Matthew 5:38-48; Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-19; Psalm 119:33-40
Our four-week study of the first third of the Sermon on the Mount comes to an end today. The sermon is Jesus’ affirmation of his grand policy speach about what the realm of God’s rule looks like and what may be expected of those who are part of that realm – God’s people. They are generations of people like you and me. The language has changed, the geographical location has varied, and the clothing and culture has changed. If you don’t think so, just think about all the different clothing and hair styles that we have lived through in our lifetimes.
The core of Jesus’ manifesto of kingdom life has not changed over all the generations. In every age the people who best exemplified kingdom living have surprised, indeed shocked, the world. That’s what God’s people do. Building on a lifestyle that stands with the least, the last, and the lost — those who receive no honor and are often dishonored — God’s people have character. They are engaged with the world, and they play fair by being in a right relationship with God, with other people, with people of the other gender, in intimate relationships, and in fulfilling solemn promises. Often this deeper, fuller understanding of relationship — what Jesus labels as greater righteousness — runs counter to the ways of the world. Hence, God’s people continuously surprise the world with behaviors which are unexpected, and, admittedly, unwelcomed by the reigning powers of the world which either hide behind God-language or outwardly flout God.
In the preceding seventeen verses Jesus talked about murder, adultery, and taking oaths. As he wraps up this section of his sermon, he’ll talk about not resisting and about love, in other words, how we with our “greater righteousness” are to deal with enemies. If the world was surprised by the previous behaviors, it will be astounded by the response God’s people give to enemies and oppressors.
The “law of retaliation” (given three times in the Torah(1)) gave an injured party the right to inflict the same kind of pain or injury on the person who caused the original pain or injury. On one hand, this law sets limits on the amount of retaliation one can seek. If someone broke your finger, you couldn’t chop of his hand – or his head. On the other hand, the law turns the victim into the same kind of bully as the one who caused the injury. When we hit back at the person who hit us, we become like them. When we shout back at the one shouting at us, we become like them. When we shoot back at those shooting at us, we become like them.
Unfortunately, too often you and I don’t want to get even, we want to hit back harder or more times. We want to do worse to them than they did to us. Then we become worse than them – and we try to justify our actions. Even more than that, we have let “them” determine how we will act. When we let “them” control our feelings and actions, we are not living under heaven’s rule – letting “heaven” control our lives. Mahatma Gandhi pointed out the ultimate extension of this kind of behavior: “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” At some point someone has to stop getting even and poking out eyes.
The slap on the right cheek was not a Muhammad Ali left hook. The slap was most likely done by a right-handed person which means that the slap was with the back of the hand. That’s a sign of insult. Rather than insult back, turn the left cheek to the individual. And it can’t be slapped with the right hand. Their power has been removed from them. We don’t have to lower ourselves to their level.
The same approach seems to be the sense of the other images. If a person is willing to give up a coat – in essence, go naked – when someone sues to take a shirt, then the individual hasn’t let “them” – the suer – determine what they are going to do. By being willing to give even more than they want, their power is removed.
Warren Carter suggests that the coat is a metaphor for responding to a larger systemic oppression. He writes:
“Why strip oneself naked in court? This gesture represents the stripping away of land and property which the creditor is enacting. By standing naked before one’s creditor who has both garments in his hand, one shames and dishonors the creditor. Nakedness exposes, among other things, the greed and cruel effect of the creditor’s action and the unjust system the creditor represents. Removing clothing, along with all that it represents (status, social relations, power, gender, etc.), reveals the basic humanity which should unite the indebted and creditor. The act enables the poor to take some initiative against power that seems ultimate. The act protests by unmasking the powerful one’s heartless demands as inhuman, and the act offers the possibility of a different relationship, even reconciliation. A changed system is not guaranteed, but God’s reign has exposed the nature of the present system and pointed to an alternative.”(2)God’s people surprise the world by responding not as the world responds but by responding in such a way as the sin, the evil, the greed, the heartlessness of living without God is exposed, brought to the light of God’s judgment to be seen for what it is by one and all. It is the perpetrator of evil who is ultimately stripped naked.
We can put this into a different perspective. What kind of predicament would each of us be in if God decided to “get even” with us? We repeatedly turn away from God. We deny God daily with our words and our lives and our thoughts. We disobey God. We ignore God. For all we’ve done and haven’t done, God would have the right to “get even” and destroy us. That isn’t what God does. That isn’t what we are to do.
Thus we are to love our enemies, not get even with them. Nowhere in scripture does it say to hate the enemy. Nowhere. It probably became pseudo-scripture, because it seemed appropriate. If you can’t love someone, then you hate them. And hating someone means that it is easier to love the neighbor. Those who seek to become righteous by obedience to the law will find a way to make the law obeyable. Thus the law gets interpreted as loving some people and allowing hatred for others. That’s not what God intended, that’s not what Jesus now commands us.
We are to love our enemies. This love is not just an inner feeling. It means doing something for the benefit of the other person, doing something that helps the other person, regardless of one’s feelings for that person or what one has to do. We are not to demonize those we disagree whether it is politics or religion or child-rearing. When we make them into demons we permit ourselves to believe that it is all right to hate them. That is not Jesus’ way. As Christians, we should always be conscious of the fact that every person has been created by God. All of us are children of the same heavenly Father, who sends sun and rain, snow and drought on the righteous and unrighteous alike.
Thus Jesus says that God’s people are to be “complete” – perfect – as God is complete/perfect. This can be paraphrased: “You are to be all-embracing in your love, in imitation of God, whose love embraces all.”(3) Eugene Peterson in The Message puts the verse this way: “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You’re kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”
To be “complete” or “perfect” means not dividing our love — extending it to some people and keeping it from others. It means whole-hearted love for all people — just as God has shown his whole-hearted love for all people — including us — by not getting revenge, but giving everything for us that makes for peace between God and us.
If that doesn’t surprise the world, nothing will.
(1) Exodus 21:24; Leviticus 24:19-20; Deuteronomy 19:21.
(2) Warren Carter, Matthew and the Margins: Sociopolitical and Religious Reading (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2000), p 152.
(3) Douglas R. A. Hare, Matthew (Interpretation Commentary Series) (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1993), p. 62.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com
Copyright 2014 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
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