Sermon on the Mount: Our Hearts Reordered Toward Heaven, Pt. 2: Oaths, Retaliation & Hostility (Matthew 5:33-48)

Hello, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning into New Sun Churches Podcast.

We're a gospel center church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

This is the Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew.

Glory to you, Lord Christ, Jesus said.

Again, you have heard that it was said to our ancestors, you must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord.

But I tell you, don't take an oath at all, either by heaven because it is God's throne, or by the earth because it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king.

Do not swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black.

But let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no.

Anything more than this is from the evil one.

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

But I tell you, don't resist an evildoer.

On the contrary, if anyone slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.

As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well.

If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him too.

Give to the one who asks you, and don't turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

You've heard that it was said, Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I tell you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.

For he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have?

Don't even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing that's out of the ordinary?

Don't even the Gentiles do the same?

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

This is the gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Lord Jesus, we have come here today to learn what it is to be your disciples, to live our life in accordance with your will.

Where else would we go, Lord?

For you alone have the words of eternal life.

We thank you for your word, Lord.

What a gift it is.

What a gift it is, Lord, to know your grace and your goodness.

We thank you for this gift.

We thank you that it had power in its day to its first hearers, and it has power in our day as well to renew and transform our hearts.

So, Lord, Holy Spirit, would you illumine this word to our hearts?

Would you plant its hope deep within us that we may evermore know your goodness and grace more deeply and follow you all the more faithfully.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Please be seated.

The last number of weeks we've been going through the Sermon on the Mount together.

There's perhaps uh few single sets of teachings that Jesus is more widely known for than the Sermon on the Mount.

If we want to get a snapshot of what it is to be a disciple, to be a Christian, to live life according to Jesus, perhaps there's no better place for us to go than the Sermon on the Mount.

And what we're discovering is that God's kingdom, God's kingdom as it's revealed in the person of Jesus, in whom the kingdom is, through whom the kingdom is breaking into the world, God's kingdom is reordering our life towards heaven.

It's turning things right side up again.

In the character of those who follow Jesus that we see revealed in the Beatitudes, not so much an aspirational, I better work and just be that much more of a peacemaker this week, but rather understanding that God's kingdom is a kingdom of peace.

To be included in the kingdom is to become a peacemaker, among many other things.

God's kingdom is breaking in through the character of a Christian, through the purpose of a Christian, through our vocation to be salt and light rubbed into the fibers of the community that we live in, that God has placed us in.

And what we're discovering, especially as we begin looking at this particular section that takes us through chapter 5 and into chapter 6, we're discovering that God's kingdom reorders life towards heaven, but it has, well, it has an important starting place.

It doesn't reorder the world and then work its way to our hearts, does it?

It starts with our hearts and works its way outward into the world.

God's kingdom reorders our hearts first.

And it shows itself in our reordered works of love.

Last week, what is it that we looked at?

That's a genuine answer, because I'm our question, I'm blanking right now.

What did we look at?

That's right.

We looked at uh anger, lust, and divorce.

That's right, thank you.

Paying attention, unlike me.

We're seeing that when God's kingdom breaks into our hearts, it reorders the affections of our hearts, doesn't it?

It expresses itself.

From anger, we learn compassion.

From a heart of lust, we're ordered towards purity.

What we're gonna see is we're gonna see a continuation of that very same theme in this passage today.

We're going to see that when God's kingdom breaks into our hearts, it reorders our words, it reorders our desire for retaliation, and it often and it reorders a spirit of hostility as well.

From empty words and retaliation and hostility, it God's kingdom orients us, it reorders us towards integrity and generosity and compassion.

In other words, we are living out God's own heart shown to us in Christ in real time in the world that we are called to be salt and light in.

So let's open up the scriptures.

Let's open up Matthew chapter 5, begin in verse 33, and let's see how God's kingdom reorders our hearts.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Let's begin by looking at our words, by oaths.

Jesus says, verse 33, Again, you have heard it said to our ancestors, you must not break your oath, but you must keep your oaths to the Lord.

But I tell you, don't take an oath at all, either by heaven because it's God's throne, or by earth because it's his footstool, or by Jerusalem, because it's the city of the great king.

Do not swear by your head, because you cannot make a single hair white or black.

But, what does he say?

Let your yes mean yes, and your no mean no.

Anything more than this is from the evil one.

So you've heard it said, don't break your oath, right?

What's Jesus talking about here?

He's referring to teaching in the Old Testament that, broadly speaking, gets translated something, often gets translated something more like swearing, not like cursing.

I was doing some swearing last Sunday.

I still feel bad about that, you know, if you remember my sermon.

But anyway, don't worry about that.

Um but swearing more in the sense of attesting to, right?

It's it's giving a, you know, what do they say?

When you go onto the bench, you swear under oath, right?

Not to, you know, only to speak the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.

At least that's what law and order tells me.

So the idea of oath making or swearing is something like this, to affirm the truth of a statement by calling on God to judge oneself if in fact it is untrue.

So it's attesting to the truth of something.

That's kind of what we're talking about here, rather than just making a pinky promise or something like that.

You've heard it said, don't break your oath, right?

But I'm saying to you, don't take an oath at all, which is a pretty wild thing to say.

I mean, one, there's some many examples of legitimate oaths that we see in Scripture, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament.

We can look at 2 Corinthians 1 or Galatians 1, and we can see this principle in effect.

There are legitimate oaths that are to be taken.

So, what is it that Jesus is getting at here?

Don't take an oath at all.

I want to suggest Jesus is telling us this.

In a world where words can often be very empty and very flimsy, Christians ought not to presumptuously borrow credibility from God's character or his creation.

Let me put it, let me say it again.

Christians ought not to presumptuously borrow credibility from God's character or from God's creation.

Instead, our word should stand on its own integrity.

We shouldn't borrow credibility from God's character because of God's absolutely sovereign nature.

We see that in verses 34 and 35.

Don't take an oath at all.

Not by heaven because it's God's throne, or by the earth because it's his footstool, or by Jerusalem because it's the city of the great king.

God is sovereign over all these things.

We're talking about God's throne, we're talking about his footstool, right, where his dominion is made known.

We're talking about Jerusalem, which represents God's covenant promises to his people.

Don't borrow credibility by swearing to heaven or swearing to earth or swearing on Jerusalem or something like that.

Maybe the modern equivalent would be something like, well, I just I swear to God, you know, I swear to God this is true.

Well, why do that at all?

That's Jesus' point here.

Don't swear by God's character or God's creation.

God is sovereign over all these things.

And don't swear over these things because of your own finitude, Jesus would say in verse 36.

Don't swear by your head because you cannot make a single hair white or black.

I mean, you know, this is before the day of hair dye or something like that.

But the principle is the same.

I mean, something as insignificant, as small as a hair on our head, there's no amount of willpower that we can exercise that will change the hairs on our head from one color to another.

Why would we presume to control anything else in creation as if we can make it happen?

Don't presumptuously borrow credibility from God's character or God's creation in your words.

Instead, let your words stand on their own integrity.

See, God's kingdom reorders our heart and it expresses itself in the words that we use.

We're no longer given to empty words, empty promises, but instead we stand on our own integrity.

Here's how one commentator puts it.

He writes, Jesus' followers should be people whose words are so characterized by integrity that others need no formal assurance of their truthfulness in order to trust them.

What if Christians had a reputation of being people who said what they meant and meant what they said?

That's something like Jesus is getting at here.

Let your yes mean yes.

Let your no mean no, mean what you say, say what you mean, practice integrity.

Don't say one thing and do another.

Don't suggest one thing and intend another.

There are times where legitimate oaths are necessary.

We see that in scripture.

We see that practically in our legal system, or when you buy a house, right, you're signing a deed.

That's basically an oath.

There are times where it's necessary, yes, but as Christians, most importantly, we're to live a life of integrity, refusing to presumptuously borrow God's character for our own, pardon me, to presumptuously borrow against God's character or his creation in order to lend our words credibility.

Let your yes mean yes.

Be people who live lives, who speak words of integrity.

That's the first thing that we see.

God's kingdom is reordering our hearts, and it affects the words that we use.

It also begins to affect the attitudes of our hearts, especially in some of the most difficult circumstances in life.

And I gotta be honest, these next two hit pretty close to home for me.

Verse 38.

We see God's kingdom reorders our hearts away from retaliation.

Verse 38, you've heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you, Jesus says, do not resist an evildoer.

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

As for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your cloak coat, uh, pardon me, your coat as well.

If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him too.

Give to the one who asks you, and don't turn away from the one who wants to borrow you.

Okay, so you've heard it said, an eye for an eye, right?

Jesus is referring to well-known Bible passages like Exodus 21, Deuteronomy 19.

His audience would have been very familiar with these.

They would have heard them in Sunday school.

And the essential idea that's being established here is all justice ought to be proportional, right?

Has anyone read Les Miserables, right?

I always think about the opening of Les Miserables when Jean Valjean's been in prison for 19 years because he stole a loaf of bread to feed his family.

It's like immediately we know, well, that was wrong, right?

That's disproportional justice.

Yes, what Jean Valjean did was wrong.

Stealing is wrong, yeah.

But we know that that was a miscarriage of justice.

That wasn't proportional.

So the principle here is eye for an eye.

Let your justice be proportional.

Don't cycle and recycle revenge or respond to an injustice with an even greater injustice.

Yes, that's a principle of justice.

It's part of the foundation of our legal system, but Jesus wants to challenge our hearts all the more.

I tell you, don't resist, don't oppose, don't seek revenge or seek to get even with an evildoer.

Don't resist the evildoer.

What is Jesus talking about?

Don't resist them.

In fact, Jesus says, turn the other cheek, which is to say, be prepared to suffer humiliation or insult.

Stand your ground because it's the suggestion if you're struck on the right cheek and then you were to turn the other cheek also is uh it assumes a right-handed slapper, never used the word slapper before.

Assumes a right-handed slapper and a back-handed slap, which would be kind of the insult that would be given in Jesus' day, especially from, let's say, a Roman governor or something or a soldier to a Jewish person living in first century Palestine here.

The idea is, one, you're not going to retaliate and turn, but two, you're going to stand your ground, right?

You're going to turn to him the other cheek and refuse to simply let that humiliation be the final word.

But nevertheless, you're willing to accept that, right?

You're not going to turn and slap the guy back.

It's not going to become a cycle and recycle of revenge.

But instead, be prepared to suffer humiliation.

Give him your coat, too.

That is legal collateral for those who are going to court.

And Jesus says, be prepared to go the extra mile.

That's where we get our phrase from, isn't it?

Now, in Jesus' day, a Roman soldier who's, let's say, carrying weapons or something like that could compel any citizen or anyone under the rule of the Roman Empire to carry any given heavy object for them about a mile in length.

So Jesus is speaking to an audience who may themselves have been compelled to carry things on behalf of the Roman government that rules over them.

Be prepared not just to go one mile, Jesus says, but two.

What's Jesus saying here?

He's saying, be prepared to go beyond what's required of you.

Be prepared to go above and beyond.

Give to everyone who asks.

See, Christian kindness, as one commentator writes, should transcend even straightforward tit for tat retribution.

It should be prepared to meet suffering or humiliation with a generosity of spirit.

Justice should not be overlooked.

That's not to say that Christians should never go and report an injustice to the authorities or something like that.

But we Christians, for the sake of the gospel, if it is indeed for the sake of the gospel, should be ready to suffer the humiliation that goes with following Jesus.

Justice shouldn't be overlooked, but we ourselves should be prepared to suffer.

God's kingdom reorders our heart.

It reorders it from exacting retaliation.

You know, we're going to make you feel the way that you made me feel.

It orders it away from exacting retribution and retaliation to a generosity of spirit that shows our enemies the same kindness and compassion that we ourselves have been shown by God in Christ.

The German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, writing in the 1930s, no less, writes this by willing endurance we cause suffering to pass.

Evil becomes a spent force when we put up no resistance.

By refusing to pay the enemy with his own coin, right?

Paying him back in kind, and preferring to suffer without resistance, the Christian exhibits the sinfulness of the insult.

Violence stands condemned by its failure to evoke counterviolence.

So it's the principle here.

Verse 42 give to the one who asks you.

Don't turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

See, the gospel cultivates within us a generous spirit because precisely because the gospel is all about God's generosity towards us in Christ, the undeserved grace that we ourselves have received.

And therefore, with generosity of spirit, it's not that we forsake the demands of justice, but rather we respond even to insult or humiliation, even injustice itself, with a kindness and a compassion, a generosity of spirit, willing the good of those who do not will our own good.

And by doing so, we can stop a cycle of revenge and we can condemn evil with grace.

Isn't that the logic of the cross?

God's kingdom reorders our hearts, it reorders the words we use, it reorders the desire for retaliation against our enemies, but it reorders hostility itself.

Verse 43, Jesus says, You've heard it that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I tell you, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.

But if you love those who love you, which is to say, only those who love you, what reward will you have?

Don't even the tax collectors do the same.

And if you greet your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary?

Don't even the Gentiles do the same.

Be perfect, therefore, Jesus says, as your heavenly father is perfect.

So you've heard it said, love your neighbor, which is a command that runs very, very deeply in God's word.

All through the Old Testament into the New Testament, love your neighbor.

What's interesting is if you go hunting for this phrase, hate your enemy, you won't find that in God's commands.

You won't find anywhere commanded to love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

Instead, it's it's something of an interpretive move that religious scholars of Jesus' day have m have uh have made.

If you're going to love your neighbor, you know the one you're close to, the one you're supposed to care for.

And if your enemy is your opposite of your neighbor, then what's the opposite of love?

Well, that's that's hate, right?

Basically, it's a logical act, isn't it?

Love your neighbor, hate your enemy.

That should be patently obvious.

I at least I think it's patently obvious in the minds of Jesus' day.

But Jesus challenges even a heart that would hold hatred against those who hold hatred against us.

Verse 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for the Who persecute you.

Why?

Why would we do that?

Jesus has two answers for us.

Pardon, he's got one answer for us in two parts.

Why would we do that?

So that you may be children, so that you may be sons of your Father who's in heaven.

Why would we love our enemies?

Why would we pray for those who persecute you?

Because you will show the very character of your heavenly father to the world he has put you in.

Just like a child images their parents, you will image your father's goodness and grace and compassion when you answer hatred with love.

See, verse 45, like the Father, you'll care for all indiscriminately.

Right?

The Father makes the sun shine on the good and the bad.

He gives rain to the righteous and the wicked.

This is the idea that many theologians call common grace.

God is benevolent to all, not just to Christians, he is benevolent to all his creatures.

All he's created in his image, and he has given us all a measure of his benevolence and grace in the good gifts that come from him.

Like the Father, you'll care for all indiscriminately.

And like the Father, secondly, you'll stand out for your compassion.

Isn't that what verse 46 and 7 are about?

If you love those who love you, what reward will you have?

Don't even the tax collectors do the same?

If you only greet your brothers and sisters, I mean, don't the Gentiles do the same?

The idea is this Christian love goes far beyond simple transactional love.

That is all too common, isn't it?

We love those who love us, we like those who like us generally.

Those who hate us, we repay in kind.

Not so with our Heavenly Father.

The Heavenly Father loves those who would oppose him.

He loves even his enemies, even while we were still his enemies.

And therefore, like our Heavenly Father, if we choose to love those who meet us with hate, we will stand out for caring for all indiscriminately, and we will stand out for the compassion that is inherent to the gospel.

See, God's kingdom reorders our hearts, doesn't it?

It reorders our hearts from hostility against those who hate us, towards the very love of the Father, towards them, because we ourselves have been shown that kind of love.

And don't you think that's especially important in our moment today?

This is an especially polarized time, would you agree?

This is a time where, wherever your politics may be, it strikes me that we're far more inclined to be trained towards hatred of the other than love of the other, than reconciliation with the other.

And what can be true in the political sphere can be true in the church as well, and it can tear us apart if we're not careful.

So what made this moment stand out so brilliantly in my mind.

We've all of us in our own way had to process this very grievous assassination of Charlie Kirk in the last number of weeks.

And many of us have seen the memorial that took place for him not long ago, and many of us saw his widow, Erica Kirk, stand up and publicly forgive the assassin, citing Jesus' own words that on the cross he forgave those who knew not what they did.

And she concluded with this to answer, pardon me, the answer to hate is not hate.

The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love.

Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us.

I'm not asking you to degree with Charlie Kirk's politics.

I'm not asking you to be here or there.

But we can recognize the power of the gospel in these words.

Christians can be those who refuse to recycle hatred, to answer hatred in kind, but instead to bear witness to the love of the Father that we ourselves have received by loving those who would hate us.

So be perfect, Jesus says, as your heavenly father is perfect.

You know, no pressure, be perfect.

This is a notoriously difficult word to translate.

Perfect is a decent translation, but it carries more connotations than, you know, this static category that English sort of suggests.

The idea is to be mature or to be whole, to be fulfilled.

One translation I like puts it like this: always act like your heavenly father.

If your heavenly father is perfect, then act in accordance with his character.

Show your heavenly father's love and compassion, even for those who do not show it to you.

See, the Father loves our enemies.

Do we show the Father's heart to the world?

Or do we shrink back from loving, caring, praying?

This is the difference the gospel can make.

That God's kingdom reorders our hearts first.

It shows itself in our reordered words and our reordered heart from retaliation and our reordered heart from hostility.

Instead, we begin to practice integrity and generosity and compassion regardless of what we are shown in return.

In all of this, our hearts are being reordered towards God's own character revealed to us in Christ.

As our hearts are reordered, we are coming to know something more and more of Christ's own integrity and generosity and compassion towards us.

I want to conclude on this note.

And every preacher has to be careful not to just sort of ham the idea of one text into another text or something like that.

But I almost wonder if these are like parallel tracks.

I've been meditating on Romans chapter 5, and this is a passage about the assurance that the gospel gives us.

Romans 5 · chapter mention

In Romans 5, Paul writes that God proves his love for us in this.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God proves his love for us.

God always conducts himself with integrity.

And he proves it precisely because Christ died for us.

And this being the case, we have great assurance of God's love for us.

How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, Paul writes, will we be saved through Christ from wrath?

Through Christ, God has not chosen retaliation to repay our sins for what they deserve, what we deserve, but instead to exercise his heart towards us generously through the cross.

For if while we were still enemies, that is, still in a state of hostility before God because of our sin, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son.

And then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life?

While we were enemies, Christ loved us, and God reconciled us to him.

What greater love could be shown than the love shown to us on the cross?

When God's kingdom breaks into our hearts, it is reordering our hearts to the very character, to the very compassion, to the very integrity and generosity God shows to us in Christ.

We are going deeper into the gospel.

God's kingdom reorders all life towards heaven, and God's kingdom reorders our hearts first.

May it be so.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.

If you live in the Port Perry area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

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If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.