Lev 19:1-2, 17-18/ 1 Cor 3:16-23/ Mt 5:38-48
One of the most feared predators of the sea is the shark.
It doesn’t matter whether it was those slimy-creepy looking shark characters in the movie “Finding Nemo”, or that man-eating big shark in the movie “Jaws”, just mention “sharks” and fear and danger immediately comes to mind.
But mention sharks fin, and something else comes to mind.
But there are also sharks without fins, and they don’t live in the sea.
I am sure you know what I am talking about – Loan Sharks!
The term loan sharks is used to describe a certain type of predatory money lenders whose aim was to keep their customers eternally in debt.
So we may lend money to others, but that does not mean that we are loan sharks.
In fact, there may be another species called “debt sharks”. So what are these debt sharks?
Well, they are those kind of people who are able to convince you to lend them money, anything from a 3-figure to a 5 or even 6 figure sum, depending on how much they know you have.
Once we have parted with our money, these debt sharks will happily swim away, leaving us to slowly feel the pain of their bite.
Well, as they always say, this is a small world, and those debt sharks will somehow swim into our paths again one day.
We might think that they would be shocked and ashamed upon seeing us right?
On the contrary, they will look at us like total strangers, like as if they don’t know us since the world began, and then again we will feel the bite of these debt sharks.
I wonder if you ever had that kind of experience?
The pain of losing our money to these debt sharks is not just the bite. It is like as if they left their teeth in our hearts and leaving us in pain.
We won’t ordinarily call these debt sharks our enemies, but we certainly resent them, we detest them, we curse them under our breath, because we feel the pain and hurt when we think about them.
We may not have any enemies in the exact sense of the word.
But bad and dishonest people, like those debt sharks are the pain of our lives, and how we wish we could sink our teeth into their flesh, just as they had done to us.
But when we can’t, and so we just end up grinding our teeth.
So at the core of these so-called “teething” problems is the urge for revenge.
It’s that “eye for eye, tooth for tooth” thing that Jesus was talking about in the gospel.
In other words, it’s this-for-that, butter-for-fat, you kick my dog and I’ll skin your cat.
Well, revenge is a crass and crude word, so we will disguise it with other words like “seeking justice”, “settle scores” or “pay back time”.
Revenge is what we have been exposed to, and revenge is what we have learnt.
Jesus even acknowledged it when He said: You have learnt how it was said: eye for eye, tooth for tooth.
But immediately He follows with: But I say this to you.
And then He gives a set of teachings that is difficult to bite, and more difficult to swallow.
But all in all, Jesus is telling us that if we are to be His disciples, then we have to be different from the rest, in the way we respond to the evils we suffer.
In other words, we must not let evil conquer us; instead we are to conquer evil with good, we are to conquer evil with love.
That’s why Jesus gave us this directive: Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.
Yes, it is a directive – But I say this to you – strong words that tell us that it is not optional, nor is it negotiable.
Let me ask you a “corny” riddle : What do sharks not eat?
Sharks don’t eat clowns. (Why?) Because they taste funny.
Well the Bible does not have the word “clowns”. But somewhere in the Bible there is this mention of “fools”, and specifically “fools for Christ” (1 Cor 4:10)
Loving our enemies and praying for those who persecute us may sound foolish.
But come to think of it, it doesn’t hurt to be nice and loving right?
There are many types of sharks waiting to bite us – loan sharks, debt sharks, hammerhead sharks, etc.
If they want to bite, then like what Jesus said, offer them no resistance, let them bite.
All the more, give them a bite of love (not a love bite!)
Let me tell a story with a corny ending.
A rich retired old man bought a house on a large bay front property, something like Sentosa Cove, but more classy.
So he had his own private beach with picnic tables and the beach was perfect for swimming.
One day as he was reclining on his deck chair and taking a nap, he was awakened by voices shouting and squeals of laughter and water splashing.
He went over to his beach and he saw a group of young people swimming on his beach.
The group saw him, but instead of apologizing, they went into deeper water, and taunted him by saying: Come on grandpa, show us you can swim.
The old man replied: It’s ok, I didn’t come down here for a swim. I just came to feed my sharks!
Whatever it may be, never return evil for evil. In any case, can blood be washed away with blood, and can injury heal injury?
The disciple of Jesus will always suffer wrong rather than to do wrong.
That might sound foolish, but that’s what we are called to be – fools for Christ.
Yes, we are called to be fools for Christ, offering to the sharks of the world, love at first bite.
Yes, love our enemies, love those sharks, because those who deserve our love the least, need it the most – from us.