Retaliation

But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil.

Do not resist the one who is evil. We're to go back to the first of these statements. Chapter five, beginning of verse twenty one, you're heading there's anger. In this in that first one, Jesus was warning us of the anger that comes from within us that burst out into insults. Hating others, dehumanizing others and even murdering others. The first of these is how we are responsible for the kind of anger that comes against others in insults. This one is turning the other side of that problem, and how do we respond when someone acts towards us in anger and insults? We can kind of see a whole theology of protecting yourself from being angry and insulting, and then how do you actually respond to those who would act towards you in anger and insulting. He's teaching us what to do when someone offends us, treats us poorly, dehumanizes us. How do we live as a people of mercy in a fallen world? How do we live at peace with people who are constantly poking and provoking? Jesus's instruction, the one simple declaration, which is quite interesting, do not Oppose, do not resist the evil. Do not resist the difficult people. Don't fight back. Again, you can hear there maybe the sense that the Pharisees, they're insisting on justice as the one rule anytime an offense is made. Whereas Christ here is teaching there's another way. It isn't always just justice. There's a place for mercy. He's emphasizing or he's challenging the Pharisee's insistence that justice is the rule and justice for every possible offense. Instead of opposing every offense, demanding absolute justice, Jesus calls us to absorb insult and loss. Key question, are we strong enough to be merciful? Are we strong enough to be merciful? Are we Christ-like enough to respond with kindness? If your idea of strength is always fighting back every perceived wrong, you're not a peacemaker, as Christ has commanded us. If we want to always make sure we stick it to every authority we disagree with, we're not really having a high view of God and his good rules. We need to make sure we have a thick skin that absorbs. We're not thin skin. If everything offends us, we're not really prioritizing the things that are truly offensive. A significant measure of maturity is what does it take to discourage you or offend you. Jesus gives three very specific examples and then two more. There's a set of three and two that are combined. The first three particular ways in which he talks about what it means to resist the evil, do not resist the evil. He tells us to turn the other cheek, give them your tunic and your cloak, and then go with them an additional mile if they demand one mile. Let's turn first to turn the other cheek.

But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him The other also.

No, it's interesting there. He insists and makes it very specific, it's the right cheek. And the assumption is most people are right-handed. If you were to strike someone with your right hand on the right cheek, that is not a punch, it's a slap. That's not a mano-a-mano, face-to-face, equal fight. It's an insult. It's a back slap that would be dishonoring. It would be shameful. The goal there isn't the physical punishment. It's the dehumanizing. It's to dishonor somebody. It's an insult. Christ is here saying if someone slaps you across the face as an insult, turn the other cheek. Same thing could be applied if someone were to turn their back to you, roll their eyes at you, hurl insults, gossip, Turn the other cheek. Don't fight back, don't insist on some eye for an eye, don't slap them back, don't resist, don't push back. Absorb. Turn the other cheek means you're willing to absorb that insult and even take more. How? How could one do this? At some level, you have to know who you are. If your identity is in all your peers, if your identity is bound up in a fear of man, every form of dishonor that is real or perceived is going to lead you to some kind of crisis. Know that no human being can take away the dignity that God has given you as his image bearer. Know that as your most basic identity. Know who you are based upon what God has said. No, your worth is fully in the hands of God who made you in his image. And if you're a believer, he is your father who has adopted you into his family. Sticks and stones, they do hurt. Insults hurt too. Being treated unfairly is frustrating. But God, that's your ammunition. when insulted by others, fair or unfair, true or untrue, but God, He is the one who should give us our honor. He is the one who should inform how we think about our honor. Now church, this is significant as we think about what it means to insult, slander, we the church cannot participate in those. That means we don't listen to it, we don't entertain it. We need to make sure that feels out of place here. But Christian, there's a way in which you must be willing to be mocked for being a follower of Christ. If they hated him, they're going to hate us. If they're going to treat him as if he was a fool, even though he was the very wisdom of God, they're going to treat us as fools. We must be convinced of the very wisdom of God that begins with a fear of God. If they think walking in mercy and trusting God and his power is weakness, we must understand Jesus Christ is the wisdom and the power of God. When he stood firm, not fighting back when insulted, we see a model of what it looks like to know who you are and what your mission is. When we're insulted, when others try to mistreat you, We don't seek to fight back with the same kind of sin. That just compounds sin. No, we look up to our king who cares for us and gives us the strength to show mercy. The second illustration, the second declaration, the second instance of how this is to be played out.

And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

The tunic was kind of the undergarment where many would have multiple tunics. The cloak would be the one coat you would own for decades, probably your blanket as well. Very important, very much more expensive, a very important marker. In the Old Testament law, you actually could never sue somebody for their cloak. It was that important for the life of somebody, for the comfort, the protection for the cover, you could lend it, you could borrow it for a day, but you could not take it. What Jesus says here is if somebody sues you in court for your tunic, give them also your cloak. There's a way in which you're giving over security. It's a very prized possession, but I think here he's putting his finger on the security of it all. If turning the cheek is about dignity, This one's about security. Over against eye for eye, wanting to fight back the court's ruling about your tunic is something that should be taken as a punishment. He says, be generous. Be willing to be taken advantage of. Don't hold on to what you think are your rights. Give them even your cloak. If they decided it should be The tunic is not just ivory, be generous and not begrudging. The third illustration is if forced to go a mile, and the context seems to be this would be what Roman soldiers could have required of those who were Jews in Judea.

If anyone forced you to go a mile, go with them two miles.

A Roman soldier could force someone to go a short distance, about a mile. and they would have to carry their pack. So if a Jewish man was demanded of a Roman centurion or soldier, the soldier could make him carry his pack for a mile. She's saying if someone requires you a mile, go with them another. Here it seems to be liberty, your freedom to do what you wanna do when you wanna do it as a state. So there's dishonor, there's your honor, dignity, security, and now liberty. So don't refuse him to go that mile, even go one mile further. Jesus is putting his finger on three particular areas of our lives, dignity, security, freedom. Now this could be a fun exercise at lunch. Which of those are you most upset about losing? Which one of those would be most disturbing? Which one of those would be most important? All of those are important for who we are as image bearers. As we think about who we are in God's image, as we think about how we're supposed to be functioning, as we're supposed to be actually caring for each other with dignity, security, and freedom. But Christ is saying be willing to absorb punishment. Be willing to lose your rights. Be willing to sacrifice your rights. Be willing to show mercy when mistreated. Which one of those would be most upsetting And why? As we continue to walk through the passage, we see a bit of an angle change. You see, the one who would slap you and the one who would sue you for your tunic and the one who would demand a mile, that would be an authority. That would be somebody who has an authority over you that would use that authority for their abuse of you. And he's saying, be merciful underneath that abuse of authority. The next two are a different kind of relationship. The one who begs and borrows, well, that'd be somebody who might be under you. Someone who needs something from you.

Give to the one who begs from you. Do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

He goes from the three examples of somebody who might have authority above you, to mistreat you, to people who would be absolutely in need of you. Now a beggar in this day, they oftentimes just could not work because of leprosy, some other kind of problem of blindness. There was no option for them other than to beg and it was incredibly humbling and shameful. They're unable to work for many reasons and they're left to begging, borrowing somebody who needs something from you. The principle here is interesting. Instead of insisting on my rights to my stuff, there is a desire to be generous. Generous for those who have needs. We see that open heart, the tender heart. There's a thick skin that's able to show mercy to those who might have authority that abuse you, and then there's still a tender heart to show kindness, charity to those who need you. We should not have a closed heart that reveals itself with a closed hand. By God's grace, we have open hearts to him and his great generosity, and that should cause us to have open hands to be generous. Okay, this is not a prescription to answer every foreign prince who says if you send him some money, he'll give you his fortune. Be wise as serpents. But there's a trust in God. that underlies this entire teaching. There's a trust in the king who rules in absolute righteousness, who has all authority, that is the foundation of all of these very challenging statements. It's his grace that makes our skin thick. It's his mercy that makes our hearts tender. It's his grace and his mercy that needs to be received, practiced, and applaud. As we think about what this looks like, are we willing to absorb insults? Are we strong enough to be merciful when somebody mistreats us? We can think about what the kingdom looks like. We think about what he expects of his citizens. We can go back all the way to the Beatitudes.

Blessed, are the poor in spirit. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are you when you're persecuted.

These three principles, these three blessings are behind the instruction for how you can absorb insult and show mercy. How you can be generous and kind and caring to those who you don't need but need you.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

The emphasis there, we come to Christ with nothing but sin that needs to be forgiven. He needs nothing from us. Everything we have, life, he's given to us. Every ability we have, he has given to us. He needs nothing. We come completely impoverished in every way, and he invites us into his kingdom and gives to us generously. If you have come into the kingdom poor in spirit, which is the only way to come to that kingdom, and we truly wrestle with what it means to come poor in spirit, it moves us from apathy to sympathy. When you see somebody poor who is in need, there cannot be an apathy for the one who really embraces and understands how poor we are before God and how generous he's been. We give to those who beg and borrow without expectations, knowing we have come to God poor in spirit and he has provided so generously.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy.

It's important. When someone is rude, unkind, insulting, angry, mercy is the instruction of Christ. Again, this is not a crime. This is someone who's just being mean. Their words are always condescending, short, undercutting. Mercy does not condone that behavior. Mercy invites them out of it. It's very important. There's a way in which if you just keep overlooking it and not saying anything, you're actually enabling. Mercy does not condone evil. It invites them out of it. So you have three options. You can just try to pretend it didn't happen, and you're somewhat just letting it continue over and over again, and that's enabling. There's another way in which you can return it. That's you participating in it. Another way in which you show mercy. You're inviting them out of that behavior. It doesn't mean you address it, but you address it in a way that you're inviting them out of that kind of insult. You seek to bless those who curse you. The third blessing. The one that stands out as the most unique to Christ, to Christians, verses 10 and 11,

blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

" This was important because if you're receiving this insult, this injury, because you are practicing the righteousness of Christ, there's actually a reason to rejoice. There's a great blessing. tied to being treated in such a way that if you are following Christ, if you're receiving punishment for being rude, that's a different story. But if you're being receiving punishment for being Christ like. For promoting his righteousness again, if they treated him as an enemy, even though he was the wisdom of God. If we're being mistreated and persecuted, it's made to be a blessing. It's a way to help us understand how to participate in his suffering, to rejoice in the way he came to be mistreated for us. Blessed are the persecuted. So the eye for the eye, tooth for tooth, that's a justice principle. I believe that is a good law to have in its right place. that don't resist the evil, showing mercy and absorbing evil, showing kindness. There's two interpretive conundrums that I want to wrestle with publicly with you. One, Jesus is talking to his disciples. The way this is supposed to play out is that he's speaking to his disciples, the crowds are there, He's giving principles for how we relate to each other as disciples. So it kind of forces the question, who's slapping who? Who's the one who's insulting? Is it possible that there could be this kind of misbehavior in the church? I take you back to the first, you've heard it said. He's already said, we all have anger in our hearts. And that anger produces insults. If you're around sinners long enough, you're going to experience sin. If you're actually growing closer with other Christians who still have a sin nature, it's going to come out. Jesus our King is commanding us what to do when there's evil done against us, insults done against us. Just like that first one, go and make right with your brother that you've sinned against, We have to assume this is happening and does happen within the kingdom, so when another brother or sister in Christ insults us, even sues us, bags of us, this is how we should think about how we relate to each other. Now, I want to be very clear, this ought not be in the Church of the Holy God. Ephesians 5 makes it very clear. No foolish talk, no coveting should actually be among the people of God. It ought not be is the exact word of Paul. Or as we think about the backslap, 1 Timothy in chapter two, it commands men should lift up holy hands without anger and quarreling. What an instruction. What an assumption as to what could be happening instead of prayer. So many warnings about quarreling in the church. This ought not be in the church of the holy living God. But when it is, it's an opportunity to practice mercy. It's an opportunity to experience, enjoy, and show the love of Christ. Mercy does not mean we simply let people misbehave, act rudely, That's enabling. No, again, mercy is when we speak to someone about that behavior. And it always means we're inviting them out. It means we're showing kindness to them. We're absorbing it, but we're also seeking to bring them out of it. You're not trying to make them pay for what you perceive as evil in your own way. There's two passages that I wrestle with regularly that are specifically meant to teach us what it means to turn the other cheek and absorb insult. The first is let love cover a multitude of sins. There's a thick skin that's good in that you're not sensing the need to confront every perceived wrong. There's a way in which we must let love cover a multitude of sins. There's a way in which we want to show love in not confronting every possible perceived wrong or real wrong even. The other passage is from Matthew 18. If you're going to address it, you go and talk to that brother to confront them and invite them out to win him over. And if he doesn't listen, you bring another witness of that same behavior. Again, the goal is to invite them out of it, to win them back to the right behavior that's appropriate for Christ. Interesting, if you think about what it means to absorb, that means forgiveness. Jesus follows up, Matthew 18, how many times should you forgive? Seven times? No, 70 times seven. And if you ever thought, I'm gonna count all the way to 490, you're not getting it. As I tell my children, if you're keeping score, you lose. If you keep score, you lose. The goal of the Christian, the goal for what we're doing here as disciples is to learn how to practice this mercy here, because here it's insults, it's painful, it's frustrating, it ought not be, but it is. But here we have the common ground of grace, of being able to confront sin and confess sin and forgive sin and be reconciled. What a training ground to make sure we're ready if we go out there and receive real persecution. Real misbehavior. This requires a thick skin and a tender heart that truly embraces the fullness of God's power and mercy. It's something we must be trained in. I appreciate there's so many different metaphors to the church. The strength of it, it's a pillar and buttress of truth. It's a bride of Christ, there's love. There's a couple passages refer to it and describe it as if it's a gymnasium, somewhere to be trained. We're training each other to know how to be merciful, to be tough, to be strong, and yet still tender and kind. We think about how we respond to those who might mistreat us. We also have to realize, verse 42, that's about money in our possessions. There's a way in which the church needs to be a place where we're thinking about those most significant idols. Two of the most significant idols in our culture that the Bible speaks to so clearly are sex and money. I tried to explain and cover sex as much as I possibly could in two previous sermons to make sure we know we're supposed to be talking about this. We should be talking about it. It's an incredibly powerful gift of God that must be used in his way and misused. It is so dangerous. Well, money is one of those other great dangers, a other source of evil. Interestingly, if you look at Proverbs, it's advice from a father to a son on how to relate rightly to all the other things in life that are good and can be evil. Sex and money are the two most prominent. Church, we wanna make sure we're thinking about this and talking about it. We should be open-handed. We should have a heart that has received such generous love from God. We should be open-handed. And I want to say this is more and better than just random acts of kindness. There's a way in which we take offering up here every week to help train how we relate to money, to realize it's a stewardship. We encourage you to give generously, regularly, There's a way in which we must think about what money is and that it's really a tool, it's a resource that God gives us for some security to provide for those in need, to provide for our family, to provide for the kingdom work of the church. I wanna encourage you to consider how you could give more regularly to train your heart for a right relationship with money. Beyond just random acts of kindness, Regular means try to give something each week. Somebody gave me this idea when I first came here, and I thought that's pretty amazing. They get paid once a month, but they're gonna give something each week to know they're giving to the Lord each week. It's a way of reminding themselves and teaching themselves. If you think about how much, 10% is that general good starting place. Generously is the goal. Cheerfully is the goal, but members, giving 10%, of your income, to regularly give, it guards your heart, it promotes in your heart generosity, and it provides for the church to fulfill her mission. Here there's a right way of relating to God to see he is the one who protects you in your honor, he's the one who protects you in all that you need, and you can trust him to obey. The first and interpretive conundrum is how this relates to the church, and I believe this is important within the church. The second is how it associates with pacifism. This would be one of the key verses for churches and Christian traditions that promote pacifism, which would say all war and all violence, any fighting or even protecting would be out of bounds. They would assume Jesus is reversing the eye for eye, removing it completely, denying it, and the new rule is always receiving insults and crimes, no resistance. Now, I believe that's misunderstanding what Jesus is doing with these statements in order. You have heard it said, but I say to you, It also doesn't understand there's a significant difference in how Jesus is saying that eye for eye in the Old Testament, that was for crimes for a public court. Here, these insults are for smaller personal offenses. But there's something significant about the passage that does promote peace for God's people. We are to be peacemakers. We are to be salt and light in this world as peacemakers. And there's something very important in this passage that must be involved in our theology. See, we all have our favorite texts. You might not realize you have your favorite texts, but we all do. And we all like to use those favorite texts to interpret other texts. And you have to do that. As good Protestants, we must interpret scripture with scripture, and the most clear and the most important must be prioritized. But sometimes we can ignore other passages at the expense of others. Now, I wanna address this because I think I know you all, my church body, my family. I would be very surprised if I were to hear that there was some kind of Quaker pacifist movement happening that I wasn't aware of at Jefferson Park Baptist Church. I don't know if I'd be surprised if I heard there was a militia being formed, though. I'm talking to you out of love, knowing there is no pacifist tendency here, so I'm not gonna correct a problem that I don't think is here. I said, this is the teaching of our king. It says, peace, mercy, this must have a significant a significant place in how you're thinking about truth and justice and protection. Praise God for those who are very protective. Praise God that God has blessed us with protection. But that oftentimes doesn't produce peace. We need to make sure we're focused on the mercy he's showing here. First and foremost, this is a significant passage as we think about our understanding of protection, security, self-defense. Now, if you don't like this verse, let's be clear, there's three commands that Jesus expects for all disciples. Deny yourself, carry your cross, follow him. All three of these are in view here because you're denying yourself of your dignity as you assume it should be respected by turning the other cheek, and you're denying yourself freedom by going that extra mile, and you're denying yourself certain possessions as you give. You're following Jesus by seeking to practice what he practiced and commanded. But carrying a cross is what's most significant here. Carrying a cross is suffering for the sake of the gospel. Being willing to absorb for the sake of the gospel. And I don't think he gave us these three examples because this corresponds somehow with what he suffered, but I think it's a helpful illustration for us to wrestle with what these mean for us, given who Jesus is, what he's done, and now that he's teaching these things to us. We can't in any way say Jesus went the extra mile. No, 30 plus years he walked on this earth in a stature and a position lower than he was worth. The Son of God set aside his glory to walk humbly with us, to walk in our place, all the way up to Golgotha, where he was crucified. Our creator and glorious God set aside his liberty, his dignity, his glory to come and save us. Before he was hung on a cross, he was slapped, mocked, abused. He didn't just give up his tunic and his cloak, his skin was ripped off his back. He held on to nothing so that he could give us everything. He died for us, not just a death, but a death on the cross. The symbol of open public shame. We have a difficult time thinking, I'm going to absorb and show mercy. Oh, that's our opportunity to go with that impoverished thought into the presence of our King and ask for mercy. He has come to identify with us in every way, with our shame, because of our sin, so that he could restore us. Christian, the grace God gives us is to be strong, strong not to fight back, strong to absorb, to show wisdom, to demonstrate his grace when mistreated. He gives us wisdom to know when to apply justice and when to apply mercy. Here we wanna make sure we understand mercy is required of us from the king who gave us his life in mercy. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that we can sing songs such as His mercy is more. We thank you that when we look at your law and we let it be that mirror that shows our sin, the more we see our sin, we can always know that your mercy is more. Lord, as we walk together as Christians who still sin against each other. As we seek to know how to put aside our own anger, as we seek to learn how to be strong and absorbing and mercy and to show mercy, we pray we'd even know how to wrestle those passages that go one step further and that we rejoice in every trial. As we look to you who give generously the wisdom we need to live according to your word and your power. Lord, may we know how to live in this world full of hostility as your people who are strong, standing in your mercy. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.