MATTHEW 5:38-42 - The Kingdom Bill of Rights

Introduction

So this Tuesday is Election Day for several municipal elections taking place in our area (you may have seen the yard signs cropping up along roadways and intersections…) There’s no doubt that elections are important, and that Christians must be good citizens and good stewards of the privileges we have been entrusted with as voters.

But at the same time, the coming of election day helps us consider not only our citizenship of our country, but our citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven—the Kingdom that Jesus is proclaiming here in the Sermon on the Mount. As citizens of the United States, our understanding of who we are and what we have in this country is deeply informed by the founding documents of our nation. In the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson affirms the “self evident” truth, for instance, that

...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...

Years later James Madison authored ten amendments to the proposed Constitution that became known as “The Bill of Rights”—the right to a free press, the right to free exercise of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, the right to peaceful assembly, rights to private property, rights to due process, and so on.

As a result, Americans have a deep-rooted gratitude for the rights that define our citizenship. We are trained from an early age to cherish our rights, to be grateful for those who fight to defend our rights, and we have a strong reaction against anything (or anyone) that we perceive may take away the rights guaranteed to us by our nation’s founding documents.

Consider for a moment, now, that Christ is the “Founding Father” of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Sermon on the Mount is the founding document of this Kingdom—a kingdom that belongs to those who have been regenerated by faith; who have come into “a new way of being human” through the New Birth. If that is the case, then our text this morning represents a sort of “Kingdom Bill of Rights” for those who belong to Jesus Christ by faith.

But when Jesus talks about “rights”, He doesn’t talk in terms of defending or protecting them, does He?

Matthew 5:40–41 (LSB)

40 “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your garment also. 41 “And whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.

The new way of being human that Jesus has inaugurated by His work means that your life is no longer governed by the preservation of and exercise of your rights—as good and as precious as they may be, a Christian does not have the same relationship with his “rights” as other people. In the verses before us this morning, Christian, God’s Word calls you to

Gladly lay down your “INALIENABLE” RIGHTS for the sake of Christ’s KINGDOM

In verses 38-42, Jesus identifies four different sorts of “rights” that people in His day widely regarded as fundamental, “inalienable” rights—things that they were unquestionably entitled to. And instead of clinging to them and insisting on them and fighting to keep them, Jesus says that members of His Kingdom were free to do something with their rights that no one else would ever dream of—Christ’s people are free to lay them down!

In verses 38-39, Jesus calls you as His Kingdom citizens to be ready to

I. Lay down your right to RETALIATION (Matthew 5:38-39)

Matthew 5:38–39 (LSB)

38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘AN EYE FOR AN EYE, AND A TOOTH FOR A TOOTH.’ 39 “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

Verse 38 is a quote from several Old Testament sources, such as Leviticus 24:19-20

Leviticus 24:19–20 (LSB)

19 ‘If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him.

What becomes clear from the context of passages like this (and related passages, such as Deuteronomy 19:18-21, is that this law was intended to prevent perpetual retaliations between victims and perpetrators of violence—to stop the practice of “feuding” between families. In his commentary on this passage, Sam Storms quotes from Mark Twain’s novel, Huckleberry Finn about feuds:

“What’s a feud, Buck?”

“Why, where was you raised, Huck? Don’t you know what a feud is?”

“Never heard of it before—tell me about it.”

“Well,” says Buck, “a feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that other man’s brother kills him; then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the cousins chip in—and by and by everybody’s killed off, and there ain’t no more feud. But it’s kind of slow and takes a long time.” (Quoted in Storms, S. (2016). Biblical Studies: The Sermon on the Mount (Mt 5:38). Sam Storms.)

The “law of retaliation” here in Moses’ Law was the way that the judges were meant to limit the violence of perpetual retaliation: “He knocked out your tooth, so we knocked out his tooth. You’re even. So knock it off!” This was a legal statute for settling civil cases and preventing feuds, meant to be a limitation on violence.

But by Jesus’ day, this law was turned into a justification for vendettas: Well, my neighbor gouged out my eye in a fistfight, so that means I GET to go gouge out HIS eye!!

But Jesus tells His Kingdom citizens No--

You may not EVEN the SCORE (v. 39)

Matthew 5:39 (LSB)

39 “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

Jesus tells His Kingdom citizens that they are free to lay down their right to retaliation—you don’t have to try to “pay back” someone’s evil deed toward you; instead, Jesus says, you are to offer them additional opportunities to attack if they want!

Now, right away, we begin dealing with the questions that flood our minds—does this mean that we let ourselves be mugged? That we allow our child to be abducted? That when someone comes after you that is trying to kill you that you just stand there and say, “Go ahead—I must not resist an evil man...”

I don’t believe there is any way that these verses can support the kind of off-the-wall, radical passivism of that sort. First of all, the Scriptures give us all kinds of examples of resisting evil men—look at the way Nehemiah called his workers to arm themselves in order to resist the evil of Sanballat and Tobiah in Nehemiah 4; consider how Peter calls his readers to resist the Evil One himself, Satan, in 1 Peter 5--

1 Peter 5:8–9 (LSB)

8 Be of sober spirit, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him, firm in the faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished among your brethren who are in the world.

So whatever Jesus is teaching here, we cannot say on the basis of the rest of Scripture that we are not permitted to defend ourselves or our families, or that we must always allow ourselves to be kicked around.

Look again at Jesus’ words here in Matthew 5:39:

Matthew 5:39 (LSB)

39 “But I say to you, do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

Think for a moment about the mechanics of this image—in order for someone to slap you with their right hand on your right cheek, they would have to slap you with the back of their hand—a demeaning, humiliating attack. What Jesus has in mind here is someone who wants to humiliate you, to degrade you in others’ eyes. Jesus is not describing an attack on your health; He is describing an attack on your honor. And He says that we are not to try to vindicate and defend ourselves when someone seeks to humiliate or degrade us on the basis of our belonging to Him.

You may not seek retaliation against someone who mocks or attacks you for being a Christian—instead,

You may LEAVE your VINDICATION to God (v. 39; cp. 1 Peter 2:21-23)

This is a crucial point to remember—that when Jesus says not to respond to humiliating attacks on your faith, He is not saying that you must settle for not being vindicated. You will be vindicated—but not by your own effort. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus encourages His disciples not to be dismayed when the Pharisees and hypocrites attack them:

Luke 12:2–3 (LSB)

2 “But there is nothing covered up that will not be revealed, and hidden that will not be known. 3 “Accordingly, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in the inner rooms will be proclaimed upon the housetops.

And not only does Jesus tell us not to even the score and vindicate ourselves, but He sets the example for us in His own life—the Apostle Peter saw how Jesus lived under the constant hatred and reviling of the scribes and Pharisees and religious leaders of His day, and he writes in his first epistle:

1 Peter 2:21–23 (LSB)

21 For to this you have been called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in His steps, 22 WHO DID NO SIN, NOR WAS ANY DECEIT FOUND IN HIS MOUTH; 23 who being reviled, was not reviling in return; while suffering, He was uttering no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously.

Christian, you can freely lay down your “inalienable right” to vindication or retaliation, because in Christ you have a promise that He will be your vindication!

Because we have been born again in Christ, we are free to lay down our “inalienable” rights for the sake of Christ’s Kingdom. We lay down our right to retaliation, and Jesus goes on in verse 40 to show that

II. We lay down our right to our PROPERTY (Matthew 5:40)

Matthew 5:40 (LSB)

40 “And if anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your garment also.

Now, for Jesus’ Jewish audience, this was a shocking statement—we don’t hear the scandal in this verse that they would have. Because Moses’ Law specifically protected a person’s right to keep their garment. We read about this in Exodus 22:26-27:

Exodus 22:26–27 (LSB)

26 “If you ever take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun sets, 27 for that is his only covering; it is his cloak for his body. What else shall he sleep in? And it shall be that when he cries out to Me, I will hear him, for I am gracious.

Yes—you could be sued and have your coat taken away, but it was illegal under Moses’ Law to have your shirt confiscated. But Jesus says here that you are willing to give up your rights

Even when the Law is ON your SIDE (cp. Exodus 22:26-27)

Even if your adversary is breaking the law by taking from you more than they are legally allowed to take, you are willing to let them do it! Who DOES this? Who thinks like this in our day and age? As soon as we get the faintest whiff that “my rights are being infringed”, we light our hair on fire and run around in little tight circles. But Jesus says that members of His Kingdom are even willing to have their “inalienable” rights violated-- for the sake of His Kingdom.

This is an important distinction, and one that we see supported elsewhere in the Scriptures—turn with me for a moment to the book of Hebrews, chapter 10 (page 1007 in the pew Bible). The author is reminding the church about the opposition and hatred they suffered in the early days after their coming to Christ:

Hebrews 10:32–33 (LSB)

32 But remember the former days, when, after being enlightened [that is, after coming by faith to Christ in repentance for salvation], you endured a great conflict of sufferings, 33 partly by being made a public spectacle through reproaches and afflictions, and partly by becoming sharers with those who were so treated.

See the context—these believers suffered reproach for their faith—“being made a public spectacle through reproaches and afflictions”—and in verse 34 we see that suffering extended to the confiscation of their property!

Hebrews 10:34 (LSB)

34 For you also showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted with joy the seizure of your possessions...

These believers publicly identified with their fellow Christians who had been thrown into prison, accepting the ridicule and reviling that went with it, to the point where they joyfully accepted the confiscation of their property! Citizens of the Kingdom of Christ will joyfully lay down their “inalienable right” to property for the sake of His Kingdom.

What empowers a believer to act like this? As I said before— “Who thinks like this?” What would make you voluntarily give up your house, your property, your car, the clothes off your back? Only one thing—the knowledge that

You have FAR better INHERITANCE (cp. Hebrews 10:32-35)

Look again at Hebrews 10:34:

Hebrews 10:34 (LSB)

34 For you also showed sympathy to the prisoners and accepted with joy the seizure of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better and lasting possession.

Here is the freedom to let go of the shirt off your back—even though the law is on your side. Here is the freedom to “let goods and kindred go / this mortal life also” as Martin Luther wrote. Because you have a far better possession that will last for eternity! Why, in the face of persecution and unjust, wicked adversaries that want to defraud you of your rights because you are a Christian, why do you want to cling so tightly to things that are going to pass away anyway?

This isn’t about whether human courts of law have authority, this isn’t about whether or not you should fight a frivolous (or even legitimate) lawsuit—this is about your priorities of the glory of the Kingdom of Christ over your personal rights. This is about saying that you love your citizenship in Christ’s Kingdom more than you love your rights and possessions and property here in this fading, fallen world.

God’s Word says that you have a greater possession than anything this world can offer, because you possess Christ Himself! John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim’s Progress and a pastor who was deprived of his liberty and property for twelve years because he refused to give up preaching the Gospel, said it best:

Christ is the desire of nations, the joy of angels, the delight of the Father. What solace then must that soul be filled with, that has the possession of Him to all eternity!

Bunyan gave up his “inalienable” rights to life, liberty and property for the sake of the Gospel—his wife Elizabeth miscarried one of their children due to the strain of trying to secure his release—but even in the midst of all of that hardship he loved the Gospel more than his freedom because he was more free in Christ while in chains than he could ever be outside of prison and outside of Christ!

Christian, we can gladly lay down our “inalienable” rights for the sake of the Kingdom of Christ, because we have a better inheritance than anything this world can offer! We can lay down our right to retaliation, our right to our property, and in verse 41 of Matthew 5 Jesus tells us that

III. We lay down our right to our TIME (Matthew 5:41)

Matthew 5:41 (LSB)

41 “And whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.

Once again, in Jesus’ day His audience had an immediate understanding of what He was referring to that is lost to us. Remember at this time that Israel was under Roman occupation—and as the occupiers, the Imperial military had the right to confiscate or commandeer any Jewish citizen for any purpose they saw fit. (We see an example of this in Mark 15:21, where Simon of Cyrene was compelled by the Roman soldiers to pick up Jesus’ cross and carry it for Him.)

Now, the word “mile” comes from the Latin word mille, meaning “one thousand” (an ancient Roman mile was 1,000 double paces—500 steps with each foot.) Roman law dictated that a person could be compelled to walk one mile; after that they could not be forced any further. So you can bet that Simon the Cyrene (and anyone else who had been pressed into this kind of service!) spent their whole time counting their paces. And when they got to one thousand, dropped their burden or whatever they had been commanded to do, and said, “Done! Now let me go!”

But Jesus says that, when you have finished your compulsory service, to go on to give voluntary service—turn to that Roman centurion with a smile on your face and say, “Well, that’s one mile—the second mile is on me!” A citizen of Christ’s Kingdom can

Meet IMPOSITIONS on your time with GRACE

I remember hearing about a believer who worked in a grocery store, who had a supervisor that hated him for being a Christian. So he would do everything he could to make the employee get frustrated or lash out at him. One time he made him unload an entire U-boat cart full of water bottles, only to “change his mind” and have him re-load the same cart.

Whether or not you run into that kind of spiteful waste of your time, or whether it is someone who genuinely needs your help at an inconvenient time, Jesus says you are to meet those impositions on your time with grace. Instead of grumbling or fuming over the way your time is being “wasted”, respond with grace and contentment—because you know that

Your time is in God’s PROVIDENTIAL hands cp. (Acts 17:26; Psalm 139:16)

Think of how we talk about time—we “spend” time, we “waste” time, we have “too much time on our hands” or we “run out of time”. And that’s fine, as far as it goes, but it tends to make us think somehow that time is a possession of ours; as if God has bequeathed us 24 hours worth of time every day that we own somehow.

But the Scriptures are clear that time isn’t really a possession of ours; we are given each second of time, moment by moment! God is the One who owns our time; He has set the times and boundaries of our lives (Acts 17:26), He has already arranged for each second of our lives, right down to our final breath (Psalm 139:16).

And surely this means, at least in part, that God is therefore able to restore to you any time that you feel you have “lost” or “wasted” on others who have demanded your time when it inconvenienced you! Is He not able, students, when you spent an hour and a half of precious study time listening to a heartbroken friend who needed you, to then simply arrange for your instructor to move the exam to a different day? Is He not able, brothers, when you have spent the day having your time eaten up by an incompetent or vindictive manager, to see to it that you are still able to get to your son’s ball game anyway? Is He not able, moms, when all of your plans for work around the house that have gone undone because you had a fussy toddler who just needed to be held all day, to so arrange for the next day to free up for you to get done what you need to do? Christian—do you really think that the God who stopped the sun and moon in the sky so that Joshua could have “more time” to defeat the Amorites is not able to see to it that you get the time to get the dishes done?

Your time is not your possession; it is His. And so you can lay down your “right” to your time, meeting impositions on your time with grace and joy, knowing that He is able to see to it that you accomplish what you need to do.

Christian, we can gladly lay down our “inalienable” rights for the sake of the Kingdom of Christ—we lay down our right to retaliation, our right to our property, our right to our time—and in verse 42 of our text, Jesus says that

IV We lay down our right to our MONEY (Matthew 5:42)

Matthew 5:42 (LSB)

42 “Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

Possibly more than any other statement Jesus makes about a Christian’s Kingdom Bill of Rights, this verse is subjected to intense qualifications, provisios, quid pro quos, and so on. We immediately want to qualify Jesus’ words here— “Surely, Lord, you don’t want us to enable someone to sin by their slothfulness, do You?? If we give money to everyone who asks us, we’ll be giving money to people who will buy drugs or get drunk or hire prostitutes, or any number of terrible things!!?! Surely you don’t want us to waste our money on sinners, do You??

And of course the Scriptures warn (throughout the book of Proverbs) that sluggards and drunkards are fools who have no fear of God, and Paul exhorts the believers in Thessalonica (2 Thess. 3:10) that any believer who will not work may not eat.

But all of those qualifications aside, Jesus still makes it as plain as possible that your life as a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven is meant to be a life of generosity—and here in Matthew 5:42 that means that you are to

Give without SUSPICION (cp. Luke 6:35)

When someone comes to you in need, Jesus says, don’t make them jump through hoops; don’t treat them as if they were trying to deceive you; give freely. This becomes clear in the Gospel of Luke, which expands on Jesus’ words in its record of the Sermon on the Mount:

Luke 6:35 (LSB)

35 “But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to the ungrateful and evil.

In his treatment of these verses, John Piper offers an insightful perspective, to the effect that when you stand before King Jesus on the Day of Judgment, He will not be impressed by all the times you refused to get taken in by a sob-story, how you only gave to people who you judged worthy of your generosity. Will you really boast about your success in not getting taken advantage of before your King received those nail prints in His hands and the spear wound in His side for you when you weren’t worthy?

Your King calls you to give up your right to your money, Christian—to give freely, the way He gave Himself for you. Give without suspicion, and

Give with great LOVE (1 John 3:17-18)

Citizens of the Kingdom of Christ give with great love, because that is how our King gave to us when we were in need. He did not turn away from us; He gave everything for us. The Apostle John was there that day on that hillside, listening to Jesus preach about giving freely and without reservation to anyone who asks—and decades later he would remember Jesus’ words as he wrote to the churches in Asia Minor:

1 John 3:17–18 (LSB)

17 But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

Christian—you can lay down your right to your money, your time, your property, your vindication because you have the love of God abiding in you! You have the presence of the Holy Spirit dwelling in you to empower you to love the Kingdom of Christ more than your so-called “inalienable” rights! How can you hold on to your right to vindicate yourself when your King went silent to the slaughter for you, not opening His mouth? How can you insist on your property rights and fight for the right to keep your money all to yourself, when your King turned His back on infinite riches and wealth and glory to walk this earth as a Jewish peasant under the oppressive iron heel of Rome in order to deliver you by His blood from the iron heel of your sin and wicked rebellion that had earned you the eternal wrath of God?

Christian, you belong to a King Who never insisted on His own rights--

Philippians 2:5–7 (LSB)

5 Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men.

The flesh grasps after its rights— “It’s not fair!” “You owe me!” “I have my rights!” In the power of your own flesh, you will never do better. But through the New Birth that you have experienced through repentance and faith in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, you have the very Spirit of God dwelling in you, creating in you a delight and joy and a satisfaction in the treasure you have in Christ that frees you from insisting on the rights you have here in this life.

With apologies to Thomas Paine and Thomas Jefferson and the Founding Fathers, there are no rights on this earth that are truly “inalienable”—rights that can never be taken away; rights that are guaranteed to you in perpetuity. (Does not the last century of American political history demonstrate that conclusively?)

But Christian, you possess something far better than “inalienable rights”—you possess inalienable privileges through the work of Christ on your behalf! He will never leave you or forsake you, He will provide for your every need, he will vindicate you once and for all on the Day that He has appointed to appear in vengeance and flaming fire with His holy angels. The blood of the martyrs calls out from under the altar, and He has sworn to avenge them. He will right every wrong, He will address every injustice, He sees and knows and remembers every time you have laid down your “rights” for the sake of His Kingdom, and He is preparing an eternal weight of glory for you, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward you in your Savior, Jesus Christ! (Eph. 2:7).

BENEDICTION:

Ephesians 3:20–21 (LSB)

20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION:

How does our culture’s attitude towards our “rights” influence the way we think about things like our possessions, retaliating against attacks on our character, and so on? How do Jesus’ words here differ from the way our culture tells us to relate to our rights?

Is there a difference between retaliating against evil with violent aggression versus self-defense or protecting one’s family? How can you distinguish between the two?

How does Jesus command us to respond when someone tries to humiliate us? How does the response He commands demonstrate the power of the New Birth in us?

What are some specific ways in your life where you can “go the extra mile” this week for those whom you might consider your enemy?