Readings and Reflections for Monday 15 June 2020 

1 Kings 21 : 1 – 16         Psalm 5 : 1 – 6       Matthew 5 : 38 – 42 

The Collect : 

Holy God, lord of the harvest,

you send your labourers to spread the gospel:

call us to this work,

equip us by your Spirit

and send us to proclaim your good news;

through Jesus Christ our Lord;

who lives and reigns with you

and the Holy Spirit,

one God for ever and ever. 

Amen 

What is justice? How should we deal with injustice? 

In I Kings, King Ahab wants the vineyard of his neighbour, Naboth. Naboth refuses to sell or trade his family’s ancestral heritage. Ahab’s wife, Jezebel plots to have Naboth dishonoured and then killed, thus freeing the king , to take Naboth’s vineyard.

Such injustice and greed are appalling.

“An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” is not, as it may seem to be saying, an encouragement to take revenge. It is part of what is known as the lex talionis by which punishment for an assault was to be restricted to not more than the suffering that had been experienced. So Exodus 21:23-24 says: “You shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stroke for stroke.”

Jesus calls for a very different kind of response. He tells us to offer the “evil person” no resistance.

Jesus makes the famous suggestion to “turn the other cheek”.  “If someone would take your tunic, give them your cloak as well.  If someone asks you to go one mile, go two miles with them. Give to the one who begs and do not turn away a borrower.”

For many in our “macho”-idealised world, turning the other cheek seems the ultimate walk over or door-mat response.

Jesus’ trial (John 18:22-23), after having given an answer to a question, “one of the guards standing by, gave Jesus a slap in the face, saying, ‘Is that the way to answer the high priest?’ Jesus replied, ‘If there is something wrong in what I said, point it out; but if there is no offence in it, why do you strike me?”  Jesus responds to the attack, but on a totally different level.  Jesus is not a victim here; he is in control.  This is true of the whole experience of the passion. His executioners behave in the most barbaric way but he never loses his calm and dignity.  In all the disappointments that Jesus  faces, betrayals and denials, he faces them with an inner strength and care for all.

We worship him as our Lord and Master and he asks us to follow in his footsteps.

Revenge, in all its various forms, is the easier way and the more instinctive way, but it is not the better way.

Turning the other cheek is not at all a sign of weakness. It requires great inner strength, self-respect, not only for ourselves but for the one who attacks us.

The life we have received in baptism empowers us to do the same. Christ offers us alternatives to that which the world offers. Alternative that brings fullness of life to all people. 

Let us Pray :

O merciful God,

fill our hearts, we pray,

with the graces of your Holy Spirit;

with love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness,

goodness, faithfulness, humility, and self-control. 

Teach us to love those who hate us;

to pray for those who despitefully use us;

that we may be the children of your love,

our Father, who makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good,

and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 

In adversity grant us grace to be patient;

in prosperity keep us humble;

may we guard the door of our lips;

may we lightly esteem the pleasures of this world,

and thirst after heavenly things;

through Jesus Christ our Lord.  

Amen

(Prayer of Anselm, 1033-1109)