In His Steps

Text: Matthew 5:38-48

Focus: Non-resistance

Function: To help people learn how to reconcile

Form: Exegetical

Intro:

“In His Steps” by Charles Sheldon.

• 18^th century novel about what would happen if reacted like Jesus would.
• Some good stuff, spawned WWJD bracelet.
• At local Christian bookstore, BIG sign with torn bracelet offering no refund if cut
• WWJD?
• I think that question got answered with too many legalistic responses
• John 3:17, God did not send His son...
• In the steps of Jesus is simple
• Redemption. He came to redeem.

This passage is about restoration. It represents what theologians call Jesus' Third Way of reacting to violent or oppressive situations.

Don't just "take it;" don't react with violence but seek a creative solution that just might restore both the victim and the perpetrator.

In Jesus' steps, He tells us some more of His way in this passage: Love your enemy, turn the other cheek, pray for those who persecute you, love those who do not love us, go the extra mile, give to who asks of you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

Tough words, but good ones.

So, if you don't mind, I am going to do a little exegetical word study here, so that we can be true to God's Word.

Do Not Resist the evil person explained

• Seen “The Witness” with Harrison Ford?
  • A Cop hiding among Amish
  • Amish boys being beaten up because of “resist not the evil”
  • Ford decks this guy
  • We want to shout “all right!”
• It begs the question “is that scripture taken too far?”
• Jesus resisted evil. He wasn't weak.
  • You snakes, brood of vipers
  • Twice He overturned the money tables.
  • He preached “Blessed are the meek”
    • However, He did not preach “Blessed are the weak.”
    • Weakness is not spirituality.
    • Sometimes we might have confused it.
• It doesn't mean for us to stand by idly and accept violence.
• The word is antistani, literally anti -don't and stanai -stand against.
• Walter Wink explains it well and a lot of material for this sermon comes from him.
• The article is titled “Jesus' Third way.”
• The use of the word Stainai, stand against, was a military term referring to violent reaction. It is the word for warfare used by the translators of the Greek OT, which was the common bible used by people in Jesus' time.
• The only time in the NT we are given the word stanai as a command is in Eph 6:13,14 when we are equipped for spiritual warfare.
• This instance means do not react with violence.
• No eye for eye, no tooth for tooth. Don't hit back.

It works.

• Growing up, I was not allowed to hit back.
• We weren't allowed to play with toy guns and imagine shooting another person.
• Being raised in a non-resistance tradition, kids soon figured it out that they could pick on me.
• In Junior High, there was the big bully, twice the size of every other kid and mean as a trapped wildcat.
• He and his cronies decided that every boy in shop class were going to bow down on their knees and worship him.
• I managed to avoid him for a few weeks, but finally I was caught and was forced to stand before him.
• I told him that he could do his worse, but I was only going to bow to Jesus Christ.
• He raised his fist and then God took over and he shook my hand.

The point is, Jesus wasn't teaching people to be weak and spineless.

• It is the opposite.
• He is teaching non-violent resistance.

In context of Roman occupation.

• Two groups oppressed the commoner.
  • Romans themselves
    • compel to go the extra mile.
    • The value of life of a Jew was less than the value of the life of a Roman.
    • Kind of similar to the way slaves were and then sometimes black people are treated in the Americas.
  • Roman collaborators exploited the poor.
    • Virtual serfdom/feudal system
    • Because of the taxation system
  • Slave/servile relationship

Turn other cheek visually explained

• Invite a youth up front to backhand slap me.
  • Right hand slaps right cheek.
  • Invite youth to fake punch me with right hand.
  • Punch lands on left cheek.
  • Unequal landing zones (IMPORTANT)
• These gestures are highly symbolic.
• Equals throw punches.
  • Slaps indicate that the person's caste, or class was inferior.
  • To punch meant that person was an equal.
• This refers to a slap
  • Now demonstrate what happens with the backhand slap when I turn my face.
  • He is either forced to slap my nose, or switch hands.
• But no one ever slapped with the left hand.
  • The Jewish laws of purity called for a “clean hand” and a “soiled hand.”
  • I don't want to get to technical, or gross, but suffice it to say we accomplish the same thing with the sign that says “employees must was hands” at the exit to a public bathroom.
  • You get the picture.
  • Decent people would not slap others with their left hand.
• Turning the cheek was a creative way of demonstrating to the oppressor the impropriety of their actions.
• It was a way of resisting without violence.

Giving your coat as well.

• Remember how the Jews were oppressed both by the Romans and the Jewish collaborators?
• The taxation system literally forced people to give everything, everything, even their land to the Jews who collaborated with Rome causing a feudal system that left the commoner destitute.
• Those taking advantage of the taxation system confiscated their goods, then their lands, and finally, their shirt.
• Jesus told them to give them their outer garments as well.
• This would leave the person naked.
  • This was the last straw, the last stop, the last thing the debtor had to pay. After this, they were completely destitute.
• And the shame of leaving someone naked did not rest on the naked person, but the one who caused it.
• Another form of non-violent resistance.
• Imagine the debtor leaving court naked.
• The indignant crowd, upon finding out that the creditor has caused this joins their procession.
• The entire system that oppresses the debtor, stripping them of everything they own is now publicly unmasked for the evil that it creates.
• Both the OT and NT command us to lend and not expect repayment

Go extra mile

• I hope you learned about this in Sunday School somewhere.
• The Roman soldier could conscript anyone to carry their pack one mile.
• The Soldiers conscripted Simon the Cyrene to carry Jesus' cross.
• Jesus told us to go the extra mile and carry it two.
• Now, it was illegal for Roman Soldier to force a conscript to go two miles.
• It put him in an awkward position.
• But Jesus isn't trying to get the soldier in trouble.
• Instead, He is telling people to take back the power exercised over them.
• The Soldier's right to conscript was a good way for the Romans to remind the people that they were slaves to this empire.
• It ground the heel of their boots onto the heads of the Jewish commoner.
• Carrying the pack two miles took the power back, because the lesser is blessed by the greater.
• It was a passive way of resisting that brought dignity to the oppressed and exposed the evil inherent in the system.

Jesus wasn't telling them to be weak. But He is explaining meekness with dignity.

They had a call to stand up for what is right, but without violence.

His goal is the salvation of both.

We have a call to show the love of Jesus, but we do not have a command to let the uncompromising love of Jesus be confused with merely being nice.

So what about this?

Is not a political principle for insurrection or a call to a different way of living?

It's not politics. We believe that it is a call to a different way of living.

I can prove that.

There is an HUGE caution in this text.

Both Matthew and Luke include the rest of today's text in this story.

You have heard it was said “love your friends and hate your enemy...” That's politics. “...but I say... ...Love your enemies... ...Pray for those who persecute you...”

Jesus is telling us an important component to all this.

You see, we are not to act this way to vindicate ourselves, or to humiliate an enemy.

No, we are to love them.

Jesus is preaching to an oppressed people and He commands them to love their oppressors.

Here is the beauty of God's love.

He loves everyone with no exception.

The oppressor is certainly an enemy and Jesus command is to love them.

Pray for them, Bless them.

He reminds them that God pours love on them as well as us.

I wish you could meet Sister Jeannette.

She is one of my all time favorite parishioners.

She is an 84 year old black woman who marched with the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr in the 60's.

She is one of the strongest, most kind, most generous people I have ever met.

But she isn't a weakling.

We were sitting together in a hospital waiting for the results from one of her husband's surgeries.

And right there, in front of me, we experienced the painful result of racial prejudice.

And she smiled.

I watched her close her eyes for a moment and I saw her lips quiver, not in fear, but in faith.

She was praying!

I was angry on her behalf.

“Jeanette,” I said, “how can you take this kind of treatment.”

She gave me permission to share this, she wants it told: She said: “Pastor, we learned a long time ago to trust Jesus. It is our gentle and Christian response in the face of prejudice that has melted the hearts of our enemies. God loves our enemies.”

Jesus point is not shame and humiliation, or personal vindication in our own minds, but love toward our enemies as well as us.

Jesus loves the oppressed and the oppressor. He loves the rich and the poor. He loves the weak and the strong. He loves the lazy and the industrious. He loves the fortunate and the unfortunate.

He is about redeeming humanity.

And in this passage He gives us a third way to love, to love even our enemy.

We are called to live in His steps. In His steps of redemption.

It begins with our own personal redemption.

It changes everything in our own lives.

Are you redeemed?