Here is the manuscript from the sermon preached on February 23, 2014 - the seventh Sunday after Epiphany. It is the fourth in a series on Jesus' "Sermon on the Mount." The series is titled, "God's Radical Vision for Community."
Sermon on the Mount - Movement IV - How We Encounter Each Other; Nonviolent, Direct Action.
Matthew 5:38-48
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic,[h] let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons and daughters of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be complete, as your heavenly Father is complete."
Today we go back up the mountain with Jesus. We have been dwelling in the words of the sermon on the mount over the past several weeks and it is to this sermon that we return today. The sermon on the mount, or as we are calling it, “God’s Radical Vision for Community,” can be understood as the mission statement for the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom Jesus is ushering into the world through his life and ministry.
The first movement of the sermon is the beatitudes. Three weeks ago we explored the beatitudes and how they demonstrate to us how God encounters the world. The beatitudes are not entrance requirements or hoops that we have to jump through to get into the kingdom of heaven. They shows us what God sees when God looks at the world. And if this is how God encounters the world, then we who follow Jesus ought to follow suite.
Two weeks ago Pastor Casey led us through the words about being salt and light to the world. This movement is all about us and how we encounter the world. Jesus calls us to move out into the world and gives us an example to follow. We are scattered like salt, giving flavor to the world. Salt for healing and the preserving of God’s justice for all. We sent out into the world to be beacons of light in the darkness. We are like cities on a hill, meant to guide others to the words of the Gospel and the new life we all have in Jesus Christ.
Last week Pastor Casey explored with us how we encounter each other. Community guild-lines and statements from Jesus about how we are to get along with each other in the community. Jesus takes words from the law that people knew well and re-imagined them for contemporary life. He drew the people in a way of life that valued relationships over rules. We talked about the radical nature of Jesus’ teachings, how he moves us to the root of the issue - our relationships with one another. At the heart of God’s kingdom is love. And that love is grounded in relationship with God and with one another, particularly our neighbors.
Today we reach a fourth movement of the sermon and we are met once again with challenging words from Jesus. “You have heard it said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evil doer.” Tough words. Do not resist the evil doer. Tough words especially to a culture that is so steeped in violence. Tough words to a culture that often seeks retribution or revenge or even a pre-emptive strike to deal with so called “evil doers.” Tough words that come with baggage of being used in situations of slavery and abuse. Tough words that have long been interpreted by Christians in a passive manner that produces victims of bullying. Do not resist the evil doer would not make a great bumper sticker and so often it has been used to create doormats. People who get walked all over in the name of Jesus. Could that be what Jesus really wants?
At the center of this statement is the word resist. If we take the word resist as face value in the English rendering we miss most of the picture. More often than not in the Greek manuscripts the word that we translate as resist gets used on military circumstances. Walter Wink writes, “Resistance implies 'counteractive aggression,' a response to hostilities initiated by someone else (Engaging the Powers, 185).”
The call from Jesus is not to react in violence. Violence only leads to more violence. That’s the truth caught up in the eye for an eye and tooth for tooth mentality. An eye for an eye only leads to a room of blind people. A tooth for a tooth leads to bad smiles in family pictures. Violence only leads to more violence. What Jesus calls us to is something more powerful - nonviolent resistance. And this act is grounded in love. Perhaps a better way to translate this phrase would be, "Don't react violently against the one who is evil (Scholars version).” We are not to mirror the evil we encounter. We are called to movement of nonviolent resistance.
What follows is the famous trilogy of turn the other cheek, give the undergarment, and go the second mile. This trilogy demonstrates what is looks like to nonviolently resist an evil doer. Let’s look at the first one.
“But if anyone strikes you on the right check, turn the other also…”
For a long time this verse has been interpreted rather weakly. It has been used to tell children to turn the other cheek to the bully, women to turn the other cheek to spousal abuse, and Christians to be passive (non-active) against violence of any kind. This way of understanding turn the other check is submissive and not in line with what Jesus is calling us to do.
(This is powerful when acted out - visually demonstrating the action)
The power of Jesus’ statement is that it calls people to claim their dignity in the face of being humiliated and oppressed. To be struck on the right cheek, with the left hand (a backhanded slap), was a statement of insult by the one in power. By offering their left cheek, the one struck in an attempt at humiliation would challenge the oppressor to strike them again with a right hand (literally a punch one would only use with peers), claiming their dignity. The call to turn the other cheek is about claiming dignity and power in the face of being humiliated and oppressed.
These words from Jesus are about standing up to violence and being oppressed in a nonviolent manner. The call from Jesus is to claim your humanity and dignity in the face of someone who tries to belittle or humiliate you. We are not called to be doormats. We are called to resist evil through nonviolent force. We are called to act through love.
Some in Jesus’ audience may have witnessed this act of turning the other cheek first hand. In the year 26 CE Pontius Pilate is appointed to power in Judea. At the outset of his time in office, and in the over of darkness, he introduced images of the emperor to Jerusalem. The Jewish people revolted these blasphemous images and protested in Pilate’s court for five days and nights. On the sixth day, Pilate had the protestors moved to the stadium under the guise of giving them an answer. The protestors were met by soldiers three deep in ranks.
Upon being given the choice between life with the images and death, the protestors fell to the ground, exposing their necks, and proclaimed they would rather die than betray their law. Pilate, wanting to avoid bloodshed, had the images removed. A violent revolt would have been met with brute force. The nonviolent resistance, an act of turning the other cheek, brought a peaceful end to the conflict.
Jesus own life and ministry lead to the ultimate act of turning the other cheek. Jesus knew that his life and ministry, the way of the kingdom of God, was in conflict with the way of the world. The world only had one way of dealing with his message of good news to the poor and the oppressed - death. On the cross Jesus turned the other cheek to violence and in his resurrection God demonstrated the power of life over death. The power of the kingdom of heaven versus the fallen power of the world. This is the kingdom we are born into as followers of Jesus.
Let’s fast forward to 1955 and another kingdom moment. Rosa Parks was a disciple of Christ and followed his call to turn the other cheek in an act of nonviolent resistance. The myth of her story is that she remained seated on the bus because she was tired. But this is not the case. She remained seated because she knew the fallen and oppressive system of segregation. She knew very well the consequences of being jailed and publicly humiliated. But she claimed her dignity as a human being, turned the other cheek, and remained in her seat. Her act was the catalyst in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The power of nonviolent resistance exposed the systemic racism in our nation and served as a foundation for the civil rights movement, displaying the power of turning the other cheek.
Some of us here today may hear these words from a place of power. We may hear these words as people who need to realize when another is turning the other cheek in our presence, claiming their humanity while we try to humiliate them. We need to recognize our own attempt to dehumanize others, repent, and follow in the footsteps of Jesus.
For some of us we hear these words as a call to claim our dignity and humanity in the face of bullying and abuse. Turning the other cheek in a submissive manner only promotes violence. To follow the call from Jesus to turn the other cheek it can take the strength of the community. Exposing the violence can lead to confronting the oppressor and ending the vicious cycle of abuse.
Today’s words from Jesus are difficult. They call us to a radically different way of life than the one proclaimed by the world. God’s radical vision for community leads us into a love that actively, and nonviolently, confronts systems of injustice and oppression.
May God bless us on this journey. And may God give us the strength to follow Jesus in living out his radical call to community life.
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