You Are Not An Executioner
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Big Idea: We have taken the old adage of “an eye for an eye” to places the Bible never intended it to be taken. Jesus reminds us that those words were intended for magistrates to mete out appropriate justice for the offense not for individuals to apply in instances of interpersonal conflict or wrongdoing. At the end of Jesus’ teaching is an unstated question for His follower: Who do you crucify in the face of personal injustice and wrongdoing? Our actions speak for themselves when answering that question. To follow Jesus means the crucifixion of self…especially in the face of personal injustice and wrongdoing. This is the entire story of Jesus’ life of reconciliation and peacemaking. If we have failed to truly apprehend this teaching then we are not truly his followers.
**At some point, include statements about what this is not: This is not pacifism, this is not a call away from justice being served, this is not a statement about capitol punishment or the lack thereof or an advocacy away from legitimate legislative or judicial action or the military. This is simply a realignment of our vision to the true source of all of those things being Christ. Vengeance is mine saith the Lord.**
Me:
Do the Florida shark bit vs. the Washington bear bit
We:
Why do I tell you that?
We live in a world:
Might makes right.
If someone wrongs you, nobody is coming to your rescue…you have to exact justice and punishment from the offender.
We do this through our words. We do this through social retaliation where we will actively turn people against our offender. We slander them. We take people to court over practically anything these days. We will get physical or loud. We get cold and manipulative. We do this in a thousand different ways and depending on what the offense was and as long as our response isn’t disproportionate (like shooting someone because they weren’t quick enough off the red light) then we are going to be justified in the eyes of the rest of the world.
This has become a sort of virtual reality to us...
God’s kingdom is different and is the real reality bit...
What happens if a bear comes up on you and you punch it in the nose? Yea…it’s going to rip your face off.
What has it caused in our world, in our churches, in our communities?
But for some of you, this isn’t out there. Some of you may have walked into this room this morning with a name and an incident in your mind. Perhaps it happened this past week or perhaps it happened years ago and yet just the mention of their name or even sights, sounds, and smells associated with the trauma (if it was bad enough) can tear open the wounds and make you feel like it happened just yesterday as you relive their wrongdoing over and over and over again.
Chances are, you have taken one of two paths. One, maybe you’ve tried to exact justice and make them pay for what they did. How did that work? How has that healed the wounds? It doesn’t does it? Even secular sciences realize that that approach is caustic to our very souls.
Or two, maybe you sit and abject silence hoping the pain will simply go away over time.
The good news of the Gospel this morning is that Jesus has offered us a third way. Here we go.
God:
For the past few weeks, Jesus has opened each of his succinct teachings with the words “You have heard that it was said” Today, however, Jesus is going to give us two of those statements. Here they are:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
I hit a kid in 5th grade bit...
This comes from Exodus 21 and it is almost word for word.
The second command that they had heard taught was from:
‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
Hey…what about that part about hating your enemy? Did Jesus just forget that or does that come from somewhere else…?
Here is what is going on with these two “you have heard it said” references.
Explain how eye for eye was meant to guide Israels Judicial practices…the other is a logical yet false inverse conclusion to loving your neighbor. Here is the idea:
When we take the burden of exacting justice in matters of interpersonal conflict perpetrated against us, we are incapable of not hating our enemy.
This is seen when we repay evil with evil and we seek vengeance against those who wrong us. We don’t attack someone we love and so, therefore, we move our offender into the category of enemy and we know this because of our response.
This is the virtual reality that our world lives by.
What ensues when this is our response is a downward spiral into greater conflict and if there isn’t disruption it sucks us into a whirlpool of no escape where marriages are ended, friendships dissolve, businesses go bankrupt, murders happen, and wars ensue.
Jesus didn’t come to abolish the law. In fact, Jesus would tell us that an eye for an eye is a good and trustworthy thing that God has given our systems of justice to ensure true, appropriate, and proportionate justice is practiced. This is God’s plan. God has instilled these systems and they are His representatives here on earth that serve as a visible authority that we are to submit to allow to work out justice.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking. What about when they fail to do this or when they misapply justice? We have plenty of examples of this don’t we. Well, God would tell us that He has a plan for that too. Sometimes God uses His faithful followers to prophetically speak truth to those systems (I think of Martin Luther King Jr.). And if that system has so grossly neglected their duty to apply justice…well…he has ways of dealing with that too. Go read the books of Judges, 1 & 2 Chronicles, Isaiah, and Daniel this week if you want a lesson in how God deals with those systems in the instance that they go off the rails.
Jesus would say to us no. An eye for an eye is not the way you operate in your personal relationships when someone has wronged you. Here is what he tells us:
“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.
Do the original Greek word for slap here is a slap on the hand...
This is about how others shame us, speak badly of us, or humiliate us. Jesus tells us to not resist them. What is our reaction the moment we are dealt a slap like that? If it is to immediately raise our hand to slap back…we are wrong.
Here is the deal: How do you do this? That is not a normal reaction at all. And for Jesus to tell us this is sort of like…yeah…ok Jesus.
This is the appropriate response and Jesus is working towards something really helpful but we have to move on through all of these statements first before we can really appreciate what he is calling his followers to.
“If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.
Do the 1st century court case bit...
“Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two.
Do Roman soldier bit...
The idea is that you wouldn’t refuse your enemy in moments where their attack may be justified by the system at large. Get this…this is especially true in cases where your enemy is in authority over you. Yes that means that terrible boss. Yes it means that teacher that seems to single you out. Yes that means that government that is asking you to do something that seems unfair or unjust…as long as it doesn’t require you to worship another god or act contrary to Gods law.
It is likely that Jesus had in mind
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; And if he is thirsty, give him water to drink;
For you will heap burning coals on his head, And the Lord will reward you.
I was always told growing up that this was done to shame another person. I don’t think that this is what Jesus or the author of Proverbs was getting at.
You’ve heard of the golden rule right: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
If we can live this out, this often triggers what is called the golden result: Others will do unto you what you have done to them.
This is a disruption to the downward spiral of conflict.
Jesus also says:
“Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
This carries the idea of giving to someone who has no intentions or ability to pay you back and is calling us far beyond mere monetary generosity. This is a generous attitude or kind gesture or act of good will that you know will not be repayed.
You guys good? Can ya’ll just do that this week? Alright have a great Sunday afternoon. NO!
None of that is natural. Every one of those is inconsistent with the reality of the world we live in. If we are truly going to move from hurt and hate to a place of relational harmony and healing it is going to take more than three moral platitudes that we are to strive for.
Here is how Jesus wraps this whole teaching up:
“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
“If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
“Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
No Jesus tells us that we are to love and pray for our enemies…not hate them. That isn’t natural though is it?
Jesus is telling us that we need an entirely different perspective.
Did you catch it? Our translations typically don’t render the sense of words. We don’t really have senses like the Greek language does. This perspective shift is seen in the word “perfect” in verse 48.
Perfect = Mature or Complete
You need a different lens to see the world through. You need the same lens that God uses to see the world through. The lens of a God who send his blessings of rain and good fortune on the evil and the good alike.
Whats the alternative? Well its that we would be stuck in the virtual reality of this world this is not reality at all.
Its that we would only love those who love us…what reward do we have in that? Verse 46…even the tax collectors do that and they were seen as the worst most morally bankrupt people in the world.
Its that we would only treat those we deem worthy (our brothers) with kindness and affection. Jesus poses the question meant to cause us to check which reality we are living in…Do not even the Gentiles do this he would say? If you are only kind to those who you like and who have something to give you in return, you are no different than the rest of the world. And Jesus has already established that He is bringing in a new Kingdom…that’s what this entire sermon is about actually.
Instead, Jesus is telling us that we need to see the world and interact with the world the way that God does.
In essence, we need the lens of a God who came and used the only thing He could count on us for (that we would despise, reject, ridicule, humiliate, and unjustly kill him) for our salvation. And he let those things kill us as he climbed up on a cross of sacrifice to pay for a wrongdoing he did not commit.
To take on this lens…to be made perfect or complete or mature as God is…we have to go back to the beatitudes that we started this series with. We have to come to God in poorness of spirit realizing that the virtual reality headset has been Gorilla Glued (pause for effect) to our forehead and if He doesn’t save us from that reality…we will never escape it.
So here it is, here is our target statement for the week. The one thing that I’ve given you a piece of paper to write down and stick somewhere you will see it. This is the question that I think Jesus is posing to us through this teaching:
Who will I crucify in the face of this personal injustice and wrongdoing?
You see, the answer to being wronged is not in a stronger counter attack, physical violence, a more witty, underhanded, or passive-aggressive comeback. The answer is found as we table our right to be right and not seek to PERSONALLY IMPOSE JUSTICE for the wrongs perpetrated against us and allow God to be the one who deals out justice.
My obligation is to give up control so God can have control.
When those opportunities arise for us to retaliate or act in vengeance we have this opportunity to stop and ponder our target statement question. Am I going to crucify them…or me…? The key to living that question out, however, isn’t in simply knowing it…it is in faith. The key to living out that target statement is in having faith that God is in control. Did it look like God was in control when Jesus was hanging on a cross being tortured and humiliated by the Romans and the Jewish religious authorities? Judging by the actions of Jesus’ disciples who had almost all ran and hid during that…the answer is no....they didn’t believe that God was in control and that He was ultimately going to bring about justice and vindication for Jesus. And yet, God was in control. God was actually doing something that’s effects of reconciliation and peacemaking would go on to change the entire world. Here is the good news Outpost Church…God is still working in you and through you in those instances of injustice and mistreatment. That work can only be manifested and culminate in world changing impact, however, if we submit to the brutal work of dying to self as we choose to be crucified with Christ in that moment and turn the job of exacting justice over to God. That’s what Jesus did. He allowed God to exact justice through his sacrifice. And it was horrible and it wasn’t fair but it was world changing and at the end of the day…his death wasn’t the end of his story…it was the key to a whole new and amazing chapter…so it can be with us.
I am convinced that the most theolgicaly relevant song today is Disney’s Let it Go sung by queen Elsa.
Man this is a difficult way to live…can we just be honest about that. This is absolute foolishness to the world around us. Most of the time our offenders don’t even know how to respond when we don’t return evil for evil. Not because they are immediately awestruck by our high moral character…but because it actually is a pretty stupid way to respond. Can we just call it like it is.
Please listen closely to this statement: It is only stupid, however, if we have not been given new life through a savior who chose to be crucified on our behalf and because of our own injustices and mistreatment to bring about reconciliation…and it was his actions of willingly laying his life down that changed the world.
However, if we have experienced the power and reconciliation and new life that only comes through Jesus’ own crucifixion on our behalf, then we now have that same power living in us. It is this power that comes through our own choices to live a life crucified with Christ that has the ability to change the world. The crucified life is one that God will take and use to change hearts and minds and ultimately intends to change the world.
So no…this response isn’t stupid if you are a follower of Jesus. It should be our natural go-to response. It is through this response that Jesus has changed us and brought hope and new life to us and it is our decision to lay down our weapons of retaliation and attack that God uses to bring his Kingdom fully into the world. This is the hope of the world. What could our community look like if we were a church that lived this out to its fullest extent?
Here is a word of warning though…if we only act this way because we are hoping for some specific results, repentance, or change in the other party (our offender) we are going to be perpetually disappointed. Our motives are going to be wrong and those wrong motives are not something God can use. Let me say that one more time: God will not use wrong motives! Let me tell you a quick story...
It was in a church in Munich that I saw him, a balding heavyset man in a gray overcoat, a brown felt hat clutched between his hands. People were filing out of the basement room where I had just spoken, moving along the rows of wooden chairs to the door at the rear.
It was 1947 and I had come from Holland to defeated Germany with the message that God forgives.
It was the truth they needed most to hear in that bitter, bombed-out land, and I gave them my favorite mental picture. Maybe because the sea is never far from a Hollander’s mind, I liked to think that that’s where forgiven sins were thrown.
“When we confess our sins,” I said, “God casts them into the deepest ocean, gone forever.”
The solemn faces stared back at me, not quite daring to believe. There were never questions after a talk in Germany in 1947. People stood up in silence, in silence collected their wraps, in silence left the room.
And that’s when I saw him, working his way forward against the others. One moment I saw the overcoat and the brown hat; the next, a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones.
It came back with a rush: the huge room with its harsh overhead lights, the pathetic pile of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor, the shame of walking naked past this man. I could see my sister’s frail form ahead of me, ribs sharp beneath the parchment skin. Betsie, how thin you were!
Betsie and I had been arrested for concealing Jews in our home during the Nazi occupation of Holland; this man had been a guard at Ravensbrück concentration camp where we were sent.
Now he was in front of me, hand thrust out: “A fine message, fräulein! How good it is to know that, as you say, all our sins are at the bottom of the sea!”
And I, who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness, fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take that hand. He would not remember me, of course–how could he remember one prisoner among those thousands of women?
But I remembered him and the leather crop swinging from his belt. It was the first time since my release that I had been face to face with one of my captors and my blood seemed to freeze.
“You mentioned Ravensbrück in your talk,” he was saying. “I was a guard in there.” No, he did not remember me.
“But since that time,” he went on, “I have become a Christian. I know that God has forgiven me for the cruel things I did there, but I would like to hear it from your lips as well. Fräulein”–again the hand came out–“will you forgive me?”
And I stood there–I whose sins had every day to be forgiven–and could not. Betsie had died in that place–could he erase her slow terrible death simply for the asking?
It could not have been many seconds that he stood there, hand held out, but to me it seemed hours as I wrestled with the most difficult thing I had ever had to do.
For I had to do it–I knew that. The message that God forgives has a prior condition: that we forgive those who have injured us. “If you do not forgive men their trespasses,” Jesus says, “neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
I knew it not only as a commandment of God, but as a daily experience. Since the end of the war I had had a home in Holland for victims of Nazi brutality.
Those who were able to forgive their former enemies were able also to return to the outside world and rebuild their lives, no matter what the physical scars. Those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids. It was as simple and as horrible as that.
And still I stood there with the coldness clutching my heart. But forgiveness is not an emotion–I knew that too. Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.
“Jesus, help me!” I prayed silently. “I can lift my hand. I can do that much. You supply the feeling.”
And so woodenly, mechanically, I thrust my hand into the one stretched out to me. And as I did, an incredible thing took place. The current started in my shoulder, raced down my arm, sprang into our joined hands. And then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being, bringing tears to my eyes.
“I forgive you, brother!” I cried. “With all my heart!”
For a long moment we grasped each other’s hands, the former guard and the former prisoner. I had never known God’s love so intensely as I did then.
And having thus learned to forgive in this hardest of situations, I never again had difficulty in forgiving: I wish I could say it! I wish I could say that merciful and charitable thoughts just naturally flowed from me from then on. But they didn’t.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned at 80 years of age, it’s that I can’t store up good feelings and behavior–but only draw them fresh from God each day.
That is an amazing story of what can happen when we live out this ethic. That is awesome and we love to hear the stories of what the crucified and forgiving life can produce in others. But did you notice that the fact that the former guards life transformation was but a passing detail in her story. In her wisdom, Corrie saw the real jewel in what God was doing in her through that moment.
And that’s just it…it is about what God is doing in you. Yes God can use those things for greater purposes. Yes God can use our crucified life to bring about redemption, restoration, and reconciliation with others but sometimes the greatest purposes are the things that He is doing in you. The aspects of your character that He is shaping you to conform you into the image of Jesus.
Letting it go is not a sign of weakness or a sign that you are a doormat. In fact letting it go is a sign of great strength and spiritual maturity. Letting it go is a sign that you are wanting God to do all He wants to do in your life. Letting it go is the greatest sign that we are being made perfect just as our heavenly Father is perfect. It is the sign of a life that has truly decided to pick up its cross and follow after Jesus.
Pray to close: Here is the invitation:
As every head bows and every eye closes, I believe right now there is a moment of transaction that needs to take place. Maybe you came in here this morning with a name or an incident in your mind of someone who has wronged you…maybe greatly so. Maybe that has been physical, spiritual, sexual, financial, emotional, or perhaps it is all the above and more. Maybe you get up every single day and crucify them again and again in your mind because…guess what…they deserve it. Right now…in this moment, you have the opportunity to facilitate a transaction that will most certainly alter your life forever but may also have world changing impacts that you couldn’t even imagine.
If you have chosen to follow Jesus, then you have chosen to pick up a cross and carry it with you. As much as you and I might like to take that cross and hang that person who has wronged us on…the reality is that that cross has only two names on it. It has Jesus’ because he hung on it first and it has yours. Right now can be the moment where you climb up on that cross as you table your right to be right or seek vindication or retribution and you give that right back to God as you choose forgiveness and peace.
Please hear me in this. This is not admitting defeat. This is not justifying their actions. This is not being a doormat. This is not saying what they did wasn’t wrong. This is also not opening yourself up to further hurt or abuse.
This is simply a realization that Gods justice and timing in bringing that justice is perfect. God will deal with those actions more perfectly and more justly than you or I ever will. This is a realization that vengeance is mine saith the Lord. This is ultimately, however, a realization that God can accomplish the greatest work in us and also in our offender as we submit to His will to forgive and love our enemy.
This is only a viable option, however, if you have first experienced the life altering power of Jesus doing this very thing for you as he willingly climbed up on a cross to take your wrongs and the injustices that you have perpetrated. Otherwise, this approach is foolishness because there is no power in our sacrificial forgiveness and love apart from first experiencing it in Jesus.
And so… perhaps today the move you need to make is in following after Jesus. If that is you and you know that is you, then you also have the opportunity to make a life altering transaction this morning. You have the opportunity to place your wrongdoing and your broken attitudes, actions and choices on the Jesus who allowed all of those things to kill him. In the most upside down and backwards move of turning the other cheek and going the extra mile, Jesus climbed up on a cross and tabled his right to justice and vengeance for our sake as he took our sins to the cross.
This morning, perhaps the transaction you need to make is trading your brokenness for Jesus’ goodness. You can do this by simply calling out to him and asking him to forgive you and choosing to follow after him as you now carry your own cross to extend the same grace and forgiveness to others.
I want to give a few minutes of silent prayer and reflection time as perhaps there are decisions and transactions that need to be made as the music plays softly. I am going to be here at the front if you would like to pray or have someone walk through this with you.