Payback! - Matthew 5:40-42 Series

Matthew 5:38-42 "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Review: Turn the Other Cheek

For a little over a half year now we have been studying verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount, which is a sermon that is about righteousness in the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. The long awaited King has arrived, and the question is, “What are the standards for citizens of this Kingdom? And the short answer is – They are the same as the OT. But it takes a whole sermon to explain that because the Scribes and Pharisees had done such a terrible job at interpreting and applying the OT Law. So Jesus is correcting them. And one of their misapplications was from the “eye for an eye” commandment. They interpreted that in a way that allowed for vengeance in the heart. And so in v.38 Jesus puts a stick of dynamite under that approach and blows it to bits.

38 "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' 39 But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.

Do not retaliate. Do not return a slap for a slap, do not return an insult for an insult, or cold shoulder for a cold shoulder, or a bad mood for a bad mood, or a sharp tone with a sharp tone. When someone is inconsiderate toward us or hurts us or offends us, in our flesh we want to make them pay. Jesus says, “Don’t.”

Dietrich Bonheoffer has some interesting insights about that. He observes that when you get into a fight with someone most of the energy the other person has is drawn from your resistance. If you do not resist and do not retaliate – they lose all their steam. It is no fun to wrestle someone who is not wrestling back.

Imagine a bee that would miraculously get a new stinger every time you slapped it. If it stings you once and you just leave it, it will die. But if you swat at it, it gets a new stinger and can sting you again. That is kind of what evil is like – it gets recharged by your resistance.

“The only way to overcome evil is to let it run itself to a standstill because it does not find the resistance it is looking for. Resistance merely creates further evil and adds fuel to the flames. But when evil meets no opposition and encounters no obstacles but only patient endurance, its sting is drawn, and at last it meets an opponent which is more than its match. … then evil cannot find its mark, it can breed no further evil, and is left barren.

…Evil becomes a spent force when we put up no resistance. By refusing to pay back the enemy in his own coin, and by preferring to suffer without resistance … violence stands condemned by its failure to evoke counter-violence.”

That’s a good insight – and it is biblical.

Proverbs 26:21 As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife.

Proverbs 15:18 A hot-tempered man stirs up dissension, but a patient man calms a quarrel.

Proverbs 17:14 Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.

Participating in a fight just pours fuel on the fire. And for those of you who like a good fight –

Proverbs 17:19 He who loves a quarrel loves sin

Turn the other cheek – Don’t give up on the person

So we don’t resist. Instead we turn the other cheek. What does that mean? My focus last week was on non-retaliation, but I think turning the other cheek implies more than that. Jesus does not say, “If someone strikes you on the cheek just walk away.” When someone offends you or insults you or hurts your feelings, you do not walk away; you expose your other cheek to them. In other words, you give them further opportunity to hurt your feelings.

Our natural reaction is to want to protect ourselves from being hurt again, so we distance ourselves from the person – if not geographically, at least emotionally. But Jesus says, “No – when they slap you in the face once, expose your face to them again.” Do not bail out on a relationship or retreat just because the person hurt your feelings. Be willing to be hurt again – an again and again.