“…until you have paid the last penny.”
When we let hatred
and bitterness overwhelm us, we imprison ourselves. We become bastions of pride
and self-deception. Caved in on ourselves, we will not get out until we pay the
last farthing (or penny). What imprisons us and relegates us to live outside the
loving presence of God is, at the bottom, the choices we make turning away from the truth.
The truth given by the Lord Jesus in the passage from the Sermon
on the Mount is a difficult one like many others. Our instinct is to hold fast
to the injustices we have suffered. To rage against those who have wronged us.
To cast our opponents in an unflattering light. Oh, how deeply counterintuitive
Jesus’ teachings are! I submit this is a good thing. What we need is less of
our intuitions about how we ought to be toward God and our fellow man. Our
intuitions, what we immediately want to do when we are wronged, is to strike
out in anger. We want to call someone useless or foolish. We want to dehumanize
them. We want to do unto them as they have done unto us, instead of the
reverse. But what does this get us in the end? Do we feel better? Does it make
the injustice go away? Does it take away the pain? Does it bring back the
relationship? The answer, much to our chagrin, is no. Jesus helpfully provides
us the corrective course of action.
What happens when we fail to work out our problems with the
spirit of Christ, is that we bear the brunt of the bad
outcome. We are handed over to the judge, and then the guard, and finally, we
are imprisoned. When we are angry with other people or hate them, we that drink
the poison of contempt and hope the other person gets sick. I can count many
times where my self-righteous indignation demanded that I take justice into my
own hands. I just had to say it. “At least I have my pride.” Yes, and
that’s all I wound up with. A core theme of the Bible is that our intuitions
and ways of thinking about things are not always God’s ways. Indeed, many times
they are not. That is why God so graciously provides examples and teachings for
us to aid the journey we take through life. He gives us grace sufficient for
the troubles of the day. If we settle with our brother quickly, if we make sure
that animosity does not become toxic sludge in our veins, we win in the end. We
keep a friend or colleague. We keep ourselves in control. We keep ourselves on
God’s side.
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