Explained: 02-20-23 Gospel

[Kaplok Kaplok]

Matthew 5
³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
³⁹ But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one as well.
⁴⁰ If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand over your cloak as well.
⁴¹ Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go for two miles.
⁴² Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.
⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
⁴⁴ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
⁴⁴ that you may be children of your heavenly Father, for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good, and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same?
⁴⁷ And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same?
⁴⁸ So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

This gospel touches on Jesus' most revolutionizing teaching. For centuries or even for milleniums, the Jews went by the justice we call "an eye for an eye", as it was said in You do not have permission to view the full content of this post. Log in or register now.. Historians mostly agree that these laws in Leviticus were derived from "Hammurabi Code" of Babylonian origin.

Jesus is essentially changing A very old tradition passed down through several generations of Jews, and is instead teaching the value of magnanimity.

Magnanimity is a quality we can define as "having a big soul" or "big mind" or the opposite of Pettiness the quality "small soul" or "small mind." It teaches us to be "bigger" than our opponent by forgiveness and generosity, exposing our opponent as smaller than us in doing so.

This teaching is not unique in Jesus, but definitely unheard of in the context of the jewish culture he is teaching it in. But here are some philosophers who taught about magnanimity.

Some archeologist actually suspects Jesus of being an educated scholar because of some of his teachings, including this. For him to be able to give such profound and revolutionary teaching, he just might be. He is essentially abolishing old laws of the Leviticus.

But it is equally valid to argue that Jesus is actually reiterating, or fulfilling something like he said:

Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. -Matthew 5:17

Going back to Genesis, when Cain killed Abel, God has already shown the antidote to the endless cycle of vengeance and pettiness.

¹³ Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is more than I can bear. ¹⁴ Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.”

¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Not so; anyone who kills Cain will suffer vengeance seven times over.” Then the Lord put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. -Genesis 4:13-15

In these verses, we see that since the very beginning, God's justice has been different from the Code of Hammurabi. Since the beginning, he has stated the consequence of the pettiness in human societies.


Busy weekend, so it is posted late.
But anyway,
Thank you for reading.

 

[OrangeMoon]

Always nice to read these, thanks