Sermon on the Mount (3)
Rights and Responsibities of Christians
Story: A number of years ago, Newsweek magazine carried the story of the memorial service held for Hubert Humphrey, former vice-president of the United States.
Hundreds of people came from all over the world to say good-bye to their old friend and colleague.
But one person who came was shunned and ignored by virtually everyone there.
Nobody would look at him much less speak to him.
That person was disgraced former president Richard Nixon.
Not long before, he had gone through the shame and infamy of Watergate.
He was back in Washington for the first time since his resignation from the presidency.
Then a very special thing happened, perhaps the only thing that could have made a difference and broken the ice.
President Jimmy Carter, who was in the White House at that time, came into the room.
Before he was seated, he saw Nixon over against the wall, all by himself.
He went over to Nixon as though he were greeting a family member, stuck out his hand to the former president, and smiled broadly.
To the surprise of everyone there, the two of them embraced each other, and Carter said,
"Welcome home, Mr. President! Welcome home!"
One president to another, from different parties, they understood what they had in common, what burdens they had born in common, they were elected presidents.
Commenting on that, Newsweek magazine asserted, "If there was a turning point in Nixon’s long ordeal in the wilderness, it was that moment and that gesture of love and compassion."
Reaching out to Nixon wasn’t a vote winner – but Jimmy Carter was a committed Christian – and still is.
And he realised that as a Christian he has RESPONSIBILITIES – and in this case a responsibility for reconciliation
I think our Gospel reading today is one of the most difficult sayings of Jesus, because if we follow them WITHOUT CAREFUL CONSIDERATION our society would degenerate into lawlessness.
Jesus is not telling us to throw the “law out of the window”
Indeed Jesus had a very high view of the Law in the Old Testament and so we ignore it we do so at our peril
He is rather touching on the relationship between our RIGHTS and RESPONSIBILITIES
But before we look at the passage, let’s look a bit at the background to what the Law was all about.
Last week at Magdalen, I explained that there were three different types of OT Law
If I may recap what I said:
There are basically three types of OT LAW
1. THE MORAL LAW
2. THE CEREMONIAL LAW and
3. THE CIVIL LAW
The Moral Law
The Moral Law tells us about God’s character.
These never change, just as God himself never changes
They tell us what God likes and dislikes.
The Ten Commandments for example are MORAL LAW.
Jesus summed up the requirements of God’s Moral Law by applying two great principles.
The first is from Deuteronomy 6:5
"Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."
The second is from Leviticus 19:18
"Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."
Ceremonial Law
The second type of OT Law is the Ceremonial laws - all of which prefigured Jesus’ death on the Cross.
They related to the services of the sanctuary, the offering of sacrifices, and the priestly ministration.
Every sacred festival foreshadowed a saving event in the redemption of the world.
Civil Law
Every country has a civil Law and Israel was no different
So to Israel as a nation were given laws in the OT governing how justice was administered.
They were for a place (Israel) and a time (and were the law of the land in those days)
Unlike the Ceremonial Laws, which were wholly symbolic in nature, the Civil Laws were not abolished by the death of Christ but rather do not apply to us as we are not in the Land of Israel.
We therefore no longer need to observe
the CEREMONIAL LAW
(as was settled in the First Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15) nor
the CIVIL LAW
(as we are not Jews living in Israel) but
we do as Christians need to observe
the MORAL LAW OF GOD.
With that in mind, let’s look at Jesus words, from the Sermon on the Mount in our Gospel reading today
I think the key to understanding this passage has to do with
RIGHTS and RESPONSIBILITIES
We hear in the news all the time about people’s rights – but so rarely responsibilities!
Story: Convicted prisoners in the United Kingdom will soon, courtesy of the European Court of Human Rights be able to have the right to vote in our elections.
Can you imagine in a marginal seat with a large prison population. Is the MP going to be determined by the prison population.
Are we going to find politicians offering convicted offenders more and more rights in exchange for their vote?
Story: When you think that, in 2001, the most powerful man in the world, the president of the United States was voted into power by a couple of thousand votes in Florida, will those in our prisons be influencing the outcome of our Government soon in hung Parliaments?
In our Gospel reading this morning there are two sets of the law being considered here by Jesus.
First the CIVIL LAW and secondly the MORAL LAW of GOD
The CIVIL LAW, administered by the magistrate has no mercy in it. You have either broken the law and have to accept the penalty or you haven’t
Contrary to what people think about Jesus’ teaching on the SERMON ON THE MOUNT, Jesus did not come to abolish CIVIL LAW.
St Paul tells us that the law is God given and there to deter law breakers
In Romans 13:4 St Paul writes:
The authorities are God’s servants, sent for your good.
But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be
afraid, for they have the power to punish you.
They are God’s servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong.
However Jesus tells us that as we are forgiven sinners we need to sit lightly our RIGHTS because of our RESPONSIBILITIES for our attitudes as Christians.
So often our attitudes to others are CIVIL LAW like – I’ll pay him back, whereas Jesus want us to have MORAL LAW attributes which goes to our attitude to others.
Let’s unpack this a bit
1. An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a tooth
It has become an English expression hasn’t it?
Jesus said quite rightly about the OT Law
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’
That’s CIVIL LAW – that is Law without mercy
But Jesus went on to say about how his disciples should live:
39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.
If we are living under GOD’S MORAL LAW – under the forgiveness of the Cross, then we have the RESPONSIBILITY to have a different ATTITUDE.
An attitude of MERCY
Not one of retaliation - but rather we are called to be PEACEMAKERS
So if someone slaps you, smashing in his front teeth is unlikely to help you win him for Christ or defuse the situation.
That’s how the world reacts – and you can read it daily in the national newspapers.
For example in Nordelph just down the road from here, a man recently shot two of his neighbours over their dog!
But if you don’t retaliate, the issue is much more quickly defused.
As Christians we are called to forgive – as God has forgiven us
Story: Gordon Wilson had a daughter Marie, who was killed in the IRA bombing of Enniskillen on 8 Nov 1987.
Gordon was a committed Christian and said this about the feelings he had to those who killed his daughter.
"I bear no ill-will against those responsible for this. That sort of talk will not bring her back to life. I shall pray for those people tonight and every night. I know there has to be a plan even though we might not understand it. God is good and we shall meet again."
I wonder if I could ever have been so Christlike as Gordon Wilson
From my own experience, if I retaliate, I become bitter and I lose my PEACE.
If the matter really is serious – allow the civil authorities to deal with the matter – after all that’s what they are there for.
And the Church has one foremost RESPONSIBILITY and one only
And that is to “make disciples”
We might have to forgo our personal RIGHTS in order to fulfil our RESPONSIBITY to bring people to Christ.
2. GO THE EXTRA MILE
Let’s unpack another of Jesus statements from our Gospel reading today.
Jesus said
41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.
From which we get our own English expression : to go the extra mile”
In Roman CIVIL LAW, under which the Jews as a conquered nation were living, a Roman soldier could compel any non- Roman citizen to walk one Roman mile (l,000 paces), carrying his supplies.
And as you can guess, people didn’t take too kindly to having to do that.
Yet, they lived under the safety that the Roman army provided.
The Romans for all their faults provided law and order and protected the population from marauding bands of brigands.
The CIVIL LAW says: You must carry the supplies just one mile”
Now my attitude to how I carry those supplies is my choice.
Jesus is saying – I want a different attitude from my followers.
Don’t obey the law begrudgingly
Befriend the soldier who requires you to carry his supplies
Go the extra mile – for by giving up your RIGHTS for the sake of the Gospel, you never know who you might win for Christ.
Story: When Maddy and I were in Switzerland leading a refugee Church in Basle, we used to go into the Internment camp for refugees who had come into the country illegally on Saturdays to invite them to Church on Sunday.
And there was one surly Swiss guard who we nicknamed DUMBO, who not only hated the refugees but us too.
He grudgingly used to allow us in when he was on duty – and often - as I had a pass for myself and two others – when we were four he would insist that only three of us could go in – and one had to wait in the reception.
After a number of months, he lightened up just a bit.
And one day he mentioned that he would like to move from Baselland into BaselStadt, but he couldn’t get hold of any of the local newspapers to look through the ads.
So the following Saturday when we came into the camp, Maddy had cut out all the property and rental adverts from the Basel Stadt newspapers and gave them to him.
His face dropped and he thanked her.
The following Saturday, when we came into the camp, Dumbo was on duty.
His face lit up as if he had seen long lost friends.
He said to all of us: Sit down – I’ll go in and invite them to Church – and we saw him go off and say to the refugees “ You and You – You are going to Church tomorrow .”
You could call that “going the extra mile”
You could call that “loving your enemies”
It’s all the same stuff.
We are called to answer evil with good, because we have been forgiven our sins by God.
Do you see how this ties up with the Lord’s Prayer:
Forgive us our sins as we forgive others….
Christians need to keep their RESPONSIBILITIES for the Gospel ahead of their RIGHTS for the sake of the Kingdom.
But it doesn’t mean we have to be door mats!
There may be other times that we stand on our RIGHTS for the sake of the Kingdom – when we have to stand up to evil
Take Paul in Philippi in Acts 16:38-40 , when he had been illegally beaten by the magistrates in Philippi (because Paul was a Roman citizen and so they had no right to do so).
St Luke writes this
38 The officers reported this (ie that Paul was a Roman citizen) to the magistrates, and when they heard that Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they were alarmed.
39 They came to appease them and escorted them from the prison, requesting them to leave the city.
40 After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
Paul required the magistrates in Philippi to apologise for acting illegally. There is nothing worse than crooked officials!
But that is a sermon for another day.
May I leave you with this thought.
Am I willing to give up my RIGHTS for my RESPONSIBILITIES as a Christian, when necessary?
