Letter to the Congregations: 29th March 2025

Our Dear Brethren,

“Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe” (Exodus 21:24-25).

God had hoped that through His commandments His people would learn how to live with each other and with Him in harmony. The “eye for an eye” justice that He enacted was meant to demonstrate how our actions affect the lives of other people. Potentially a powerful teaching tool for empathy if it were taken to heart. Of course at the heart of the intention of the severe consequences for harm to others is the intent that people should treat others as they want to be treated. Jesus summarized the intent this way: “Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matthew 7:12).

While the punishment seems harsh, in it we can see God’s sense of justice for bad behavior and attention to the pain of those who have been harmed. The problem doesn’t lie with the consequences that God laid out. The problem lies with the hearts of people who so often learn the wrong lesson from even a good teacher. Rather than learning to have empathy for someone else’s pain people used the “eye for an eye” principle to seek their own vengeance upon their neighbors. This improper reaction reveals the difference between the mind of mankind and that of God. “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts’” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Jesus taught that instead of seeking retribution when someone harms us or sins against us, even when we truly desire justice to be served, we should instead seek to forgive. We should seek to help the other person to see a better way, otherwise we might become the reason they don’t learn God’s lesson of love for one another. After all, we are supposed to be examples of God’s love to this world. Are we prepared to turn the other cheek, let someone have our cloak, and go the second mile with those who need us? Are we prepared to “love [our] enemies, bless those who curse [us], do good to those who hate [us], and pray for those who spitefully use [us] and persecute [us]” (Matthew 5:44)?

As we quickly approach the Passover season let’s be prepared to examine ourselves, to look at the plank in our own eye that might be blocking our view of reality, prepared to love one another as we have been loved by our God including our willingness to forgive people their trespasses against us just as our heavenly Father has forgiven us and sent His Son to pay for our sins. “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15).

Our love is with you,

Lewis VanAusdle

Pastor, United Church of God

NYC, NJ, CT, Malawi, Zimbabwe