Games People Play: “Battleship”
Matthew 5:21-26, 38-48
INTRODUCTION: Do you remember the game "Battleship"? The object of the game is to insert pegs blindly on a game board until you "sink" your opponent’s "fleet."
Battleship is a game of hiding and attacking. So many of our relationships are just like this game. We hide our vulnerability rather than risk being attacked, and when attacked, we are quick to launch our torpedoes, especially when angry or when we’ve been mistreated. We think to ourselves, “if I can just take out their battleship before mine goes down, then I’ll be safe.”
Jesus says that righteousness is not about rule keeping--it is about our relationships. And a right relationship with God shows in the way we relate to people. Like all good preachers, Jesus used examples to drive home his point. He gave case studies to show that his kind of righteousness has nothing to do with rule keeping.
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus affirmed God’s Old Testament law, but went on to say that it was being fulfilled in him! With astonishing authority, Jesus launches into what are known as “The Six Antitheses.” These antitheses each occur with the formula “You’ve heard it said … but I say …” All six address relationships, and today we’re going to look at three that help us understand how to relate to others.
[READ MATTHEW 5:21-26]
I. DON’T GET MAD--GET RIGHTEOUS (21-26)
A. Jesus wants us to deal decisively with anger, and he makes this point with two examples.
1. First, he envisions a worshipper whom he calls to reconcile before offering a sacrifice. God is more interested in right relationships than right rituals.
2. Second, he pictures an out-of-court settlement between litigants. He says don’t go to court, settle up. Don’t get mad—get righteous.
3. ILLUSTRATION: One defining moment in John Grisham’s spiritual journey came several years after graduating from Mississippi State University, when one of his classmates in law school told John he was terminally ill. Grisham asked him: "What do you do when you realize you are about to die?" The friend replied, "It’s real simple. You get things right with God, and you spend as much time with those you love as you can. Then you settle up with everybody else."
B. Our responsibility under the commandment is not to murder anyone, but our responsibility under Jesus’ interpretation of the commandment is to love everyone. Don’t get mad—get righteous.
II. DON’T GET EVEN--GET RIGHTEOUS [READ vv. 38-42]
A. ILLUSTRATION: Donald Drusky took God to court. The one-time employee of USX Corporation blamed God for failing to rectify the wrong done to him when he was fired in 1968. Drusky waged a 30-year battle with the steelmaker, before deciding to take legal action against God. The suit reads:
“The defendant, God, is the sovereign ruler of the universe and took no corrective action against the leaders of his church and his nation for their extremely serious wrongs, which ruined the life of Donald S. Drusky.
For damages, Drusky asked for the return of his youth, the skill of a great guitarist, and the resurrections of his mother and pet pigeon.” Drusky hoped that God would fail to appear in court, allowing him to win the case by default. Drusky’s case was declared frivolous and thrown out by a Syracuse court.
B. The “eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth” law is found three times in the OT. Two things to remember about this law:
1. First, while prescriptive, it was also restrictive.
a. It was an excellent tool for eliminating blood feuds and inter-tribal warfare.
b. If someone puts out my brother’s eye, I’m not justified in cutting off that person’s head.
c. So violence doesn’t escalate, and matters are put to rest.
2. Second, the law was given to the Jewish people as a nation. It was not designed to be discharged by individuals on personal vendettas, but by the judicial authorities.
3. ILLUSTRATION: Ibn Saud, king of Saudi Arabia from 1932-1953, once had a woman come to him and demand the death of a man who had dilled her husband. The man had been picking dates from a palm tree when he accidentally fell, hitting the woman’s husband and fatally injuring him. Although the king tried to persuade the woman not to pursue her rights, she insisted on them. Finally, the king said, “It is your right to ask for this man’s life, but it is my right to decree how he shall die. You shall take this man with you immediately, and he shall be tied to the foot of a palm tree. Then you yourself shall climb to the top of the tree and cast yourself down upon him from that height. In that way you will take his life as he took your husband’s.” The woman quickly changed her mind, realizing that in following the letter of the law and demanding her rights, she might lose her life.
C. In demanding our rights, we often lose the right to real life, the kind that comes to those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. Out of a relationship with Jesus comes a new relationship with other people. It is a relationship that comes out of meekness, mercy, and purity of heart. It’s a relationship that seeks to make peace.
D. Jesus’ requires his followers to act more generously than what the letter of the law demanded. In these four examples, he stresses the need to decisively break the chain of evil action and reaction that characterizes human relationships.
1. Striking a person on the right cheek was a characteristic Jewish form of insult. Jesus tells us not to trade such insults even if it means receiving more. When people hurl insults at us, we are to respond in grace.
a. Jesus was talking about insults, not muggers on the subway.
b. In no sense does v.39 require Christ followers to subject ourselves or others to physical danger or abuse, nor does it bear directly on the pacifism-just war debate. (40-41 are clearly limited to legal contexts.)
2. The second concerns a lawsuit in which a man is likely to lose his shirt (tunic). Jesus says to throw in your cloak as well, even though this latter garment was recognized by Jewish law to be an inalienable possession.
a. While it is unlikely that a lawsuit would be fought over a suit of clothes, what is at stake here is a principle. Even those things we regard as our rights by law we must be prepared to abandon.
b. In another context, Paul insists that followers of Jesus will prefer to be wronged rather than sue another Christ follower (I Cor. 6:7).
3. The third refers to the Roman practice of commandeering civilians. Under Roman law, a soldier could compel a civilian to carry something for one mile. Jews would commonly count each step and go no further. Jesus’ followers are not to be irritable, but are to “go the extra mile” and accept the imposition cheerfully.
4. Jesus’ last example demands giving and lending that is cheerful and willing, generous and openhanded. The issue is not the wisdom or foolishness of lending money to everyone who comes along. The burden is this: Christ will not tolerate a tight-fisted mercenary attitude toward money which is the financial counterpart to “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” Don’t be asking yourself all the time, “What’s in it for me? What can I get out of it?”
E. Americans have always made much of our rights—life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. What Jesus is saying in these verses, more than anything else, is that his followers have no rights.
1. We do not have the right to retaliate (39).
2. We do not have the right to our possessions (40).
3. We do not have the right to our time and money (41).
Love replaces retaliation, for this is the way the Savior himself went. It’s the way of the cross. And the way of the cross is to be our code of conduct. Instead of being right, we are to be righteous. Don’t get even—get righteous.
III. DON’T GIVE IN--GET RIGHTEOUS [READ vv. 43-48]
A. ILLUSTRATION: Ramon Narvaez, a 19th-century prime minister of Spain, was dying and was asked by a priest, “Does Your Excellency forgive all your enemies?” “I do not have to forgive my enemies,” replied Narvaez. “I have had them all shot.”
B. Again Jesus enunciates a more demanding ethic. Christians must love their enemies. Otherwise they are no different from tax collectors and pagans, two groups classically despised by orthodox Jews.
1. Instead of tax collectors, we might substitute “the Mafia.”
2. Almost all people look after their own. The true test of living & loving like Jesus is how we treat those we are naturally inclined to hate or who mistreat or persecuteus.
3. People who so love and show kindness to their enemies and pray for their persecutors prove themselves to be those who are growing in conformity to the likeness of their heavenly Father.
4. To love them and to pray for them is an important part of being a child of the heavenly Father. God loves them too, so much so that He sent His Son. If we are His, we will have His character.
5. Nowhere is this amazing attitude more explicit than in Jesus himself, who, while suffering the unjust agony of the cross, cried, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” In the light of such a standard, it will not do merely to love one’s friends and let it go at that. “If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Aren’t even the Mafia doing that?”
C. ILLUSTRATION: In his sermon "Loving Your Enemies," Martin Luther King, Jr., said:
When Abraham Lincoln was running for president of the United States, there was a man who ran all around the country talking about Lincoln, Edwin Stanton. He said a lot of unkind things, that Lincoln had “not one token of understanding.” And sometimes he would get to the point that he would even talk about his looks, saying Lincoln looked like a giraffe.
Finally, one day Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States. Then came the time for him to choose a secretary of war. He looked across the nation, and decided to choose Edwin Stanton. And when Abraham Lincoln stood around his advisors and mentioned this fact, they said to him: "Mr. Lincoln, are you a fool? Do you know what Mr. Stanton has been saying about you? Do you know what he as done, tried to do to you? Do you know that he has tried to defeat you on every hand? Do you know that, Mr. Lincoln? Did you read all of those derogatory statements that he made about you?"
Abraham Lincoln stood before the advisors around him and said: "Oh yeah. I know about it; I read about it; I’ve heard him myself. But after looking over the country, I find that he is the best man for the job … and often correct in his judgments.”
Stanton did become secretary of war; and later grew to respect Lincoln. If you go to Washington, you will discover that one of the greatest words or statements ever made about Abraham Lincoln was by Edwin Stanton. After Abraham Lincoln had been assassinated, Stanton stood up and said: "Now he belongs to the ages." And he made a beautiful statement concerning the character and the stature of this man. He made a point to visit Lincoln’s son Robert every day, and they wept together.
If Abraham Lincoln had hated Stanton, if Abraham Lincoln had answered everything Stanton said, Abraham Lincoln would not have transformed and redeemed Stanton. Stanton would have gone to his grave hating Lincoln, and Lincoln would have gone to his grave hating Stanton. But through the power of love Abraham Lincoln was able to redeem Stanton.
D. Jesus closes with a command that may equally summarize all six antitheses. “Perfect” here is better translated as “mature” or “whole,” characterized by righteous love. Jesus is not frustrating his hearers with an unachievable ideal but challenging them to grow in obedience to God’s will—to become more like Him. Sinless perfection is impossible, but godliness, biblically defined, is attainable.
1. Michael Jordan was the “perfect” basketball player. Not that he never missed a shot or never turned the ball over, but that he set the standard.
2. APPLICATION: Enemies in the workplace
CONCLUSION: Here, Jesus says in effect, give up your fleet’s location—turn your board around. Here are my ships. See this one? You hit that one, and it hurt. Oh, but you’ve had some of your ships sink? Here, have one of mine. It’s okay, take it. You need it more than I do.
I have to confess my own failures in this area—I like to get mad, to get even, to give in to that. But Jesus calls me to something higher:
QUOTE: Kent Keith in "The Silent Revolution":
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered. Love them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Be good anyway.
Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway.
People need help but may attack you if you try to help them. Help them anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
[PLAY SONG Black Eyed Peas: “Where is the love?”]
