The Law in a New LightSample

Jesus Reframes the Law – 2

Committing adultery was normally seen and judged by the law as an action. But Jesus says actions start somewhere before they are acted upon. They begin in the human heart, where internal resolutions begin before they ever come to life by action. It starts with the eye and leads to physical touch – the hand. The eye is where lustful intent begins, and touch is where it ends.

Jesus employs hyperbole in his remedy. It has never been likely that he asks us to cut off our hands or gouge out our eyes. The answer he is pointing to in such graphic terms is radical action. Don’t stare, don’t fantasise, look away. Be tough on yourself as this kind of denial has a good outcome; if hell is the end do something to avoid it. “For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.”

Women, normally often the objects of male lust, are hereby protected and dignified by love. In this way the law is truly fulfilled because this kind of self-denial and discipline is a declaration of genuine love, whereas the promotion of thoughtless lust is selfish and destructive – it is without love.

It isn’t strange then that the next issue in which we see Jesus reframing the law is the subject of divorce. Divorce is often the outcome of lust.