OVERCOMERS – NOT VICTIMS!
Matthew 5:38-48
1. What has been your gut reaction to the recent spate of school shootings we have suffered in Wisconsin, Colorado, and now most recently in the small Amish community of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania where 5 little girls where brutally shot to death?
• How different might be your reaction if those shootings took place here in Morton at the Elementary School across the road or at the Elementary School in Mossyrock?
2. On Thursday I received this email from a very dear friend of mine - a deacon in his church back in South Africa:
• Latest news? Well, I got shot last night driving back from Vryheid after a Biblestudy. A bakkie(small light truck) pulled up next to me - as if it wanted to overtake me - I looked at the lights of the bakkie and the next moment my window exploded and I was hit in my upper arm. A second shot followed which would have killed me - but the bullet ricocheted off the door frame.
I jumped on my brakes - causing them to overtake me - I turned around and headed back for Vryheid (at that moment 8km from Vryheid) - tried to phone our minister and a friend of mine with cell phone but I kept on pressing the wrong buttons.
About 4km from Vryheid I heard shots again - looked back and saw them chasing me without their headlights on. I knew then they were following my lights and I turned my lights off - could still see the road because of the moon. They tried to get in next to me and I knew if they moved in they would kill me - so I bumped them with the back of my bakkie - that scared them off.
I filled up with diesel after Biblestudy - the garage where I filled up has closed-circuit TV - the police can see them following me out of the garage on the video. Three black men in a white Isuzu bakkie.
Went to hospital and learned that I’ve been "lucky" - only flesh wound in upper arm - but we know who guided me through the whole thing - praise the Lord!
Did not sleep much last night - I’m OK and many people phoned and visited us today - baie moeg op die oomblik (very tired at the moment).
• In the light of this and the other incidents I mentioned – how are we to respond to Jesus words to “not resist one who is evil”…and to “turn the other cheek”.? Are we Christians simply to be the mild, gentle, and passive victims of other people’s crazed and deranged brutality? Are we to simply let them treat us as worthless dirt?
• While I don’t posses a gun, my immediate gut reaction on reading that email was that if I had been there with him and had a weapon, I would have willingly emptied it on those human animals.
• And that is a natural, protective human instinct we all have.
• So what exactly is Jesus saying to us and of what relevance is His word to us in a world of increasingly brutal acts of violence, of spousal and child abuse, of unjust law suits, and vagrancy?
3. In this passage Jesus deals with four examples of evil and gives the appropriate disciple’s response:
• an evil person who gives us the insulting, backhanded slap on the right cheek – turn to him the other as well
• the person who sues the shirt off your back – give him your coat as well
• the Roman soldier who had the right to compel you to carry his burden for one mile – carry it an additional mile
• the beggar’s request for a handout – which we generally consider a nuisance - do not refuse him
4. In each of these situations – where we feel our personhood violated, demeaned, or insulted our natural human response is to do what we can to pay the person back in kind – give them some of their own back and often just a bit more “to teach them a lesson” – or to tell them to “go take a hike”.
• In those situations where there is a significant power imbalance – the enemy having the advantage in terms of physical strength, rank, wealth, verbal, intellectual or emotional resources, or social standing – the weaker person suffers humiliation, loss of self-respect, and physical, emotional, and psychological abuse.
• To help prevent the downward spiral of destructive retaliatory behavior, the law in Leviticus stipulated that there could only be retribution equal to the damage that had been done – so “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth”. You were forbidden to knock out 2 teeth or put out both eyes just to teach the other person a lesson.
5. Now I need to underscore here that under no circumstances is Jesus advocating that His disciples become punching bags for evil people – in fact the very opposite is the case. But His response is to say that the way we overcome evil will never be by doing more evil in return. We can only overcome evil with good.
• The backhanded slap on the right cheek was intended to insult and demean a person – to steal their dignity, their self-respect, and their self-worth.
• In addition to beatings, there are many other ways that people are abused by others – verbal insults, false accusations, sarcastic remarks – are all intended to humiliate, belittle us and make us feel worthless.
• The very last thing Jesus would want His people to endure is such dehumanizing behavior. So what He is saying to us by “turning the other cheek” is to surprise our enemy or the abuser by doing something they do not expect.
• It is not normal customary behavior to turn the other cheek to an abuser. What Jesus is saying is “Do the unexpected. Put them on the defensive and let them know that you are the one in charge – not the abuser.” You don’t have to continue being a victim!
6. So how do we do this? How do we turn the tables on an abusive person? How do we surprise them and take the godly initiative? In Romans 12:17-21 Paul writes, “Repay no one evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all…Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God…No, ‘if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head’. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
• What we are saying to the evil person by responding in this way is that we refuse to let their evil behavior determine our response. We are not going to be sucked into the whirlpool of their destructive self-centered behavior. Rather, we are making the choice to respond out of God’s freeing and liberating goodness.
• So a woman who has been physically abused and ill-treated by her husband “turns the other cheek” by doing what he least expects – she calls the cops and lets the brute be taken off to jail and be prosecuted for by so doing she is giving him the message that she will not allow him to devalue and demean her, nor will she allow him to continue dehumanizing himself through his destructive behavior.
• She is also telling him that both she and he were made in the image and likeness of God and God does not want His children treating one another in this way and she is doing what is necessary to stop that process.
7. The same principle applies to those who try to threaten our security or our sense of identity through law suits or other impositions to demean or devalue us. Instead of responding as a victim, which is what they expect - we let them know that our sense of worth and dignity and value is not dependent on the things we have or possess, but in who has claimed us and made us His own – the Lord God Almighty.
• So there is nothing we have that can be taken away – not even our lives - that will threaten us. We are in charge and are therefore free to give as a gift what was not forcibly taken from us.
• It was that knowledge and confidence in his true identity in Christ that inspired Paul to write to the Philippians from a prison cell “I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want. I can do all things in Him who strengthens me.” (4:11-13)
8. What about those in power who impose on your time and your energy and make additional, inconvenient and unreasonable demands on you?
• When we fuss and fume, grumble and groan over the assignment then we have allowed ourselves to be placed in the role of victim.
• We demonstrate that our time and our resources belong to God and that we are in control – not they - when we surprise them by going above and beyond what they demanded of us.
9. God’s people are the most generous and magnanimous in the world because we have ourselves been the undeserving recipients of God’s goodness and mercy. We give because He first gave to us.
• So we are those who reach out to help and assist the hurting, the downtrodden, the less fortunate. We don’t have much of a problem with those.
• But how do we handle those who impose on our generosity – who expect, who demand, and who we know will misuse and abuse what is given them to serve their destructive habits – the professional beggars and deceivers - those who prefer living off a handout rather than taking hold of a handup?
• I believe that the good and upright thing is to give them nothing and not allow them to continue in their deception of others and particularly of themselves. We are not helpful, we are not kind when we get sucked into and play along with their victim game. So Paul writes in his second letter to the Thessalonians 3:10 “If anyone will not work, let him not eat”.
• We respond in this unexpected way not out of disdain for such an individual but because we care and refuse to participate in their cycle of self-demeaning and dehumanizing behavior.
• The moment such a person gives some hard evidence that they truly are ready to make a change and start being responsible for their behavior – being ready to undergo a rehab /recovery process – we can be there boots and all to assist and encourage.
10. So the lesson I believe God would leave with us from this Scripture today is this: Evil is never overcome by more evil nor by playing into the power and victim games that others would use to entrap us.
• Evil is only overcome by goodness that lets those who would abuse us and take advantage of us know that we are safe and secure in the knowledge of who and whose we are and that we will remain in control of how we choose to respond.
• We communicate our faith and trust in God and our belief that He has made us and our enemies in His image and we will also not allow them to treat us with less respect than that nature deserves – neither will we participate in their efforts to dehumanize and devalue themselves.
• What a freedom – what a liberty this gives the children of God!
• No one took Jesus’ life from Him – He willingly and freely gave it up for you and for me. Throughout His entire crucifixion ordeal He was never a helpless victim. When Pontius Pilate said to Him “Do you not know that I have power to release you, and power to crucify you?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no power over me unless it had been given you from above…” (John 19:10-11)
• Even as He hung on the cross, with His hands and His feet nailed to the beams, as He breathed His last, Jesus said “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit”. (Luke 23:46). He was in control from start to finish.
• That same freedom, that same control - irrespective of what others may say or do to you or however they may treat you – is your blessed inheritance as a disciple of Christ and a son and daughter of the Most High God. Never, ever forget it.
AMEN.
