Moving from Certainty to Love

You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you… turn the other cheek… love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. - Matthew 5:39

There are many things going on in this passage, but one of them is the how Jesus destabilizes the clarity and certainty that are the mainstays of religion. As instructions, “Eye for eye and tooth for tooth” are very clear and measurable. It’s a form of religion that can be accomplished. And it’s not like it was a bad idea - it prevented escalation and in so many ways was a beautiful to the world. But one of the things Jesus does is he unbalances the equation when he by adding in loving our enemies.

When loving enemies is in the mix, now instead of having a clear response to evil, we are invited to an unclear response. Instead of a limited response to evil, we are invited to an unlimited response to evil. That’s because love is unmanageable, unmeasurable, and unlimited. Love does not breed the kind of certainty and guarantees that make for predictability. Of course, love is really awesome and amazing, and Jesus’s invitation to learn this new way of life is such a gift to us all. But there’s a lot less certainty around it.

Sometimes this approach to religion is unnerving for those of us who like things to be predictable and clear. That’s not the way of Jesus. How do you feel about that?