Sermon Cloud

Matthew 5:38-42  I'll admit, there are certain parts of Jesus' teachings that I just want to avoid.  Times where I think, "Jesus if you'd just kept quiet about that, you would've had a lot more street cred.  Not to mention that we as your followers would've seemed a lot more normal by the world's standards."  But nope, Jesus had to go saying what we just heard him say here. 

            Have I mentioned that the way of Jesus is counter-cultural?  The Kingdom of Jesus goes against the common sense of the Kingdom of this world? 

            This is such a hard teaching that people tend to stand on one extreme or another in interpreting the passage.  Some take the complete wall-flower approach.  I'm a pansy and I'll let anyone do anything they want to me.  I've heard the extreme interpretation of "turning the other cheek" as if someone broke into your house and was going to kill your wife and kids, you'd just get out of the way and let them do it. 

            Then there are those who just ignore the teaching.  "Oh, Jesus didn't really mean that, so die you infidel - Carleton Heston is my president."  Some Christians explain away all of the Matthew chapters 5-7, the Sermon on the Mount.  They call it an impossible standard.  Jesus didn't really expect us to live this way, he just wanted to show us how far short we fall of his standard and how much we need his forgiveness.  While it's true that we often come up short of Jesus' intentions for our life, he wouldn't have given this instruction to his followers (us) if he didn't expect us to live this way.

            People gravitate toward one extreme or another because this particular glimpse of the Kingdom is difficult for us to wrap our minds around.  How do we avoid either extreme and actually live by Jesus' kingdom teaching?

            The key to faithful interpretation of all biblical passages is to understand how the teaching would've been heard by the first audience.  As I said earlier, this passage is a part of a larger section entitled the Sermon on the Mount. 

            We can know there are two audiences listening to Jesus' teaching.  The smaller audience is made up of his committed followers.  But there is also a larger crowd around them of people that are intrigued by Jesus but not quite ready to commit. 

            Everyone in the crowd would've shared two things in common.  First of all, they were Jews.  As Jews, they shared a common identity as the chosen people of God.  God had chosen to bless the Jewish people so they could pass on that blessing to others.  God chose to bring salvation to the world through the Jewish people. 

            All of the Jewish people would've understood the historical context for what Jesus said in verse 38.  This comes from the law of Moses in the OT book of Deuteronomy.  In Moses' time it was common for people to overreact, you could say.  If a person was punched in the face, they would retaliates by chopping the other person's hand off.  This law said, "make sure the punishment fits the crime."  For 2000 BC, this law was counter-cultural. 

            But Jesus ups the ante.  Verse 39a - resist  Matthew was originally written in Greek.  And the Greek word we translate "resist" is the word Anthistemi.  I'm guessing it's where we get the English word, antihistamine.  The word means to set one's self against.  To actively oppose.  It's a military term that would've brought up violent images of armed insurrection. 

            Which brings up the second commonality of Jesus' audience, they were all conquered subjects of the Roman Empire.  God's chosen people were now ruled by Roman soldiers who worshipped a bucket-load of false gods.  This was hard for the Jewish people to take. 
            And to make it worse, Rome taxed the Jewish people to pay for the cost of the Roman occupation of Israel.  Roman taxes were added to the taxes already being paid to the local Jewish government, so at least half of their income was going to taxes.  This double taxation was literally destroying families.  Imagine the hate you would've felt for people who cursed your God and stole your family's money. 

            The people listening to Jesus' teaching would've been simultaneously filled with despair and anger.  And everywhere they looked they saw Roman soldiers.  It's likely that the crowd listening that day would've been big enough to draw the attention of Roman soldiers.  They were always being watched. 

            Some Jews acted out on their anger, they "resisted" by leading uprisings.  They'd manage to kill a few Roman soldiers, but they'd eventually be slaughtered.  Jesus told the crowd, "as my followers, you will NOT resist evil with a sword.   You will not respond to violence with violence."  But right after telling them not to resist with violence, Jesus then gives them instruction on how to resist in a firm, but non-violent manner.  We're going to look at these three ways of non-violent resistance. 

            1) vs. 39b  Remember, the most important aspect of biblical interpretation is understanding the original audience.  In those days, right and left hands were thought of very differently.  The right hand represented strength and power, most people were right-handed.  That's why biblical writers use the phrase, "the right hand of God."  The right hand was considered clean.  You ate with your right hand.

            Your left hand was considered weak and unclean.  Left-handed pitchers were not as high of draft picks as they are now.  Your left hand was reserved for certain important bodily functions of which the invention of toilet paper has made much cleaner.  You didn't eat with your left hand. 

            Neither did you hit with your left hand.  You used your powerful right hand.  In that culture, you'd give a back-handed slap to someone you believed was beneath you.  Maybe a master to a slave or a man to a woman.  There was a strict cultural hierarchy and you slapped those who were on rungs below you. You punched those thought to be equal or more powerful than you.  A punch says we're equal, a slap says you're below me.  Now, I need a volunteer. 

            Imagine I give you this back-handed slap with my right hand on your right cheek.  Now you follow Jesus' instructions and turn the left cheek to me.  I'm not going to use my left hand, I'm not going to use my open palm.  My only culturally appropriate option is to punch you.  But I can't punch someone below me. 

            By turning the left cheek, the victim is saying, "I know you think you're better than me, you just slapped me.  But we're equals and all you can do now is punch me.  You will not treat me as an inferior."

            Suddenly the aggressor is in an awkward situation.  If he does punch the other person, he's just acknowledged them to be an equal.  The victim is no longer just a victim, because they're turning the entire social system upside down.  They're exposing the evil in the aggressor.  They're unmasking a worldview that says some humans are better than others.  They're confronting the violence that naturally flows out of a belief that "I'm better than you."  Resist violence without violence.  Sit down

            2) Vs. 40  Imagine your tax rate just doubled.  Would any of you be in financial trouble?  This is what was happening to Jewish people.  They were being forced to sell the family farm just to make ends meet.  Some families had been farming the land for over 1,000 years.  The shame and sense of failure would've been unbearable. 

            Some of the wealthy elite were buying up the land of these people in financial trouble and then allowing them to work the land that used to be theirs for minimum wage.  And yet that often still wasn't enough to make ends meet.  And if these new minimum wage workers couldn't pay their bills, the landowners could sue them.  Jewish law stated that if the person who owed the money couldn't pay their debt, the one bringing the lawsuit could take the cloak off their back. 

            People wore two layers of clothing in those days, an inner shirt/robe type of thing that was their first layer and then a cloak as the outer layer.  Jesus tells his audience, "if someone sues you for your inner garment, go ahead and give them your outer garment as well."  Which would leave the person wearing only their (?) birthday suit.  "Here's my shirt, here's my coat, now I'm buck naked."  Awkward...

            In that culture, the shame of nakedness wasn't on the person who was actually naked, but on the one who saw the naked person.  If this were 2,000 years ago and we were Jews and I was standing in front of all of you naked, the disgrace wouldn't be on me but on all of you would be disgraced for looking at me.  Now, I'll take the rest of my message to get that image out of your mind. 

            The person getting sued is at the end of their rope.  They have literally nothing but the clothes on their back and now they're being forced to give that up.  But they're not powerless.  By standing naked before the person taking the shirt off their back, they're exposing the cruelty of what is happing.  They have flipped the entire thing around.  The shame of their nakedness is saying, "What kind of greedy, hard-hearted, cruel person would sue someone who is left with just one piece of clothing?"  They're exposing (literally) an unjust legal and economic system. 

            Their nakedness forces the one suing them to choose.  "Do I take it and leave him naked or do I decide I don't want to be the guy taking everything he owns."  The one getting naked is opening the door for a change of heart in the one suing him.  There's a chance something may change in his heart.   Either way, the one getting sued has reasserted his dignity, even though he's buck naked.  "I will not let you treat me as something less than human."

            3) Verse 41-42  Roman soldiers were everywhere, they were the occupying force in Israel.  Like all soldiers, they had packs of supplies.  Their packs could weigh anywhere from 50-80 pounds.  There were strict laws regarding the amount of brutality Roman soldiers could exert on those they had conquered.  They could force someone to carry their pack for one mile, but if they went a step over, it was then considered cruel.  Ironic?  If commanding officer found out about the abuse, the soldier would be disciplined. 

            Jesus is telling his fellow conquered Jews that when they're forced to carry a Roman soldier's pack to go ahead and carry it an extra mile.  As the Jewish peasant starts to carry the pack into the second mile, imagine how nervous the soldier would've gotten.  "I hope my commander doesn't see me."  Suddenly, the defenseless Jewish peasant is the one with the power in the relationship.  Imagine the soldier, with his sword out, "would you please stop."  The generous act of going an extra mile is exposing the cruelty of the occupying army.  It was an act of subversive resistance that exposed the violence and inhumanity of treating another human like a pack-animal.

            The Kingdom of the world presents only two options in dealing with violence and injustice.  Either you let the evil people walk all over you or you respond to their violence with an equal or more powerful blow.  If you ignore the problem, nothing gets solved.  If you respond with violence, you're simply adding evil to evil.  But the Kingdom of Jesus presents us with another option.  A middle road between the world's options.  The way of Jesus calls out the evil of the situation, while also presenting the redemptive opportunity for change. 

            The aggressor is given the chance to not hit again.  The one bringing the lawsuit has the opportunity to reject an unjust system.  The soldier is forced to consider the human casualties of their oppression. 

            While this middle way is redemptive, by no means is it easy.  In fact, it's more difficult than the other two.  Think about it in terms of a personal relationship.  If another person willingly hurts you, it's much easier to pretend like it didn't happen than to gently conform them, but ignoring it is only perpetuating the situation.  Or you could respond in kind; give into your anger, let your emotions carry you on as you make them hurt as they've hurt you.  Or you could choose the Kingdom response.  Naming their evil for what it is while also giving them the opportunity to change.  Talking through an issue is a lot harder than ignoring it or screaming at them. 

            This way also puts you in a very vulnerable place.  Ghandi said, "nonviolent resistance still has casualties."  The other person may change or they may hurt you worse the next time.  But Kingdom people do the right thing, no matter what it may cost them.  Jesus' way of nonviolent resistance is a middle road between pacifism and violence.  It's a disciplined, active approach to the injustices of the world. 

            Israelis and Palestinians have been fighting over the West Bank and Gaza strip since 1967.  Israelis are outraged over Palestinian terrorism and Palestinians are outraged over Israeli occupation of their land.  It's been a bloody conflict.  With Israeli soldiers firing missiles into Palestinian refugee camps and Palestinian terrorists strapping bombs to Israeli school busses.  . 

             Israeli and Palestinian Christian organizations have been calling for an end to the violence and injustice for years.  Calling out for nonviolent alternatives to the cycle of revenge and retaliation.  Some have sacrificed their lives for the sake of their message.

            On March 16^th, 2003, 23 year old Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist was crushed to death by an Israeli bulldozer as she defended Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.  One month later, a 21 year old British student and member of the International Solidarity Movement, was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier while guiding two young girls to safety.  The life of these two kids loudly cries out, "this is not right.  People are to be treated differently." 

            The violence in the Gaza Strip hasn't stopped, but in 2005 Israel ended four decades of military occupation by removing their soldiers.  Violence simply perpetuates violence, but Kingdom-minded resistance can change the world. 

            This week's kingdom challenge is the following: Whether it' in your personal life or even in whatever influence you may have in affairs of the state, will you resist injustice, see past the false dichotomies of pacifism and violence and choose the way of the Kingdom?  Prayer