Better Wronged than Right
Matthew 5:38-42
After a few weeks away from it, I want to re-introduce our series of
messages about what is popularly called “the Sermon on the Mount”
As I said seven weeks ago, preaching about the greatest “Preacher”
ever preaching the greatest sermon ever is terribly presumptuous
-it’s like saying, “Jesus said this, but give me 25 minutes and I’ll not
only explain it, I’ll improve it.”
Another pitfall to preaching on this subject is reducing the words of
of Jesus into “three practical ways that lead to a successful life”
-I can assure you that Jesus isn’t interested in you living the “good
life”...He wants you to live a redeemed, transformed life
--a life that’s never defined by the size of your house, the make
and model of your car, or the label on your clothes
The worst thing I can say or that you can misinterpret what is say is
something like, “Jesus may have said this, but He really didn’t mean
it”...and when it comes to this sermon preached on the hill, we’re all
guilty of trying to finagle our way out of the hard truth Jesus taught
-what Jesus says in the 5th, 6th, and 7th chapters of Matthew is
nothing short of revolutionary
--Jesus is neither nullifying the Jewish Law nor adding to it...
instead He is giving its full meaning—moving the emphasis
from a shallow, external obedience to the deeper level of
heart, mind, thought, and speech
If I were to give a title to this series of messages, I think I’d defer to
Dr. Seuss and call it “Inside, Outside, Rightside Up”
-the Jewish religious leaders of Jesus’ day had made obeying the
commandments all about following a list of do’s and don’ts
--while not denying the importance of the “outside” aspect of
life, Jesus focuses their attention on the “inside” part, as well
---and rather than turn us “upside down”...Jesus knows
we’re already upside down...it’s His mission to turn us
rightside up (and He’s the only one who can do that)
This section, vv. 38-42, has
proven to be terribly difficult...here’s why:
Read Matthew 5:38-42
Even those unfamiliar with the Bible have had some exposure to the
first part of this passage...an eye for an eye
-few, however, including most
Christians, ever give even the
slightest consideration to
what Jesus says after that
--and that’s where we get
into trouble
Let’s begin with the ancient principle of “eye for eye”
-Leviticus 24:19-20 à If
anyone injures his neighbor, whatever he
has done must be done to him; fracture for
fracture, eye for eye,
tooth for tooth. As he has injured the other, so he is to be
injured.
[There are parallel passages in Exodus 21
and Deuteronomy 19.]
‘Sounds terribly harsh, almost cruel (many misunderstand it that way)
-but think about it for a
moment...isn’t that what you expect or,
perhaps, even demand from our
justice system, and even in our
interactions
with other people?
--it’s the basis for “let
the punishment fit the crime”
---do you want a
murderer or a rapist to be sentenced to a
weekend in jail or to pay a $100 fine?
---do you want a
jaywalker to be executed?
--what at first seems so
vindictive, is actually quite merciful...it
assures the victim that
the crime will be punished fairly...and it
provides a measure of
protection for the offender—that no
punishment exceed the
severity of the crime
-it’s also important to note
that these Scriptures apply to a court of
law...they were never
intended for an individual to use them to
legitimize retaliation
Let’s be clear—Jesus is not
tossing out the very foundation of justice
-instead, Jesus is saying that
believers—while under civil law—are
called to an even higher
standard...and He uses four illustrations
to make His point
--keep in mind, that these
illustrations must be taken in their
cultural context and in light of the rest of Scripture...so
before
we jump to any
conclusions, let’s consider carefully His words
Now this when Jesus’ teaching crosses a line from the hypothetical to
the real world...and it’s also when
He leaves a lot of people behind
v. 39 à [in contrast to what you’ve been told...] But I tell you, Do not
resist an evil person.
-honestly, do you have a
problem truly accepting that?
*Is Jesus really
telling us not to defend ourselves if we are attacked?
*Is He really
saying that if someone is trying to kidnap our child we
should not put up any resistance?
*Is He really
saying that we should simply let evil run rampant without
any law enforcement, justice, or punishment?
*Should we just
toss out our legal codes and let everyone do
whatever they want? Is He advocating anarchy or complete chaos?
*Should we have
just let Hitler dominate Europe, overlooked
Harbor as an unfortunate accident,
closed our eyes to the terrorist
attacks
in
Some believers have taken
Jesus to mean just that
-Tolstoy, the great Russian
novelist, held to a strict literal
interpretation and therefore
held no Christian should be involved in
the military, law
enforcement, or the legal system in any way
-others have conceded the need
for police and the courts, but are
pacifists when it comes to
killing and war
-and, of course, most Christians
simply ignore or dilute this part of
Jesus’ teaching and,
therefore, feel they don’t have to deal with it
head on
In v. 39, Jesus uses the
example of turning the other cheek in
response to someone slapping you
-this is not referring
to someone beating you up
--can you imagine a
playground bully or a gang member slapping
you? “Give me your watch and your wallet or I’m
going to
slap you!”[?]
-no! Jesus is describing someone insulting you, not attacking you
--Jesus’ mention of the “right cheek” isn’t
random...if you’ve been
slapped on the right side, you’ve been
back-handed
--and a back-handed slap in
the
means the slapper holds the slapee in great
contempt...Jewish
law said that a
back-handed slap was twice as offensive as
your regular, ol’ soap opera kinda’ slap
Jesus is saying if you’re insulted, it is better to be insulted twice rather
than to retaliate
-sure, you could counter with
the whole “eye for eye” argument, but
Jesus is showing His
followers the better way...the higher way
--several weeks ago, I
quoted English pastor, R.C. Chapman,
who
said à If I have
been injured by another, let me think
[to] myself—How much better to be
the sufferer than the
wrongdoer!
That’s tough on any level
-very few of us have been
slapped as an insult, but most of us have
been verbally insulted...and
what’s our immediate, almost
instinctive
response?
--sure! it’s to zing one right back at them...or
-if someone is following too
closely in town or in a construction zone,
I’m quick to slow down a
little bit more just to irritate them
-if someone pulls out in front
of me, I’m likely to ride their bumper for
a moment or whip around them
so as to say, “It wasn’t safe for
you to pull out like
that. You are a bad driver and a
horrible
human
being.”
--and I think to myself,
“I’ve shown them a thing or two.” and
I
believe I have evened
the score...it’s their eye for my eye
---but Jesus’
teaching applies to all of those and convicts us
with the truth
that it’s not our place to carry out our
version of
justice...and on top of that,
it does not reflect
the heart and
character of the One we claim to follow
Have you wronged someone by trying to even the score?
-Jesus tells us not to do
that...which means that when we do,
it’s
clearly a sin
--the only thing you can do
is to confess it to God for what it is,
and then to seek the
forgiveness of the one you’ve hurt (even
though they’d hurt you first)
---going to that
person, asking for their forgiveness without
excuses (like, “Remember when you really
offended me
and then
I...)...confession means, “I was wrong”—period
--that action, those
heart-felt words communicates loud and
clear, “You are more important than me being
right...or getting
the
last word in. Our relationship is too
valuable to sacrifice it
over
something like this.”
I don’t know if I’ve heard about that’s lived out any better than how
Leonard Sweet tells about his
friend, Tom Wiles
-in his words à A
few years ago, Tom picked me up at the airport
in his new Ford pickup and
whisked me away to keynote a
leadership conference at
the university where he was chaplain
--since I also considered
myself a “truck man,” we bonded right
away...sharing truck
stories and laughing at the bumper
sticker:
"Nothing is more beautiful than a man and his truck."
-as I climbed into his truck
for the ride back to the airport the
next
day, I saw some dents and big
scrapes by the passenger door
--"What
happened?" I asked.
---Tom replied, “My
neighbor's basketball post fell and hit it.”
--I said, "You're
kidding! How awful! This truck is so new
I can
smell it."
---“What's even
worse,” Tom said, “is my neighbor doesn't
feel responsible for
the damage."
--I found I was suddenly
miffed myself, I said, “Did you contact
a
lawyer? How are you going to get him to
pay for it?"
---Tom’s answer
left me speechless... “This has been a
real spiritual journey for me. After a lot of soul-
searching
and discussions with my wife about hiring an
attorney,
it came down to this: I can either be in
the
right, or I can be in a relationship with my neighbor.
Since my
neighbor will probably be with me longer than
this truck,
I decided that I'd rather be in a relationship
than be
right. Besides, trucks are meant to be banged
up, so I
got mine initiated into the real world a bit
earlier
than I expected."
Could you do that?
-could you do
that purely out of concern for the relationship?
-see, I could do it, but it would be motivated more by
me wanting to
prove to him how Christ-like
I am...which, of course, completely
cancels out the whole “do the
right thing” anyway
We now turn to the next three examples, but won’t spend as much
time on them because the principle
behind them is the same
Followers of Jesus not only surrender their right to be right...they are
also not motivated by their
right to things
-v. 40 refers to the fact that Jewish law had limits on the amount a
person
could be sued for...and while you could
be sued, literally,
for the shirt off your
back, you could not be forced to give up your
outer coat
--so into this Jesus
inserts His radical idea that a believer must
relinquish her claim
to all of her possessions because they
are,
after all, gifts from God and should be used for His glory
-that’s like the ultimate
stewardship sermon on steroids!
--no preacher’s going to
say anything like that today...not without
giving some serious disclaimers,
exceptions, and loopholes
--no preacher’s going to
say anything like that today...not if he
wants to keep his job
--no preacher’s going to
say anything like that today...but Jesus
did...and
that’s what’s so disturbing
Next, Jesus refers to the Roman practice of forcing someone of the
occupied country to do whatever
the Roman citizen demanded
-the Jews, for good reason,
detested this as it was akin to slavery
There’s an older, black & white film about the life of Christ
-this scene—Jesus preaching—was
portrayed as happening not on
a hillside, but in a
courtyard with a wide range of people from the
poor, to children, to the
wealthy and powerful
--off to the side, almost
unnoticed at first, stands a Roman soldier
---when “Jesus” gets to
this part about going the proverbial
“extra mile”...He
first gestures toward the soldier and the
crowd reacts
silently, but full of vile contempt for this
representative of
their oppressor
----and it’s in
this context, with the soldier now suddenly
prominent
in the scene, and he himself listening
closely...that Jesus says, “If someone (and everybody
knew the “someone”
He was referring to...they were
looking at him) forces you to go one
mile, go with him
two miles.”
If Jesus were teaching this to you
this morning, who would you see
standing in the place of that
enemy soldier?
-your boss
-your spouse
-that someone who always assumes
you have nothing to do but to
listen to his problems for
hours on end
-your church
Do you feel as if someone’s always trying to steal that most precious
commodity—your
time?
-similar to our material
possessions, our time is not our own, either
--unless you are a hermit,
you will have people making demands
on your time...and, if you’re like
me, you typically guard that
like it were gold
---Jesus is saying,
however, regarding your time and your
money (the
subject of v. 42), that overwhelming
generosity should characterize our
lives
---instead of
getting in a huff over some imposition, we
should consider it a joy to be used by God to help
someone else
-is that easy? are you kidding
me? it’s not easy—it’s impossible!
--what Jesus is preaching
is meant only for His followers...short
of His Spirit in us,
there is no possible way an “eye for eye”
person
(like me) can be transformed into a cheek-turning,
coat-giving, money-giving,
two-mile-going person we are
called to be
-Jesus isn’t giving us new
standards of how we are to judge
sinners or to measure the
progress of other Christians
--instead He’s saying,
“Look, you claim you want to follow Me.
That’s all well and
good, but let Me give you a small peek
into what that
really looks like...and we’ll see if you still are
interested
in this faith journey.”
I claim to be a 33-year follower of Christ, and I’m still learning,
still
falling down hard, and still being picked back up and
encouraged to
take another step
-there’s no way I have this
down...I don’t even understand what I’m
supposed to do all the
time, much less why or how to do it
--I do know when I’m focused on the One I say I’m following, I
don’t have the time
to judge who’s being naughty or nice
---and when given
the opportunity, I’m still able to help
others along
the way...without pointing out my rightness
and their
obvious wrongness
-and it’s then that it all clicks for me
--with my eyes intently on
Christ, I begin to see myself and others
through His eyes...not through the
scales of blind justice, but
through the eyes of
grace
---and
every-once-in-a-while, I catch a glimpse of what it
looks like to
live without being preoccupied about being
right...and instead to discover that what
matters most is
being His
----in fact, that’s
what all of this is about anyway