Upside Down Living #13 - Love in a Time of Vengeance
Message Description
Dr. Kurt Bjorklund concludes Matthew 5 with a message on loving and praying for our enemies, how we can live this out in our lives, and the rights that Jesus calls his followers to release.
Message Transcript
So when I was growing up, one of the things that happened, and I don't think this is unique to me, but I had a few occasions along the way to deal with some older kids who I would classify as bullies. And what I mean by that very simply, as some kids who would insist on things being a certain way, and as a smaller, younger kid, you either basically went along, or you had to kind of deal with that. Now, with all the anti-bullying things that have been going on in our culture, I think it's probably less of an issue today than it was when I was a kid. When I was a kid, you were kind of just like, hey, go figure it out and work it out amongst yourselves. Now, the parents are organizing everything, and it isn't as much that way as maybe it was. But the experience I had was that the only way to deal with a bully was to stand up to a bully. In other words, some people's idea was, hey, you appease the bully or get away from the bully. What I learned was no, you go straight at the bully, and you show them that you won't be bullied.
So, fast forward a number of years to when I'm now a dad, and I have boys who are growing up in a culture, one of my boys came home one day and was very upset because he had some kids or one kid in particular, who was acting in a way that was aggressive toward him. And I heard myself start to give this advice, going back to my childhood, which was basically what you need to do is you need to stand up to this kid, and if necessary, punch him. This is what came out of my mouth. To which my wife horrified, was like, that is not how you do this! This is not the way that you address this kind of issue. And she wanted to have a Bible study, she wanted to do all kinds of things about how do you address the bully? And I'm like, no, no, you just punch the kid one time, deal with the consequences, and that is how you do it. And so, we have this long, profitable conversation about how to deal with difficulty. And the reason I tell you this is because my natural inclination, from what I learned as a kid, was to say you meet violence or oppression with the same kind of force.
And yet, Jesus says something in the passage that we're looking at today that challenges this. And my wife, in her way of saying, let's talk about what is biblical, pushed me to think about how I think about these things. And so, the passage in Matthew 5:38-48, which you heard read, Jesus talks about a different approach. And this is probably really needed in our culture today, because we live in a time, and it's always been this way, but it seems heightened in which people are more or less saying, that vengeance and resistance is indeed the way that we live. That my childhood attitude is the attitude of our world, not necessarily the physical side, but if somebody says something aggressive, you go aggressive back, and if somebody demands something, you demand more. And that is the way in which we live, and Jesus teaching here seems so impractical. It doesn't seem like it works in the real world. And yet, what we see when we look at the pages of the Bible is that vengeance begets vengeance. And it leads to a place in which evil wins. Let me just show you where this first begins.
This is Genesis chapter four. And if you remember the way that the Bible begins, it begins with creation. Genesis one and two, God creates Adam and Eve. And then they have some children, Cain, and Abel. And then there's this guy, Lamech, who comes into being and he's the first man who has multiple wives, the first polygamous, this is very early in the Bible, chapter four. And Lamech says this, Genesis 4:23-24, Adah and Zillah listen to me, these are his wives, he says, “Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words. I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me. If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.”
So, Cain was the first person to kill in the Bible, and he ends up basically being told that he's going to be avenged seven times. And so Lamech makes this, and if you look at your Bible, in Genesis four, it's put into a little paragraph form meaning this was like a ditty. And so what Lamech probably did is he sang this song or said it as a poem to his two wives, saying, if you do me wrong, you think he got it bad, I'm going to avenge you 70 times that.
Now, fast forward to the New Testament, Jesus in Matthew 18:1 says when he's asked about forgiveness, he says that you have to forgive 70 times seven. Does that sound familiar anywhere? In other words, Jesus doesn't just pull this number from the air, he's probably going all the way back to this little ditty from Lamech and saying, the way of the world is to say, I'm going to pay you back. I'm going to get even. I'm going to make sure that you pay for whatever you do to me. And Jesus says, I want to tell you, there's a different way. And my way is to forgive 70 times seven - the way the world avenges, stand up for yourself, get even. And Jesus says something completely different. And here's why I say that ultimately, vengeance begets vengeance and evil wins. Because every time that you or I go down that path, and even if it worked as a kid to say I stood up to the bully, what happens is we get more and more entrenched in a mindset that says, everything in this world works on a theory of retributive justice, therefore, I must always be on the right side. No one will ever do me wrong.
I saw a news article recently. It was about a little boy who's playing in his backyard. And he went in and told his mom about this snake that he had started to see and play with. And the mom went out and looked and didn't think much of it but called the poison control or the reptile control. This was in Ireland. And the people came from the poison control, and they saw that this was a Saw-scaled Viper, which is one of the most dangerous snakes in the world. That's not indigenous to Ireland. And what they came to conclude is that it probably hitched a ride on a cargo ship from India to Ireland and found its way into this kid's backyard. So unsuspectingly, he's playing with this most deadly snake in his backyard, not realizing what he's playing with.
And in a sense, what the idea of vengeance does, is it puts us in a place where we're saying, I am going to take this into my own hands. And so, Jesus instruction in Matthew, chapter five, is important to us. Now, just a word about context. Again, this section, this chapter, ends with the phrase in verse 48, be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. And sometimes people will explain this by saying perfect just means mature here, it doesn't mean absolute perfection. But in the context, what Jesus has been doing is, he's been saying, here's the standard that you think you have, and I'm going to give you even a higher standard, that's perfection. And you will not entirely meet it. And yet, he still says do this. And this is ultimately pointing to our need for a savior. Our need for a substitute. Our need for Jesus, to pay for our sins, because we can't earn our way with God.
But here's what I'd like to do. And that is, I'd like to just show you from this passage, what Jesus is teaching us to release our rights to and talk about some of the potential qualifications to these things. And then at the end, kind of come back and talk about why again this matters. So, here's the first thing, and that is Jesus is teaching us to release our right to retaliation. And this is in verse 38 and 39. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also."
Now, even if you've never been around the Bible, never had Bible study, you've heard this phrase turn the other cheek. This is obviously where this comes from, quoting kind of the Old Testament law of justice. And the idea in the Old Testament was to limit the scope of revenge. And so, to say, there's only so much that you can do. You can't take from somebody more. You can't escalate. And so, Jesus takes this, and he says, you've heard it said that you can take this, but he says, here's what I want to say to you. And I don't believe that Jesus was ultimately talking about court cases. I believe that what he was doing what he was saying, here is how you are to interact in your personal relationships. I want you to interact in a way in which you are willing to say I will not have to get revenge for what's been done to me. So now he's taking the same idea that he took when he said 70 times seven. And he's saying here is the way I want you to relate in this world. I want you to turn the other cheek.
Now you may hear in that violence, and I don't think Jesus is talking about violence. And here's why. In that culture in the first century, the way that you insulted somebody was with a slap to the face. And so, the turn the other cheek is not as much let somebody hit you and let them hit you again, as much as it is saying when somebody makes an insult against you. In other words, when they attack your image, when they say something that you say, that doesn't feel good to me, that instead of saying, I'm going to get back at them with a sparring way of words, that what you do instead is you say, you know what, I can let that stand. Because when you and I defend ourselves, what's happening is our ego or our insecurity is beginning to drive us, our ego, because we're offended. And we want to make sure that that our offense doesn't stand in our insecurity, because we're concerned that people will believe what has been said about us.
And what Jesus does, he says, I want you to turn the other cheek. I want you not to take revenge. I want you to, in essence, be willing to say, I will release my right to vengeance. Because I know that vengeance begets vengeance, and that it makes evil, ultimately more victorious in this world. In fact, this is part of the whole idea here, when he says, "But I tell you, if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. If anyone wants to sue you," and he goes on farther here. But at verse 39, when he starts this, he says, "But I tell you do not resist the evil person." And by calling this person evil, he's not name calling as much as what he's doing is he's saying, even when you can identify that a person has no intention for your good, that they're just out to destroy you in some way, he says that that is what you can do.
Now, Proverbs 26, verse two, gives us a good word. And that is it says that an undeserved curse will not come to rest. Meaning if somebody is saying something about you, that is undeserved, that you can say, you can say it, it's okay because this is not going to come to rest. And sooner or later in life, especially in this age of social media, what will happen is all of us will have somebody who decides that they don't like us, and that they're going to say all kinds of things about us because they can, and it's a way to kind of take a shot. And Jesus is saying you don't need to shoot back. You don't need to worry about balancing the score. And what Proverbs says is, ultimately that won't come to rest. In other words, people will see through it.
Now you may rightly say, well, wait a second. Does Jesus mean that there is never a time to stand up for ourselves? And one of the things we need to do to understand the Bible is we need to let the Bible interpret the Bible. And what I mean when I say that is when we read something like this, one of the questions we should ask ourselves is this absolute? Is there never a time in which we say okay, you know, I'm done. I've heard people say you only have two cheeks; you only have to take the insult twice. I don't think that's what Jesus is saying here. As much as what he's saying is make it your mindset to say I don't have to retaliate. But there is a time to say I'm going to draw a boundary. I'm going to say you can't do certain things.
And as evidence, let me just give you a few things. And I'm going to summarize a bunch of scriptures here. And I'm going to go through this quickly without reading them. So, you may want to write some of this down if this is interesting to you. But this is important, especially if you find yourself in a relationship with somebody who is constantly doing something that you feel in which you are being taken advantage of. Here's what Jesus does. And that is Jesus said no to people who sought to damage him. And I say this, because in Luke chapter four, verse 28, through 30, when there was a group that wanted to throw him off a cliff, Jesus actually were told, slipped through the crowd unnoticed and went away. And so, what Jesus didn't do is like, oh, you want to throw me off a cliff. Cool, here I am, throw me off a cliff. What he did is instead he went past that. Now again, that may seem really obvious. But my point in saying that is when you hear and read these words, you may say, oh, you know what I that means I just take anything from anybody for as long as they're willing to dish it out. And some of us may be in in significant relationships, where we have somebody who's been dishing it out for years. And we're thinking I've been trying to do the biblical thing by turning the other cheek, when in reality, they're seeking to damage us. And even Jesus model shows us that there is a time to say, you are not going to behave toward me in a damaging or abusive way.
Here's the second thing that we see and that is Jesus said no to people who were demanding of him. Now again, you may say okay, what does that mean exactly? Well, in Luke 5:15 and Matthew 12:46-50, when people started to press in on Jesus and demand from him something, he wasn't ready to give, Jesus was okay to say, you know what? I'm going to withdraw by myself. In one case, his mother, and his brothers, were outside, waiting to speak to him. He said, who's my mother and my brothers. And it was his way of saying, you know what, you're not going to tell me when and how I do everything. And then Jesus said no to people who were demeaning to him in Matthew 21:23-27, some of the scribes and Pharisees came, and they said to Jesus, what authority do you do these things? And Jesus basically said, well, I'll tell you what, you tell me what authority John did his baptism. And it was Jesus turning it back on people. In other words, every time somebody wants to ask you a question in order to trick you or demean you, or to try to corner you, you don't have to engage. And so, turning the other cheek, even for Jesus, didn't mean giving into people who wanted to damage him, who were demanding of Him, and who wanted to demean him.
But Jesus was willing to still say, but here's the principle that I want you to live by. And that is, don't make vengeance your way of life. In other words, release your right to retaliation. And again, I don't believe that this is speaking to court issues. Because even in court issues, in the Old Testament, you saw that people could go and deal with things in a legal way. And even just recently, I saw that there's a church in Washington, D.C., a well-known church called Capitol Hill Baptist Church that is suing the district of Colombia, because of the prohibitions on their gatherings. And so, the point is that some people would look and say, well, Jesus said, turn the other cheek, you should just go about it. And what their argument is, is they're saying, you have allowed other gatherings for other purposes, but not for church. And they even said in their statement, we're not against your exceptions for those other gatherings, we just think that you're approaching this very injudiciously by saying the churches can't meet. And so, this is not saying that there's never a time for legal protection, or never a time to say no, but it's saying the general approach should be I release my rights to retaliation.
Here's the second thing. And that is, this text teaches us to release our rights to self-preservation. And this is in verse 40 and 42, it says, if anyone wants to sue you, and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you." And so, Jesus takes these examples. And he says, here's what I want you to do. And the background is that a Roman soldier who are the occupying soldiers, could consign anybody to carry their pack a mile. And so, this is, again, where we get this phrase, go the extra mile, Jesus says, they could say to anybody, you have to carry my pack a mile. And Jesus says, if somebody does that to you, go an extra mile to show that you are not all about self-preservation. And what he was doing in a sense was he was saying, I want you to let your testimony be such that you're saying, even though you're occupying, even though we don't want you here, we are willing to give of ourselves in order to show that we are not people who are just about ourselves.
And again, you may ask the question, well, is this absolute? And again, I would say no, because there are times when Jesus said no to people who acted in ways that were abusive toward others. Two examples. One is in Matthew 2:12-17, when people were using the temple as a way to exploit others, and Jesus came in and famously took the whip, cleared the temple, and basically said, you're not going to do this here. It was Jesus way of saying; I'm not going to just stand idly by while you take advantage of others. And then in John 5:1-14, Jesus performs a healing, but one of the questions he asked to the person is do you want to get well, and the implication is, I'm not going to do for you if you don't do for yourself. And we see this taught even more explicitly in 2 Thessalonians 3:10, where Paul teaches this idea and says, if somebody won't work, then they shouldn't eat. And what he was doing was he was saying, there are some who will have a mindset that says, you know what, somebody else should take care of me, somebody else should give to me, so that I have everything I need. And sometimes people will try to use Jesus teaching here as a way to say this is kind of the idea of Christianity.
In fact, one of the questions that is being talked about in a broader context these days, and we did a podcast in our Perspectives podcast on this recently that should be either out or coming out soon, and it's on the idea of capitalism and socialism. And I'm not going to get into all of that. But the question some people ask is, is Jesus here talking about a socialistic idea. If somebody asks for something, give them more. If somebody wants you to go one mile, go two. If they asked to borrow, give - is that what Jesus is about? But right here, what we see, is that even in this Jesus is affirming the idea of ownership. And this is a call to generosity not to a social construct. It's a call to say, I'm willing to abandon my comfort and my stuff for other people, rather than just simply saying that this is a political structure or statement.
And ultimately, in the Bible, the great problem of humanity is not the inequality of wealth, but it is the issue of the human heart. And we see this in the Parable of the Talents where there's an affirmation of this idea that there will always be people with different economic well-being. And we see it where the woman came and broke a jar of perfume over Jesus. And the disciples came in were upset, because they said, this could have been used to feed the poor for a year and Jesus response is, you'll always have the poor with you. Now, that's not an excuse to say, we're okay with poverty, and nobody should care about it. But what it is, is, it's a recognition in the Bible, that basically, there is the right to property and ownership and people will have different levels of economic well-being. And Jesus point is to say within that culture, within that world, I want you to give and to be generous with your comfort and your stuff, so that other people encounter and experience the generosity of the people of God.
And then here's the third thing that this passage teaches us, and that is, I'm going to say, it teaches us to release our rights to choose our affection. And I say this because this is this great passage on love for your enemies. You've heard it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. By the way, the Old Testament never said, hate your enemy. 43“You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’ 44“But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47“If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?"
And what Jesus does here is he says, here's the way of our world again, and that is we love the people who love us. That's easy, he says everybody does that. But he says it's loving the people that are hard for us, and he uses the term enemies. And what I believe Jesus is doing here is he's pointing out the reality that there will be people who are bent against us. And he says, I want you to love those people and pray for them. And you know the difference about, praying about, versus praying for. Praying about is God would you change my spouse, and make them appreciate me for all the good things I do? You're not praying for them. Or God, would you help my boss, help her to understand all of the great contributions. That's praying about. Praying for, is where you say, God, I am asking you for the good of this person. And Jesus says, here's what I want you to do. I want you to love those that are hard to love. I want you to pray for the people that are in your life.
Somebody had recommended to me recently that I watched the documentary movie, whatever it's called, the social dilemma. I don't know if you've seen this, but it's about how social media feeds and algorithms feed to us the things that we're already predisposed to believe or be interested in. And so, on a very simple level. This means if you look at a pair of shoes online, soon, you're going to have all kinds of ads about a pair of shoes. On a more complex level, what it means, is that whatever it is that you already believe, the social media engines by and large, and search engines, will feed you things that already are to your predisposition. And the example they use is type in climate change to your browser, and we'll know your political views based on what you've already clicked on. In other words, if you type in climate change, and you get a bunch of advertisements are articles that talk about how it's all kind of a bunch of hooey, then that shows that you're on one side of the camp. And if you get a bunch of articles that say, here's all the problems that are happening, it shows kind of where you are. And if you get a combination, it shows maybe you've clicked on multiple things.
Now, the reason I'm bringing this up, is here's what is happening per this documentary. And that is people are being driven harder and harder into their camps and into hate. Because what they're doing is, they're constantly taking in sources of news, online media, that are reconfirming their belief system, so that they're seeing everybody as their enemy. And it's very difficult to love the people that we're seeing as our enemy. And the reason that I talk about this here is Jesus assumes this idea of enemies, but he assumes that there will be a different approach to it if you're a person of faith. And what happens right now is people are hunkering down, even people of faith, into their positions, about political issues, issues in our culture, in our society, and saying I only want to hear people who agree with me, and anybody who has a different take must be an enemy. They must be an idiot. And this is the self-confirming bias over and over that that we're getting from our social engines, our internet engines, that are driving so much of this. And so, Jesus is saying, I want you to be part of a different kind of a world. I want the world to be different. I want you to live in a way in which you release your right to retaliation, to self-preservation, and to choose your affection. And what he's doing is he's saying, if you're my follower, these will be the commitments that you will make.
Now, again, Jesus, verse 22, verse 48, is raising the bar and saying, none of us will do this perfectly. This is why you need a savior. So maybe, just as we're here today, you're just recognizing in yourself that you have not lived this way. And what your response can be is to say, God, I recognize now that I've been somebody who said, I'm going to live on my terms. And maybe for you, that's a way just to say, okay, I need to trust that there is a savior for me. But it's also possible that as you hear this today, that you say, you know, I've trusted Jesus. But the truth is, I have a list of enemies. I'm not choosing to love people who are different and pray for them. The truth is, I'm prioritizing my comfort and my stuff over serving people who have greater needs than me, or I'm choosing to retaliate and seek revenge rather than giving up that right. And what I just simply want to say is, I think Jesus calls the world to something different and better. That's the world that we really want.
I mean, imagine living in a place where there were no cycles of revenge, where the bully didn't get more amped up because somebody stood up to the bully and said, I have to get back at you. Whether it's a physical altercation between kids on a playground, or of social media exchange between people who do it on their typewriters, and on their computers and smartphones, this time and age in which we live. I mean, imagine a world in which there are no groups vying to out-position one another with the moral high ground and always assuming that they're right, and everyone else is wrong, that they're good, and everyone else is bad. I mean, imagine a world where people lead with the idea of love and prayer for other people, and believing the best rather than always believing the worst. Imagine a world where people serve, even those who are unreasonable in what they ask of them. Imagine a world where people prioritize peace and genuine dialogue over image control. I mean, imagine living in a world in which people prioritize other people over their own comfort. Imagine what would it look like if people would say, I will prioritize somebody else in this world over just my own stuff, my own ends. You see that's the picture Jesus paints. He says, this is how I want you to live in this world.
And obviously, none of us will do this perfectly. It's why Jesus died on our behalf. But it's his call, it's his opportunity to say I want you to be an instrument of love in a world that's filled with vengeance, and hate, and self-preservation. And I don't know what that will mean for you, in the days and weeks that are ahead, but here's what I know, we are living in a unique time in our country. In fact, I would guess just from what I have seen, that when the election is done on November 4, that it's unlikely that we will go oh, here's the winner, because of the mail-in and voting and everything else, that it's likely going to be a longer time. And you're going to see people entrenching in camps and throwing all kinds of statements about other sides. And I'm not saying that there isn't a reason to fight legally to ensure for a fair election. But what I'm saying is, the people of faith of this country, are the people who need to lead with love and say, we want this country to be different. We want this world to be different. We want this world to experience a microcosm of what it is to know who the God of the universe is.
And here's why this will matter. There won't be perfect hope in any political solution. Do you know where there's hope? And I'm not saying again that political solutions don't matter. I believe that every person should vote and should take that seriously. But you know where the hope is. It's ultimately in Jesus Christ. And here's what I hope happens in the days ahead, as people are looking around and going through a cycle of acrimony toward one another, that the island of people, the alternate city, if you will, of people who have said, I'm committed to Jesus Christ, will leave such a different aroma that people will say, that's what I want to be a part of. That's what I need.
In fact, this is the whole image that's used in Matthew chapter five, verse 13 and following, where we are told about a city on a hill can't be hidden. And St. Augustine wrote about this, and he talked about the City of God and the city of the world and how the City of God is an alternate city, within the broader city. And his point was this, and that is that the people of God form a place that is a different world where people look at it, and they say, that's the world that I really want. But when the broad church is indistinct from culture in this way, and people look at it and they say, what's the difference? And Jesus in talking this through and teaching this lesson, has been saying, here's what I want to be true. The people who are my people will live different lives, not perfectly, that's why I came to die on their behalf, but they will live different lives in such a way that there will be an alternative alternate to all that we see in the world. An alternate to hate, to vengeance, and to self-preservation. And it starts by understanding Jesus love for us. See, if I just tell myself, I'm going to love somebody, that works until they're unlovable. And then all of a sudden, it's like, oh, that's hard. And that's Jesus point here about if you just love the people who love you, where do you get the strength to love the people that are unlovable in your life. It's from understanding God's immense love for you as expressed through Jesus Christ. It's in his spirit indwelling you and bubbling over in a positive way.
I was driving over to the campus here in Wexford today. And on my way, there was a car that pulled out in front of me, really bad pull out. And this car pulled out, you could make out the make of the car, I don't know why this detail is important, but it seems important to me, it was a Tesla. Now, I have really good friends who have Tesla's and are awesome people, but this person in a Tesla pulled out and caused me to have to hit my brakes hard. And I had this moment where I was like Tesla owner. And I realized right away that I just made an assumption about somebody because they pulled out and they did this. And all of a sudden, you can go to this space. And what Jesus is doing is he's saying, be so filled with the light of the world that you have capacity to love even when it's difficult. Now, that's a small thing, that I'm just talking about right there. But my point is, you don't just all of a sudden turn on and off love. It's an overflow of what God is doing in your heart. So, what's God doing in your heart? Do you want to be part of the alternate city? Or are you content being part of a culture that values vengeance and continues to drive the hatred and division that we see.
Father, thank you for a chance to gather. Lord, I pray today that you would allow us as we are here to see the beauty of what an alternate city looks like. And in that, that you would give us the connection to your love for us to be part of that. And we pray this in Jesus name, amen.
