Matt 5:38-48: Jesus, Disciples, Revenge and Love

The Sermon and the Sledgehammer

We have covered a lot over the last couple of weeks and this week is no different. Today we are wrapping up our series in Matthew 5 and discipleship.

Once again there are some really important things we hear from the passage this morning as we hear that the overpowering trait of our lives is to love others as Christ loved us. We are to love others as Christ loved us.

Today we are going to try and do a brief recap of the series overall which will help us understand this final section. It is important we do this because the sermon on the mount as a whole is meant to have a profound impact on us and we need to grapple with at least part of this whole to appreciate our passage in front of us.

C.S.Lewis, the Christian bloke who wrote those Narnia books, was critiqued once for not caring enough about the Sermon on the Mount. In response, he said this:

‘As to “caring for’ the Sermon on the Mount, if “caring for” here means “liking” or enjoying, I suppose no one “cares for” it... Who can like being knocked flat on his face by a sledge hammer? I can hardly imagine a more deadly spiritual condition than that of a man who can read that passage with tranquil pleasure.’

Let us pray,

Heavenly father, as we come to you now and as we have heard you speak through your servant Matthew, help us this morning understand of the radical lives you want us to live. Help us not simply to like this passage, but to be inwardly disturbed by it. So much so, we would depart from here changed by the love of Christ for us and living as those who reflect the glory of you our Heavenly Father. Amen.

To see how and why we are to love others the way Christ loved us, let us take a step back for a moment and see where we have come from in this series.

How Did we Get Here?

How did we get here? Matthew 5.38-48 wraps up a really important part of the sermon on the mount.

The H/O you received should show you a recap of the sermon series. The Sermon on the Mount is the beginning stages of Jesus teaching his disciples how to live. Prior to them getting up tot he mount to hear this, though, we are stuck by two major things. Jesus proclaims in his first words in ministry: . The first key aspect is: To be a disciple is to be a person who has confessed that they are a sinful person to God and wants to live in light of the only person who can save people from their sins - Jesus. The sermon on the mount is for people who have confessed to God that they cannot do this alone and Jesus teaches those who want to follow him on how we are to live. The second major thing to note is the time. The words ‘for the kingdom of heaven has come near’ suggests that the end of the world as we know it is coming closer and closer. Jesus says that this time is coming to a close and when it does there will be a time of judgement. Throughout the OT, the time when the kingdom of heaven comes is a time when God judges both the living and the dead so Jesus says that we need to repent and live lives for him with a certain sense of urgency - there is not time to waste.

As he begins the Sermon on the Mount he says that those who are Blessed, or those who have decided to follow Jesus have become inheritors with him of the kingdom of heaven. The Beatitudes, the soundtrack to our life, is the part of the sermon that sums up how we are to live now as we wait for the Kingdom of Heaven to come fully. We live with one eye fixed upon the future. This day of judgement that is to come.

Then Jesus moves into the section where he tells us the importance of living as the salt, or the preservative of the world and the light of the world - or beacons of hope. He finishes that little segment wiht the curious verse that sets up the next section. Mt 5.16 says

Matthew 5:16 NIV

In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

The whole point of becoming a disciples of Christ is to start developing as a true child of God. A person who calls God their Father. No other religion that I know of gets to call God their Father - but Christians can. We do so because Jesus made it possible to do so. As we live as followers of God’s son Jesus, we live to bring glory, not to us, but to our Father in heaven.

And this is crucial. Our passage for this morning ends with Mt 5.48

Matthew 5:48 NIV

Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Our relationship to God our Father is the driving force and the only goal we have here on earth. This is our one true goal. I was reminded only this past week that to bring glory to our father is our only true goal. Everything else is a desire. When you drive a car, you may have a desire not to be late to an appointment and because of that desire you might be tempted to speed. But if you have your eyes fixed upon God, your only goal is not to get someone on time, but to bring glory to God. Therefore, you slow down and consider how it is your driving can bring glory to God. And obeying the law of the land is just how you can do that.

So to be a disciple of Christ is to love like Jesus loved. Jesus in all things bought glory to his Father and that is just what he wants us to do everyday we live for Him.

Then Jesus moves to show us that being obedient to the true nature of God’s laws brings glory to the Father. Before the NT is the OT and some wish to dismiss the OT as irrelevant. Jesus says that this does not bring Glory to God, but states that He has come to fulfil every aspect of the law. In doing so he lives the perfectly obedient sinless life that we couldn’t. By being obedient to every aspect of the law, Jesus lives how we should have lived, and his perfect death on the cross was the perfect and obedient sacrifice required to pay the price for sinners.

From that segment, Jesus moves and issues a number of expansions on the OT laws. As the one who is sent by God to fulfil the law, Jesus then issues these commands to push the meaning of the laws to new heights. Jesus finishes this segment with the most challenging commands of all. One that speaks of calculated retaliation and another that speaks of outrageous love. Let us look at both in turn.

Calculated Revenge

Jesus begins in verse 38 with this: Mt 5.38

Matthew 5:38 NIV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’

We will look at how Jesus seems to quote the OT in a second. Let’s just concentrate on what he says here. And eye for an eye.

This seems drastic. Like if I went at someone with an fork and had a crack at plucking an eye out and then that person came back at me, things would get violent and messy really quickly. It’s an extreme scene.

The OT references Jesus might be bringing up here, such as Exodus 21.24, or Deut 19.21 are indeed accurate with the laws that God passed down at the time.

Deuteronomy 19:21 NIV

Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

What we need to note about this command however is that it was issued into a culture and a people where over the top reactions were common. Small disputes would quickly turn into large scale massacres at that time and God commands that this is actually not on. Fair and just responses are required.

This is also the basic premise that our current laws are built upon. If you are convicted of a crime, the punishment should be scaled at what the justice department deems as fair. So the revenge here is calculated.

But what does Jesus then say. He takes is a step further by saying that if anyone insults you or tries to put you down, take your revenge how?

Mt 5.39

Matthew 5:39 NIV

But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.

This is an odd phrase isn’t it? In fact, all of the verses that follow are odd. Their responses are not of anger, or hate, or seeking equal and fair payment. They are of patience and love.

Let’s just look at Who here is right handed? Like back then, most people today are right handed. Ok - raise your right hand in the air. Now with your right hand, how would you slap someone on their right cheek?

It’s a back hand isn’t it. Now if you watch footy players these days - they don’t often punch, but in the heat of the moment they slap each other. But it’s quick, and not well thought through. It is a jerk response. Right hand to left cheek. But a backhand. This has got more meaning. It is a person trying to dominate another person. It is a person trying to put someone down. It is a person assuming complete control of the other person with distain and anger. A backhand is the metaphor that Jesus uses for those who persecute the people of God. It is the method he describes as the sort of hate Christians are to receive from those who disagree with the way they are living.

The calculated revenge that Jesus speaks of here is to offer the other cheek as well. Taking the criticism in our stride, our response is patience. It is to offer forgetfulness of wrongs that have been committed against us. It is not to hold a grudge, but be more focused on figuring out how it is we are to love this person.

Jesus here isn’t teaching us never to go to war. There is a right and proper place for the unfortunate occurrence of war. Our Father in heaven is also referred to as the Lord of Hosts in the OT, or the Lord of Armies.

But here, Jesus commands us to take the persecution in our stride as we share in His ministry. As we learn to love others as Jesus loves us, we are to consider Christ. Who, when the world line up one by one and gave him the back of their hand, He went to the cross and died. And as Jesus was nailed don the cross, he cried out: Luke 23.34

Luke 23:34 NIV

Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

Jesus

Outrageous Love

Then Jesus turns to a teaching on Love. Like we said before, the way Jesus is quoting is in a an odd way. He isn’t necessarily quoting the OT direct, but the teaching that has been passed down by the Jewish authorities. If Jesus were to quote the OT, he would of said this. From Leviticus says:

Lev 19.18

Leviticus 19:18 NIV

“ ‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

Now look down at your bibles and read what Jesus says:

Love your neighbour  and hate your enemy.’ Do you spot the difference? There had been a culture shift at some point where the OT was being taught in a very different way to that of the actual text. You can also look at places Ex 23.4-5 and Romans 12.20 to see that the instruction to hate your enemy perhaps wasn’t there in the first place.

At some stage though, a culture of elitism and exclusion was created, so they began to limit the love that they would show others. A famous theologian by the name of Calvin said this:

Commentary on a Harmony of the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke Matthew 5:43–48; Luke 6:27–28, 32–33, 35–36

But the charity, which God requires in his law, looks not at what a man has deserved, but extends itself to the unworthy, the wicked, and the ungrateful.

The love spoken of in Mt 43-48 is extraordinary isn’t it. And it would be wrong for us to walk away from this passage simply ‘liking’ the idea of it. But what does this love look like. This love that is like that of the Father who causes the sun to rise on both the righteous and the unrighteous.

We had neighbours at our old place whom we shared a wall with. They had a somewhat volatile relationship. There would often be yelling, slamming of doors, crying when things were bad. When things were good there was music and music up full ball. And regardless if things were good or bad if you stepped out the back yard for a bit you would also breathe in their cigarette smoke which for non smokers is just horrible. And we hated all of this. It drive me up the wall. The noise, the smell, the domestics. It was so inconvenient. We did little to get in their way. We just kept to ourselves.

But what could of we have done?

I think if we look back on our relationship, it certainly wasn't one of love. It was more of, well, passively accomodating them. We didn’t share our life with them at all. We simply lived next to them. And as polite as we were to them, we certainly didn’t like them. We rarely enjoyed their company.

This passage challenges me and makes me really regret lost opportunities like that one because we are called, as those following Christ to love all people. People we hate. People we like. People we don’t like. All people.

We could of done a whole host of things. We could of: babysat, baked a cake, cleaned their front yard area, asked how their family was going.

And you know what, I can’t even remember praying for them. Isn’t that sad. IO cannot recall praying of them. And they lived a metre away.

If this verse doesn't slap you in the face like a sledge hammer I don’t know what will.