But I Tell You: Part 5 | Matthew 5:38-42

Alright, let us pray before we go further. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for the wonderful

blessing that you are a God who speaks, who speaks to each of us, who has spoken through

the ages and spoke through Jesus Christ. We pray that as we reflect on the words that

have been read, that you continue to bless us, help us to remember this teaching of Jesus's,

help us to understand it and transform it into our lives. And we ask this in his name,

Amen. Well, I'm going to start by telling you the story of our wheelie bin. So, and

even before I get to the story that's important about our wheelie bin, you need a bit of wheelie

bin backstory. And it all began when we moved into our house. We've recently moved to Perth,

found a house after, you know, six months or so, moved in. And when you move in, you

know, you start a relationship with your new bin. And our bin was our recycling bin. So

this is, you know, the general waste that's not in this story. That was fine. The wheelie

bin was, it had a broken lid, you know. It just wasn't going up and down right. It was

coming off. It just moved in. So we rang up the council, told them about our bin. You

know, we're really hoping that they'd come over and fix, you know, just fix it. You know,

I don't know what they're going to do to it or maybe even give us a new bin. Anyway,

they're very good about it. They came over, which was fantastic, responded well. But when

they got there, they just whacked a cable tie on it, which was a bit disappointing.

But that's all right. It went up and down all right. And it was great to have. But the

point of that, point of telling you about that part of it is that we could easily see,

we knew which was our bin pretty easily because it was the one with the council cable tie

on it. And the other thing about our bin, our recycling bin, even though it was a little

bit, you know, it wasn't the prettiest bin, you know, with its council cable tie, but

it was a good smelling bin, right. I mean, it wasn't a good smelling bin, but you know,

for a bin, it wasn't, you know, there wasn't a problem with its smell. It was nice, you

know. And so our driveways, we've got this kind of thing going on where we all put our

all, there's like three driveways that all come together. And we all put our bins on

the other side of the road, kind of in a little cluster. That's just the way it works there

on Jugton Way. And so we've put our bin out and research recycling, we've got the recycling

bins out there. And we're a bit slow to get it in, you know, not looking at anybody who's

sitting over there in sort of the back row over there. Bit slow to get it in. And when

we do go out there, there's one recycling bin left. And this is not the bin with the

council cable tie, right. Somebody else has got our bin and left us this bin. Now this

bin, I'm telling you, this bin stunk, right. This bin was, this is something else. This

was like, I don't know what had gone on there. It was like somebody has, somebody's like

put the pizza boxes in the recycling, but they forgot that the pizzas were still in

there. And they've left it there like three to six months and they'd ordered the seafood

pizza. And that was all there, right. That's, it was like something had crawled in there

and died. It was not just smelling bad, but it was smelling bad in a way that that badness

was kind of bonded to the plastic at the bottom of it. And the thing about this is that it's

kind of really obvious who's nicked our bin, right. Because it's the bin with the council

cable tie. And it's kind of obvious like they haven't done this by mistake. Like you can't

mistake our decently smelling bin for this bin that smells like you need a priest to

exercise this smell, right. So, and there it is. There's the bin down the way. So how

do we respond to that, right? How should we respond in that kind of a situation? We're

going to get to that in just a little while. That's just kind of an ordinary suburban

story, right. We all kind of have things that go on in our lives and go on with our neighbours.

I bought a letter box the other day just and the guy was telling me a story about, you

know, there's two neighbours and somehow they've got, I don't know what's going on in their

street, but one of them, he gets a chain and he wraps it around his neighbour's letter

box and attaches it to his car and drives off with his letter box down there. These

things happen, right? I'm sure you've had something in your life where somebody's done

something wrong to you, maybe in a big way, maybe in a small way, something at work or

school, something in your family, maybe you've got scammed. And Jesus is talking here about

those kind of situations. The situations in this passage are all something that somebody

has done something wrong to the person in question, to the disciple, something sort

of morally wrong or something that they won't be liking. And what Jesus says here about

how to respond is incredibly powerful. It's interesting that there's just four verses

that were read out to us and in those four verses there are three things that have become

sayings in the English language. These are things that stick in our minds. Firstly, I

mean it tells you that Jesus is an amazing teacher, that he has these kind of pictures,

those pictures that just stay with us. But also it shows us that this is memorable teaching.

This is something that is radical and sticks in our mind. These are culture shaping statements.

So we have an eye for an eye which is actually a quote from the Old Testament. So you may

say that doesn't really count. But then we have turn the other cheek is an English expression

from verse 38 and go the extra mile comes from verse 41. Two statements that are radically

different to the way that our culture understands an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. And

when people do talk about those they're usually talking about them in some kind of revenge

or retaliation to even up the score. Whatever bad thing has happened to them they'll do

something equal in return. And it seems by Jesus' but I tell you and his illustrations

that follow that the people at the time were thinking about it in much the same way in

terms of taking revenge or evening up in retribution. But this understanding of an eye for an eye,

a tooth for a tooth, really lacks a proper understanding of the moral issues involved.

Interestingly there are at least as far as I've counted there are at least six films

that have been made in the last 40ish years that have the title of the film An Eye for

an Eye. The first one as far as I'm aware was a Chuck Norris film in the 80s and it

was just that it was a Chuck Norris film from the 80s. The second one was a lot kind of

more interesting and complex in terms of the moral issues involved. And it was about a

mother taking revenge on the man who raped and murdered her daughter. But interestingly

the film got terrible reviews despite the fact that it had Sally Field in it and Sally

Field is just amazing in everything she does. But there's a Pulitzer Prize winning critic,

this guy called Roger Ebbett who put his finger on the problem with the film and he explained

that the film exploited the audience by showing the revenge, right, that's the basis of the

film, without exploring the moral issues involved. And that's kind of a really interesting criticism

to make of the film. It says that we can't just have the audience sit there and watch

a character take revenge, like in this case she was taking revenge through murder, without

an adequate kind of exploration of the moral issues. So even though it's kind of what the

audience wants, right, at first the audience almost wants to be exploited because there's

kind of a side of us that is fascinated with the idea of revenge. That's why there's six

films called An Eye for an Eye. But at some point in the movie we're all going to kind

of wake up and see that it's kind of morally bankrupt and the whole issue requires closer

examination. And at that point as an audience we feel kind of cheap and dirty and manipulated.

And to take the Old Testament teaching, An Eye for an Eye, in the way that was being

done at the time of Jesus and as people still do today, and to take that as revenge while

failing to understand the moral complexities is to exploit the text, right, it's not to

engage in the real issues. And to take a text out of its context is exploitation. And what

we need to do is we need to kind of go back and see what was meant in the Old Testament.

And when we do that we see that Jesus isn't contradicting what's written there but showing

us its true meaning. And what he's going to do is show us it and then raise it one. He's

going to plummet the complexities, draw out their true meaning and then reconfigure this

in a new covenant kingdom framework that is going to show us the heart of the matter.

And that's what we need to do now. But as we turn to the Old Testament, the thing that

we should be paying attention to is the point of view of the actions that are going on.

So to explain that, what I mean is that kind of what we want to be doing is think about

the direction. So if I kind of think about myself as the person who has done something

wrong to somebody else, then that's kind of one thing isn't it? Like I've done wrong and

I need to think about what I am going to do to set that right for the other person. So

that's one point of view that I want us to consider. But then there's another point of

view that we might consider and that's from the point of view of the person who has been

wronged by that other person. And that's a different point of view and the Bible handles

that in a different way. And that causes us to question what do I do when I'm in this

position and what do I do while I'm in that position. And that's what I want us to kind

of have a look at as we get there. So an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth is found three

times in the Old Testament in the law. The first two of them are quite similar. They

deal with personal injuries. And then the third one uses the same concept but in the

context of being a witness in court. But what we're going to do is take the first of those

which is the most in depth and that is in Exodus chapter 21 verses, well we'll start

Exodus 21 · chapter mention

with verses 23 to 25. So it's worth turning to that because we're going to be having a

look at that. So Exodus 21 verses 23 to 25. Right, so there we have it. So I'll read that.

Exodus 21:23–25

But if there is a serious injury then you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth

for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.

And taken by itself that's pretty full on isn't it? But there are good reasons to see

that this is not about taking personal revenge. So firstly, even before we kind of get to

the context of these verses, we need to recognise the law in general taught against revenge.

So we see that in Leviticus 19 verse 18. So that's a really significant verse. That's

Leviticus 19:18

the verse that the second great command comes from to love your neighbour. But if we go

back before love your neighbour it says, do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against

anyone among your people. So don't seek revenge, don't bear a grudge against anyone among your

people, but love your neighbour as yourself, I am the Lord. Alright, so that's kind of

the bigger picture. The law does not teach revenge. But we can see that even here in

the context. The first thing to notice is if we go to the verse before, the ones that

we read. So if we go back to verse 22, it says, if people are fighting and hit a pregnant

woman and she gives birth prematurely, but there is no serious injury, the offender must

be fined whatever the woman's husband demands and the court allows. So we can see from that

that the context of how this is meant to play out is in the context of the law courts. The

courts are involved, other people are involved, the husband of the woman involved is brought

into it. This is not personal revenge. This is something that's meted out carefully and

evenly by society through the courts. And yeah, there's no sense that a person can take

personal revenge. The idea there is that the principle is guiding the courts, right? So

the principle of evening things up, that people need to be, there needs to be a punishment

that fits the crime, that's the principle behind. And we don't have to take that an

eye for an eye kind of as a tight idea that if one person's eye is lost then the other

person has to get their eye poked out. It doesn't work like that. And we see that in

the exact like the verses after the one with eye for an eye in there. So you see it applied

straight away. So we see this in verse 26, an owner who hits a male or female slave in

the eye and destroys it must let the slave go free to compensate for the eye. So they

don't lose their own eye, they let the slave go free. It's not kind of that correspondence

there. And then exactly the same, interestingly the other one that's picked up is the tooth.

Verse 27, an owner who knocks out the tooth of a male or female slave must let the slave

go free to compensate for the tooth. So the person is compensated and the appropriate

value says God, like this is God's law, the appropriate value for those things is the

freedom of the slave. And notice in these the point of view that it takes. It's not

saying that if somebody takes your eye out that you get to do such and such. It's not

kind of taking that point of view. It's more objective and it takes the point of view of

the court and what to do in that situation. And in doing that it's more focused on the

person who does wrong. It's showing us when we do something wrong that we have to respond

appropriately. So the overall concept that applied to both physical injury and property

is that if you've done something to someone then they need to be compensated in some way.

And in this case the value is like a one to one. In other cases, especially in property,

you have to pay back double if you've been particularly malicious in the way that you've

taken it and sometimes four times. And the person in the Bible who really got this concept

was Zacchaeus when he encounters Jesus in Luke 19 verse 8. So Luke 19 verse 8 says,

Luke 19:8 Luke 19:8

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, Look Lord, here and now I give half my possessions

to the poor and if I've cheated anyone out of anyone I will pay back four times the amount.

He got it. He understands that he's done wrong and has a debt to those people. And this is

a really important concept for us to grasp. If we are in a dispute and we're the ones

who have it wrong then there's been a debt created that we need to make up for. We might

have spoken badly or created physical or financial damage and we need to compensate by that by

giving back if it's financial or perhaps in a kind of more abstract way like speaking

well to somebody, caring for them, expressing our sorrow as it would be appropriate in that

situation. But the Bible doesn't encourage us to do the same when we're on the other

point of view. It's not saying that if you're wronged make sure that you extract your due

compensation. Jesus teaches us that when we take the point of view of the other, the one

who's been wronged, then we should forgive freely without forcing the other to make up

for it just like God did for us. And in this way we put the other person first. We're always

applying the principle in the way that's not best for us but is best for them depending

on our point of view. And if we could apply that principle that when we've done wrong

we make up for it and when the other person has done wrong we forgive them freely without

forcing them to make up for it, then we will all have stronger marriages, we'll have better

relationships within the church and we will be a radical model of God's love and justice

to the world. And here in the passage Jesus is looking from the point of view of the Christian

who has been wronged by another person. So in all the examples that he's given there's

a person who is doing something wrong or something that we wouldn't want and Jesus teaches, this

is kind of the main point that he's making, do not resist an evil person. Alright not

only do we not retaliate against that person but Jesus' examples show us a way that we're

so not active in resisting them that we take a step further away from it by kind of ensuring

that our hands are completely clean of any kind of speck of revenge or retribution.

So let's kind of get into it and let's look at these four illustrations that Jesus gives

about not resisting an evil person. The first three of them are right on point and then

the fourth Jesus kind of gives us a more general principle. So the first is in verse 39 it

says if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to them the other cheek also. So the

thing that we need to understand that we would have understood if we were in kind of like

Matthew's audience reading this, different to us reading this, is that in their culture

a slap on the cheek is a public insult. I guess it is in our culture as well to a degree

but to them with their culture with this honour shame kind of system it was a public insult

and if you think about getting hit on the right cheek so it's natural to assume that

the person doing the hitting is going to be right handed because that's the law of averages.

So if you imagine getting hit on that's like slapped on the right cheek, how do you slap

somebody on the right cheek? You backhand them right? If you're using your right hand

and that's like the double insult to backhand slap somebody across their cheek. And what

Jesus is saying is that we need to accept the insult so we don't retaliate right and

they could have in their culture there was a way to actually sue for a slap on the cheek

not because you've hurt your cheek but to regain the honour and Jesus is saying don't

regain the honour in fact make yourself vulnerable to further insult. Right so just to be clear

about that Jesus is not condemning violence, he's not telling you to stay in an unsafe

situation, he's certainly not standing, he's not telling you to stand by and watch injustice

happening like as if you could kind of watch a weak and vulnerable person and then you

just kind of say to them well just suck it up. Okay what he's talking about is honour

and what he's saying is let the score stay uneven. Okay we need to be willing to endure

shame and Jesus is our ultimate model in this. So in John 18 verse 23 Jesus is actually in

John 18:23

front of the high priest who is in a Jewish situation and he's struck, right not specifically

on the right cheek but he is slapped in the face. He doesn't just sort of let go of the

injustice, he actually points it out. So he points out that that was wrong that he was

slapped but then he doesn't retaliate. So it's not that he doesn't understand the wrongness

and he doesn't think the wrongness is unimportant but he doesn't retaliate and he in fact allows

himself to be crucified which is the ultimate indignity, the death that is only fit for

slaves and the worst criminals and he has a sign above him ironically stating that he's

the king of the Jews, absolute insult. The second one is in verse 40 so it says if anybody

wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. Right so with modern

manufacturing shirts are a lot cheaper, it wouldn't really seem worthwhile to sue somebody

for their $30 flannel from Lowe's like I got this week but 2000 years ago your shirt right

which is actually like a full length robe was a much bigger deal and it would seem like

even in that even though it's a bigger deal that this is a pretty bad situation like the

person is being sued for their own clothing clearly they don't have much left to be sued

for. It's kind of outrageous then that the person should also be willing to give up the

outer robe. Okay so just to explain that people had like a long garment thing, there's no

word for it in English so they translated it as shirt and there's kind of an outer one

that goes over that and your outer one is what keeps you warm and for poorer people

they might have just had one of each, one under one and certainly only one over one

which doubled as your blanket for night. And the thing to understand about this is that

outer one is protected by the law. There's actually laws, there's actually in the Jewish

law that you cannot take somebody's outer garment. It's protected, you can't take it,

if they owe you money you cannot take that away from them as payment for that. So for

us losing a coat would just be an inconvenience I guess but it's more like if you imagine

somebody who's sleeping rough, they only have one coat and you somehow try and take

that away from them. So here the disciple, the member of the kingdom gives up or is willing

to give up the thing that is legally protected. Okay he's giving up his worldly comfort,

the thing that keeps him warm when he's not required to by the law. To somebody who is

already against him, that is outrageous sacrifice. The third illustration is in verse 41, it

says if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles and you might want

to know, you might be asking like why would anybody want to force you to go like one mile

anyway other than of course a PE teacher. And it has to do with Roman occupation. So

the soldiers weren't paid very much but they had the right to enlist civilians into forced

labour. So here it would be a Roman soldier who is demanding that somebody carries his

belongings for him. So he's just taken a civilian, you're going to carry this, come with me.

Not only is that hard work but it's really inconvenient because you can't do your normal

work and also it rubs your face in the fact that you are oppressed by these people, by

this foreign power. So going back to Jesus' main teaching, don't resist an evil person.

The evil person, the bad person in this situation is a foreign occupier and Jesus shockingly

says don't resist this occupation. Not only that but go as far as to graciously do more

for the soldier than is required. Right but again like all of these we don't want to press

that too far. This doesn't mean that when we look around the world and we see oppressed

people, like especially if we see civilians or women and children who are being wrongfully

treated. We don't just sort of sit back and from our comfort of our TVs and say well guys

you know go the extra mile. It doesn't mean that if we lived in occupied Holland during

World War II that we would go and help the Nazis find hidden Jews. That would be morally

wrong. That would actually be benefiting you because you might sort of get better treatment

from the Nazis for somebody else's suffering. But it comes back to that point of view. Being

self-sacrificial is very different to offering up somebody else who is a vulnerable person.

And then the last illustration is more general in the sense that there's no particular oppressor

involved or an evil person. But it's the same general attitude of non-resistance and overflowing

generosity. So in verse 42 it says, give to the one who asks you, do not turn away from

the one who wants to borrow from you. It might be like somebody asking for money, like a

beggar on the street. It might be a neighbour. But the attitude is always one of overflowing

generosity. Don't resist or turn away their request. Now there's some things that need

to be said as we bring these kind of four illustrations together as a collection. First

we need to see that Jesus, as he often does, is talking in extremes. These things actually

become problematic if you take them too literally. Like ending up naked is more than just a small

cultural problem. We could point out that giving without reserve to somebody with a

drugs problem is helping no one. But they're not meant to be literal instructions. They're

graphic illustrations. And they're graphic illustrations that work very well, seen by

the fact that two of them have become part of the English language. When I was telling

you about when Jesus got slapped on the cheek, he doesn't literally kind of turn his other

cheek and kind of ask for another one to be planted on the other side. That would actually

be really kind of in that situation kind of cheeky and disrespectful. But he does demonstrate

the attitude of non-resistance to the point of outrageous generosity. And from the examples

that he gives, it seems clear that in Jesus' day, people were wrongly applying an eye for

an eye to promote revenge and retribution. But Jesus says, no, kingdom behaviour is quite

different. When somebody hits us, what we want to do is we want to hit back. But Jesus

says, be vulnerable for another shot. When somebody nicks our recycling bin, we want

to nick theirs back. But Jesus says, no, be willing to give them the general waste too.

Your boss or your teacher has been unreasonable. Jesus says, do some more work. Often making

peace involves being vulnerable to being hurt again. And here we really come to understand

the Beatitudes. So remember back to the start of the chapter. It might seem like a long

time ago. It says, blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those

who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those

who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed

are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against

you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven, for in the

same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. All of that seemed really

nice at first when you first read it. It's all this lovely picture of the kingdom, all

kind of cotton wool clouds and bouncy sheep. Isn't it nice to think that the meek get included,

that everyone's so inclusive that those poor guys in society get brought in, as if it's

some kind of wet blanket religion. But here in this passage we see that the Beatitudes

are not just about who happens to be included in the kingdom, but it's actually about the

type of behaviours we need to actively pursue. Right? So being a child of the kingdom means

actively pursuing meekness. It means actually pursuing righteousness that surpasses the Pharisees.

It involves being a radical peacemaker, including outrageous self-sacrificial behaviour. It

involves a willingness to subject ourselves to persecution. In the illustrations Jesus

gave we see that he calls us to sacrifice our honour, our legal protections, our freedom

and our finances. There's a branch of Christianity that is all about fighting for our liberty,

our rights and our freedoms. But that Christianity doesn't match up with what we see here. And

we can be sacrificial in this way, in the way that Jesus calls for, because of where

we find our identity as disciples. We don't find our identity in our finances, or in our

national borders, or our freedoms. We don't find them in our civil rights or our physical

defences. We find our identity in Christ. Right? The one who demonstrated meekness on

the cross, the one who was righteous, the one who was pure in heart, the one who brought

us peace, the persecuted man of God, that is our identity. And while Jesus worked in

every way for the good of others, he gave up everything for himself. And that is the

attitude that we should take. Let me pray. Heavenly Father, these things are so hard

and so big. It is so radical to be a disciple of your Son Jesus. Heavenly Father, we know

that on our own we can't be that person. We pray that you fill us with your spirit of

peace and grace. Help us take this teaching with us, that it might change us, and work

towards being the disciple that reflects Jesus. Amen.