"Sermon on the Mount - Revenge" Pastor Daniel Reese

Well, if you have your Bibles, we'll be in Matthew

chapter five this morning. Continue our series

in the Sermon on the Mount. One winter day, not

so long ago, a man went to the local shopping

mall to get a gift. And when he returned, he

began to notice that there was a smell coming

from his car. not knowing what it was. So he

popped open the hood and he found the culprit.

A cat had crawled up into there and got caught

up in the belt and was just splattered everywhere.

So luckily for him, the shopping bags that he

had were this heavy duty plastic and so he emptied

the contents of those bags into His car and he

began to scrape and pull and push the cat corpse

into the bag And then he closed the hood and

and he walked off to wash his hands because let's

be honest. That's gross As he was walking away

he realized that he left the bag with the cat

in it on his hood And so he was going to walk

back so he could go then dispose of it But as

he was walking back he noticed this lady was

acting suspicious And she was looking all around.

And then she snatched the bag and put it in her

cart and then took off towards the mall. Well,

the man thought, man, this is too good to be

true. We got to see. We got to see what happens

with this. And so she went to a restaurant and

proceeded to open the bag to see what she had

gotten. And to her surprise, there's a mangled

cat in the bag. And so she screams and then passes

out. Of course, the management of the restaurant

was equally alarmed because a customer had just

fainted in their establishment, so they called

the paramedics. The woman in no time was strapped

to a cart and ready to be hauled off to the ambulance.

But the man just couldn't resist. He said, hey,

lady, don't forget your package. And he goes

and he puts it on her chest as they're wheeling

her to the ambulance. I mean, sometimes revenge

is pretty sweet, isn't it? As we continue our

journey through the Sermon on the Mount, our

passage today addresses revenge and how we should

react personally to people who attack us. Many

commentators have written about this passage

and they've written that this is probably, if

not the worst, misinterpreted and misapplied

passage in all of the Sermon on the Mount. It

has been interpreted to mean that Christians

are to be sanctimonious doormats. It's been used

to promote pacifism. It's been used to object

to military service. lawlessness and anarchy

and and a host of other positions that this text

does not support so so let's keep in mind an

open mind this morning as we read our passage

let us look at it with fresh eyes let's not bring

any to any preconceived ideas as what as to what

Jesus is trying to teach his disciples in this

text I'm going to invite Matt up here to read

our passage out of Matthew 5 he's going to start

in verse 38 if you're able we'd love for you

to stand and honor the Lord's Word together 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 sue you and take your

tunic, let him have your coat as well. And if

anyone forces 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.

Amen. Father, thank you for this text. Thank

you for your word. I pray father that you will

just open our eyes and open our hearts to hear

from you this morning I thank you for Matt and

I thank you for his willingness to read your

word in this place I pray God that you continue

to give him a strong desire to know you and pursue

you and all that he does We ask all these things

in Jesus name. Amen Now if you're to take this

passage 38 through 42 And you were to literally

read it with no understanding of the rest of

the Bible, no understanding of anything else.

And you just take this passage literally, you

would assume that what Jesus is telling us to

do is just to die and lie down. We should just

take whatever life is dished, whatever's dished

to us and just like it. We need to be a doormat

for people to abuse us. and it's ideas like that

that this is why this passage has been misinterpreted

and misapplied so many times again we see Jesus

addressing this issue because the Pharisees and

the Sadducees had gotten everything all confused

in how they were supposed to treat people when

the Old Testament law is referenced here by Jesus

that the context of that law an eye for an eye

in regards to how what was in regards to how

people were to treat their slaves It was a way

of giving them some rights as they worked off

their debt if you killed a slave You were then

put to death as well if you harmed a slave Not

only did your slave get to go free but that harm

could be done to you as well And all of this

was was to be decided by a judge not an individual.

The Jews once again took it too far, and they

used this law to apply to everyone, regardless

of what the relationship was. If you were accidentally

injured by someone you were working with in the

field, the Jews interpreted this law that meant

you could harm that friend in the same manner.

that the heart of this law was not to give you

the freedom to cause injury to someone else,

but was to provide some rights to those who were

indebted to you. Now in his sermon, there on

the mountainside, much of what Jesus was teaching

was brought about because the Jewish people had

gotten the letter of the law, but they completely

missed the heart of the law. Today's passage

is no different. That they had taken what was

the responsibility of judges and were taking

pride in handing out punishment and revenge individually.

That there is a nature that is within all of

us that wants to lash out when we've been humiliated,

that wants to lash out when we've been hurt.

That's what Jesus is talking about in this text.

In verse 39 he says, but I say to you, Right,

so again he's referencing the Old Testament law,

do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone

slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the

other also. Now, the slap on the face, I was

going to have somebody come, let me give an example

of what this looks like, but the slap on the

face has always been a form of humiliation. I've

heard many men say over the years that they'd

rather me just curl up my fist and knock them

square in the mouth than have them be slapped

in the face. It was humiliating. It was humiliating

in Jesus's day just as it's humiliating today.

What Jesus is saying is that we need to learn

to show God's grace to those who humiliate us,

to those who persecute us, to those who hurt

us. One summer evening a weary truck driver pulled

into an all -night truck stop and as you can

imagine he was tired and he was hungry. The waitress

had just served three tough -looking, leather

-jacketed motorcyclists, and these men decided

to give this truck driver a hard time. Not only

did they verbally abuse him, but one of them

just snatched his hamburger off his plate. Another

one grabbed a handful of French fries. The third

one grabbed his cup of coffee and started to

drink it. I mean, put yourself in that situation.

How do you think the trucker responded? How would

you respond in that moment? Well, this trucker

did not respond as one might expect. Instead,

he calmly rose, he picked up his check, he walked

to the front of the room, put the check and his

money on the counter and then went out the door.

The waitress followed him to put the money in

the register and she just kind of stood there

for a moment and watched him as that big old

truck drove into the night. When she returned,

one of the men said to her, well, he's not much

of a man, is he? Pretty cowardly, had nothing

to say, not much of a man. And she replied, I

don't know about that, but he sure isn't much

of a truck driver either. He just ran over three

motorcycles on his way out of the parking lot.

Now, while these guys did not physically slap

this truck driver, they did humiliate him. His

actions were what most of us would want to do,

right? Maybe in our minds we even applauded what

the truck driver did. Yeah, that makes sense.

I would do that. Jesus says that when people

try to humiliate you, when they try to persecute

you, just turn the other cheek. Show to others

the grace that God has shown to you. Now as disciples

of Jesus, we are called to endure pain, but not

inflict it. We're called to suffer but not make

others suffer. In Deuteronomy 32 the Lord says

vengeance is mine. I will repay. Now in the moment

that we have been humiliated or hurt we have

a hard time believing that verse don't we. We

want to take matters into our own hands. We want

to make sure that we are the last to get the

word in. But when it comes to the issue of revenge,

it is once again an opportunity to decide whether

or not you trust the Lord. Earlier here in the

Sermon on the Mount, in what we call the Beatitudes,

Jesus told his disciples that they should be

happy in their persecutions. In verse 10, it

says, blessed are those who are persecuted for

righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom

of heaven. When you are slapped, Jesus says,

turn the other cheek or to put it another way,

show the person who's trying to humiliate you

the same grace that God has shown you. I mean,

we see this in the life of Jesus all over the

place. He could have easily overthrown the government

that was trying to kill him. He could have multiple

times put the Pharisees in their place. He was

humiliated on multiple occasions and yet he still

chose the cross because he trusted that his father

was going to win the war. You might lose a few

battles, but remember that vengeance belongs

to the Lord. Those who are persecuted for righteousness

are blessed. Then we move on in verse 40. Jesus

addresses our obsession with possessions. He

says, if anyone would sue you and take your tunic,

let him have your cloak as well. Jesus is teaching

in that passage that possessions are not what

matter. Possessions do not matter. When he talks

about someone taking you to court, to take your

shirt, that's what would happen if someone owed

a debt that they could not repay. They would

be taken to court, and if they had no other means

of restitution, the court could give them the

shirt or the tunic right off your back. What

they could not take is your cloak. The cloak

was what you used to cover yourself during the

day. It was your blanket at nighttime. Now most

Jews had only one cloak. Jewish law allowed that

a man's tunic might be taken as a pledge. but

not his cloak. In Exodus chapter 22, it says,

Exodus 22 · chapter mention

if you ever take your neighbor's cloak and pledge,

you shall return it to him before the sun goes

down, for that is his only covering. And it is

his cloak for his body. And what else shall he

sleep? So a man's cloak was the possession that

he needed more than anything else in this culture.

Jesus is saying what's important to you things

your stuff or your relationship to your fellow

man giving someone your cloak meant that you

valued your relationship more than you valued

your possessions now if you have kids you understand

this hopefully but my children have cost me a

lot of money over the years because of things

they have broken, because of things they have

ruined, my tools get left outside and rusted

all the time. I came home yesterday and I find

my 50 -foot tape measure just laying out in the

grass for who knows what reason. If we ever go

on a long road trip, which we do often, If you

go to the backseat after the road trip, it looks

like somebody opened up a box of cereal and just

started shaking it all around. And we didn't

even bring any cereal. The problem is I can't

sue them in order to make myself whole. So I

have a decision to make. Do I ban them from ever

touching my tools again? Do I ban them from eating

them in the car anymore? I mean, I could. And

I have every right because they have proven that

they can't be trusted to take care of our things.

But my relationship with them is more important

than the things that they have ruined. I'm going

to give them enough things to be bitter about

with me throughout their whole life. I never

want them to think that the things that I own

are more valuable than they are to me. As disciples

of Jesus, we need to always value the relationship

over things. Do your possessions define you?

Or does your relationship with Jesus and your

fellow man define you? Would you be willing to

give up your possession or possessions that are

important in order to show God's grace to your

fellow man? Are your relationships with your

neighbor important enough for you to give up

your most prized possession in order to help

them? Jesus says not only are we to give people

the shirt off our backs We're to give them our

entire wardrobe What defines you? Then Jesus

moves on in verse 41. He teaches another principle

for us to live by He says if a soldier demands

that you carry his gear for a mile carry it two

miles Now this was very familiar to Jesus's listeners

the Roman occupiers of Israel Had a law that

said a if a Roman soldier told you to carry his

pack for him You were obligated to carry that

pack for one mile now a mile in Rome was 1 ,000

paces. A pace is determined by how many times

your left foot hits the ground. So every two

steps was a pace. It's a little shorter than

what we would consider a mile, a little shorter

than 5 ,280 feet. The Jewish people hated this

law. It was demeaning to them. Most would have

gone in all directions from their home and marked

out all the different mile markers. And whenever

they got to one of their mile markers, because

they've been forced to carry a Roman soldier's

stuff, they would drop it and they wouldn't even

move it one more inch. Jesus's point here is

be willing to go and be above and beyond the

call of duty in order to demonstrate God's love

and generosity. Do more than the minimum. In

context of this verse, we need to understand

what Jesus is saying to his disciples. What he's

saying is the first mile is our duty. What is

expected of us, we should do. Now I used to work

for an electrician. And so we had a crew of guys

that would go out and do a variety of jobs every

single day. Sometimes it'd be a remodeled home,

sometimes it'd be new construction, other times

it might be that we need to go and help diagnose

whatever problem they were having. Now I don't

know if you know this or not, but electricians

have a reputation of being messy. There's this

mindset amongst electricians that you hired me

to fix your power, not clean up the mess. And

so if I get drywall dust on your floor because

I had to drill a hole to fix your problem Then

you can clean up the dust Now I worked with a

guy that lived his life this way If we were getting

paid by the job and not the hour We would get

the job done, but he would leave the mess behind

If we were getting paid by the hour and not the

job that was the cleanest work site you've ever

seen in your life Because he was getting paid

to actually do that His name Was Dustin and he

would always say this whenever he get in trouble

for not cleaning up He would always say Dustin

ain't going to be doing no Dustin What the point

of this text is the first mile is your duty.

But the second mile is your calling. This is

a call to do more than the minimum. More than

just doing what you're paid to do. Doing more

than what is required of you. Now I'm afraid

that many Christians in our churches today only

want to go the first mile. They hear the words

of Jesus Christ. They accept the sacrifice that

He gave up for them on Calvary. They are true

believers and yet they are not willing to go

the extra mile for Jesus. They come to church,

but they don't serve. They're kind and loving

to people as long as they agree with them, but

they have no patience for those who are hard

to get along with. We accept Jesus Christ as

our Savior. and just sit down and not go the

extra mile that Jesus is talking about here in

this text. The Bible tells us that we were created

for good works. In Ephesians chapter 2 verse

Ephesians 2:8

8 it says, for by grace you have been saved through

faith. And this is not your own doing. It is

the gift of God, not a result of works so that

no one may boast. for we are his workmanship,

created in Christ Jesus for good works, which

God prepared beforehand that we should walk in

them." Now we love to quote this scripture, right?

We love to quote this scripture in regards to

salvation, and we should. These passages give

us a definition of grace. It's God's unmerited

favor. It says right here that our salvation

is a gift from God. You can't work for it, you

can't earn it, but we tend to overlook that sentence

where it says that we were created new, that

we are His workmanship, that we were created

for good works. That's the extra mile. There's

more than just the acceptance of this gracious

gift of God. He has plans for you. He has plans

for me. And we need to be willing to do more

than just the minimum. Now, I was told earlier

that I got this wrong, but apparently parent

-teacher conferences were last week. I thought

it was this week. It is this week? OK, good.

But anyway, we have parent -teacher conferences.

coming up for the schools. It's an opportunity

for us as parents to go visit our kids' teachers

and see how they're doing when we're not around.

Making sure they're behaving themselves. Now

as a parent, I'm not as concerned about their

grades because I can see those online. I can

see where they're missing things. I can see what

they did on tests. I can see all of that thing.

What I am concerned most about is their behavior.

Are they reflecting who we have raised them to

be? If we hear from the teachers that my kids

are smart and they're very capable, but they

only seem to do the bare minimum. We're going

to have a talk after. We're going to have a sit

down conversation with our children afterwards.

It's hard to be successful when all you put forth

is the bare minimum. Now I don't think any Well,

maybe not any, but I don't think many parents

would have a sense of pride if that was the report

they got from their teachers. Look at us. Our

kids are just barely getting by. I mean, they

are hitting that low bar. They're crushing it,

right? I don't think we take a lot of pride in

those things. So if I have those expectations

on my kids, why wouldn't I have the same expectations

on myself? We were created for good works that

God has already prepared for you. How can you

go the extra mile this week once you're off the

clock? How can you go the extra mile when people

are hurting? How can you show the grace and generosity

that Jesus has shown to you? Go the extra mile.

It's your calling. Finally, in verse 42, we give

to the one who begs from you and do not refuse

the one who would borrow from you. What Jesus

is saying is don't let your money be a hindrance.

Now the argument could be the verse that's in

second Thessalonians that says if a man is unwilling

to work let him not eat. And we do need to be

wise with the money that God gives us. But that

is not the point Jesus is making in this text.

This is a culture. this moment. This is a culture

that created somewhat of a caste system for people

that were considered sinners. If you were a leper

you were banished outside the city and the people

were told to avoid you. If you were blind they

believed that it was because of your sin or your

family's sin and you were looked down upon. So

even in this culture if you were willing to work

the Jewish culture wouldn't let you. So they

ended up becoming beggars. What Jesus is saying

is not to give your money away to people who

are too lazy to put in today's work, but instead

be open handed with what you have received from

the Lord. The Jews didn't understand this. They

looked for ways to hold on to their resources.

They created a whole system of laws against people

so they wouldn't have to give to the poor and

give to the needy. And if they did help somebody,

what happened a lot of times is they just made

them their slaves until the debt could be paid

off. It would be like me not allowing my children

to move out of my house until they pay me back

the hundreds of thousands of dollars that I've

invested in them in their food and their shelter

and their clothing and medical care Like from

the moment. I just started keeping a tab from

the moment. They were born They say once you

get these hundred thousand dollars paid off,

then you can move out of my house They couldn't

earn any money themselves, but now they have

to pay me back The heart of this text is how

we are supposed to treat others and how we are

supposed to view the resources that God has given

us. Not only are we not to be hindered in our

giving, but we should also expect nothing in

return. We give away a lot of money here at the

church through our Deacon Fund. Every single

month we give out some money. And we collect

thousands of dollars every single month from

you. And we put it in the checking account. And

as needs come up throughout the week, we give

away thousands of dollars every single month.

And there's been many times that somebody will

say, I'm going to pay you back. I'm just in a

tough spot right now. I lost my job. I can't

pay my mortgage. I'll pay you back. And if they

do, that's great. But it's not expected. We don't

ever give away money expecting it to be returned.

We want to be wise and generous with the resources

that God gives us. The burden of this passage

is that Christ will not tolerate tight -fisted

penny -pinching attitude which could be interpreted

as a legalistic attitude as in an eye for an

eye. If you give me this, then what do I get

in return? If I help you out with this, then

how are you going to help me out later? For those

of us who have been transformed by the love of

Christ, we must not ask ourselves what's in it

for me. What can I get out of it? Instead, we

must ask how can I bless with the money that

God has entrusted with me? How can I show that

my trust is in the Lord and not in my savings

account? So the question I have this morning

is, is what if you were to have a parent -teacher

conference with Jesus about your effort? Could

you say to him that you went the extra mile?

That you did the good things that he had planned

for you? Or would he say to you, you should have

gone the extra mile. You should have done more.

You just did the minimum. Jesus says be strong

when people try to humiliate you. What would

your grade be? How have you been a witness in

those moments? He tells us not to let our possessions

define us. What would your grade be on that question?

Give graciously. Go the extra mile for the Lord.

The main point of this text is showing us how

we are to treat others and to remind us how we

are to trust the Lord. Vengeance is his. So I'm

going to pray for us. We're going to invite the

worship team to come lead us in another song.

And I don't know what your heart is on this.

I don't know where your heart is on this. But

as we worship and as we sing, maybe you'll just

pray that the Lord would reveal where you're

failing to trust Him and where you're failing

to represent Him well and be better. Let's pray.

Father, I pray right now that as we close our

service this morning, I pray, Father, that Your

Holy Spirit will just move freely in this place.

I thank You for the words of Jesus on that mountainside.

I thank You that He's always after our hearts

and not after our actions. I pray to God that

You will just empower us with Your Spirit, that

You will change us, that You will convict us,

that You will... Remind us of how good and gracious

you have been to us and help us show that to

others. I pray God that you have your way in

this place, in this moment. It's in Jesus' name

I pray. Amen.