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 two (Matthew 5:39-41)
Can you turn
the other cheek" to somebody? Do you even WANT to? If someone
hits you, the human response is to want them to find out how it feels!
Have you ever been sued? I have, and I remember my response from decades
ago quite well I wanted to win the case! It was not simply about the
money, though that was important; it was about the truth, I thought
even if I lost, I wanted the TRUTH to be told, that I wasnt driving on
the shoulder as the other witness said, but was right in the middle of
the lane where I was supposed to be! I wanted JUSTICE, and even though I
recognized that I was at least partly at fault, it wasnt the way the
other witness had said it was! Thats the way people are.
The words in our Scriptures for
today were told to a group of people, the Jews, who had been under the
heel of Roman dominance for a long time. The Jews wanted JUSTICE, by
which it was meant that they wanted to get rid of the Romans and live by
their OWN rules! It was a custom of conquering soldiers of the time (not
just the Romans) to pick anyone they met among the conquered people and
demand that they carry the soldiers pack for a mile. It is true that
the Roman mile was only a thousand paces,
which wasnt quite so far, but it was humiliating to the Jew who had to
leave his work (or whatever he was doing) and bow to foreign authority.
Would you have STOPPED at precisely 1000 paces? About this, Jesus said,
Go the second mile. Go two
miles, He said, instead of merely the one
that was demanded of them. He was telling His listeners and He is
telling us be different! Do the unexpected! Love the Lord so much that
it overflows out of you into the lives of those who are around you in
surprising ways, as led by the Spirit of God.
Have you heard of Billy Bray? He
was a tin miner, in Cornwall, England. He had been a drunk, and he was a
pugilist as they called the fist fighters of that time - a very good
one. He eventually came to Christ, and he later told this story: In
an instant the Lord made me so happy that I cannot express what I felt.
I shouted for joy. I praised God with my whole heart for what he had
done for a poor sinner like me: for I could say, the Lord hath pardoned
all my sins. I think this was in November, 1823, but what day of the
month I do not know. I remember this, that everything looked new to me;
the people, the fields, the cattle, the trees. I was like a man in a new
world. I spent the greater part of my time in praising the Lord. I could
say with David, 'The Lord hath brought me up out of a horrible pit, and
out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my
goings, and hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto my God.' I
was a new man altogether.
One day, down in the mine, another
man who knew about Billy Brays conversion decided he had found his
opportunity. With revenge on his mind and with no provocation at all, he
simply hit Billy Bray in the face, and, as Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
relates, Billy could very easily have laid
(the man) unconscious on the ground. He
was that good a fighter. But instead, Billy Bray looked at him and said,
May God forgive you, even as I forgive you,
and thats all he did. The man then spent days of
agony of mind and spirit, as reported by Lloyd-Jones, which
led directly to his own conversion.
Lloyd-Jones concluded: The man knew
what Billy Bray could do, and he knew what the natural man in Billy Bray
wanted to do, but Billy Bray did not do it; and that is how God used
him. And thats the point of our Scriptures for today. We are
not merely following rules of behavior, we are following the Spirit of
God, who leads us to the NEED of the person who has done us wrong. The
enemy will bring upon us unexpected and shocking attacks, and the Lord
leads us to respond in surprising ways. He reaches through us to others
with the intention that our human attackers will come to Christ.
Oswald Chambers said that our
verses for today reveal the humiliation of being
a Christian. He continued, In the natural
realm, if a person does not hit back, it is because he is a coward. But
in the spiritual realm, it is the very evidence of the Son of God in him
if he does not hit back. When you are insulted, you must not only NOT
resent it, but you must make it an opportunity to exhibit the Son of God
in your life. And all this is not in your own strength. It is in
the power and for the purposes of God. Only He knows when and how it
is right to not hit back. There are times when He WILL speak to your
heart, Stop him, as in the defense of
someone who is being attacked, or it may be you are called to be a
soldier or police officer in uniform and you act in defense of society.
There are indeed times to ACT!
Our verses for today do not express
some kind of New Testament Law that governs our behavior. If we attempt
to follow them slavishly, it simply places us under the Law, and by
the works of the Law no flesh shall be justified (Galatians
2:16). Its interesting that when Jesus was slapped in the face by an
officer of the high priest of Israel, He did NOT turn the other cheek.
Instead He rebuked the officer, saying, If I have
spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why do you strike
Me? (John 18:22-23). And Paul the Apostle, when HE was on trial,
was struck on the mouth by someone
ordered to do so by the high priest. Pauls response was to shout, God
will strike YOU, you whitewashed wall! (Acts 23:2 & forward).
Paul subsequently apologized, but ONLY because he learned that the man
who gave the order was the high priest of Israel, acknowledging that You
shall not speak evil of the ruler of your people (Acts 23:5 and
Exodus 22:28). Jesus did not retaliate, though He could have destroyed
the man with a Word, but responded gently, pointing out that His accuser
was lawless in what he did. Jesus and Paul respected the law, but they
were not under law. They followed Gods Spirit like ALL of us should.
To not resist
an evil person, to turn the other
(cheek) to him, to let
him have your cloak; and to go with him
two miles instead of one (Matthew
5:39-41) these are not some kind of natural acts that you can do in
your human ability. These are acts that are wrought in us by the power
of God. And the reason for such actions is found in His love. Just
like the forgiveness of Billy Bray led to the conversion of the other
man, our different behavior is intended to bring others to Christ. The
very oddness of our response catches their attention, and because what
we have done was not designed by us at all, it will draw them to the
Lord. Oswald Chambers said, Never look for
justice, but never cease to give it. He also said, You
cannot imitate the nature of (the Lord)
it is either in you or not. A personal insult becomes an opportunity
to reveal the Lord
Jesus.
Lord, let us not be afraid of
people, or be worried about defending ourselves. Instead, let our lives
be led by the Spirit of God. Let us trust in You. In Jesus Name. Amen.
