Changing the Rules - September 24
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 119:97-120; PM Psalm 81, 82; 2 Kings 6:1-23; 1 Cor. 5:9-6:8; Matt. 5:38-48
We were about ten minutes into a pretty fast-paced soccer game last Sunday. My son is a center back and he found himself in a dead sprint with a striker barreling toward his own goal. He has far exceeded any speed I could hold these days and, in a flash, trying to position himself, the striker tumbled down. Out came his first card of the season—a red card. Seventy more minutes of his team playing down a player and a suspension in the next league game were both the results. He was shaken, feeling like he let his team down, especially since he has a reputation of being a really good sport (he once knelt down years ago and tied an opposing player’s shoe, which is very much in character for him).
I love sports because they give us a healthy outlet for competition, but they also reveal something about us. Our human drive to win, to protect, to get ahead, is deeply ingrained—it’s part of our nature. Left unchecked, those instincts can lead us to lash out, to retaliate, to strike back when we feel wronged, or maybe just let the game get the best of us. Maybe that’s what happened on Sunday. Which is why rules and referees are so important. Without them, things can spiral out of control quickly just by our human nature alone.
But in Matthew 5, Jesus calls his disciples to a different way. “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer… Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” In other words, Jesus acknowledges our natural instincts—but then he points us beyond them. He is setting new ground rules that are different than what we might expect and fundamentally change the game we are playing. He says the Christian life is not about meeting violence with violence or insult with insult. It is about choosing a different path, one that looks foolish to the world but mirrors the heart of God.
That doesn’t mean we abandon justice or pretend that wrong doesn’t exist. But it does mean we are called to respond in ways that disrupt the cycle of retribution. We are called to live in such a way that when others see us, they see something different. This is why I’m so troubled when a Christian response is retribution and it feels like this point may be worth underscoring today. The lectionary readings seem especially timely.
So much of our world runs on red cards, on rules and penalties, on “you did this, so I’ll do that.” Jesus calls us to something more. He calls us to live differently. To choose love where retaliation would be easier or to pray where anger would be natural. We do this so that we might show grace where judgment is expected, modeling the radical love of Christ Jesus.
That, he says, is the mark of the children of God and what all of us should aspire to model.
John+
Questions for Self-Reflection: When have I let my natural instinct to retaliate or defend myself get the better of me—and what would it have looked like to respond with Christ’s way of love instead? In what areas of my life am I still playing by “the world’s rules” of retribution and fairness, rather than by the radical grace Jesus calls us to model?