the Exodus and Leviticus commandments come from God at a particular time to say, “No, you cannot chop off somebody’s hand just because they stole a loaf of bread. Instead, it’s got to be just an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” If somebody steals a loaf of bread, then you get the loaf of bread back or you require payment for the loaf of bread or maybe, at worst, you steal the loaf of bread back from them. But you don’t do something that is far more harsh than the crime. In other words, the command “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” limited the amount of harm and damage and violence that could be done at this time in history. And that’s what the world needed. That’s what the Israelites needed. It was the first throw of the ball, the first snapshot of the law that has a much longer trajectory before it hits it target. Where is it going to land? Well, we don’t yet know. This was the first throw for those people at that time based on what they needed to hear to understand the spirit of God’s law.

You cannot do more harm to someone else than has done to you. What is that about? It’s about limiting violence and forcing you into a relationship where you got to be fair and just with other people. In other words, it’s about reconciliation, that is, bringing us together.

Today, we don’t throw the Exodus of Leviticus law out. Rather, we understand where it’s headed. And Jesus shows us where that law is headed. He says this in Matthew Chapter 5:38:

You’ve heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Yet I say to you do not resist an evil doer, but if anyone strikes you on the right cheek turn the other also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give him your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also a second mile. Give to everyone who begs from you and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

Now, I’d love to say that I’ve followed everyone of those commands from Jesus Christ all my life. But I’m a failure. And I imagine that as you hear the high high calling of those verses, you realize that’s really hard to do. But Jesus steps in. After the ball was thrown with the “eye for eye” command, Jesus picks it up and throws it further towards the target. Jesus gives us the next step. And we begin to understand more clearly what God wants us to do, how God wants us to live.

Jesus steps in and says no longer can you be this tit-for-tat society. You cannot simply enact a punishment which fits the crime. Instead, you have to walk the extra mile to try to change someone’s heart and behavior. Essentially, Jesus puts in place a rehabilitation program. To turn your cheek was not simply to submit yourself to another blow, but rather to up the ante, to call someone out in a way that would have brought them shame had they slapped you again. Ths kind of response points out the utter violence that  an aggressor has committed. It says, “If you really meant that and you really hate me that much and you’re really that evil and vile, then do it again. Up the ante. This kind of response points the violence in the face of the perpetrator and forces them to see it and face it.

The goal was to point out the wrong that had been committed and to place the person in a situation where they had to recognize the damage done. And it was face to face with their victim. The goal was about changing hearts and habits. The goal, the aim, the trajectory of the law, the spirit of the law was reconciliation – bringing us together. It was reconciliation when God said “an eye for an eye” and it was reconciliation when Jesus said “walk the extra mile, and turn the other cheek.”

The first law fit the context in which it was written. It got us towards the goal, but not all the way to the goal. The second law that Jesus gives us it gets us further towards the goal.

So, what does that then mean for today? After all, Jesus threw the Matthew 5:38 ball to us 2 000 years ago!

Have we picked it up and run with it? Do we still have some work to do? What is the spirit of that law? Whether it’s in the form of an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth or in the form of walk the extra mile and turn the other cheek, both are pointing us towards the same goal. So, what does it mean for today for you? What do you do when somebody steps in and calls you a name or smacks you or hurts you or harms you in any way? What is a Christ-like response? What is a biblical response?

I don’t have one answer for you. What I can say is that the spirit of that law is to do whatever it takes to repair the relationship with the offending person. Sometimes it might mean a punishment and sometimes it might mean turn another cheek. Maybe it means that punishments and cheek-turning are actually the same thing if you are creative enough and if you’re faithful enough. Maybe we have to find a way to both punish and turn the other cheek at the same time.

Jesus comes. Times change. People change. And we see the arrow further along the path. And it’s about turning the cheek and giving a cloak and walking an extra mile.

Where is it today? The answer that you find to that question on any particular situation in your life is the work of faith in action. It’s the work of biblical interpretation. It’s not simply biblical to say, “Oh, you hit me, so I’m hitting you back. Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth.” No. That response misses the Spirit of God’s Law. It mistakes the spirit of the law for the letter of the law.

So perhaps today we need to lean into reconciliation. For example, we need to refrain from speaking ill of people that we don’t like. Perhaps we need to stop thinking that justice is simply about revenge and retribution, but rather remember that justice is about reforming people and restoring broken relationships. Perhaps we need to remember that killing people is never a Christ-like answer to a problem. Perhaps we need to learn the power of self-control when we become angry at someone. Perhaps we need to learn to say thank you for your service both when we agree and when we don’t agree with what somebody’s done. Perhaps we need to learn the sheer power of unpredictable acts of kindness in the midst of terrible and horrible circumstances.

Whatever it is that we need to hear and reclaim, if it is to be biblical, then it is not about glibly reciting a verse of scripture, cherry picking the Bible, and then throwing it out there as the biblical response. Instead, it’s about understanding the whole of God’s word from Genesis to Revelation. It’s about looking for those markers along the way when the arrow is shot and the aim is taken to see how and where the arrow is traveling along the arc of history. It’s about asking ourselves what does that aim, that arc, that target mean for us today? That is the biblical response. It’s the trajectory of God’s word. It’s the spirit of God’s law. It’s aiming our action towards the same target that God is aiming for and allowing God to work God’s miracles through our faithful action.

Amen.