A New Kind of Retaliation

I hope you all enjoyed St Patrick’s day yesterday, hopefully we were enjoying it with some restrain...

The common way people celebrate Saint Patrick's Day is wearing green, maybe going to a parade, and probably drinking a lot. But most people often ignore that Saint Patrick's Day is a day to honor Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, and to celebrate his legacy as a missionary.

Saint Patrick was actually born in Britain in the 4th century and was kidnapped and brought to Ireland as a slave when he was a teenager. During his captivity, he turned to Christianity and eventually escaped back to Britain. But when he went back, according to tradition, Saint Patrick had a vision. In this vision, he heard the voices of the Irish people calling out to him, begging him to return to Ireland and teach them about the Christian faith. So he returned to Ireland as a missionary, traveled across the country, preaching and converting practically the entire nation.

Can you imagine going back escaping slavery to only go back to those same people in order to lead them to Jesus? When someone mistreats us, when someone brings us deep pain, when someone insults us, we want to get as far away from them as possible. But what he did instead is go back to the people who had been mistreating him.

For the last several weeks we have seen Jesus give us this picture of an upside-down kingdom, that makes us rethink how we have viewed what it means to enter the kingdom of heaven and what is required of us. And from the very beginning of this teaching Jesus told us that those who enter the kingdom are the humble, those who recognize their need for God because of their sin, those who hunger and thirst for God, those who are merciful to others and who are peacemakers, and He tells us that because of this we will be mistreated, but if we are than we should recognize that it has happened to all those who proclaimed the message of God in the past.

What we will see today is that Jesus is bringing together all these commands and providing a clear picture of what it means to honor God through the way that we treat our neighbor. All of these saying that Jesus has given us may almost seem like he is just giving them on the spot, no rhyme or reason. It almost seems chaotic. But this is Jesus we are talking about, what He is trying to do is bring it all together and we will see how He does that today.

And you know what…it isn’t easy to hear. In fact, it is hard, because obeying Jesus is hard. Because Jesus ends this section by saying “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

For us we read that and we say “that is impossible, I can’t be perfect like God!” And so because our baseline assumption is that we can’t do it we often just give up before we even start. But if we are willing to listen we recognize that this is a joy to hear.

Jesus tells us to “be perfect” rather than “be holy” as it says in the OT. Why is that? Well Jesus knows the Pharisees and the people would have had about being holy. It is about out ward behavior, your actions. They would have taken it to mean “you must never sin as your heavenly Father never sins”. But that isn’t what Jesus is saying, because He uses the word “perfect” but that isn’t really the best definition. It is a word with several layers of meaning. It’s simple meaning would be “undivided” or to give complete worship to God. But it is also related to the word shalom, which we know as peace but relates to how godly wisdom brings us peace. What Jesus intends to say is that they are "to live at peace with their neighbor by the use of godly wisdom as they daily seek to live in the image of Jesus."

It is a call for us to seek God’s will in our life as we grow closer and closer to Him. To be totally undivided in our affections in order to enjoy the kingdom of God. It goes back to the Beatitudes that tell us “these are the types of people who enter the kingdom of God and this is how humanity will flourish and find peace.

And what Jesus tells us about the kingdom of God in this passage is that

The Kingdom of God calls us to radical love and self-sacrifice

What does that mean? It means that “to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect” often means allowing yourself to be wronged and taken advantage of rather than to seek revenge and to seek another persons harm.

It means that we are called to bring peace and flourishing to a sinful and chaotic world. But we like to do things our own way to protect our own image. But the kingdom of God calls us to something radical. In fact we see three things that Jesus tells us are part of the kingdom of God and three things that we have to remove that include our own desires.

The kingdom of God calls us to radical non-retaliation while we would rather protect our own image.

The kingdom of God calls us to radical giving, while we would rather secure our own resources.

The kingdom of God calls us to choose love that is hard while we would rather love conditionally.

The kingdom of God calls us to radical non-retaliation while we would rather protect our own image.

Jesus starts, as He has been, with telling them “you have heard that it was said”. Taking them back to the law of Moses. And this was a command in the law of Moses that was really for the benefit of the people. It was a command to prevent revenge on one person and to make sure that a fair punishment was given to a person.

Brad was talking last week about going to court and people saying they are “not guilty” when they are guilt. But have you ever seen those cases on the news where someone will sue another person for something far more than would be reasonable. I saw that there was this chess grand-master that sued the top player in the world because he accused him of cheating. But he sued him for $400 million, which is more than all the top chess players in the world make combined.

But this is what this law was supposed to prevent, it was supposed to encourage appropriate punishment towards one who has wronged for another. It was a good command.

But now Jesus gives a few examples of how someone may mistreat us.

First he says if anyone slaps us on our right cheek. It is a common Jewish insult to slap someone with the back of your right hand against their right cheek. So this is not just violent, it was also meant as an insult.

Have you ever had someone do the “what’s that” on your shirt and then flick your nose. Or someone pulls down your pants in public. It makes you want to punch someone right? Well now consider a full slap to the face. In fact, this type of insult was considered to have twice the payment as just a normal slap in a court of life.

But what Jesus says is to turn our other to him also. To not trade insult for insult, but to let them insult us back!

Then Jesus discusses the one who wants to sue us for our shirt, who tells us we have committed a wrongdoing against them while the shirt is rightfully theirs. And Jesus says, “don’t just give them what is rightfully yours but let them have more as well.

I’m worry, what? What is Jesus calling us to? To let someone "Take advantage of us", why would we let that happen? That surely isn't what Jesus means. But let’s see how the Apostles understand this.

Romans 12:17-21 “Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone’s eyes. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay, says the Lord. But If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing you will be heaping fiery coals on his head. Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.”

1 Corinthians 6:5-7 “I say this to your shame! Can it be that there is not one wise person among you who is able to arbitrate between fellow believers? Instead, brother goes to court against brother, and that before unbelievers! As it is, to have legal disputes against one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?”

1 Peter 3:8-9 “Finally, all of you be like-minded and sympathetic, love one another, and be compassionate and humble, not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you may inherit a blessing.”

“Well, what if they want to do real violence against me?

1 Samuel 24:12-15 ““May the Lord judge between me and you, and may the Lord take vengeance on you for me, but my hand will never be against you. As the old proverb says, ‘Wickedness comes from wicked people.’ My hand will never be against you. Who has the king of Israel come after? What are you chasing after? A dead dog? A single flea? May the Lord be judge and decide between you and me. May he take notice and plead my case and deliver me from you.””

Many of us have children or grandchildren and often when they say they said someone hit them we tell them “don’t start a fight, but if someone hits you then hit them back.” My wife has been watching this show called “The Parent Test” where they see how different parenting styles work and they asked all the parents how they would tell their kids to respond and they told them the same thing. But the Family Psychologist on the show says that this idea is actually what leads kids to bring a gun or knife to school, because they now feel justified in “defending” themselves.

But oftentimes what it is about for us is not safety but it is about our own image. That if they sue us we need to prove we are in the right. If they hit us we need to show that we are stronger than them. We try to battle pride with pride. Or we want that person to pay for what they did to us. But Jesus wants us to change what we believe another should experience as a result of their sins. To let God be the one who judges for us. We are to be in control of our emotions, in our reactions to others and in rejection retaliation at all costs. To recognize if we let anger rule in our hearts it will poison us.

But we also must understand that Jesus is going to extremes. And there are times where resisting evil is correct. We should certainly rescue a child from abuse, it doesn’t mean that we continue to endure in a violent home.

We also know that we are to have discretion but to also know that Jesus paid the ultimate price. That he was humiliated, he was spit on and whipped, and he went to the cross for dying sinners. We know that Jesus later in Matthew will call us to take up our cross daily and follow Him. So when we are threatened we must first ask ourselves who are we trying to protect?

The kingdom of God calls us to radical giving, while we would rather secure our own resources.

This verse is in context of the Roman law that if a soldier asked you to carry their heavy equipment you were required to do so for one mil. Soldiers would take advantage of people by doing this, sometimes asking them to go out of their way in order to carry their stuff. Something we would drop our stuff at the first sign that we could, but Jesus says to carry it another mile! Go above and beyond to be a witness for Christ!

If someone asks for your help, don't do the bare minimum, don't just stay until you need to, don't say "I'm doing it for free so they should be happy I helped at all" but give effort as if it was your job.

In this example we see a public service that should be given that some may resent but in which Jesus says to do joyfully and above and beyond. A few months ago I had jury duty, and you know going to jury duty I found there was a lot of sighing, mumbling under their breath, frustration for having to "waste their whole day". And I am not a perfect person by any means but I thought to myself, I am going to be here all day might as well read a book while I wait my turn and listen to what is said because it might be interesting and then at I can't change it either way so why should I grumble about this?

And if someone asks for money, give it to them. Don't just say "well what if they are lying!" "they put themselves in this position by their own actions" "I worked hard for this money". Jesus says, "give with no questions asked" and if someone wants to borrow? "give to them and don't expect to be paid back."

In Luke he adds that "even sinners expect to be paid in full" so why should we be like sinners in this manner? Shouldn't we show even more grace in the way we treat others who are in need?

Rather than to seek interest by others we should seek interest in the kingdom of heaven.

Now, there is an obviously limit to how much of our time and our money that we can give. Augustine says of this verse that Jesus says "to give to everyone that asks," and not to "give everything to him that asks".

The kingdom of God calls us to choose love that is hard while we would rather love conditionally.

Jesus said they heard they were to "love your neighbor" but doesn't add "love yourself" that may be because the Pharisee's decide to omit that to produce a lower standard for themselves.

And the addition of "hate your enemy" was also not in the OT command which probably tells us that this was something that was added on as well.

They added that because they wanted to judge those who were different from them. They changed it to mean they should love “my people”, those like them, those in their city, those who were Jews. This conveniently ignored what the law of Moses had said just a little bit earlier about caring for the resident alien and those who sojourn to them and that they were to love them as themselves.

"To add "hate your enemy" to God's commands was a "parasitical growth" to God's law" (Spurgeon).

Then Jesus tells us that we should so strongly desire to be like our heavenly father that we pursue love at all costs.

The word for "Be" children of our Father in heaven is more like "become". That we might continue to act more like that which God has made us, His children. We know that the way that we act does not just reflect on us but reflects on our family.

And how do we know that God loves us? Because God gives grace to all of us each day. His grace because the son rises on both of us and gives warmth, and rain comes and gives life to plants and water for our thirst. God indiscriminately shows His love to His children. It isn't just to those who obey Him.

Jesus shows there is no reward for doing what anyone would do. You may celebrate your 4 year old that can add 2 plus two but if your high school student does it there is no need for celebration because anyone can do that!

We might give a southern pleasantry wave to someone we hate. We might say hi as we walk past them. But what is being talked about is a heartfelt desire to care for their well-being.

Or for us, if we greet at church only those we get along with or that we are friends with, what are we doing out of the ordinary? Everyone does that!

To love those who love you is nothing wonderful or great. Our world encourages us to love those who are similar to us and hate those who are different than us. It wants us to hate others, it wants us to be divided.

It encourages us to see others who are hostile towards us at those who we should start war with. Those that do not like us it is okay to hate. Those who we think are doing harm we also think it is okay to hate.

But Jesus give us the solution, to "pray for those who persecute you". This doesn't mean just say "they need Jesus" or to say "God, strike them down for their evil". But to desire heart change in them. To ask God "Lord, do a work in them so that I may one day call them a brother or sister in Christ" but to also pray "Lord, do a work in me so that I may one day see in them what you saw in me when I was in darkness." And the litmus test we are given to see if that is true is how we act towards them. Who do we show love to? Who do we show kindness to when we see them? And not just a sort of superficial greeting but an honest desire to show compassion towards them. Luke also reminds us in chapter 14 of Luke.

Luke 14:12-14 “He also said to the one who had invited him, “When you give a lunch or a dinner, don’t invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors, because they might invite you back, and you would be repaid. On the contrary, when you host a banquet, invite those who are poor, maimed, lame, or blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.””

Now all of this, at some point, were in high school. And in high school we are all about finding the right friend? And who is the right friend? The one who has the pool. See you want the friend with the pool because you get some great benefits from that friendship!

Our love should be expressed in our deeds, our words, and our prayers.

-Do good to those who hate you rather than seek their harm

-Bless those who curse you

-Pray for those who persecute you

In Matthew 7 we will get further into this discussion but Jesus says we will be "judged by the same standard we use", so we should ask ourselves the question. How would I feel with my standard of judgment for others if it was used on me?

But we should be as we talked about at the beginning. “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”