Can we be perfect?

Text: Matthew 5:38-48

Focus: “Just” righteousness

Function: to help people love sacrificially as Jesus wants us to love.

³⁸“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ ³⁹But I say to you: Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also, ⁴⁰and if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, give your coat as well, ⁴¹and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. ⁴²Give to the one who asks of you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.

⁴³“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous. ⁴⁶For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? ⁴⁷And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the gentiles do the same? ⁴⁸Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

This is a passage about personal justice and grievance in the face of attack or oppression. You hear me refer in many ways to the way that Jesus died and the way that He forgave His enemies on the cross and the example for living that this should be for us.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus lays out practical examples of what was meant in the law when it said to love our neighbor as ourselves.

We saw last week how our righteousness must exceed that of the Religious professionals and then we saw how righteousness ties in to our actions of doing justice.

Today we are faced with the question of how can we be perfect? Or more importantly, can we be perfect?

And of course, behind that is what is meant by the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to transform us into the people of peace that Jesus has called us to be.

So, again, if you don’t mind, let us break down the passage into its component parts.

He starts out with the concept of turning the other cheek.

This is a radical concept. It means that we hand over the justice deserved to us to God who will in the end give to each man and woman rewards according to the way they have lived their lives here on earth.

But it isn’t a sign of weakness for two reasons.

The first one is that restraint during provocation takes great internal discipline. And, again, I believe that this happens in the power of the Holy Spirit who promises to give us what we need in time of crisis.

Simply stated, God tells us to “be the bigger man or woman” in the conflict situation.

Remember, the goal of the Holy Spirit in the world is to bring reconciliation between God and humanity and human beings with each other.

But the second reason why it isn’t weakness is profound. It is the meekness of passive resistance as compared to weakness. The purpose of turning the other cheek is to shame the abuser into doing the right thing.

It might help to know that for sanitary reasons, people had the “mud hand” and the clean hand. The left hand was the mud hand and it was used primarily when filthy tasks were required. One didn’t shake with the left hand because, again, it wasn’t clean.

The slap that is indicated here is a reprimand from an authority figure to a subordinate. It isn’t a conflict, but a condemnation by a boss or a slave owner, or a person of authority.

It happened often to the Jewish people by those in power because they were subjugated to the Roman authorities and their collaborators.

It was a symbol of oppression.

Walter Wink pointed out that if one turned the other cheek, it forced the person to slap them again with the left hand, the mud hand, and that was a shame to the person doing the slapping.

The same with the extra mile. A Roman soldier on a journey could compel anyone they wanted to to carry their luggage for one mile to help them on their journey. Imagine a farmer plowing his fields with his livestock and along the road he is forced to give up his labor to aid the journeys of the ones who are making them so poor with their extreme taxation. Going the extra mile kept the oppressor from gloating over his position.

Giving the second garment when sued left the person naked. And again forcing a poor person to be naked by taking their clothes shamed the oppressor as well.

Jesus explained to them how to take the power away from the oppressor by serving them. It shamed the oppressor into stopping the behavior. Martin Luther King Jr taught Jesus’ principles passive resistance, resistance without violence, as a way to gain justice. He was following the work of Jesus which is to break down the barriers between the races.

And he did it with a just peace. During the civil rights era I heard the phrase: “If they just knew their place…” and I realized something. Those who said that wanted peace, but not justice.

As long as racism exists, Christ has called us to be different than racists and love our enemies. Jesus shows us how to sometimes make them into friends.

As we have seen, to follow Christ who was murdered for His stand on justice is to stand against injustice ourselves.

Then the passage shifts gears to comparisons between unbelievers and those who claim to follow God. Jesus calls the others the tax collectors and gentiles.

We are all gentiles here and Jesus isn’t condemning a race of people simply because of their race. He is speaking of people who are not enlightened by the just requirements of the law which is to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves.

And He is telling us to go beyond what unloving people do and love others despite the way they treat you.

If we are simply living with an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth retaliation, then we are not living as the people of the Kingdom of God.

And finally, we get to the last verse, where He commands us to be perfect as God is perfect.

I really wrestled with this when I was a teenager.

I didn’t understand how the word perfect should be interpreted. I thought that if Jesus commanded it, then it must be possible. And if it was possible, then any failure was a sure enough ticket to hell.

But the word for perfect here is telios. It literally means: “At the end.” It is probably better translated as complete or mature. Finished.

And remember, the point of the sermon on the mount is to give us examples of what Godly living looks like so that we can be complete in the Kingdom of God.

You cannot be perfect, only Jesus is. But we can let the Spirit guide us into maturity in our faith and learn the ways of peace so that people can see the love of God inside of us for them.