The Law Concerning Retaliation

Matthew 5:38-42

a. The Law concerning retaliation (5:38)

b. Jesus concerning retaliation (5:39-42)

1. INTRODUCTION

i. Jesus now speaks about how the people of God must act regarding each other. The masterful teaching of Jesus is on display as up to now, He’s gone over certain issues where people could say this doesn’t apply to me. We have this mentality of saying to ourselves, we don’t do those things so it doesn’t apply to me. In some sense, we are saying we are good people. I am not that bad.

ii. It’s easy to fall prey to that thinking that we are actually good people. This is not to say that people are all bad in the sense that they can’t ever have good thoughts or be good. Again, this is not to say that all people are evil all the time. The Bible doesn’t teach this. Rather, the Bible teaches that the heart is wicked and sick. It is ill due to the penalty of sin.

iii. We understand that unbelievers are good sometimes. The point is, we have this attitude that sometimes we feel we are better than others and almost to the point that we deserve our salvation. We are good enough so we have earned it. But Jesus is evening the playing field and helping us understand that we are all guilty of this. This is not to say we are evil in every sense. The problem is, we are greedy and selfish and inherently dead because of this. We thirst not to help others and serve others, but rather, primarily to serve ourselves and to help ourselves.

iv. Jesus is exposing this truth to help us understand this is the human spirit. Unbelieving people can understand this and agree because there are many people who don’t believe that believe that people are the problem. Humanity is the problem because humanity is morally dead. This is where the Gospel comes in.

v. Can I remind you the greatest truth about the Gospel and the church? What sets the church and the Gospel apart from the world? People can understand this. As I say this, people can understand this and agree or disagree. So it’s not that people don’t understand truth. In some sense, people understand truth. The thing that separates the Gospel and the church from the world is simply this. It is that the Gospel imparts life and the church are a group of people who have come alive.

vi. You see the main teaching of the Bible is that there are people who are alive, and there are people who are dead. This is not to say we are better, but it is to say we are alive and people who don’t believe are dead in their sins. What makes us different? One people have been chosen by God despite their actions and the others have not been. It’s not that the people who have been chosen are better or have even decided to believe on their own. Rather, it is a gift that has been given to them so that they are enabled to believe.

vii. So what is the difference between believers and unbelievers? It is the simple truth that the redeemed are people who have hope because of the new life they have received in Christ. It is the truth that it is not of their doing or earning, but rather, by the free gift of life in Jesus Christ.

viii. So how does this lead into the message for today? It helps us to understand a single point. If people believe that you have to live like this, according to the sermon on the mount and think because I do this, I am a good person and therefore I am saved, simply that I can earn my salvation, then you have missed the point. What Jesus is teaching is simply, that you can’t do this. You will never be able to do this and everyone is equally sinful.

ix. But the simple Gospel teaching is not that we have to do this to be saved, but because we have been saved, we choose to live in obedience to the teachings of Christ. We choose to listen in obedience to Christ because we want to please Him and to worship Him.

2. BODY

a. The Law concerning retaliation (5:38)

i. So this leads us into verse 38. Jesus again quotes the Law from the Law of Moses. This is directed to three sections. The first verse is Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, and Deuteronomy 19:21.

ii. Interestingly enough Exodus 21:24 and Leviticus 24:20 speak about general situations and if you hurt another person, well they should be able to hurt you. This is what leads to the eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. But Deuteronomy 19:21 is different because the setting of Deuteronomy is in a court room. It is speaking about false accusations legally. So legally, if you have taken a life, then legally, there is no exception. You must pay the penalty of what you have committed. What we see from this verse is the idea of justice. The Law must be upheld and people must be held accountable to the Law.

iii. So in verse 38, Jesus now quotes the Law and just as He has been doing, He is now explaining how they have misunderstood or not completely understood the Law of God perfectly. Why? Because of the hardness of their hearts, they have come away with ways on sinning and justifying that it is okay.

iv. That sounds a lot like us when we do something wrong and we justify that it’s okay that we did this because this person deserves this because they did something wrong to us. Again, the verse that we must not lose focus of is Matthew 5:20. Jesus tells us that our righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees by telling His disciples that keeping the Law isn’t to earn your righteousness, but rather, to live righteously inwardly because we can’t keep up to the perfect standard that God has desired through the Law.

v. We have to understand through this that the Law is unable and was never meant to save, but to help people understand that through the Law, you fall short. The Law is perfect to enact justice. It is perfect to help us understand our faults and recognize our need of forgiveness. The Law’s purpose was never to forgive us of our sins. The Law’s purpose was to help you us understand that there is a price for our actions and there are consequences. But not only that, to teach us that by keeping it, we are not righteous, because we are not perfect.

vi. This is exactly what Jesus is laying out in the sermon on the mount. It is not a manifesto on how to earn righteousness, but revealing to us how we can’t earn our righteousness because all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God.

b. Jesus concerning retaliation (5:39-42)

i. This leads Jesus to respond in verse 39-42. I love verse 39 because it says do not resist an evil person. This is difficult to understand. Jesus is saying don’t go against an evil person. What He means by this is, don’t provoke or fight with an evil person. Why is this phrase fun? Because it makes sense to not go against, or to argue with an evil person. Jesus is saying don’t be in opposition to an evil person.

ii. But then now you have to question who is the evil person? We can say that there are evil people in the world. But that wouldn’t make sense because well in some sense, everyone is evil. Well, what would make the most sense here? Well the evil person would mean any person who is against me. The evil person could be my wife in the sense that if she is against me, then don’t be in opposition to her.

iii. The evil person is not some evil person that we imagine, but any person who is against me. Therefore, Jesus says to his listeners whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn your other cheek to him also.

iv. When we hear this, what Jesus is saying is, don’t defend your own honor. Don’t stand and fend for yourself. Simply, don’t retaliate. But let’s go further. Let’s say there is an evil person. We know such people who are evil and are just mean. What type of person would we classify these people as? Well, Jesus says what in verse 44? Love your enemies. So if we were to go further by what Jesus is saying here in verse 39, if the evil person slaps you, let them slap your other cheek. Don’t fight back and even if they are bad, don’t retaliate.

v. Jesus goes further in verse 40, by telling them if they sue you, they take you to court and win over you and take your shirt, give him your court also.

vi. Verse 41, if someone forces you to walk one mile, walk two with him. Lastly verse 42, if anyone asks anything of you, don’t turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.

vii. Jesus is making it clear in verses 39-42 that he has no understanding of humanity. When we read this, what do we think? This is impossible. Anyone who does this is foolish. What is clear in His teaching? The first is that if someone were to do something bad to you, that you should not do something bad to them in return. But does He end it there? No. He says that you should not just stay neutral with them. It’s not that you don’t do anything to them. Remember the example of forgiveness that we spoke about last week. When we forgive someone after that person dropped our laptop and broke it, true forgiveness is not that they pay for our laptop. True forgiveness is we pay for their debt and cancel what they owe us.

viii. This is exactly what Jesus is teaching here. Jesus’s teaching here is radical in that he doesn’t allow retaliation, but on top of that, don’t retaliate. Why is this radical? Because in our society, the concept is that we must stand up for our own rights. We must defend our own honor. We must not let other people take advantage of us.

ix. Again, read these verses 39-42. If you really understand what Jesus is saying here in these verses, our conclusion is that these statements are practically unworkable in the real world. Jesus is not intune with the world. We come to the conclusion that Jesus doesn’t actually mean these things. You can’t live like this. If you do, you are encouraging wreckless behavior.

x. But what do we understand about Jesus? Jesus is not teaching us that His purpose is to establish more laws. He’s not saying the laws that you have currently are not good enough so here are more laws so that you can obtain this righteousness. No, Jesus’s purpose was to help us understand that we must look towards a greater righteousness, a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees and scribes. It is not a system of retaliation but rather, non resistance and generosity.

xi. I would like to look at Deuteronomy 19:21. What Jesus is teaching is simply this. If you read Deuteronomy 19:21, what sticks out to you? The first phrase, you shall not show pity. Again, this is speaking of a setting in the court room. This makes sense in a court room. The Law is supposed to be just and fair and not show partiality. This is true in a court room. There should be no bias.

xii. The problem is, we take this attribute that should be true in the court room and bring it home. We treat people without pity and what we do is exact retaliation. What do I mean by this? We exact to people exactly what they did to us and we think that our actions are just because we feel they hurt us, therefore, we should be allowed to hurt them back.

xiii. The problem we have with these verses is because we think opposites. We think that if we are to act this way, then we are allowing people to do whatever they want and they will take advantage of us. That is true if we think that what people do to us, we need to do the same thing. If we think in lines with Deuteronomy 19:21, that we should show no pity, then this is true. But again, the teachings of Christ goes against this idea. Jesus displays on the cross the legal payment of sin was paid. He did not show pity to the Law. He paid the price according to the debt that was demanded by the Law. The Law demanded blood for the remission of sin. Jesus paid that debt with His blood (Hebrews 9:22). But the question is why did He pay that debt? Because of His great love for us and of course also, because of His love for the Father and His desire to obey the Father.

xiv. What we see is from Jesus’s example that we can be just and firm but behind our firmness, there must be in our heart, a desire to show pity and compassion. Without a heart of compassion and pity, we will be cold people. This is not to say that we should just fall down and be punching bags. Jesus was not a punching bag. Read the Gospels. There were times where He was firm. He preached the Gospel without unwavering in His conviction. He preached with authority. This is why people asked questions, “what authority is this?”

xv. The greatest truth that I’ve learned in the Christian life is to live within the tension of the Bible. This is what makes it difficult. We think in opposites but the Bible is difficult because the Bible challenges us when we think in this way. Jesus is not saying that we shouldn’t be firm. But what He is saying is although you are to be firm, you are also to be compassionate. Compassion and love change the dynamics of the Law. This is what brings a warmth in the lives of believers. We live according to this righteousness not because we are exacting retaliation. We don’t live in response like drones to Christ because He did something for me, therefore, I must pay Him back because I owe it to Him. No, the Gospel is the complete opposite. There is a warmth in why I want to live and follow Christ. There is a desire and a conviction why I am willing to live and die for my king. What is that? Compassion and love.