Sermon on the Mount (Part 8)

in Proverbs later on, Matthew right now.

Matthew chapter 5 we'll be reading verses 38 through 42 this morning.

This will be our next to last lesson out of the Sermon on the Mount for chapter 5, and as the

Lord wills we'll come back to this Sermon on the Mount next summer session due chapters 6 and 7.

So the goal of this year has been just the introduction of the Sermon on the

Mount and working through the Beatitudes, and then working through the critical portion of verses 17 through 20 that gives us the interpretation of the sermon, but also a important way of reading the whole

Bible. And then we've been looking at the antitheses that start in verse 21 and go all the way through the end of the chapter, the pattern in which

Jesus says, you have heard it said, but I say to you. And so we are working our way through those six antitheses, and we've come to verses 38 through 42.

So let's begin with a word of prayer, and then we'll read our portion of God's Word. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this morning, and we thank you for your generosity towards us.

We thank you for your grace in our lives. We thank you for the mercy that you show us, and we thank you that you have not left us to ourselves or on our own, and that you have not deigned to leave us to wander about in the dark, but you, in your mercy, and your grace, and in your love, you have sent us your

Son, Jesus Christ, as the light of the world. And he has come that we may, by his light, see everything correctly, to see everything rightly.

And we thank you for his words here. We thank you for this sermon. We thank you for the reminder of who you are, and who we are, that you are the

Creator, and we are your creatures. And we pray that you would help us to rejoice in your wisdom and your truth today, that you would have your way in our hearts by your

Word. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, Matthew chapter 5, beginning in verse 38.

You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.

But I tell you not to resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.

If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.

And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away.

Now, this antithesis and its application have a thematic connection to the first antithesis, the one about murder, and also to the last, where we're going to continue thinking about what it means to love our enemies.

And this is a passage that I think is very famous and also often very difficult to apply consistently.

We often are a bit in perplexity about how this is actually supposed to go.

But let's first of all think about the old saying. Let's think about the old saying, because we need to think about what

Jesus is summarizing, what Jesus is quoting. I think that this antithesis, more than some of the others, is often referenced so as to install opposition between Christ and the

Old Testament. Someone wants to say that what Jesus taught was antagonistic to the

Old Testament, that He was truly correcting and contradicting

Moses. This is one of those places that people may point to and say,

I don't see how both halves of the Bible or both parts of the Bible really get along when you see this stark contrast.

Whereas earlier you might say, well, I can see how it's consistent to say, do not murder and also do not hate.

People could say, oh, I see a consistency there. I see a kind of progression there that makes sense to me.

But here it sounds to be polar opposites, and so I think it helps us to, first of all, go back and think about what it is that Jesus is talking about.

Now, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, when you hear that saying, what tends to come to mind?

Yeah, justice, punishment, seems to be a, yeah, a punishment that befits the crime.

But it's also quoted, isn't it? Kurt mentions revenge. Often when it is personally appropriated as, this is my personal approach, then when that eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth is individualized, it becomes revenge.

Whereas if it's in the hands of the proper authorities, we would say that's justice.

When it's taken into the personal hands, we call that revenge. Okay, so in Exodus chapter 21 and then in the same neighborhood,

Leviticus 24 and Deuteronomy 19, we have the background to what

Jesus is saying. You have heard that it was said. And in this, he is summarizing these Old Testament passages.

So in Exodus 21, beginning in verse 23, and this is where Moses is saying, what happens if there's a fight and a pregnant woman is harmed so that there is harm to the baby?

The harm to the baby is as harm to any other human being.

Full personhood in the womb. Very important passage for ethics in the

Bible. But when we read this eye for eye, tooth for tooth passage, it's being applied to that.

Even babies inside the womb get full dignity, full personhood.

Okay, so in verse 23, it says, but if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

That's very thorough, isn't it? Now, the same is said in Leviticus 24.

These are a sample of a philosophy of judgment known as lex talionis.

And so, it's the law to the measure. Whatever the measure is of the offense, that is the measure of the punishment.

Okay? And so, in verse 19 of Leviticus 24, if a man causes disfigurement of his neighbor as he has done, so it shall be done to him.

Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. As he has caused disfigurement of a man, so it shall be done to him.

And the same is said in Deuteronomy 19 and verse 21.

You come across these passages when you read through the Bible. When we read them in this manner, side by side, in various places in the

Mosaic books, we are reminded of what a fundamental principle it is for their system of justice.

Verse 21 of Deuteronomy 19, your eye shall not pity.

This is the instructions to those in charge of their justice system.

Your eye shall not pity. Right? This is a good reminder that if justice is going to be justice, pity doesn't come into it.

Mercy has no parlay with justice if justice is going to be just. Fairness is fair and pity has no place in fairness.

Now, that's a little bit of a foreign concept to a lot of people today. They think that mercy and pity should be the standard.

But we forget what justice is. Verse 21, your eye shall not pity.

Life shall be for life. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.

Now, a great deal of thought has gone into society building in an age of greater minds than ours.

And when it came to establishing the justice system in the American Republic, there was a lot of thought put into what would be a wise crossover from scriptures to employ in our own justice system.

And one of those things is that there's a blindfold around the head of justice. Why is justice blindfolded?

Not taking sides. Because the instructions that we have in the scriptures to the judges and to the elders were, you know, you shouldn't side with the rich because they're rich, and you're hoping to get something out of it.

And you shouldn't side with the poor because they're poor, and then you can get popular opinion on your side.

They were specifically instructed to give no thought to the extenuating circumstances and all of the, you know, it didn't matter what color their skin was, it didn't matter where they were from, didn't matter all that, they were just supposed to have what is the issue at hand, kind of a blind justice.

Pity doesn't come into it. And so we have this very rich history as background that Jesus is working with, and he's saying you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and tooth for tooth.

Now, in this, Jesus is not saying I'm against justice, okay, because he's going to qualify how this is being used and how it's being misapplied.

But it's important to remember that this idea of justice did not start at Mount Sinai.

The idea of justice starts with God. God is the creator.

He's the one who says what right and wrong is. And in Genesis 2, verses 16 through 17,

God told Adam, out of all the trees of the garden you may freely eat, but the tree of the knowledge, the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you may not eat, for the day that you eat of it you will surely die.

And so what God says there is, I made all this, I made you, I'm the one who sets the rules, here's what you are encouraged to do and allowed to do, here's what you must not do, and if you sin against me, if you disobey my instructions, here is the fitting punishment that comes for sin, which is death.

The wages of sin is death. And when

Adam and Eve sinned against God, He sent them out of the garden, saying,

Behold, man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil. So lest he stretch out his hand and take up the tree of the knowledge of the tree of life and live forever.

And so he banishes Adam and Eve from the garden, puts his cherubim at that entrance that faces the east, and the cherubim with a flaming sword that turned every which way to guard the path to the tree of life.

And what God was saying was this, man has become like one of us, not experiencing good and evil as if God dabbled in evil to know what it was like, no, knowing in the objective sense, meaning man has determined that he will say what the good and evil is going to be.

Man has decided to know or define in an objective sense. Man has decided, I will say for myself what is good.

I will say for myself what is evil. And when man begins to say, I'm more wise than God, I will say what is good and evil.

There's no fellowship anymore with God. When a man says, I'm going to live my own life by my own rules, that's death.

Separated from the life giver, the Creator who made all things. And so man doesn't get to decide, we don't get to decide for ourselves what is good and what is evil, because we're made in God's image.

So he gets to decide. He gets to say what is good and evil, and he gets to say what is justice. So we have to tune our ears in to what

God has to say is right and wrong, and what he says about justice, and we can tell from the very beginning of our story, the very beginning of history, that God is going to be just, that God is going to judge, and God is going to do right.

The God, the Creator of all the earth, he will do right. The judge of all the earth, as Abraham said, he will do what is right.

We have to have that confidence before we can continue on in this text. If we're not confident that God can handle justice and judgment without us, we may think that we need to help

God out, right? We may think we need to take a tree of the knowledge of good and evil and correct

God about some matters, and we don't want to do that. Now, there was a story in Genesis 4 that is very interesting and compelling.

It's a story in which a descendant from Cain named Lamech boasts to his wives, plural, that was not supposed to happen,

Ada and Zillah. Lamech boasts to Ada and Zillah that he has been insulted by a man, and so he wounded him, and this man wounded him, and so then he killed him.

Right? So what do you hear about that? You hear, you approach me and do something against me at this level.

I respond with a far greater level. You respond to me at that level.

I accelerate even more, right? And he boasts about this.

He was very proud about this, and when we read in Genesis 6, we see that it wasn't just Lamech, but the whole earth was filled with this cycle of sexual immorality, polygamy, and violence, and that this filled up the earth, but God responded with justice.

Man filled up the earth with violence, so God filled up the earth with water, and the murderers died, and the adulterers died, and then

God said to Noah in his covenant with Noah, here's how you're going to handle murder from now on.

Capital punishment. If a man sheds another man's blood, by man, that murderer, that man, his blood will be shed.

God says, I have laid down this system of justice, the right, the fitting sentence, the fitting punishment for the crime.

I'm establishing this for you, for your good, and by the way, all of you deserve to die.

Genesis 8 says, all of you, all mankind, his heart is evil continually, even from his youth, and so God says, really, all mankind deserves me to flood the earth all over again, but here's what's going to happen.

I'm going to keep the seasons going. I'm going to keep this earth going. I'm going to promise that this earth will continue. I'm not going to destroy it again, and then he says, here's a sign, here's a rainbow.

So, man, you pursue justice in the pattern that I have set, and all the while you're pursuing justice, remember, you're doing it underneath my rainbow, and the rainbow says, all of us deserve death before the face of God, but in his long -suffering, in his grace, he has continued, sovereignly continued and preserved humankind on this planet to continue on, because he wanted it that way, and so even while we turn our attention to the difficult business of justice, we always do it underneath God's rainbow, and we remember what we all deserve.

So, I think that that's an important context. I think it's an important context because Jesus is going to bring up the

Noahic Covenant and the rainbow in the next passage, so we should kind of head in that way.

Yes, Joe? Yeah, so Joe's reading my notes.

Joe, you got to stop doing that. You're reading my notes again, and, but Joe makes an excellent transitional statement.

When you're in, when you're in seminary, they teach you about how to write sermons, and then when you go from one point to the next, you're supposed to have some sort of transitional statement to help people, you know, compile the thoughts from this area so we can safely get it over to the next area and build on it, and Joe just did that so well for us, so I appreciate that,

Joe. I didn't actually have a transitional statement put down, so I appreciate that, and that is the case, isn't it, because when

Jesus begins giving the examples, you go from something that seems awfully criminal, felonious, as he says, to something that seems a bit personal, like personal insults or issues that very much burden the individual, but doesn't seem to be an issue that all society has to bear as a matter of justice, so we see this in his examples.

It seems to change the tone a little bit from what we are reading in Exodus, and so in this, we're being told about the focus that Jesus is bringing in this instruction, because our craving for justice, which is a good thing, look, we were made in God's image, and so we desire...

the worship switch is hardwired on, we all worship, no matter who it is, what they say, we all are worshipers, we're all theologians, some level, we all have thoughts about God, at some level, and we all desire justice.

If you get kids getting pushed down on the playground, cry out for justice, okay, minor offenses in the workplace, rankle us, where's the justice?

We all have that desire because we're made in God's image, but our craving for justice in our sin and our self -centeredness is often easily co -opted into personal vengeance, and often this is because of impatience or unbelief or just plain pride.

Now, Jesus is here not advocating for an abandonment of justice.

He is not saying that society ought not to punish evildoers, and we know that by two ways.

One of it is the examples that we're about to read, how he begins to apply this in his new saying, but also we know he's not denying the role of a justice system from his own teachings.

Even in the context, he mentions it wisely, saying to his audience, you know, you ought to agree with your adversary quickly, verse 25, while you're on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you'd be thrown into prison.

Assuredly, I say to you, you will by no means get out of there till you have paid the last penny. Now, I think he's poking at how their current justice system was corrupted by all manner of greed.

I know that's kind of hard to believe that a justice system would be corrupted by greed and just come down to paying fines and keeping it going, but that was what it was in his day, you know, and Jesus's point was not, go burn down the jail.

His point was, know what you're dealing with. Have wisdom. Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

Now, also, we know that Jesus, when he was talking to the members of the

Sanhedrin, he didn't say you have no role at all. He's saying you're doing it wrong, right, and you have responsibility to do it right.

He wasn't saying you should be non -existent as a governing body, but he was saying you ought to do it righteously.

He told Pilate you would have no authority except that God gave you that authority.

So he wasn't saying, Pilate, you have no authority at all. He was saying the authority you do have comes from God, and you ought to recognize that when you're giving these rulings and dealing with these things.

So Jesus is not saying that justice in and of itself is bad, that eye for eye or tooth for tooth should be totally ignored.

He begins to give some particular applications here. So we see this new saying, but I tell you not to resist an evil person.

Now, what that means, it has to be carried out by the examples, and he gives four examples.

So we're not left like misunderstanding what he's saying, but it's worth clarifying when

Jesus says, but I say to you do not resist an evil person, he is not saying be a friend of evil.

He just said in verse 37 that we ought not use certain types of religious language to amplify our speech, because that would be of the evil one.

So he's against evil. Don't worry, Jesus is against evil. So what is he not saying, and then what is he saying?

So he's not saying when he says, but I tell you not to resist an evil person, he is not saying the following.

He is not saying help evil people do evil things to you and others. It's not what he's saying.

He's not saying form an anti -good Samaritan League. Yes, you know, stay out of it.

You see someone doing something wrong to somebody else, do not get involved. Jesus said don't resist evil people, right?

He is not saying open the city gates that enemy soldiers can come in to plunder, rape, and burn.

He is not saying remain silent when lies are being told and lives are being destroyed.

That's not what he's saying. We know that because of the examples that he gives. He clarifies what he means by this.

What Jesus is saying is do not seek personal reciprocity. Do not seek revenge.

Jesus in court rebuked corrupt court proceedings in John 18.

He said you're doing it wrong. Okay, so he's saying you're doing it wrong.

You're being evil. Oh, Jesus, you said don't resist evildoers. No, he gives what he means by that.

The context tells us what he means by that. He warned against false religion in Matthew 23.

How many times did he say woe to the scribes and the Pharisees, right? Well, hang on,

Jesus, I thought you said not to resist evil people. Well, again, what does he mean by that in the context?

I'm trying to stress how important it is that we not just take one verse and run with it, right?

In some cases, like Proverbs, yeah, take a verse and run with it.

Remember, it's context and the days in which it was written and all the other Proverbs go with it, but in this case, this is not something you just take and run with.

Jesus said do not resist an evil person. Well, what does that mean? Jesus says in the application, verses 39 through 42, he says, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him, turn the other to him also.

If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.

And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him who asks, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away.

So, let's put that into the context of what he just said, eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

Now, let's imagine these same situations where eye for eye, tooth for tooth was the justice system for the elders and the judges, the leaders of Israel, built on the principle of justice that God as Creator established from the very beginning.

So, that was very fitting, but what happens if you take this eye for eye and tooth for tooth, you personalize it, and then you get into these following situations, and someone slaps you on your right cheek?

Well, I know what to do now. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth means cheek for cheek, right?

You slap me on my right cheek, I slap you right back, and God told me to.

I'm righteous, right? Okay, let's apply it to the next one.

If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. But what if your eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and someone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, you counter -sue, right?

That would be eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.

Now, given the historical context of Roman soldiers conscripting burden bearers, you get to be my slave for the next mile and carry my stuff for me, because I have a sword and you don't.

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth might be fight the Roman. Be like one of those one of those zealots carrying long knives and ready to stab

Roman soldiers as part of their fight for justice. Be an insurgent, be one of those terrorists and have an insurgency in the name of righteousness.

Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth.

So, if you come over and want to borrow my shovel, I'm gonna put that down in my little black book,

I'm gonna tally that down, and I'm gonna come over and borrow an axe from you.

That'll make us even, right? In the South, this is followed by, never return a pie plate empty, right?

Someone gives you a peach pie, say thank you very much, and you return to them a pumpkin pie.

The pie dish has to come back full, that way we're square. Now, if we were going to apply eye for eye, tooth for tooth, these situations that Jesus gives in verses 39 through 42 were all common lived experiences with his audience.

These were the things that happened every day. You know what didn't happen every day? Someone punching their tooth out, or someone stabbing their eye out.

That didn't tend to happen every day. In fact, it barely happened to any of them. But these other things happened all the time.

And so, if the sense is, well, Moses said eye for eye, tooth for tooth, then they would respond accordingly, but that's not what we're supposed to do.

Now, before we go through each one of these instances and to see how they should have applied to Jesus' day and how they apply to us,

I just want to say, be careful that we don't overly specify Jesus' words so that they mean nothing.

For example, we say, okay, yes, indeed,

Christ is our King, but let's say slaps are one thing, right?

But if they slap me on my left cheek, I'm good to go. I can go right back at him. He said just the right cheek, and he said nothing about punching or spitting, okay, or biting.

Sure, I'll give the shirt off my back in a lawsuit, but not my house, my car, my bank account, etc.

He said just shirt. So, clothing, yes, but nothing else.

Now, when he says whoever compels you to go one mile, we have to remember in the context that's the

Roman mile, not the Imperial mile, so I'm going to be counting those thousand paces.

Jesus said, give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow, from you do not turn away.

Okay, fine. I'll be generous, but Jesus didn't say how much, so any amount I offer meets the standard of righteousness.

What do we do when we take Jesus's words and treat them that way? We're approaching his instructions and his commandments in a way that's not too dissimilar from the way that the

Pharisees or Sadducees may have read Moses, and intricately read them in a way that they could always end up being on the righteous side of things.

Okay, so, turn the other cheek. What a famous saying.

What a famous saying. Turn the other cheek. Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. Now, that definitely is a cultural expression, and it's one...if

you were ever to be slapped on the right cheek, it meant that you were bearing grave shame and dishonor.

Someone is being very...is shaming you. Someone is dishonoring you.

Now, it was actually...the rabbis said that if somebody did that to you in public, that it was okay to press your local government or even the

Sanhedrin for that person to pay a fine, and some of that money would come to you, because they had publicly shamed you, okay?

But here, Jesus actually reverses lex talionis, right?

It should have been, you slap me on my right cheek, I get to slap you on yours or do something fitting against you.

Here, Jesus says, slaps you on this cheek, give him the other one too.

That completely inverts eye for eye, tooth for tooth, because it's supposed to be my eye, your eye, not my eye, my eye.

Like, that's kind of surprising, Jesus, what you just said there. But again,

Jesus is forbidding the personalization of justice down to just you. That's not what your responsibility is.

Now, if you are a magistrate, if you are someone whom God has given authority and called to that service, then exercise justice appropriately.

But here, Jesus is saying, bear shame, bear dishonor, and do so without retribution.

Do you know that Jesus and Paul were not the only ones who got slapped for preaching the gospel? A lot of Christians have gotten slapped for preaching the gospel.

A lot of Christians have borne grave shame and dishonor in their families and in their cultures, in their hometowns, in their societies, because they preached the gospel.

Jesus is saying, keep at it, get ready for more. Remember, you're the blessed ones.

Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say all kinds of evil things about you for my sake. All right?

That means that you're doing well. It's okay. Now, this other expression is also somewhat famous, to offer up your cloak.

Verse 40, if anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.

This is the origin of give somebody the shirt off your back, which has kind of gone through a variety of meanings and shades.

But what is this about, a tunic and a cloak? Now, we don't normally have in our closets, you know, a section for tunics and a section for cloaks.

So, what is this all about? Well, it comes from, again, it comes from the Old Testament. It comes back from that, what is justice according to Moses?

You have heard that it was said. So, if you go back to Exodus 22, Exodus 22 and also

Deuteronomy 24. So, we're gonna start with Exodus 22, and then we'll jump over to Deuteronomy 24.

Now, I'll start in verse 25 of Exodus 22, because it gets some context.

If you lend money to any of my people who are poor among you, you shall not be like a moneylender to him.

You shall not charge him interest. If you ever take your neighbor's garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down.

For that is his only covering. It is his garment for his skin. What will he sleep in?

And it will be that when he cries to me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

So, in this, if someone wanted to take away your garments, okay, you could have some of my clothes, but you can't take my tunic or my cloak.

My cloak is what I sleep in. My cloak keeps me warm at night. My cloak, if I have no place to live, my cloak is my shelter.

You know, I throw it over my head, it is my tent, okay? And that should not be taken away and kept away according to the law of Moses.

And Jesus says, you know, if someone's trying to take away your clothing, and they're saying, you know,

I need all your stuff, he says, don't cite Moses and keep your cloak, give him your cloak too.

In Deuteronomy 24, verses 12 through 13, it says, and if a man is poor, you should not keep his pledge overnight.

You shall, in any case, return the pledge to him when the sun goes down, so that he may sleep in his own garment and bless you, and it shall be righteousness to you before the

Lord your God, meaning this is how you're going to be faithful in my covenant with you, and I'm going to count that as covenant faithfulness, so expect blessings on your land and your descendants and your crops and your animals and so on.

Good job. You're being covenantally faithful. We're going to count that in the plus column when it comes to blessings and cursings in Israel.

Okay, so this is how you're supposed to act. So, when we think about the importance of the cloak,

Jesus has reversed something that's very ingrained in Jewish society.

He's calling for a voluntary surrender of what they would say is an inalienable right.

Okay, being a Jew living in Jewish society means that no one could ever take my cloak away.

Jesus is saying, someone's suing you to take your garments, go and give me your cloak, too. That's kind of hard to hear,

Jesus, I don't think that that's... but again, what is he trying to say? He is flipping the

Old Testament ethic, which is what? First, do no harm, like limiting harm into a new covenant ethic of self -giving love.

The question is not about what is the legal obligation, it's about what can

I do in love for my enemy? Now, to answer that question, we can examine

Romans 12. In Romans 12, verses 17 through 21, we're given an expanded expression of what

Jesus is talking about here in verse 40, and I doubt that anyone's going to come and try to sue you for your favorite shirt, and then you say, well, to sweeten the deal,

I've got this old coat that I wear every winter, and I'm going to give that to you, too.

Right? That's probably never going to happen to you, but what does Jesus mean by this example that we can follow?

And I think this application that we have from Romans 12, beginning of verse 17, helps us understand what

Jesus is all about. Repay no one evil for evil. That would be eye for eye, tooth for tooth, wouldn't it?

Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.

Beloved, do not avenge yourselves. I think that's the basic idea of what Jesus has been saying. When he says do not resist an evil person, that's the same thing as Paul saying here, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine,

I will repay, says the Lord. This is why we started our study this morning, by thinking about our

Creator, by thinking about God, about how He is in charge, how

He defines what justice is, how He's the one who ultimately holds all these things, and He's going to settle all these issues.

We can trust Him. Now, we have to leave room for wrath.

Wrath is good, because God is good. God brings His wrath upon the sinner.

We have to say, definitively, that's good that God punishes sinners and is against sin.

It would be bad if God was pro -sinner, sin all you want,

I affirm you. That would be terrible. That's what the devil does.

That's not what God does. We have to leave room, give place to wrath, vengeance is mine,

I will repay, says the Lord. There's a whole lot of people who are really upset because they're made in God's image, but they've denied

God, so they have no idea what the real standards of justice are, and so they look around and they see injustice everywhere, and they decide to blame all the dead people whose statues are up everywhere, and so that's why a few years ago they tore all the statues down, because they wanted to actually raise the dead and prosecute them, but that's not their job.

That's Jesus' job. He's going to raise the dead and prosecute them, but because they don't trust

God, they didn't want to wait, and so they're out there beating up statues, which is really silly, but they thought they had to beat up a statue because of justice, but they could trust

Jesus and let Jesus handle the justice issue, and He raises the dead, vengeance is the

Lord's, He'll take care of that. Therefore, if we believe that, we believe in a resurrection, if we believe in a day of judgment, therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him a drink, for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Now, you're looking for what to do in a particular theoretical situation.

I have no idea how to answer that, but Jesus does, God does.

If any of you lacks wisdom, ask the one who has it all, and as those situations come up and they're actually in the real world impractical,

I trust the Lord will lead us through to see how we overcome evil with good, and as much as it depends upon us to live at peace with all men.

Also, we have a very famous statement, go the extra mile. Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too.

Well, under Roman law, soldiers could legally force civilians, especially those in occupied territories like Israel, to carry their gear for a thousand paces.

As a humiliating thing is treating you like a slave, you have to do what I say. That has to stir up a lot of resentment in the people who were forced into that kind of service.

Being treated like a pack mule by foreign oppressors, you can kind of figure that that's going to be really bad, leave a really, really, really bad taste in your mouth.

But you know, it may take about 2 ,000 paces to get a good gospel conversation in. You may not be able to get the whole gospel talked about in a thousand paces, so maybe 2 ,000 paces would be better.

What is the opportunity of carrying a Roman soldier's pack 2 ,000 miles? He can keep marching with the gospel in his head, and hopefully in his heart, and who knows what happens next.

So the way that Jesus tells it, it's like, let's flip this over, let's think about this in a different way.

Go with him too. You need to know a person a lot better with two miles instead of one. What are all the potential, what's all the blessing, what's all the possibility here?

Give to him who asks you for him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away. Now, you'll notice that the first three examples are awful particular.

They seem to be very specific, and then this one seems rather general. But if this is a general standard, it's already been illustrated three times over, and while rabbinical practice would approve of this principle for fellow

Jews in good standing, yeah, well, if it's a fellow Jew in good standing, then I'll give to him who asked, and I'll let him borrow,

I won't turn him away. But they would not agree to give to someone who asked them, or to let someone borrow from them who was in one of the previous three categories we just looked at.

Now Jesus tells it general. Give to him who asks you from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away.

You know who might fit into that category? Maybe, maybe a

Roman would ask you for something. Maybe a

Roman oppressor. Maybe someone who's suing you.

Well, I don't have to be nice to that person, do I? What about a cheek slapper?

I don't know. Romans, lawbreakers, cheek slappers, I'm not going to lend anything to them.

I'm not going to give them anything if they ask me, right? So Jesus is, when he's talking about turning of the cheek, offering up your cloak, going the extra mile, and not turning away, let's remember that he's not saying something to us that he hasn't himself done.

Isaiah 50 verse 6, I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard.

I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. So saith the Messiah. He says, offer up your cloak to the one who is suing you.

I mean, what did he say even while the Roman soldiers were casting lots for his garments and he was hanging naked on the cross?

He said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. How is he treating those who are prosecuting him with the most murderous and heinous form of lawfare ever to be seen on the face of the earth?

Let's not pretend that any of us have done more in this category.

Go the extra mile, right? Jesus has humbled himself even to the point of death, even death upon a cross, and then what do we remember about this?

If he says to us, do not turn away, what do we remember about Christ and the crowds? What do we remember about Christ and the demon -possessed,

Christ and the leper, Christ and the blind, Christ and the widows, Christ and the sinner? He is not telling us to do something that he himself has not fully lived for us.

He is our righteousness. He is our righteousness that surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees, but he's also our example.

A real human life lived, and we get to follow that. We get to meditate, and this is where I think it's very important.

When we think about these instructions here in the Sermon on the Mount, we don't have to think about them in the abstract only.

We don't have to think about them in the hypothetical. We have someone who's lived it, and we get to think about him particularly, and we can dwell on that and meditate on him.

I think we're out of time, so I'm going to close with prayer. Father, I thank you so much for the time you've given us in your Word. I pray that you would help us to rejoice in its truth, and that you would give us the wisdom to apply it in our lives.