Matthew
5:38-48
February
23, 2014
As Jeremy said, we are in the
middle of the sermon on the mount – Jesus’s teachings to the disciples at the
beginning of their ministry. Even after
five weeks we will not have read the whole thing, but by this time we are
definitely getting a picture of what Jesus imagines for this world, and what
kind of life Jesus is calling his disciples to.
Today we pick up in the middle of a
section we started last week. Jesus is
reinterpreting laws from the Torah. He
is using the formula, “you have heard it said…” “but I say to you.” “You have heard it said an eye for an eye, but
I say to you do not resist an evildoer.”
Last week when Jesus reinterpreted
a law he essentially went deeper…asked for people not just to follow the letter
of the law, but to keep the law in their hearts. He said it wasn’t enough to not kill someone,
you can’t even have hatred in your heart for them. It’s not enough to never commit adultery, you
can’t even have lust in your heart.
I think we can agree that taking
these laws a step further makes it even more difficult, maybe impossible, to do
all that Jesus is asking. How can we
control what we feel, right? But, I also
think we can agree that it would be good if we could. I think we all agree that having hatred for
someone is not a good thing. Lusting
after others, making them into objects, is not a good thing.
This week things get more
complicated. This week it doesn’t sound
so much like he is expanding on the laws as completely over turning them. This week it seems like he is taking some
perfectly practical laws and turning them on their head. It might even seem to us to be calling us to
a way of life that we don’t necessarily
agree is good.
But before we delve in to all of
this, I have to dispense with a couple of things. Let’s begin with the end: “Be perfect as God is perfect.” Most of us want to be perfect – or at least
work toward perfection. But I have a
friend – and maybe you know someone like her…maybe you are like her – who I
would say truly suffers from perfectionism.
It plagues her, almost daily.
Part of her perfectionism stems
from unbounded hope – which doesn’t sound like such a bad thing. But what that means is she believes in every
situation it is possible to make things better…make things perfect. All we have to do is work hard enough, do the
right thing, find the right solution.
Actually, she believes that it will be better if she just works hard enough, does the right thing, finds the right
solution.
Much of this either comes from, or
is fueled by, her Christian faith – by passages like this. But this is a distortion of faith. I worry that when we hear “be perfect,” as people
who are genuinely good folks wanting to live well, we will beat ourselves up
for not being perfect. This is not a
good or healthy way to live. And
regardless of what our passage says, I don’t think it’s encouraging
pathological perfectionism.
The other thing we need to dispense
with is what has been done with the verse that says, essentially, “turn the
other cheek.” This verse, much to the
shame of our religion, has been used over the years to convince woman, mostly,
to stay in abusive relationships. There
is no way, no matter what this scripture says, I would ever tell someone in an abusive
relationship to turn their other cheek when their partner hits them. And that’s not what this is about.
So, having dispensed with these
things…we still have to deal with some hard stuff. Jesus is calling us to a way of life that
seems, on the surface, almost silly. He
is talking here to his disciples; they have left everything, including their
livelihood, to follow Jesus. They are
literally begging their way across the countryside. These are not powerful, wealthy women and men. If they were, then I’m all for the idea of
giving to everyone who begs from you. I’m all for giving more than is being
asked. But beggars giving to beggars?
He’s laying out a life for these
people that includes taking abuse, giving everything they have and then some,
praying for those who persecute them, and not resisting evil in the world. This all seems to me to be impractical,
irresponsible, and impossible.
It’s impractical to ask people with
little to give more. Shouldn’t Jesus be
out soliciting funds from the wealthy in order to help the poor. That’s what we do, right? We ask people who have a lot to share what
they have with those in need. Many of us
give from our abundance knowing others lack the basic necessities of life. As a nation this is how we do it…we ask
people to pay taxes – and you pay more the more you make. Then some of that money is redistributed to
those at the bottom of the ladder.
This makes sense to me. This seems practical. More than that, it seems just. What good does it do to tell people who just
left home, livelihood and family to give their cloak in addition to their coat,
when that basically leaves them naked?
That’s not going to make any large-scale difference in the world, and
the disciples will just get poorer than they were to start with. It’s just impractical.
Jesus also seems to be advocating
for things that are irresponsible. This
is a passage that is often referenced by people who believe Christians are
called to non-violence. These are the
folks who say no to any armed resistance – “do not resist an evildoer,” Jesus
says. When someone strikes you, turn the
other cheek. This is not the foreign
policy of the United States.
People who practice non-violence
are used to being asked the same questions over and over. “You’re telling me you wouldn’t use force
against someone who is about to kill your child?” And the other question we all ask: “What about when 6 million Jews were being
killed? Should we not have gone in with
our military might to stop it?”
And these are fair questions. They deserve answers. And aren’t these fair questions for Jesus as
well? He says love your enemies. Pray for them. Turn the other cheek. No eye-for-an-eye. What about when there is unspeakable evil
going on and you have the means to stop it?
Don’t resist? That’s
irresponsible.
But even if we took Jesus at his
word, even if we decided we would follow his way – impractical and irresponsible
though it may seem – really it’s just plain impossible. Be perfect as God is perfect? That makes me want to give up before even
trying. This way of living – well we
know how it ends. Jesus was arrested,
tortured, and killed: he did not fight
back, he did not resist, he hung from the cross and said, “Father, forgive them
for they know not what to do.” Honestly
it’s not an ending I picture for myself.
It seems impossible.
But here it is. The impractical, irresponsible, impossible
commands of Jesus. And we have to read
them, and, if we have any faith in Jesus, we have to take them seriously. We have to consider them.
Should we stand by while people are
being killed when violence could stop them? I think Jesus is saying, “yes,
that’s what I mean.” But I don’t think we’re going to hell if we choose
violence to protect someone we love, or to stop ethnic cleansing.
Should we really allow someone to
abuse us – turn the other cheek? I think
Jesus is saying, “yes, that’s right.“
But I don’t think anyone needs to stay in an abusive relationship.
Should we really give until we
ourselves are without enough to survive on?
I think Jesus is saying, “yep.” But I don’t think you’re a bad Christian
if you don’t give until you’re poor.
I can’t completely resolve these things for you. I think this is the paradox of our faith every day. We are called to that impractical, irresponsible, impossible way of life – we may even be called to perfection. But it’s not a formula for being Christian or good or getting into heaven. It’s Jesus’ desire for this world. It’s Jesus’ picture of how people live when they join the divine movement in the world – they are sacrificial beyond practicality, they are loving even when it makes no sense.
Yes we’re called to a different way
of life that can seem impractical, irresponsible, and impossible, but of course
we want to live practically, responsibly, and within our capacity – and we’re
not bad if we do.
But, we can’t escape it. He really is saying these things. We might be able to write them off as
hyperbole, exaggeration to make a point.
Many people have taken each of these commandments and found a way to
interpret them so they are easier. But
what if he really is saying this? Love
your enemies. What if he’s really saying
that we don’t use violence…ever…even when ours or other’s lives are at stake. It’s hard.
But, that’s what we are to do.
Which leaves the big question:
Why?!
Jesus came, he says, to bring the
realm of God to the people of his day, and to call others to do the same. And I think the point he is making here is when
you live the realm of God, you are not allowed to let the ends justify the
means. Jesus embodied the divine
intention for our world in each and every moment. You can’t, he says, use violence to get
peace. Your only option is to respond to
violence nonviolently…regardless of the consequences.
And you can’t make people change or
make them more loving if you see them as an enemy. Loving our enemies means seeing them as like
us in very basic ways. We see our
commonality with terrorists, as crazy as that sounds – not to concede their
ways as “good” or acceptable, but to recognize that we are also flawed and even
destructive at times. We hold the same
philosophy that if everyone in the world were more like us, the world would be
a better place. And we have used
violence to that end – at the very least as a country.
And we don’t love our enemies as a
strategy to change them – as a means to an end.
We do this because it embodies the realm of God in and of itself. And Jesus, at least, seemed to think that was
worth losing your life over. Given that
he didn’t, maybe even couldn’t, change the world whole scale – fix everything
no matter how hard he tried, this was the only way to be God-as-human during
one’s lifetime.
So all of these things are meant to
be hard – they are meant to at least challenge our assumptions, our loyalties,
our strategies, our goals. Jesus forces
us to take this disciple thing very seriously.
He isn’t messing around, because life isn’t messing around. Violence is used with impunity in the name of
peace, having enemies has very real consequences, living safe and well while
others suffer without the basic needs is immoral.
But Jesus is not without compassion
for his disciples. The divine one who
created this world is not without compassion for anyone who can’t live up to
this. What Jesus knows – part of what
he’s telling his disciples – is that this is all how God lives toward us.
God does not exact vengeance on us
in equal measure to what we dole out. We
can make ourselves enemies of God – of God’s realm – and God continues to love
us. We can ask unfair things of God, and
in response, God gives grace and love in measures and dimensions we can’t even
imagine. We want God with us when it
suits us, but God is there for every mile we walk.
Yes, we are to be perfect – whole –
as God intends. But it is not so we can be loved by God,
saved, or earn a place in heaven, or be good Christians. It’s so the realm of God will be revealed by
our living, and that’s worth spending our lives trying to achieve; which means
at times we will look impractical and irresponsible to those who automatically
embrace the conventions of this world.
In the end, we must always remember
that God sends sun and rain on all of us – pours out grace and love on all of
us, perfect or not…evil or not…stingy or not…violent or not. God’s grace and love are without condition
and without end. All Jesus asks is that
we do the same. Amen.
