“The Right To Be Wronged”
Matthew 5:38-42
Dismiss Grove KIDZ
OKAY – let’s do this…
QUESTION – MGCC… are you ready to fed on some God-breathed, Holy Spirit empowered, doubled edged, will not return to Him empty… Word this morning? Sweet, me too…
NOW – Paul wrote the following words from a prison cell.
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine privileges; He took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When He appeared in human form, He humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. – Philippians 2:5-8
And Peter wrote these words to a bunch of Jesus-followers who were suffering some extreme persecution under Nero.
For God is pleased when, conscious of his will, you patiently endure unjust treatment. Of course, you get no credit for being patient if you are beaten for doing wrong.
But if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently, God is pleased with you. For God called you to do good, even if it means suffering, just as Christ suffered for you. He is your example, and you must follow in his steps. He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone.
He did not retaliate when He was insulted, nor threaten revenge when He suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. He personally carried our sins in His body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By His wounds you are healed. - 1 Peter 2:19-24
Prayer
NOW THIS MORNING – we are going to unpack the first of Jesus’ final two ‘You have heard that it was said, but I say to you’ illustrations of what it actually looks like to live a life that surpasses the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees.
John Stott writes the following in his study on the SM…
The two final antitheses
(the term scholars use for the, ‘You have… but’ contrasts that Jesus lays out in Matthew 5)
bring us to the highest point of the Sermon on The Mount, for which it is both most admired and most resented, namely the attitude of total love which Christ calls us to show towards one who is evil (39) and our enemies (44).
Nowhere, is the challenge of the Sermon greater.
Nowhere, is the distinctness of the Christian counter-culture more obvious.
Nowhere, is our need of the power of the Holy Spirit (whose first is love) more compelling.
(end quote)
OKAY – here’s our text for today…
A text full of expressions that are still in common use today, and a text that maybe more than any other in the SM, has been both misunderstood and misapplied for centuries.
You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 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.
And if anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. – Matthew 5:38-42
QUESTION…
Have you ever heard of the expression an ‘eye for eye, and a tooth for tooth?’ before. YEAH - I think we all have.
NOW - sometimes it is referred to as ‘Lex Talionis’
(Latin.. the law of retaliation)
BUT WE - could also call it…
the law of revenge, the law of getting even, the law of payback, the law of you hurt me… I’ll hurt you back more.
AND B/S – I don’t think I need to tell you that we live in a world, where payback, vengeance, getting even an no justice not peace… rule the day.
AND MGCC – we are far from immune from this influence.
IN FACT – this week while working on this message I got to thinking that my 2 favorite movie plotlines are: an underdog winning or making a comeback, or someone getting revenge.
LIKE – two of my favorite movies are
Braveheart, Gladiator…
My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions and loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son. Husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.
YES – revenge and retaliation dot our landscape.
I MEAN – there are even websites dedicated to offering advice on how to get even. I found one this week that gave ideas on how to get revenge: Anonymously; on an Ex; on a Friend; on Family; at School, and on a Co-worker.
Ways to Get Revenge…
• Let the world know about their wrongdoing: Do something public that shames and humiliates them.
• Destroy something they love: Find a treasured item that you know is important to them and destroy it.
• Ignore them: If you are still in contact with this person, start ignoring them and pay them no attention.
• Refuse to help them in their time of need: Again, this depends on if you are still on good terms with the person who wronged you. If you are and they call upon you in their time of need, you can give them the cold shoulder and let them down.
• Show them up: Get in better shape, dress better, and start living a better life than the other person. Be sure to let them know how great your life is.
• Make them look bad: If you have the chance, you can do something in public to embarrass them and demean them. (hey,… are you taking notes…)
NOW BEFORE – we dive into this text let me give you the bottom line of what Jesus is teaching in these 5 verses about what life in His Kingdom is all about.
UNDERSTAND B/S…
In a world full of people who constantly seek to get even and are always demanding their rights, Jesus says that those who live in His Kingdom have the right to be wronged.
“You have the right to be wronged”
“I have the right to be wronged”
OKAY… let’s dive into our text.
You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.
NOW – the exact phrase… an ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth’ is found 3 times in the Old Testament Law, IN…
If people are fighting and hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury, the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows.
But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise. - Exodus 21:22-25
Anyone who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury. – Leviticus 24:19-20
If a malicious witness takes the stand to accuse someone of a crime, the two people involved in the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. The judges must make a thorough investigation, and if the witness proves to be a liar, giving false testimony against a fellow Israelite, then do to the false witness as that witness intended to do to the other party. You must purge the evil from among you. The rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. – Deuteronomy 19:16-21
SO AGAIN – ‘an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth’ were part of the law of Moses.
BUT LISTEN – it was never intended to be a law that allowed for personal vengeances, instead it was a law that God gave to Israel’s judges and magistrates to use in civil courts.
NOTICE – Exodus 21:22
the offender must be fined whatever the woman’s husband demands and the court allows
AND – Deuteronomy 19:17,18
The two men involved must stand in the presence of the LORD before the priests and the judges who are in office at the time. The judges must make a thorough investigation
AGAIN – God gave the law of ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’ to Israel’s judges…
• So that wrong would not go unpunished
• To serve as a deterrent (there ‘will’ be punishment, and it will fit the crime, no matter who ‘master or slave’ commits the crime).
• To limit excessive retribution (punishment must not go beyond the crime)
QUESTON…
How did the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law distort God’s law of an eye for an eye?
They changed the sphere in which it applied
IN OTHER WORDS – they took ‘an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth’ from the sphere of punishing the doer of wrong in judicial courts, into the sphere getting personal revenge against anyone who does you wrong.
AND LISTEN – whenever we take what God intended to be guidelines for civil justice and move it into the sphere of personal response, we get into trouble.
LIKE – an ‘eye for an eye, tooth for tooth’ is necessary for governments to maintain law and order in a society.
HOWEVER - an ‘eye for an eye, tooth for tooth’ is lousy way to live out our personal relationships.
IN FACT – living by ‘lex talionis’ ‘you hurt me, I hurt you back’ has destroyed countless: marriages, families, friendships, churches.
AND LISTEN MGCC – whenever we take what God intended to be guidelines for our personal response to wrongdoing, and move it into the sphere of how civil government should respond to evil acts and wrongdoers, we also get into trouble.
LIKE – turning the other cheek when wrong, can help build stronger relationships…
HOWEVER – the civil government adopting the philosophy turning the other cheek and not adequately punishing those who do wrong is a terrible and grossly ineffective way to have a healthy and peaceful society.
B/S – ‘context’ as we have said many times before is critical in understanding and applying biblical truths.
AND LIKE – I said as we began our dive into this text, these words in Matthew 5 have been misunderstood and misapplied often.
• To justify personal vengeance
• To pacify the role of civil government to adequately punish evil doers.
NOW - in speaking of the governing authorities Paul wrote in Romans 13:4
For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. - Romans 13:4
AND – Peter wrote in 1 Peter 2:12,13
Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. - 1 Peter 2:12,13
BOTTOM LINE – the false teaching of the Pharisees and Teachers of The Law that Jesus is correcting in Matthew 5:38-42, is the idea that God taught that an ‘eye for eye and tooth for tooth’ applied to personal revenge. It did not.
(and they also taught that it was pretty much an obligation to live it out when wronged)
You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.
Do not resist (do not retaliate against) the person who has wronged you and done you evil.
B/S
In a world full of people who constantly seek to get even and are always demanding their rights, Jesus says that those who live in His Kingdom have the right to be wronged.
AND THEN – Jesus gives 4 illustrations… about how we are to respond ‘personally’ whenever we are wronged.
AND UNDERSTAND – Jesus did not intend for us to make these 4 examples into some kind of legalistic laws to obey, but rather to illustrate the point that those who live in His Kingdom have a right to be wronged.
OKAY – illustration #1…
Turn The Other Cheek
You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ 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. – Matthew 5:38,39
Turning the other cheek… Ever here that one before.
What does it mean?
LIKE - does turning the other cheek mean that…
• We have no right to defend ourselves from a serious physical attack? (No… I mean, after Jesus in Luke 22:36 actually tells his disciples to sell their cloak and buy a sword. Why? Because things were fixing to get dangerous.
• After we have let someone ‘also’ slap our left cheek that we are then free to unleash on them and lay them out?
UNDERSTAND B/S…
Jesus is not talking about a physical attack; instead He’s talking about a personal insult.
YOU SEE – a slap to left cheek would be backhanded slap with your right hand.
AND LISTEN – in that culture and still in many places today that would have been seen as a massive insult and sign of total disrespect.
LIKE – you are not even worthy of a punch to the face, I am just going to slap you. A former Roman slave was quoted as saying, “I would rather have a whip tear across my back, than to be slapped with the back of my Masters hand.”
QUESTION, How do you respond when …
• you are insulted?
• someone: demeans you, humiliates you, dishonors you, disrespects you?
• treats you like you are insignificant, unworthy and do not matter.
I MEAN…
They have no right, to treat you like that.
To say those things
To make you feel that way
AGAIN – how do you respond; do you trade insult for insult?
Saying: demeaning, disrespectful, dishonoring things to them and about them?
B/S – I gotta admit, that is my fleshly instinct when I feel that someone has demeaned and disrespected me.
AND – hate to admit it, but I have often given into that instinct, trading insult for insult.
You disrespect me, I’ll disrespect you
You dishonor me, I’ll dishonor you
In a world full of people who constantly seek to get even and are always demanding their rights, Jesus says that those who live in His Kingdom have the right to be wronged.
He did not retaliate when He was insulted, nor threaten revenge when He suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. – 1 Peter 2:23
What Jesus is saying is this: “When someone treats you in a way that is less than you deserve, when someone takes the right to dignity that you have, don’t retaliate. Be slapped again before you would ever think to retaliate. Take as much as they want to give but don’t retaliate.”
If you’re worried about your dignity, beloved, someday you’re gonna be a Son of God in the image of Jesus Christ and you’re gonna stay that way forever, and God's gonna pour out all the goodness of his great grace on you forever and ever and ever. So if you’re worried about your dignity, just hang on, you’ll get it. Don’t fight for it here, because if you do, you’re gonna disavow the fact that you’re a Son of God and that you’re related to Jesus Christ, because you won’t be acting in a way consistent with them.
Let Them Have Your Cloak As Well
And if anyone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. – Matthew 5:40
NOW – the way that this worded is that there is apparently some justification for this lawsuit.
The tunic was a long, sack-like under-garment made of cotton, which even the poorest people would have two or three. The cloak was the great, blanket-like outer garment, which a person wore as a robe by day and used as a blanket at night. Now, most Jewish people in Jesus’ day only owned one cloak. And the law of Moses actually required that a cloak taken in pledge for a loan be returned to its owner before sundown, so the borrower had something to use as a cover when he went to bed (Exodus 22:26-27).
AGAIN - the idea is here is that you’ve done something, and you’re being sued at court…
And so what happens is you don’t have anything to pay except that thing that you’re wearing; I mean you’re down to nothing. He’s gonna get your shirt, proverbially, right?
And when he gets your shirt, just to show how sorry you are that you ever did anything to cause his trouble, you give him your coat too.
AGAIN - to a Jew this would be absolutely devastating. They’d immediately jump up out of their seats and say, “Wait a minute. We know what the Bible says in Exodus 22, 26, and 27. It says that no one is allowed to take and keep our cloak.
Jesus, however, calls his followers to go beyond what the law requires. To respond to our accuser and adversary with grace. In our day we might say it like this: “If he takes your coat, offer him the shirt off your back.”
The Message words the verse like this: “If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, giftwrap your best coat and make a present of it.”
In other words, do what the law requires and then go further. When you do this, God becomes your defense and provider. AND LISTEN - this “radically unselfish attitude” will not only amaze the world, but it will invite the blessing and pleasure of your heavenly Father who is witness to all that is taking place.
In a world full of people who constantly seek to get even and are always demanding their rights, Jesus says that those who live in His Kingdom have the right to be wronged.
Go The Second Mile
If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.
- Matthew 5:41
NOW - “being willing to go the extra mile” has long been a saying in our culture for quite some time and it has its source right here in verse 41.
UNDERSTSND - Israel was an occupied territory under the rule of mighty Rome. AND THEREFORE - her people could legally be compelled to assist the Roman military.
We see an example of this action when Simon of Cyrene was forced to help carry the cross of our Lord (Mark 15:21).
Sinclair Ferguson points out, “The Jews hated the practice because it publicly illustrated the humiliation of being a subjugated people. We can easily imagine how open to abuse it was.”
The phrase “one mile” means “one thousand paces” in Latin. According to Jesus’s illustration, you are legally required to assist a Roman soldier by carrying a load he gives you for one thousand steps.
However, when you reach the limits of what the Roman law requires, Jesus says, don’t stop and drop the burden at the oppressor’s feet. Keep going. Carry the load another mile.
Do it voluntarily, not for a king in this world but for the King of heaven. Obligation dictated the first mile.
Compassion directs the second.
The Roman soldier would no doubt be shocked and wonder why you would serve him, your enemy, when it is not required.
Gospel opportunities abound for us to show and say to others, “I serve you because I have been served. In fact, let me tell you about the one who comes to serve us both, who came to serve the world, bearing its burden of sin all the way to the cross.”
Do more than is required.
In a world full of people who constantly seek to get even and are always demanding their rights, Jesus says that those who live in His Kingdom have the right to be wronged.
Give To The One Who Asks
Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. – Matthew 5:42
Jesus’ next illustration describes someone coming across your path with a desperate and legitimate need.
UNDERSTAND – the ones asking…
• Are not lazy, or irresponsible. Neither the OT or the NT require Jesus’ followers to financially support those who refuse to work (if a man will not work, he shall not eat 2 Th 3:10), or who want to live off of the hard work of others.
• And the ones asking are not asking for things that would be harmful to them.
They are hurting, need your help, and you have the means to assist them. Jesus says, Jump in with both feet.
The Bible repeatedly affirms our responsibility to help the poor.
AGAIN – when someone (anyone even someone who has wronged us) comes up to us with a legitimate need, Jesus says,
Don’t lecture him. Feed him.
Don’t shame him. Share with him what God has given you without expecting anything in return.
The primary point of Matt 5:42 is that charitable giving should not be a means of rewarding those who flatter the giver or of retaliating against those who have harmed him.
IN FACT - some Jewish teachers argued that one should grant charitable gifts only to the godly and righteous, not to sinners or to enemies who might use the gifts to gain an advantage over the giver.
For example, a Pharisee writing from Jerusalem in the second century BC advised:
Give to the devout, but do not help the sinner. Do good to the humble, but do not give to the ungodly; hold back their bread, and do not give it to them, for by means of it they might subdue you; then you will receive twice as much evil for all the good you have done to them. For the Most High also hates sinners and will inflict punishment on the ungodly. Give to the one who is good, but do not help the sinner.
Although withholding aid from an enemy was acceptable and even wise in the minds of some Jewish teachers, Jesus condemned even passive-aggressive expressions of retaliation. He insisted that His disciples should view an enemy’s adversity, not as an opportunity to rub salt in his wounds or kick him while he is down but to express love and generosity.
In a world full of people who constantly seek to get even and are always demanding their rights, Jesus says that those who live in His Kingdom have the right to be wronged.
Nothing has done greater damage to our Christian testimony than our trying to be right and demanding right of others. We become preoccupied with what is and what is not right. We ask ourselves, have we been justly or unjustly treated? And we think thus to vindicate our actions.
But that is not our standard. The whole question for us is one of cross bearing. You asked me, is it right for someone to strike my cheek? I reply, of course not!
But question is, “do you only want to be right?” As Christians our standard of living can never be right or wrong, but the Cross. The principle of the cross is our principle of conduct…’Right and Wrong’ is the principle of the Gentile and tax collectors. My life is to be governed by the principle of the cross and of the perfection of the Father.
If you’re a Christian, learn soon this great spiritual lesson. Do not stand on your rights. The 2nd mile is only typical of the third and the fourth. The cloak is only typical of our possessions. Our time is not our own.
When Jesus died for us on the cross, he did not do it to defend our rights or his. It was Grace that took him there. Now, as his children, we are called to the same life of self-sacrifice and Christ-like service.
In a world full of people who constantly seek to get even and are always demanding their rights, Jesus says that those who live in His Kingdom have the right to be wronged.
