Retaliation Matthew 5:38-48
Here is the last message in my short series on Jesus “Sermon on the Mount.” This is the most famous sermon anyone has ever given so there is a lot in it for us to look at and sometime in the future we’ll come back to it.
Today we have Jesus telling us to “turn the other cheek.” I find it interesting that when India was trying to gain its independence from Britain Mahatma Gandhi took this quite literally in his peaceful resistance movement. He found the truth that when someone strikes you and they see you will not fight back and that you will allow them to strike you again, it disarms them. But that is not what I want to look at.
“Turn the other cheek.” Before we can look at what Jesus means and how we can live this out we must first look at what Jesus does not mean. Jesus is not telling someone who is being abused to turn the other cheek and stay in an abusive situation or relationship. And Jesus is not telling us to forsake self defense. And he’s not telling us to not come to the aide of someone we see being abused, hurt or bullied.
So now, what is Jesus telling us? He is teaching all his disciples how to respond when we are tempted to retaliate when we've been used or cheated. Jesus is referencing Leviticus 24:19-20, “If anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done it shall be done to him, fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth…”
This, known as the “Law of Retaliation” served two main functions; One; it allowed for a set and appropriate restitution for wrong doings. Second, it restrained personal vendettas by taking authority to punish away from the wronged and giving it to honest and neutral judges.
In his sermon Jesus is moving people away from the “Law of Retaliation” or an eye for an eye and moving us toward God’s grace and his “Law of Love” (cheek for cheek). As Christians Jesus asks us to resist the urge to retaliate and to live out the love of the Gospels. In Peter’s first letter he writes, “Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for this is what you are called to…” (1 Peter 3:9).
And as Jesus so often does, he uses an example that people would understand to illustrate his message, “…if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also.” (Matt 5:39). Most people are born right handed. When you face someone, slapping them on the right cheek requires a back-handed slap. This was and still is considered an insult to one’s honor.
Jesus tells his followers not to attack physically to an insult but to retaliate spiritually; and you retaliate spiritually by turning the other cheek. By using the incident as an opportunity to be a witness for Christ by demonstrating how he changed your life. Turning the other cheek demonstrates that you are willing to sacrifice your pride, that you are willing to humble yourself for the sake of Christ.
“But if I don’t stand up and fight, who will?” Paul writes in Romans 12:19, “Beloved, never avenge yourself but leave It to the wrath of God.” By refusing to personally retaliate, we allow God to work and to intervene. Paul goes on to say that not only are we not to retaliate but we are to go farther. Romans 12:20,”…if your enemy is hungry, feeds him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.”
In today’s reading you’ll see Jesus gives us four examples of how to bless those who wrong us. “If someone slaps your right cheek turn to him also the left; if someone sues you and takes your shirt hand over your cloak as well; if anyone forces you to go a mile go with him two; give to the one who asks.
By turning the other cheek, giving up more than what was demanded; by going that extra mile or letting someone borrow from you, you are saying “I love you enough to not act in kind to how you treat me, I love you enough to treat you with kindness.” Jesus is basically telling us not to ask ourselves, “What should I do in retribution for this offence?” He’s showing us the question should be, “How can I show mercy in spite of this offence?”
Why does Jesus tell us this? This is how God wants us to live with each other and it demonstrates how God treats us. God does not ask how he can punish us for our offences against him that are born in our sin, God shows us mercy offered through Jesus in spite of our offences.
Verses 43-44, “You have heard it said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’” Revelations 4 tells of the creatures in God’s throne room, “…the four living creatures…never cease to say, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty’…and when the creatures give glory and honor…the twenty four elders fall down before him…and worship him…” (Rev 4:8-10).
God doesn’t just love these in heaven who constantly give him praise, God loves his enemies; men who persecute him, and he blesses all mankind with his son. Jesus says God may even bless those who never turn to him as a way to demonstrate his grace, verse 45, “For he makes the sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.” The difference is, for those who refuse God, their blessings end with death; for believers, our blessings continue in heaven.
Verse 45 is also re-enforcing for our lives what came before. Whether or not someone who insults us or injures us ever changes towards us, we should never stop blessing them by our responses. As Christians we should treat our friends and enemies the same. Jesus tells us this in verses 46-47, “For if you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than the others?”
Even the worst care about those who care about them, even the worst act favorably toward those that act kindly toward them. Jesus tells us we must be different. Being good toward only those who are good toward to us is not living God’s commandments. Being good toward those who are not that way toward us is living out God’s commandments.
Now I think we need to take some time and look at the last line. The Bible I usually work in says, “Therefore you must be as perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This seems to be saying we must be perfect at this. And if we must be perfect there must be some kind of punishment when we are not.
I can’t be perfect at it. So this led me to look at other translations. One says “Therefore you shall be perfect,” another says “But you are called to something higher, just as your father is perfect.” A subtle difference but changing “must” with “shall” changes the meaning from something we must do perfectly all the time to something God sees in us when he looks at us.
I started to look through other scriptures to see if this seemed to be a correct interpretation. I found that before the cross God sees as righteous those who trust him; Abraham, Noah, David. After the cross God sees as righteous those who turn to and trust in the one he sent; Jesus. By accepting and trusting in Jesus, we are seen as perfect as Jesus.
Then to look a little deeper I went back to the original Greek, “Shall be therefore you, perfect as the Father of you who is heavenly perfect.” Not we must act perfect, but we are seen as perfect, as perfect as God in heaven.
The earthly fact is we will never be perfect at this but as one’s who believe in God, one’s who trust in Jesus; we should try our best to put our resentments, our anger, our desire for payback aside when we interact with those who come against us.
As you have heard me say we are blessed to live in this country. I can’t say what you go through in your life but I would guess few of us have really been in the situation that I believe Jesus is talking about. I don’t think any of us have been beaten, or tortured. I don’t think any of us have been thrown in prison or watched as friends or family has been literally killed in front of us because we or they believe in Jesus.
It is easy for me to put aside thoughts of retaliation for the person who cut me off on the road, but I want you to think about those others and how much spiritual strength they must need. Jesus doesn’t say it’s easy, he says it’s God’s way.
We’ve known each other now for several months so I just want to take a quick minute to explain something.
A few years ago I as I read and worked in scripture, I started to see in a lot of them this message of how we are supposed to treat each other. How love is the main theme in the Bible; God’s love for us and our love for each other.
I came to understand that the entirety of the Bible points to “Love God above all else and love your fellow men above yourself.” This is the greatest commandment and our greatest calling. This is the central theme to the majority of my messages; no matter what we do God loves us enough to send his son and to offer us his grace. And that we are to let that flow through us and into all our life and interactions.
I may be a little more progressive than some but I believe the Holy Spirit has led me to this understanding. For those who have already come to Jesus I hope these scriptures we look at reinforce how much God loves you but also explain how much love we are to give others.
For those who have not made that decision, I do not believe I should be pointing my finger at them and saying, “This is the sin in your life.” I believe I should be pointing my finger at myself and saying, “I am the same, there is sin in my life, let me show you how much love God gave me and what he did for me.”
It is my responsibility, our responsibility, to show people how good life is when we have peace with God. To show them that by living as God tells us, the way he tells us in these scriptures, we can live without resentment or anger or anxiety. We can live knowing we are helping and uplifting others. We can live a peaceful and joy filled life.
I pray your lives will always be peaceful and filled with joy.
Amen