Retaliation and Peace-making // Sermon on the Mount

Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.

Church of the Lookout is in Boulder, Colorado, and our vision is Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.

Visit us online at the lookout.church.

If you have your Bible, uh open up to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

We are still in the Sermon on the Mount.

And it's been a fun journey.

So if it's been a couple weeks since we gathered together to be in this journey, and uh if if you haven't been with us for the last several weeks, you can just pick right up into this beautiful passage of scripture that we've been passage by passage going through as the vision of what life in God's kingdom looks like.

And this beautiful vision that Jesus brought, and what he was really doing is upending the way that the world was thinking, upending that the way that the religious leaders were thinking, and he was casting a new vision.

And so we're entering into it afresh, I believe, because this is a time and a season for the church to continually be reminded of what is the way of Jesus and where does that contrast with the way of the world.

We have to be clear on where one stops and the other starts.

Are you guys with me?

You guys ready to get into this today?

Okay.

So Matthew chapter five, this is gonna be the fifth um, the fifth teaching where Jesus says, you have heard it said this way, but I tell you a new way.

This is five out of six, okay?

And uh and so today we're jumping into Matthew chapter five, verse thirty-eight.

Verse thirty-eight.

We'll have it on the screen if you don't have your Bible.

You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.

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

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

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

And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles, give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

And all God's people said Amen.

So a couple times a year, my wife helps put on an event in Erie, where we live, uh, called Momprom.

All right?

It's exactly how it sounds.

It's moms dressing up to go dance for the night while the husbands stay home with the kids, all right?

Uh it's actually part of a nonprofit.

My wife started with some friends called Erie Gives Back, um, which uh, and so these nights not only create community and Erie, uh, but all the money they raise support um fundraising initiatives in the community, like uh raising money for youth, mental health, wellness, and that kind of thing.

Really cool stuff.

So a few months ago a few months ago, they launched uh not only a mom prom, but like a second night where spouses were invited, where the you know, where the husbands were invited.

So a few months ago they did a themed night, and the theme was Barbie.

Okay?

So men and women could come dressed as different variations of Barbie and Ken.

Alright?

So I have proof that I attended this event, and that's me right there.

Um that's me and my best beach Ken.

Um, because I play a great beach Ken.

Alright.

And uh, if in case you were wondering what I do when I don't preach, I go to Barbie nights, alright?

And I dress up as Ken.

So this particular night, uh this particular night was uh it was a lot of fun.

Everyone was having fun as usual, but we came to find out there were a couple Barbies not getting along, all right?

Now, one of them was dressed as pink sparkly Barbie, and the other one was dressed as what we call weird Barbie.

All right, and when I say weird Barbie, if you grew up playing with Barbies, I know not everybody grew up playing with Barbies, but like my wife in the 80s and 90s, you grew up playing with Barbies, there's always that one Barbie out of all of them that you end up cutting all the hair off of.

You keep giving haircuts until it gets really short, and then it's just the hair is just kind of sticking out all weird, and you draw markers all over their face for some reason, and so it just becomes this kind of staple, weird Barbie.

And so people come, some of the people came dressed as weird Barbie.

And so what happened was on this particular night, um uh uh on this particular night, two of the Barbies started making rude comments to each other uh at the beginning of the night, calling each other names.

Eventually their husbands got into the the the debacle, right?

So the Kens were getting into this, making similar threats to each other.

And we didn't quite know this until later when this all uh culminated at one point where pink part uh sparkly Barbie uh decided to punch weird Barbie in the face, breaking her nose.

Okay.

And uh this erupted into some kind of a brawl of sorts, you could say, alright?

And so everyone's trying to figure out what's going on.

Um, the other Barbies are getting involved, people are pulling hair, other punches are going out, the husband, all the Kens are getting involved, who touched my wife?

It it turned into a real thing, all right?

And so it's erupted into this kind of thing, and and I'm sitting there trying to figure out what's going on.

It's clear that something is happening, all right.

This is not okay, whatever's happening, something I gotta figure out what's going on.

And so I noticed uh I noticed that there was it's a lot of energy coming from one dude.

All right, so I jumped into the the middle of this thing, beach can in all of his glory, and I jumped in the middle of this thing, and and I see this guy, and he's he's yelling, who touched my wife, who touched my wife, and I realize he's the husband of one of these girls that just got punched, and so and I'm looking into his eyes and I'm seeing like just straight pure anger, like just rage emanating from this guy.

And so I don't know what to do.

I start praying, all right.

So here I am in the middle of this Barbie and Ken thing.

I'm speaking in tongues, all right, dressed as full glory as Beach Ken.

Beach Ken speaking in tongues.

I'm rebuking Satan in the name of Jesus.

And uh I'm I'm I'm I'm like praying and I I come around this guy in the back set, and I just put him in a straight bear hug on the back.

Now, this guy's probably like twice my size, like this is a big dude.

But I put him in a straight bear hug.

I'm like, I gotta restrain this guy, all right?

So I I do that and just still he can cool off a little bit, everyone's kind of getting sorted out, people are still yelling across the room, Barbies and Kens of all kinds, all right?

And I'm not making any of this up.

Um eventually the police came.

And uh, and of course that put a damper on the whole party.

Um, but the best part of the night was when everyone tried to give their statement to the police officers, all right?

Because nobody actually knew anybody's name.

We're all just different variations of Barbie and Ken.

And so the police officer would come over and we would say they asked what happened.

They said, Well, here's here's what happened, police officer.

You see, pink pink sparkly Barbie started throwing shade at Weir Barbie, and they were calling it rude comments, but then Weir Barbie wasn't having any of it.

So she she started speaking back, but then Pink Sparkly Barbie just cracked her in the nose.

But then College Ken got in, College Ken tried to lunge across the crowd, but then Beach Ken got behind him and said this whole thing, the police officers are like taking the statement, like, what is happening here?

Eventually the police the police officer asks, What is this event for?

And my wife's like, it's to raise money for mental health in Erie.

So the irony of all this is out of the beat, Barbie and Ken Knight,$10,000 is raised, close to$10,000 is raised towards mental health, uh at which party was a major mental health issue, escalating violence.

So I share that both for a picture in my own life and world.

But also, we got to experience kind of this age-old problem.

We live in a world where violence begets violence.

We live in a world when when something happens, a um uh a mistreatment, an abuse of any kind, it starts a cycle.

And what happens is anger breeds anger, rage bring uh breeds rage, violence breeds violence.

And and and we see these pictures of what that looks like when it happens in a social setting.

We see it uh we see it happen on a national setting, we see it happen internationally where violence never uh it never ends, it just creates more violence.

We see that in the age-old story of Israel and Palestine.

Uh we see on an individual level, when we're mistreated, devalued, disrespected, there's this intrinsic knowing that when an injustice is taking place, it must be addressed or corrected.

There's something that rises up on the inside of us when a name is called or a punch is thrown or something is happening that shouldn't be happening.

All right.

So what happens is there's an energy that rises up within us, and unless we know where to direct that energy, it can escalate very quickly.

This, my friends, is the way of the world.

We see this happening all the time.

Now, this is why we establish a justice system, right?

This is the function of any good justice system.

It's one of the primary roles of a good government is to establish justice, which involves creating laws and equitable process that punishes evil and rewards good.

But we still have to wrestle with our own hearts.

How do we respond when evil is done against us or somebody we love?

What rises up in our hearts, and what do we do with that response?

Now, this is exactly where Jesus is going in the Sermon on the Mount.

He says, I want to talk to you about what rises up within you and what you are to do with that.

Okay?

Are you guys with me?

So this is where Jesus' teaching is a little puzzling.

When you read at face value, depending on what translation you're reading, his teaching on what to do with retaliation is slightly puzzling because he uses this line do not resist one who is evil.

Okay?

So we gotta grapple with that for a second.

What is at what is Jesus actually saying?

Why would we not resist one who is evil?

Wouldn't that be allowing them to cause more evil, right?

What about those who are being abused?

Should we not resist that?

Should we go with the flow?

Should we go an extra mile or turn the cheek?

Is Jesus suggesting that we allow abusers to continue abusing or people who are abusing power to continue to stay in places of power?

Is he suggesting that evil always gets one more chance?

Or is there something more that we need to see and fully enter into to uh to understand the heart of Jesus' teaching?

Do you guys are you guys tracking?

So we have to do some work there this morning.

So uh so let's back up a little bit.

Jesus starts this teaching talking about, you have heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

Now, what he's referring to is Old Testament law.

And there's a few passages in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, but I'm going to read one from Exodus, Exodus chapter 21, starting in verse 23.

Exodus 21 · chapter mention

It says this, but if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, and stripe for stripe.

Okay?

So it's a very interesting passage that this would be worked into the law.

And on first read, it looks like, wow, that doesn't sound very life-giving either, all right?

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, what was going on here?

Now, when this law was put into place, it was actually intended to break a vicious cycle.

And what what was happening here when this commandment was given to the people of God, when he said you should do eye for an eye, what it was saying is if somebody takes your eye, or if you get backhanded, slapped, and you and it causes blindness, that the most that you can do is do the same thing to another person.

You are not, you you should not, you ought not to escalate it beyond that.

All right.

So already this law was trying to say, listen, you can't do more than what was originally done in the first place.

All right.

So if somebody takes your eye, you can't just take their life and all their family's life.

You need to kind of take one for one, all right?

So while it sounds a little brutal if from 2024 reading that kind of Old Testament passage, actually when it was started, it was just saying, listen, you have to break the cycle of violence.

It always takes more and more and more and more.

It never is satisfied, all right?

And so it starts, uh it starts there, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

Now, in Old Testament Israel, it didn't always actually work out that way because they worked out a monetary system, much like our government has, our justice system has.

So uh so if an eye was taken, it didn't just result in somebody else gouging out another eye.

They had a court, they had a justice system where uh there would be a monetary exchange.

What was that worth?

And there'd be more of a monetary exchange, which is a lot like how our justice system works.

If a crime is committed against a person, um uh oftentimes that results in a repayment, a monetary repayment of what was lost.

All right.

So that's how it worked in the Old Testament time.

If if somebody takes out your eye or your tooth, you can't just do whatever you want.

You need to limit it to what was done and nothing more.

All right.

So when Jesus comes with this new ethic, he says, You have heard it said, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, but I tell you, do not resist one who is evil.

What is he saying?

Okay.

Now, it's it's important that we understand the the Greek around this phrase, do not resist the one who is evil.

It it sounds on face value, it sounds very passive, right?

It sounds like what he's saying is you need to let evil reign or you need to become a doormat.

Let evil evil people do whatever they want.

But this is not what Jesus is saying.

The word resist here, when you actually do some of the work in the language, um, the scholars believe the word resist means to actually stand opposite in retaliation.

So do not resist one who is evil.

What Jesus is saying is don't stand opposite evil and do the same thing against the evil.

Don't do what the evil has done.

So a better, like a different way of saying this, again, a lot of scholars would agree on this, would be do not retaliate revengefully by evil means.

Do not retaliate revengefully by evil means.

Do not respond the same way they did.

You are to respond differently.

So it's very important that we read this.

What Jesus is, he's what he's not saying is become passive, become dormant, stick to the side, let evil reign over here.

He's saying, I want you are a person of a different spirit.

You are not to do one for one, you are to respond from a different spirit.

You are to respond, but it's not from the same violence against violence.

I am I'm installing in you a new generosity and a new creativity, a new way to dismantle and diffuse the violence so that it does not continue as it is.

This is really good, guys.

This is so good.

And so Jesus saying is, I want you to respond, but not in the same way.

So he gives three examples of this.

Jesus then goes into three examples of what it looks like to respond to mistreatment.

Now, the first one that we read, he says, This let me pull this up here.

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

Alright?

And we all are very familiar with this phrase, turn the other cheek.

Alright.

So what's really important to understand here is everything he says, everything Jesus is about to say has context and it has a lot of subversive creative response built into it.

I'm gonna show you how and show you why.

So turn the other cheek, what does that mean?

All right.

So in that culture, in that first century culture, people, and this is still happens in many parts of the world, people don't often use their left hand.

Some of it's for sanitary reasons, they use their left hand for dirty things, all right?

And so when you're using functionally in everyday life, you use your right hand.

Now to slap the right cheek, to slap the right cheek of a person would require you with your right hand to come as a backhand, all right?

So just just just remember just imagine just somebody slapping you right on the right cheek with a backhand.

That's what it would do.

And that was considered an insult.

That's how you exerted dominance over a person, is to slap them with the right hand.

You call them a uh, you know, probably with some kind of insult or slur associated with that, and everyone knew that's how you knew that you were dominant in that relationship.

That was very common.

So what would happen though is if you were slapped on your right cheek and it was and you your face turned this way, if you turn this way, imagine trying to slap somebody with your right hand on their left cheek.

You can't actually do it.

What you'd have to do, you'd have to you'd have to punch them or you'd have to open hand slap them, all right?

So do an open hand slap or a punch was actually what you would do to a peer.

They would actually do you do that to somebody who is your equal.

So to turn the left cheek basically means that you're you're allowing them, but you're giving them an opportunity, even by slapping or punching, you're giving them opportunity that if they were to do that, they would be saying that you are dignified as my peer.

All right.

So when Jesus saying that, it was actually this really creative way of saying, like, listen, yes, that will still be hurtful, but if you turn the other cheek, you're gonna give them an opportunity to acknowledge that you are there and that you are not just somebody to look down upon or to exert dominance over, but you are somebody that is equal to them and worthy of dignity, even the dignity of a punch or an open-handed slap.

Are you guys with me?

And so by turning the other cheek, while you're allowing somebody to hurt you again, you're also giving them an opportunity to think about why they're doing what they're doing.

And it gives an opportunity for pause without resorting to violence, okay?

Now, as a caveat here, I just want to be very clear here.

When Jesus is going through all of these different pictures of nonviolent response, he is not condoning abusive relationships, all right?

What he is saying here is a cultural critique.

This is he's using examples that everybody that he was speaking to would have known and probably had experienced.

But if you are in an abusive relationship or you know somebody in an abusive relationship, what you do not want to say to them is turn the other cheek, okay?

It's okay.

The most loving thing you can do in an abusive, physically abusive relationship is to remove yourself from that so that person can get help and that you can get help.

It's not okay, and that's not what Jesus is saying.

He's giving real life examples of what people were experiencing every day, all the time, when the power structure was different between the Romans and the Jews, okay?

Are you are we clear on that?

And if you want to talk further about that, we are available, any of our leaders are available uh after the service.

We'd love to just talk to you about your situation or somebody that you know, okay?

So he starts by saying, turn the other cheek, do something that's going to require them to think about what they're doing.

When they go in for that second slap, they need to reevaluate what is the power dynamic in this relationship.

But then he continues.

He says, he says this, and if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.

Again, harder for us to understand because I don't wear tunics and I don't wear cloaks.

All right?

So what is actually going on here?

So a kind of a better modern translation for tunic and cloak would be shirt and coat.

Now, a tunic was a shirt, a cloak was an overcoat with a sturdier fabric that would keep you warm, especially at night.

So here's what would happen.

If you were taken to court, if you were poor and you were taken to court because you didn't have money to pay back a debt, um, what what could happen is you could be sued and they could start to take your possessions.

And if the only possessions that you had were your clothes, oftentimes you would get sued for even the shirt off your back.

Okay?

Now the Old Testament law forbids you to be sued for your coat or your cloak.

Uh, if you were sued for your coat or your cloak, you'd actually be forced to give it back to that person at night because they would be cold at night.

So Old Testament law says you can't take somebody's coat because they cannot be cold at night.

You cannot leave them without a coat.

All right?

So the people who are greedy knew this.

And so in a court, if they were owed money, they'd say, fine, I won't take your coat, I'll take your shirt.

Okay?

So they would sue a person for the shirt.

And so it'd be leave you with just a cloak, just a coat, just an overcoat over your body.

So imagine this when Jesus says, Listen, if they sue you for your shirt, just give them your coat too.

This is really, this is really sneaky of Jesus because what he's saying is like, just imagine in a court of law, if they if they if they try to take your shirt, just give them everything.

And what's going to happen if they take everything?

What are you gonna be there standing as?

Naked people.

We have a word for that, naked, all right?

And he's saying imagine standing there naked, and they're having to face what they just allowed to happen out of their own grief.

They took more than they needed.

They took more than they deserved.

Now, again, would that mean embarrassment for the person saying they're naked?

Yes.

But with Jesus saying, listen, you have a chance to expose the corruption or the greed of a system that's allowing them to take more than what is necessary.

So you say, let them take the tunic and the shirt and the coat.

And then in that way, in front of all the people, they have to confront what is going on inside of their own selves.

You guys see how sneaky that is?

It's creative.

It's kind of wild.

It doesn't always end up great for the person doing that.

You're still standing there naked, but there is a chance to respond in a way that doesn't repay evil for evil.

It's not passivity, it's creativity.

It's creative resistance.

Okay?

So the third example he gives here is this go the extra mile.

He says, if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.

All right?

Now this again has context to it.

So Roman soldiers were allowed to force any person to carry their pack for them for one mile.

Romans, all Roman soldiers were allowed to do this.

You could just pick somebody off the road, hey, you carry this for the next mile.

This is the same as when Jesus is going to his crucifixion, he's carrying a back and he's carrying the cross on his back.

He collapses.

They point to Simon and say, Simon, and they forced him.

They ordered him, they said, pick up the cross and carry it, right?

The same thing.

They enacted a right of a Roman soldier, which is you can just have anybody carry anything for you for one mile.

And so what Jesus is saying is do what they ask you to do, go that one mile, but after that mile, it's all optional.

And you have the chance after that one mile to turn it not to an act of obligation, but an act of generosity.

The second mile is not force, and so it's based upon your own power and initiative.

And so what happens is if you carry a Roman soldier's pack for one mile and you keep going, what happens is it causes this thought inside the Roman soldier, it causes an awareness of wait a second, why are they doing this?

What is going on here?

Is there something I don't know?

Like, why would they be going an extra thing?

And it causes a conscious re-evaluation of what am I doing?

What are they doing?

Why is this happening?

And what does all of this mean?

And uh it's similar to when uh one of my favorite writers, authors, his name is Viktor Frankel, he he was uh taken into Auschwitz.

Uh he's a Viennese psychiatrist, he was a Jewish, a Jewish man, he was taken to Auschwitz and he was uh helping the other uh prisoners in Auschwitz um actually live a life of meaning.

And he was helping them make decisions that they didn't give up on life.

And he says this, he says, the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances to choose is to uh I'm sorry, the last of human freedoms is to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.

He continues between stimulus and response, there is a space, and in that space is our power to choose our response, and in our response lies our growth and our freedom.

And I think this is exactly what Jesus is getting at.

And here, there comes an opportunity after something is asked of you or required from you that is unjust, that you have the opportunity to take it beyond where you are that you're expected to go or where you're obligated to go, and that is where your power lies.

And so Jesus is saying, listen, when something happens to you, you still have the power to choose, to turn it into an act of generosity and creativity.

Okay.

And this is the thinking, this way of thinking that Jesus is inviting people into.

This is what fueled so much of what we in our nation know as the civil rights movement back in the 60s, right?

Um, when black Americans filled jails and streets with acts of with acts of nonviolent resistance.

This is what fueled Martin Luther, Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.

and the whole movement.

It was built on nonviolent response.

And the and and they were protesting against Jim Crow laws, restrictions against voting.

And Martin Luther King was so influenced by the Sermon on the Mount that he actually required his adherents to take pledges before going into marches.

So some of you guys remember the Selma march, so it's how happened next year.

It'll be uh, I think 60 years next year.

And and uh back in the 60s, where they were marching from uh Selma to Birmingham, I believe it was, and they were linked arm by arm, and people from all different religions and races, and and they they were all there to support what was going on, and they they wanted to march as a and to sing as a way of nonviolent resistance, but he wouldn't they wouldn't just let anybody march because there's other people at this point in time that wanted it to turn into a violent movement.

And uh there were other people that thought we're not gonna get anywhere unless this gets violent, we have to send a message.

He says, No, we cannot do that because it will come off the rails if we let violence have its way.

And so he actually would require people to adhere to a kind of a set of Ten Commandments for the nonviolent movement.

Okay, I'll go all I'm gonna read a few of these, um uh, but you can go look these up afterwards.

But he part of what people to even march in these things, there would have to be kind of a training so it just didn't get sideways.

And the first of the Ten Commandments was this meditate daily on the teachings in the life of Jesus.

Number two, remember always that the nonviolent movement seeks justice and reconciliation, not victory.

I'm gonna read that again.

Remember always that the nonviolent movement seeks justice and reconciliation, not victory.

They weren't there just to win, they were there to send a message and they knew that it was not gonna go well for them.

They knew that they were gonna end up in jail, they knew that they were gonna end up beating, they knew that they're gonna end up with tear gas in their eyes.

They knew that.

They knew that just because they did the right thing didn't mean it was going to end up the right way for them.

They said, we're not going, we're not trying to win.

We're trying to expose principalities, we're trying to expose corruption of a larger system.

Their enemy wasn't people, their enemy was a way of life that needed to be exposed, and the only way it could be exposed is not resorting to violence.

The third of the commandments is walk and talk in the manner of love, for God is love.

Number four, pray daily to be used by God in order that all men might be free.

Number five, sacrifice personal wishes in order that all men might be free.

Number six, observe with both friend and foe this ordinary rules of courtesy.

Seven, seek to perform regular service for others and for the world.

Eight, refrain from the violence of fist, tongue, and of heart.

And there's a couple more, but yeah, refrain from the violence of fist, tongue, and heart.

And they knew that the only way that something, the underbelly of what was happening in our nation was going to get exposed is like we have to have a creative way to respond that does not give into what has been done to us.

And so as we kind of hold this passage before us, it's actually very important that as a church that we're looking at this today in this day and age.

Um, some of these examples of turning the other cheek, giving a coat, going an extra mile, they were literal examples that Jesus was giving of things that people experienced, a lot of them even everyday experiences.

Now, probably very few of us have been asked to carry a pack an extra mile.

Sometimes we just sign up for that.

We call it backpacking, all right?

Come on.

Um but very few times have we been in similar situations.

Probably nobody's been sued for a shirt or a coat, that kind of thing.

Maybe you've been sued for other reasons, but not for your clothing.

And so some of these examples don't totally apply to us, and some of it is just changes because our justice system works to kind of compensate.

It should, it should work to compensate for some of these discrepancies.

But listen to this.

In our day, here's where this lands, here's what I believe this this lands for us.

Political and cultural agendas of our day demand that we pick an enemy to fight.

Okay?

We're living in a time where political and cultural agendas and narratives demand from us that we pick an enemy to fight.

All right?

Now, in our nation and in the West, with increasing secularism, we've essentially removed God from our awareness.

There's not as much a God awareness, God consciousness just baked into society as other times.

But there's a flip side of that as well.

We've not only removed God awareness, we've also removed Satan awareness.

Okay?

So if in your storyline and if your worldview, if you do not have Satan in your worldview, if you do not have Satan in your storyline, your enemy will always become a person.

Listen to me.

If you do not know that you have an adversary that wants the worst for you and wants to rip you through and through in your soul, in your spirit, tear your community apart, tear nations apart, tear governments apart, tear your leadership of any kind of art.

If you do not have that in your paradigm, then it will turn against a person.

All right?

And we see this in all sorts of ways.

If any of you watched the amazing presidential debate last week, dare I even mention that.

There's a retaliatory demeanor to it that ended up in just arguing about whose golf game is better at one point.

It's like, really?

We're arguing about handicaps of golf games?

This is a presidential debate, and it became this one-up type of thing.

But there's a way of thinking that ends up turning enemies, making enemies out of people.

And every political party has an enemy.

This person is the threat.

This way of thinking is the threat.

Now, I'm not saying that those things aren't actually threats.

There are ways of thinking.

There are strongholds, principalities, they're actually destructive ways of thinking that have to be exposed, all right?

There are injustices that need desperately to be exposed.

But what Jesus is getting at is the spirit at which we confront the rulers and the principalities, the dark forces of this world, the spirit at which we confront those can never be the spirit of those principalities.

We can never use the enemy's tactics against the enemy.

We use the spirit of God.

We walk in the spirit of God, which means that we're always praying for heaven's solution to earth's problems.

You cannot solve earth's problems with earth's solutions.

We need heaven solutions to earth's problems, which means a different operating system from heaven.

You cannot repay evil for evil.

You must respond through the kingdom of God.

Are we together on that?

And so if you're wondering about that, you know, if your agenda, if what you're most passionate about requires you to fight a person, it's not the agenda of King Jesus, all right?

If your agenda requires you to fight another person, no, that doesn't mean that we don't do the protests or we don't vote and we don't actually advocate for reform.

I'm not saying that.

We absolutely need to do that.

But what I'm saying is the way of the world will always seek to violence will always escalate against people.

When that happens, it's not the way of Jesus.

How do we know that?

Because Jesus hung on a cross to die for his enemies.

Jesus is the ultimate example of what to do in the face of enemies.

The love of Jesus.

His life was literally taken from him.

He was beaten, he was mocked, he was accused, he was betrayed, he was whipped, he had a crown of thorns put on his head, he was ultimately nailed to a cross.

And never once did he retaliate, never once did he raise his voice, never once did he strike back.

In fact, when Jesus knew what got him on the cross, what were the words that he uttered before the Father in the face of his enemies?

What did he say?

He said, Father, they don't know.

They have no idea what they're doing.

Would you forgive them?

They're ignorant, God.

They're short-sighted, they can't see what's actually happening.

But Father, would you have mercy on them?

Would you forgive them?

Forgive them of their sins.

And everyone thought, like all of the demons at that point thought they had one.

All of the demons, the demonic forces of heaven, see, see, we told you, like, this is this guy is weak.

He's got nothing.

But in a single moment, while he's hanging there bloody on the cross, when his life was taken from, he willingly laid down his life for his enemies in forgiveness.

It actually exposed the corruption, the cycle that the human history had been in from the beginning.

And Jesus said, the end is right now.

I'm not giving into that.

Sin and death will not win.

The cycle of sin and death will not escalate.

I'm going to absorb it into my body and crush it once and for all.

Praise God.

He said, I don't, I don't have to do what you're doing.

I don't have to do it.

I don't have to participate in this.

Because I have a Father who is good and he's just.

He's a judge.

He's a righteous judge, and he will make right all that is wrong.

And Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Here's how Paul says it in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Paul basically uses his own translation and interpretation of what Jesus is saying.

And Paul says this in verse 17.

He says, Do not repay anyone evil for evil.

Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone.

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, It is mine to avenge.

I will repay, says the Lord.

So what is the good news in all of this?

The good news is this that God is our defender, God is just, and he is a righteous judge.

And he is taking account of all of human history.

He is taking account of all things, and all human action will be held accountable by him.

Which means what?

Which means that if you are in a situation where you are mistreated, where you're in a situation where you are belittled, where you are attacked.

Listen, I I maybe have not been attacked as like some of you, but I know what it means to be misunderstood.

I know what it means to have somebody online say something pretty nasty about me.

I know what it means to be the victim of violent words.

I know what that feels like.

But what Paul is saying, what Jesus is saying is like, listen, you are of a different spirit.

You do not get to repay evil with evil, and you don't have to because I am God and I am judge, and vengeance is mine, says the Lord.

I want you to take the violence that you experience towards yourself and towards other and not reflect it back into the world, but I want you to take the violence and you get to recycle it into creativity, into generosity, and paint a new picture of what I am doing on this planet.

This is the life that we're called to.

Not as escalators, but as peacemakers.

No, peacemaking is not passivity.

Peacemaking is not just peacekeeping.

Peacemaking is addressing injustice, is addressing what's wrong, is addressing systems of corruption, is addressing things that need to be pointed out.

But peacemaking is of a different spirit.

It's ministering the shalom and wholeness of God until the world is healed.

And that's the thing.

As a world, it's not just that we're broken.

We're we're it's a wounded world.

When you're wounded, you don't just need to be fixed, you need to be healed.

And only the shalom and the goodness and the love and the mercy and grace of God can heal what's what's wounded in our own hearts.

And guys, church, I want, I want us, I want us to not rush on from this.

This is so important.

This way of thinking in a political season, it's only going to escalate.

It's only going to escalate, but you are not of the spirit of this world.

You are not of the spirit of this world, and I'm not either.

We're not doing what the world does.

We will put up, we we will stand up for what is right, but we will do it with a heart and a posture of peace, a heart and posture of love to release the mercy and grace of God so that all men can see the outrageous, lavish love of God.

Amen.

So a couple questions for us here this morning.

I want you to think about yourself.

Just close your eyes with me for a moment.

How do you respond when you were mistreated, insulted, degraded?

When your boss snaps at you or didn't see everything you did right, they only see what you did wrong.

When your spouse on a bad day maybe gives a slight hand attack, passive aggressive, what is your response?

Do you re- do you retaliate?

Do you give it right back?

Maybe you're uh maybe you're a subject of sexism or racism, and you've experienced that in the workplace, you've experienced that in your neighborhood or among your friends and family.

And you know it's not right, and there's something that rises up in you.

What is your response?

Do you respond in like manner?

Or do you know that God is your judge?

That the vengeance is the Lord's.

And you don't have to do the same.

You don't have to repeat it.

Living according to God's kingdom doesn't mean that everything goes perfectly for us.

Sometimes it actually leads to more suffering, embarrassment, hurt, and pain.

But it also means that we don't have to live anxious about finding the right response.

We get to train our imaginations to embrace every new opportunity and challenge through love.

And we don't perpetuate cycles of harm.

We become signposts of the new creation where justice and peace will reign forevermore.

So, God, this morning, as your people, we ask that you would retrain us, Lord God, in our thinking and our being.

As we live in this world, and God, as we do seek righteousness, as we do seek well-being, as we do seek to participate as citizens in our nation, as participants in our world to make this world a better place, Lord God, to expose brokenness, I ask that as a people you would give us creative, peacemaking spirit, God, that we would be people of salt and light, that we would not be ones known for retaliation, but known for reconciliation, ones who know how to recycle your goodness and in every conversation, every relationship, and even with those that we consider our enemies, Lord God, that you would give us the creativity of heaven to dismantle the works of darkness and to welcome and walk in the kingdom of your marvelous light.

May it be true for us, Lord God.

May it be true in 2024, where the world is doing one thing, that the church does something different that speaks of your kingdom of justice and peace and righteousness.

We ask all of these things, God.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

You guys are good.