Turning the Other Cheek
Notes
Transcript
Intro; If I were to ask you to define the word “enemy” this morning I’m sure there would be various names that would be mentioned from a congregation this size.
An enemy is a person who is actively opposed or hostile towards someone or something. I’m sure most of us don’t have an enemy that is seeking to take our life, but we probably have someone that might be out to get us in a sense of gossip/slander.
Some of the enemies in our life are not people of a different race, religion or political party, but people who are close to us and very much a part of our everyday life.
For example, your enemy might be your wife or your husband. If you think for a moment of the person in your life who is causing you the most hurt and pain, you can identify your enemy. Who is the burr under your saddle? Who is the thorn in your flesh? Who is causing you the most grief? Is it a husband or a wife. Is it an ex? Is it a child, parent or in-law? Maybe it’s a boss. Maybe it’s a schoolmate who’s betrayed you and gossiped about you at school. Maybe it’s someone you work with. You may think your pastor is your enemy. Our enemy can change from day to day and from situation to situation.
Focus on that person that came to mind when I described an enemy. If we can identify our enemy, then we can put into practice what Jesus tells us to do in how to deal with “Turning the Other Cheek.”
Text; Luke 6:27-36
27 “But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
28 bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.
29 To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.
30 Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back.
31 And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise.
32 “But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them.
33 And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.
34 And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back.
35 But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.
36 Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
Prayer
Now the focus of my message is “Turning the Other Cheek” and how this scripture is taken out of context. It would be hard enough to turn a cheek to one who likes you, but to an enemy is asking a lot.
1. Turning the Other Cheek; 29a
1. Turning the Other Cheek; 29a
The scripture proceeding where we are reading today is the Beatitudes. These are the attitudes a follower of Christ should have in life towards others as they live for the Lord. Those attitudes are not the norm for man but they are expected in the life of a believer. So when Jesus says to Turn the other Cheek what does it really mean?
The context of Jesus’ instruction to the Christian community more than likely deals with religious persecution of Christians, not the actions of a criminal.
Jesus is not teaching that Christians can’t defend themselves and just let wicked people trample on them.
36 Then He said to them, “But now, he who has a money bag, let him take it, and likewise a knapsack; and he who has no sword, let him sell his garment and buy one.
37 For I say to you that this which is written must still be accomplished in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For the things concerning Me have an end.”
38 So they said, “Lord, look, here are two swords.” And He said to them, “It is enough.”
This does not mean we are to tolerate any type of abuse to women or children
27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.
Jesus doesn’t refer here to police, soldiers or other officials that protect and defend the laws of society.
1 Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God.
2 Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.
3 For rulers are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Do you want to be unafraid of the authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same.
4 For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.
And it doesn’t mean that we don’t have a right to defend our family with force if needed.
2 If the thief is found breaking in, and he is struck so that he dies, there shall be no guilt for his bloodshed.
43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into.
Turning the other cheek is more of a principle to live by than of a literal action. It is more of an attitude of your heart than a physical posture. It shows an attitude opposite of retaliation. Turning the cheek is a principle that says I will not fight back and retaliate when insulted, but will leave the execution of judgment to the Lord.
Mattoon, R. (2009). Treasures from Luke (Vol. 1, p. 348). Rod Mattoon.
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear;
16 having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed.
17 For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil.
So how do we do this?
2. Love Your Enemy; 27-28
2. Love Your Enemy; 27-28
Love- Agapao/agape’; it is a love of choice.
Hatred for our enemy is the natural feeling of the world. But we are no longer of the world, just in it. As christians we are to choose to act/respond differently, as Jesus did!
Loving our enemy doesn’t mean we start feeling good and all tingly about them. It doesn’t even mean you have to like them. It means to make a conscious choice to seek the best for them.
Do good to them, bless them and pray for them. God is interested in their salvation just like he was in ours.
In 2 Kings the Syrian army was making war with Israel but they never could trap them because God showed Elisha all that Syria was doing. So the king of Syria wanted to get Elisha. As they came to Dothan to get him Elisha called on God to blind their army. Elisha then took them to Samaria and placed them in the confines of the army of Israel.
20 So it was, when they had come to Samaria, that Elisha said, “Lord, open the eyes of these men, that they may see.” And the Lord opened their eyes, and they saw; and there they were, inside Samaria!
21 Now when the king of Israel saw them, he said to Elisha, “My father, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?”
22 But he answered, “You shall not kill them. Would you kill those whom you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food and water before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master.”
23 Then he prepared a great feast for them; and after they ate and drank, he sent them away and they went to their master. So the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel.
If God can change me or you who at one time was someone else’s thorn in the flesh, he can change others by the way we love them!
3. Be like Christ; 32-36
3. Be like Christ; 32-36
[vs. 32-34] As christians our standard for living is Jesus Christ who is holy and unlike the world. So if we react to our enemies the same way the world does then we are poor witness of Christ.
13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;
14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance;
15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct,
16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
8 Finally, all of you be of one mind, having compassion for one another; love as brothers, be tenderhearted, be courteous;
9 not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
[vs. 35-36] Loving our enemy, turning the other cheek simply models the character of God we have in Jesus Christ! It is the character of forgiveness.
33 And when they had come to the place called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the criminals, one on the right hand and the other on the left.
34 Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots.
Whoever that person is that gets your goat, that raises your temperature to the boiling point, whether family, friend or foe, we need to be like Christ and turn the other cheek that we don’t retaliate but reconcile, for we have been given the ministry of reconciliation.
Close;
Turning the Other Cheek was amply illustrated in the life of Desmond Doss from Lynchburg, Va. When Desmond was 24, he experienced his first day of boot camp in the Army during WW II. That was quite a day for him. Moments after arriving at his barracks he did what he normally does at the end of a long day. With his Bible in hand, he got on his knees beside his bed and began to pray.
The other recruits, upon seeing him on his knees, began to mock and shout obscenities at him. Several laughed as they threw their heavy boots across the room at him. The young men were angry with Desmond Doss because he refused to carry a gun, and because he told his superiors that because of his religious beliefs he would not take a human life, even to save his own.
The young soldiers thought Desmond Doss was a coward. They wanted him out of their barracks. Day after day the insults and mocking continued, despite several of the older soldiers telling the younger ones to leave Doss alone. Yet, Desmond did not fight back. He did not respond. Doss was finally shipped to a camp for “conscientious objectors,” but this upset him, and he told his superiors that he should not be there because he considered himself a “conscientious cooperator.”
Desmond convinced the military to make him a medic so that he could serve his country without betraying his religious convictions. Desmond Doss soon discovered the great challenges and heartbreaks which medics face on the battlefield.
* The date: May 5, 1945.
* The place: Okinawa, Japan.
* The scene: A 400-foot steep cliff known as Hacksaw ridge.
A battle raged which was so intense that the odds of survival were 1 in 10. Army medic, Desmond Doss, knew that his short life could end at any moment in that violent place. Doss and the men with him were being overwhelmed by enemy fire and they were trapped at the cliff’s edge of Hacksaw ridge. Many of the young soldiers were wounded, many were terrified, but all were determined to survive.
Keeping a cool head amidst this awful situation was medic, Desmond Doss. Amidst the storm of battle, he got an idea. He rigged a rope to the cliff, attached a stretcher to it, and with soldiers dying all around him, and under constant enemy fire for several hours, he carefully lowered soldiers to safety down this steep cliff.
During these trying hours, as Doss treated the wounded, and one by one lowered the men down the cliff, he prayed over and over to the Lord: “Lord, help me get one more. Just one more … one more”
In all, during that battle, 75 men lived to see another day due to the courage and determination of Desmond Doss and God’s care and protection. One of the last men to go down the rope was a man with tears in his eyes, not due to his wounds, but because of the man risking his life to lower him to safety. This wounded man had once thrown his boot at and cursed Desmond Doss. In fact, several of the young men Doss saved that day had once mocked and turned their backs on him. It’s a good thing Doss was not bitter toward them, isn’t it?
As this tearful man on the stretcher was lowered down the cliff on the rope anchored by Private Doss, all he could see in his mind was the image of Doss, humbly on his knees in the barracks, praying to his God.
This act of bravery was not the only one Private Doss displayed during his time of service. In fact, he served in the Army, with such distinction that he was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Harry Truman, who during the ceremony said: “I would rather have that medal than be President.” The name, Desmond Doss, became a symbol throughout the 77th infantry Division for outstanding gallantry above and beyond the call of duty.”
The prayers of Desmond enabled him to remain patient and compassionate toward those who insulted and reviled him. They also enabled him to face severe trials and danger with great courage. He was a man that was submitted to the will of God in his life and is a good example for us of a man who prayed for those who despitefully used him.
