A New Way Of Responding Series

We are continuing our series called The Story; God’s story as told through the people, places, and events of the Bible. As you may be aware, the last few weeks we have been focusing on the New Testament portion of the story. Specifically the story of Jesus. The ministry and the miracles of Jesus. A few weeks ago, we touched on the first miracle of Jesus which was where, at the wedding feast in Cana, Jesus turned some water into wine. Last week we looked at how Jesus hung out with some of the outcasts of society known as the tax collectors and sinners. We know that Jesus performed a lot of miracles and Jesus hung out with people. When Jesus wasn’t performing miracles or he wasn’t hanging out with people, he was often involved in teaching. He was teaching in various places and ways. We know that when Jesus taught, he often challenged people to think about things in a new way. Today’s passage out of the book of Matthew, chapter 5 is really no exception. In this particular passage, among other things, he goes against the grain. He basically says if someone was to smack you on the face, you should ignore it. You should learn to turn the other cheek. So we are going to look at that portion of the story along with other portions of the story. A little bit of context is that this particular passage is found in a larger body of work called the Sermon on the Mount. It is referred to as the Sermon on the Mount because it is believed to be a sermon by Jesus or what some would suspect is just a series of sayings or teachings by Jesus. Whatever the case, it was given on the side of a mountain. Apparently, the crowds were following Jesus, and he decided to sit down on the side of a mountain and begin to teach the people. We know that in this large body of Jesus’ teaching there are a lot of good things. It is in this body of teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, that we learn about the beatitudes. We learn about the parables of Jesus. We learn about the Lord’s Prayer in this particular section. We also learn that the Sermon on the Mount is really a manual for discipleship because we learn so much about discipleship through the teachings of Jesus. In today’s story, what we learn about is really, when people are mean to you and insult you or even possibly try to do some physical harm that we are supposed to respond differently than the world. I am going to read beginning at Matthew 5:38 and read down through verse 48. (Scripture read here.)

I don’t know about you, but this passage is hard to swallow. It is one of those passages that, at a minimum, causes you to want to flip quickly through it and get past it because it is challenging us to behave in a different way. At a maximum, as a Christian, we may decide to just throw up our hands and say this Christianity is for the birds. It is just too difficult to do. As much as we think it is difficult to follow those types of teachings, imagine what the first century disciples experienced. This Sermon on the Mount was really very early in Jesus’ ministry. This group of disciples and followers that were with him were probably experiencing some of these teachings for the very first time. They are sitting at the feet of Jesus and Jesus starts saying things like turn the other cheek if somebody slaps you. Or if somebody takes your shirt, give them your coat. If a soldier takes you into service and makes you carry something, go the extra mile. I have to imagine the disciples were saying you can’t be serious, Jesus. Is this the best you’ve got? Because no one in their right mind would so such a thing. In fact, no ordinary human being could do such a thing. I suspect if somebody did say something like that, Jesus would give them a little reminder. He would remind them that as a disciple and follower of Jesus Christ, you are really not an ordinary person. You are an apprentice of Jesus Christ. As an apprentice of Jesus Christ, he invites them into a new way of living, a new way of being, a new way of acting that he would refer to as the kingdom way of living. He would probably remind them that when he spoke of the good news of the kingdom, he wasn’t trying to speak of the good news as if you die tonight you are going to heaven. That is indeed good news. But really the good news is that if you are going to live tonight and the next day and the next week and several weeks afterwards, you are going to be welcome into the kingdom of God right now. In other words, the doors of the kingdom are open to a better way of living at this very moment. At the same time, he would probably explain to them that the kingdom of God, as good as it is, it is kind of a wacky place to be because really the kingdom of God is kind of an upside-down way of thinking. In order to learn how to live in the kingdom, you have to sit at the feet of someone who understands what it is like to live in the kingdom and that person would be Jesus Christ. In other words, you have to sit at the feet of Jesus. You have to sit and you have to listen to Jesus. No matter how crazy some of his teachings are, you have to begin to trust Jesus and what he is saying is really for your best interest.