Matthew 5:38 - 48
Once a year or so my wife gets the piano tuned. We have an elderly piano tuner who apparently is the last of his breed; but he goes all over western New England to tune pianos. He has some equipment -- a couple of tuning forks and a little hammer -- but mostly he has remarkable hearing -- or perhaps it’s just well-trained. So he tunes middle C to his tuning fork, and when the two are so close that you can’t tell them apart, he mutters, “perfect”. And he goes on to tune all 88 keys, based on harmonics. It’s a real art and interesting to watch, although he takes a lot longer to tune the piano than I have patience to observe. But perfect, for him, is when the keys on the piano are sounding exactly what they should sound like.
Last Sunday you may remember that Jesus told his disciples that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it, and that heaven and earth would pass away before even the smallest part of the law did. He then went on to give some examples of how a person was to fulfill the law. Jesus sets forth what the common understanding of the law is -- “you have heard it said, you shall not kill” and then gives his take “but I say to you if you are angry with your brother, you will be liable to judgment. And you have heard it said “you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you whoever looks at a woman with lust in his heart commits adultery with her,”. And Jesus gives reasons for his new interpretation -- anything is better than the consequences of breaking the law he lays down -- because that’s Gehenna, that’s hell.
Jesus continues today in that same vein. “You have heard it said, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’”. Now that’s not a Jewish commandment, but it’s in the code of Hammurabi, a Babylonian king who drew up the first set of laws. And it’s a good description of our human nature -- if someone does something to us, we aren’t happy till the same thing happens to that person. And the same is true of the other statement “You have heard it said, ‘you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy'’”. The second part isn’t in the bible. But it was a pretty common understanding at that time -- and perhaps continues to be so in our time.
But Jesus’ take on these bits of folk wisdom are just as profound as his take on the two commandments we heard about last week. “Offer no resistance to evil” he says. ‘If someone strikes you on the right cheek, offer him your left.” “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”. And then Jesus gives us the reason -- “so that you may be children of your heavenly Father.” And then we hear those words, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” And that’s where we throw up our hands and say, “You can’t mean all those things, Jesus! You are just exaggerating, right?”
But I don’t think Jesus is exaggerating. He wouldn’t give us impossible tasks. And we are, after all, made in the image and likeness of God. And that implies that being “god-like” is within the realm of our capabilities. And the way God does things is right there before us -- Jesus shows us the way. God doesn’t give his gifts based upon whether one is good or evil. And if you need more detail, Jesus demonstrates the way God is in his life, but especially in his passion, death and resurrection.
So Jesus wants us to embrace the fact that we are children of our heavenly Father made in his image. And because of original sin, we can’t help but be enticed by sin. Like Eve, we see the fruit on the tree and think to ourselves how good that looks, I wonder what it would taste like? What harm could taking a little bite do?” And those are the moments when we listen for whether our planned behavior will be in tune with what God would do. And if we are out of tune, we’ll know it. That’s what the Holy Spirit is all about, that’s what an informed conscience does. And when we are in tune with what God would do, and we sense that we are in harmony with him, then we can say, with our elderly piano tuner, “That’s perfect”.
So as we begin Lent this coming week, I hope we will make it a point to look at our lives carefully. And I don’t mean those things that happen now and then, things that we often end up confessing in the sacrament of reconciliation. I mean those things we do out of habit, out of reflex, those moments when we feel we’ve been taken advantage of, those moments when we feel disrespected. Do we hold a grudge against somebody? Do we tend to take advantage of someone’s good nature -- usually a family member? As we look through those moments that happen every day, are they in harmony with the way God acts? And if our action is not in harmony, that would be a good thing to try to change during lent.
