Jesus’ teaching about retaliation and love of enemies

JESUS said to his disciples: “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. 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 to him as well. If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one mile, go with him for two miles. Give to the one who asks of you, and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.

“You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, 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. For if you love those who love you, what recompense will you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brothers only, what is unusual about that? Do not the pagans do the same? So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

REFLECTION WAY OF LOVE. In 2010, Rodolfo Vera Quizon Sr., popularly known as Dolphy, the King of Filipino Comedy, received a most singular award from the President of the Philippines: the Grand Collar of the Order of the Golden Heart. Pres. Benigno Aquino III honored Dolphy with the highest award given to a private citizen for 60 years of distinguished service to the entertainment industry and for his outreach programs like the Dolphy Aid Para sa Pinoy Foundation that provides scholarship to deserving children of migrant workers.

Nobody expected the award, much less the recipient, because Dolphy supported Manny Villar, not Noynoy Aquino, in the presidential elections of 2010. After the ceremony at Malacañang, the comedian said, “I didn’t realize that our President was such a good man. I threw stones at him last election; now he gave me bread—this award.”

There is a joke among Filipinos that when someone throws stones at you, out of obedience to the biblical command, you should throw bread at him in return—along with the garapon or glass jar in which it is contained!

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus commands his disciples to go beyond the Torah of Moses that, among other things, orders: “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” This specifies that a limb one has lost is to be compensated by another’s limb, one’s life for another’s. This is popularly called lex talionis (law of “such”/equivalent); a damage requires only an equivalent damage as payment. The law curtailed the impulse for unlimited vengeance and unnecessary bloodshed.

Jesus goes beyond the lex talionis: not only should the harm not be returned, but the person should do good to his enemies. Jesus is here setting a new pattern of life. Just as his Father pardons and continues to shower the people with his blessings despite their betrayal, so must they do to their enemies. Jesus himself sets an example: dying on the cross, he asks his Father to forgive his killers for “they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34).

Jesus’ words are difficult to accept in a society where revenge and violence are felt almost everywhere. Does the love of enemies mean passivity so that the Christian does not do anything to curtail the injustices going on around? This is not what Jesus means. In fact, he is teaching his followers to actively “resist” their enemies. The better move is to conquer the hearts of one’s enemies. Then they are “eliminated” because they have ceased to be enemies; they have become friends.

If we apply “an eye for an eye” or “a tooth for a tooth,” we will soon become a society of blind or toothless people. Jesus is giving us a way out of the vicious cycle: love your enemies. Love is always creative; violence, destructive.