Resist, Pray, Love: Jesus Said What!? ~ Matthew 5:38-48 (Jesus Said What!? Series)

³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹ But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; ⁴⁰ and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well; ⁴¹ and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. ⁴² Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you. ⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. ~ Matthew 5:38-48

In a memorable graduation speech, the scholar James Ryan articulated five basic questions that he believed helped foster a fulfilling life. The first of these questions, he said, was prominent among teenagers: “Wait! What?” He admitted that his kids typically posed this question when he was asking them to do a chore. They hear “blah blah blah . . . clean your room” and then quickly respond, “Wait! What?” But “Wait! What?,” he said, is not a bad a question. It’s an important way of asking for clarification and a question that one should ask before drawing conclusions or making a decision. It’s the proper pause for when we hear something that doesn’t quite seem to make sense or that challenges a traditional way of thinking. That makes it a great phrase for when we read our Bibles. Our text today finds us in the Sermon on the Mount, Matt. 5:38-48. Where Jesus begins by citing the “law of retaliation” recorded in Exodus 21:24, Leviticus 24:20, and Deuteronomy 19:21. That teaching was not a relishing of violence or even a promoting of it so much, as offering reciprocity. Its aim was to limit the kind of vengeance one could enact but counseled violence nonetheless. But Jesus announces to his followers that this teaching is being upgraded, “But I say to you, do not resist an evil doer” (vs. 39). And the appropriate response is . . .  Wait! What?

Wait! What is he saying in vs. 39? What are we NOT to do? Is Jesus counseling us to do nothing in the face of aggression, to accept violence and shame with no recourse? Should we counsel a woman experiencing abuse, for example, to simply “turn the other cheek”? Does such advice make sense of Jesus’ ministry? He did resist evil doers but without violence. So whatever interpretation we have must make sense of his teachings in light of his actions, his life and his death, which were forms of resistance against evil. As we begin you’ll

notice that you have a card in your bulletin. This is here to help us remember that we are learning something that Jesus intends us to do.

Jesus argues that we are to resist but not retaliate.

Jesus is not suggesting “Don’t resist” but “Don’t resist in this way.” The Greek word “resist” [antistenai] often refers to violent rebellion or retaliation. Over 50 percent of its use in the Greek version of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, refers to opposition with physical force. Stasis, the noun form of stenai, means “a stand,” in the military sense of facing off against an enemy. It came to mean a “violent rebellion,” or “revolt.” It’s the term used for Barabbas’s “insurrection” in Mark 15:7 (Luke 23:19, 25), “rioting” in Acts 19:40, and “violent dissension” in Acts 23:10. Furthermore, the word “evil” in the Greek can be translated as “the evil one” or “by evil means.” Greek grammar makes either meaning equally acceptable. So a

more accurate translation of Jesus’ teaching might be, “Don’t strike back at evil in kind.” Or, “don’t react violently against the one who is evil.” This seems to be Paul’s understanding of Jesus’ teaching (cf. Romans 12:17, 1 Thess. 5:15).

But what about Jesus’ three examples? Do they substantiate this reading? Yes. In fact, when read carefully they offered Jesus’ audience clear, imaginative, and surprising responses that engaged oppressive evil. Let’s explore them together.

Example One: “If any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

Why the right cheek? How does one strike another on the right cheek anyway?

We must remember that this is a right-handed-world – the right hand was the only hand that you could use because the left hand was used only for unclean tasks. (Please don’t make me be more specific than that. Suffice it to say, this was not a Charmin world.) In some communities, even to gesture with the left hand could result in a penalty of exclusion and some form of penance (see The Dead Sea Scrolls, 1QS 7). So, the only way one could strike the right cheek with the right hand would be with the back of the hand. When we recognize this we begin to understand that we are talking about an insult, a way of belittling someone. The intention is not to injure with violence but to humiliate or put someone in his or her place. So backhanding someone was a way of admonishing inferiors: Masters backhanded slaves, husbands/wives; parents/children; men/women; and Romans/Jews. So we have here in one simple phrase a summary of a complex set of unequal relations in which retaliation would be suicidal. The only response was cowering submission. To turn the other cheek, however, created a dilemma for the would-be slapper and robbed him of his power to humiliate. He can’t strike the left cheek in the same way because he would be using his left hand, which was a punishable offense. If he hits with a fist, according to Jewish sources, he’s basically acknowledging the lower person as an equal. In that world of honor and shaming, the “superior” has been rendered impotent to instill shame in a subordinate. He has been stripped of his power to dehumanize the other.  Jesus’ point is expressed well by Gandhi who said, “The first principle of nonviolent action is that of non-cooperation with everything humiliating.”

Example #2: “If anyone wants to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat, too.”

The context of this example is that a person who has borrowed money is being sued for his undergarment because he is so poor all he has left are his shirt and coat – literally, the clothes on his back. At this time, Jesus’ world was drowning in debt, due to the high taxation required by Herod Antipas to pay Rome tribute. It is no accident that the first act of the Jewish revolutionaries in 66 A.D. was to burn the temple treasury, where the record of debts was kept.

Now, do you remember that the OT law actually envisioned just such a scenario and declared that taking someone’s coat was forbidden (Exodus 22:26-27, Deut. 24:12-13, cf. Amos 2:8)? If you took a man’s coat in pledge for a loan you had to return it every night else what would he sleep in when it gets cold? So in Jesus’ teaching the greedy lender sues you for the only other piece of clothing he doesn’t have to return, your shirt. Jesus counsels a shocking initiative: take off your coat

and your shirt and give them both to the greedy person while you stand naked in the court (this is also a no underwear world, sorry). Such an act would reveal the plaintiff’s greed and expose an unjust system. Moreover, in Judaism, nakedness was taboo and shame fell not on the naked person but on the person viewing or causing the nakedness (Genesis 9:20-27).  But this stripping was more than punitive, it offered the creditor a chance to see what his greed caused. In a striking parallel, shortly before the fall of political apartheid in South Africa, police descended on a squatters' camp they had long wanted to demolish. They gave the few women there five minutes to gather their possessions, and then the bulldozers would level their shacks. The women seized the initiative and stripped naked before the bulldozers. The police turned and fled.

Example #3: “if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.”

In the third example, Jesus’ is acknowledging a particular legal feature of the Roman Empire called Angaria, which involved compulsory service among non-citizens in occupied territory, like Judea and Israel (this is what happened to Simon of Cyrene, i.e. Mark 15:21-22; Matt. 27:32; Luke 23:26).  Angaria allowed a Roman soldier to force a Jew to

carry his pack for one mile. So the actual act referred to the oppression that an occupying force had over a conquered people. In that context, Jesus is not simply saying, “Do what he is forcing you to do, comply with oppression, and live with powerless resentment.” Instead, he is instructing his followers to take the initiative, and carry the pack further at their own volition. It shifts from resentful powerlessness to the power of our own surprising initiative. We can almost imagine a scenario by which the disciple of Jesus carrying the pack further begins a conversation with the Roman soldier who is stunned by the act. Maybe the soldier asks why he is doing that which would lead to a conversation about Jesus, about the occupation and its impact on Jews, maybe even the soldier talking about his family and where there was only hatred we see the beginning of healing.

So what do we learn?

• If a saying is hard, get some help. Go to experts and look at the broader witness of Scripture. Paul expressed this same interpretation Romans 12:17-21 by quoting Proverbs 25:21-22, where it says we should feed our enemies when they are hungry and give them something to drink when they are thirsty and in doing so pour “burning coals on their heads”; that is, prick their conscience.
•  Each of these examples includes an element of surprise and some subversive correction or naming of injustice without resorting to violence. 
•  They were meant to inspire peacemaking and justice which allows for the dignity of every human being and the conversion of enemies.

This does not mean we affirm everything our enemies do. Jesus often confronted Pharisees and others leaders’ injustices. It does mean, however, that we act in such a way that allows for our enemies conversion. Martin Luther King, Jr. understood Jesus perfectly, “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”

Of course, all of this is heading somewhere – the big reveal, the big surprise – the most striking element of Jesus’ teaching, vss. 43 and 44. It’s not simply that we face injustice with nonviolent resistance but that we do so in order to pray for and love our enemies because that’s what God does.  We do these things, “so that,” Jesus says, “we can look like God.” Loving our enemies is our spiritual DNA.

Being a child of someone is a funny thing. To share the genetic makeup of someone: to look like them and act like them. I’m a delightful mixture of my parents – Dad 6ft., Mom 4 ft 11 in. I look just like him and act just like her. I look so much like my dad that I’ve had complete strangers come up to me and ask me if I was Gary Lemmond’s son. Do you want to look like your Heavenly Father? Break the cycle of violence and retaliation in working for justice. Resist wickedness. Refuse to hate. Pray for your enemies. Loving them is a genetic trait of children of God, Jesus tells us. It’s how we look like him.

Let’s return to the card for a moment. So where has “Wait! What?” lead you today? What is Jesus calling you to do? How then should you live?