Stephen
Terry, Director
Living
the Law
Commentary
for the August 30, 2025, Sabbath School Lesson
"Do not seek
revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your
neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord." Leviticus 19:18, NIV
It
seems like the entire world is bent on revenge for wrongs either real or
imagined. And among an evil people who have proclaimed the death and idiocy of belief
in God, that revenge often comes in the form of human justice untempered with
mercy. Hundreds of thousands are marching into their graves as I write this as
pawns in the never-ending cycle of seeking revenge. Even some
of those who profess to believe in God, only believe in him as far as to
excuse their limitless wrath against those who have wronged them, citing Old
Testament passages about "an eye for an eye." We see this in the abortion
battles. How twisted is it to think that the best way to deal with abortion is
to exact revenge on the women who receive them? It is ironic to claim to be pro-life
while willing to destroy the lives of those mothers. I do not excuse the use of
abortion as birth control, but I also do not excuse the evil done to destroy
others in retribution. Mahatma Gandhi summed the problem up well when he said, "An
eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind." The entire
world has become blind to the fruits of this wicked cycle of harming others and
the sad excuses offered to keep it going.
Every
evil reaction seems to be traceable to the fear that if someone gets away with
something I do not like, society will fall apart, and evil will win. But if we
are all living in fear then evil has already won. Technology has taken us a
long way down that road, and without God, I am not sure we can find our way
back. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, an endless stream of things
to feed our fears and our anxieties force their way into our lives through
printed material, videos, television programming, and social media. Driven by
our fear of missing out, we open ourselves to this never-ending stream lest
some danger get past our anxious vigilance. There is no end to the dangers that
trouble our hearts to the point of triggering our innate fight or flight
response. Climate change, immigrants sneaking into our country, corrupt
individuals seizing power locally, nationally, and internationally, fear of
infiltration and invasion, fear of another world war, fear of vaccines and
government overreach are all imagined threats to our peace and safety. Demagogues
are willing to use those fears to herd us along, and like lemmings we scurry
along in the strong belief that everyone jumping off the cliff together is the
best way to end the fear.
Sadly,
technology that brings us such a flood of fearful information also isolates us,
further stoking those fears. Ironically, we often know less about our next-door
neighbor than we do about the person behind the fake social media profile
anonymously goading us in our anxieties. When I was growing up in the 1950s and
60s, neighbors knew each other well, visiting back and forth in each other's homes
and across back fences. I remember with fondness one man who would whistle
while working in his yard. His heart overflowed with joy and that joy flowed
out into the neighborhood. That pleasant practice has now been
replaced with disrespect for others with few asking themselves if what they
are doing will be a blessing to others or an irritant. Instead, they see others
who question their disrespect for others as being the irritant, taking away their
opportunity to have "fun." These people are nothing new. The prophet Isaiah had
them in his day, decrying their activities, he wrote," Woe to those who call
evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who
put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter." (Isaiah 5:20)
It
was the desire of the Pharisees of Jesus' time to exact revenge for his
challenge to their authority that led them to persecute and kill him and his
followers. They also manipulated the fears of others to increase their own
power and wealth. They did not have the technology we have today to advance
those aims, but they were nonetheless largely successful in their wicked
campaign to consolidate power until the lid blew off in 70 AD
when Jersualem fell to Roman legions, and the Jews were expelled.
This is always the danger when manipulating others through stoking their fears.
Someone always seems to come along that is better at it and takes away the power
structure created, then twisting it to their own agenda. This should be a lesson
for those who try to build up a church of followers by adding to the fears they
already carry the additional fears of missing heaven and going to hell. In some
cases, justice may demand the existence of a hell. But it is not God's will
that anyone should end up there.
Jesus
would rescue every lost sheep. He expressed it like this: "See that you do not
despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven
always see the face of my Father in heaven. What do you think? If a man owns a
hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine
on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? And if he finds it,
truly I tell you, he is happier about that one sheep than about the ninety-nine
that did not wander off. In the same way your Father in heaven is not willing
that any of these little ones should perish." (Matthew 18:10-14) Nevertheless,
while Jesus is engaged in trying to save all, we are too often doing the
opposite and driving sheep away because their differences threaten those
manipulating our fears. We fear God less than we do those who pat us on the
head and say, "Good Christian" when we respond to the puppet strings of fear as
they pull them and incite us to do and think things that Jesus never would.
To find
our way back out of fear, we need to find our way back to Creation and God who
made us. He created us to be in his image. (Genesis
1:27) That image is all about love, not fear. (1
John 4:8) The book of Revelation, which speaks about the End Times, calls
us back to that original relationship with God. "Worship him who made the
heavens, the earth, the sea and the springs of water." (Revelation 14:7b) The
prophet Haggai tells us, "This is what I covenanted with you when you came out
of Egypt. And my Spirit remains among you. Do not fear." (Haggai 2:5) Fear has
turned our hearts as cold as stone even toward those we would normally love.
But God can change that. He will take those hardened hearts and restore them to
the loving hearts we were created to have. When we find God, he will heal us
and our love for him will grow. As it grows, our love for others will grow as
well. We will begin to love others as we love ourselves, wishing for them the
same blessings we seek.
Jesus
wept over Jerusalem and the manipulative religion that had grown there. He saw
the advantage taken by a priesthood that used fear to coerce the people to
enrich themselves and the government. With tears in his voice, he lamented, "Jerusalem,
Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I
have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under
her wings, and you were not willing." (Matthew 23:37) Little has changed since
then. Populist preachers manipulate others still and rake in rivers of gold,
building themselves an empire here on earth, not realizing they are tossing
aside the one that might have been theirs if instead of enriching themselves
they had taught others to humbly seek God's love and learn how to live that
love to their neighbors--their poor neighbors, their neighbors from other countries,
other races, even their hateful neighbors, for God loves even the unrighteous. (Matthew
5:44-45)
When
the kingdom of Samaria fell to the Assyrians and its people taken into
captivity, the Assyrians settled other people in Samaria. It was not an easy
resettlement. The new inhabitants asked for teachers to teach them how to
worship the God of Israel that things might go better for them. These were the
ancestors of those the Jews called Samaritans in Jesus' day, after the name of the
city of Samaria. The hatred for the Samaritans who took part of Israel was deep
and the hatred turned hearts on both sides to stone. When Jesus was once asked,
"Who is my neighbor?" after telling a young lawyer that he was to love his
neighbor, he told the story of an Israelite who was attacked by bandits and
left for dead. Other Israelites passed by, unwilling to help. But a Samaritan
came upon the injured man and did all he could to help him and aid in his
recovery. Jesus then asked, "Who was the neighbor here?" The answer was obvious.
It was the Samaritan. When we put conditions on loving others, those conditions
tend to expand and in the end, we help no one. But after the parable and the
lesson became clear Jesus said, "Go and do likewise." (Luke
10:25-37)