Good evening. I want to begin tonight by defining a word that was coined during a movement for change in the 1960’s. It was the movement that happened in response to the turmoil in the world with war and racism and assassinations and you name it.
It was a time when the facade was falling away. The June Cleaver times of the 50’s were being pushed on by a generation that said, we will not pretend that everything is alright. We will not pretend that things are o.k. They said we must fight the oppression of the government. We must push back and take the power.
And from this, some great things happened. Uppermost to our minds now is the civil rights movement that provided the catalyst for change that we saw come to fruition in the election of our nation’s first black president last year.
And this movement toward change didn’t just change social dynamics between the races. It also changed music, and fashion, and architecture, and the cinema, and politics and even organized religion.
Anyway the word that was coined during this era is Counterculture — the culture and lifestyle of those people, who reject or oppose the dominant values and behavior of society.
And this definition could be applied to anyone in that generation that developed the knee-jerk reaction to “question everything.”
And we are not going to really delve into that particular generation tonight. There were fruits of their labor that were incredible and beneficial (again, the civil rights laws, the music of Jimi Hendrix, etc.) Those were good things.
And there was other fruit that was destructive like rampant cynicism, escalated drug abuse and the so called “free love” movement or sexual revolution, which helped to break down the intimacy and pleasure found in the sexual relationship as God designed it to be.
All of those topics could be zeroed in on for their own sermons because all of them still relate to us today.
But the point that I want to make is. The generation was so different than the rest of society that they stood out as a class onto themselves.
And while the term “counterculture” was coined just a few decades ago, Jesus was calling for a different form of counter cultural-ism 2,000 years ago.
Tonight and next week we are going to discuss
Jesus’ call for us to be counter cultural.
We are still wading through the Sermon on the Mount, slowly dissecting the word of God, and discovering together what we can learn, in our day in age, from Jesus’ teaching to first century Jews.
And really, all of the things He has taught so far seem different that normal.
He’s told us that the world applauds power and pride. But He says that we should exhibit meekness and humility.
He says the people of the world look for satisfaction in money and materials and the approval or adoration of other people.
But Jesus says His followers look for satisfaction and fulfillment in Him and Him alone.
And so it all seems different right?
Well the next two passages, we’ll deal with one tonight and one next week, they are probably the most countercultural of the bunch and I can honestly say I have never seen these commands of Jesus followed very well. And we never get any of them perfect. But I’ve hardly ever seen any of my group of friends submit to these teachings, even partially and I’m included.
Tonight let’s read Matthew 5:38-42 (New International Version)
38 "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
Now, let’s just unpack this and as we dig in, I hope you will see just how radical this teaching is.
It starts out simply enough in verse 38 "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'[Exodus 21:24; Lev. 24:20; Deut. 19:21] Jesus is doing here what He did in the last few passages.
He is taking a teaching from the Jewish leaders that misconstrued the Old Testament and so, had to be corrected. It’s important to remember, He isn’t correcting the Old Testament itself. He is correcting the misinterpretation of it.
You see, the people of Israel took a law that was designed to ensure that a punishment would fit the crime and instead used it as a scriptural mandate for revenge.
God was teaching in the OT not to over punish, don’t take someone’s life for an eye. But they took it as, “If you come against me I will get my revenge.”
And the problem was they were not interpreting scripture by scripture, they took those passages out of context and abused them. They took Exodus 21:24; Lev. 24:20; Deut. 19:21 but ignored Deuteronomy 32:35, which teaches that we are not to seek our own vengeance. The Lord is the avenger!
And we, as Christ followers, have the gift of the New Testament where we find Paul fleshing it out even more in Romans 12:19:
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.
The eye for an eye tooth for a tooth laws were laid down as a designed way of dealing with crime, dealing with sin in the Nation of Israel so that people would be deterred from sinning, but again, it also protected the criminal from being overly punished. And since it was given as a law to be enacted by the leaders of the nation of Israel it was their job to punish.
This should have stopped the wronged person from taking revenge out on the sinner.
The only exception when revenge even seems to be slightly allowed was in the case of murder. But even then the person, the one who killed someone else, was given the opportunity to flee to a refuge city where they would not be subject to revenge.
So with all that in mind, that the eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth deal was for the good of the people and not a mandate or an excuse for revenge – keeping that in the front of our mind — let’s look at the next verses.
(38 "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.') 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
Now all of the commentaries that I read have concluded that a open handed smack on the face with the back of the hand was one of the most insulting things that someone could do to you at the time that Jesus was teaching.
Back when I was a kid, it wasn’t a smack in the face, it was talking about someone’s mama. That was going to start a fight. I don’t care who you were or how big the other kid was. You talk about someone’s mama and you are going to go round and round.
Well, that’s what the slap was.
So, Jesus is saying. Let it go. Do not respond the way the world responds, respond like Jesus.
Now back to verse 40: And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
Richard Krejcir is the Director of Into Thy Word Ministries and he teaches that the tunic was a kind of undergarment, most people had more than one unless they were poor. And so, if someone was suing you for your tunic, you could survive.
So knowing Jesus goes against the grain, knowing that Jesus is Countercultural, we could probably understand if He says, “Just give the guy the tunic and be done with it.”
But no, Jesus goes beyond that to what many of us would push back against. He says if he wants your tunic let him have your cloak as well.
I didn’t get the difference between a tunic and a cloak, so I read up on it, listen to what Krejcir says about a cloak:
So, Jesus doesn’t just say give over the little concession, He says go overboard. Krejcir continues:
In other words, stuff is just stuff and in God’s grand scheme of things, He would rather use your loose handling of your stuff to demonstrate to people what is truly important in your life – that is, a Christ centered focus on restoring the world to God. If that is our aim, we understand that unnecessary conflicts divert us from our purpose so we do what we can to avoid the conflict.
Now let’s look at verse 41: If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
First we saw an attack on our dignity and reputation with a slap to the face. Then we saw an attack on our possessions with the taking of a tunic and the giving of a cloak. And now we see an attack on our freedom.
Remember, slavery was common back in the day and we really have little to compare this to today. The best I can do is to say look at your working relationship if you are an employee, or have been an employee or will someday be an employee.
We have all had that boss or supervisor that demands more than he or she should. Demands more of our time or demands that we work beyond our job description or whatever. The point is. It violates our freedom (in a loose since). It takes away our freedom to be with our families, or to get some other non-work chores done or it takes away our freedom to pursue other interests or hobbies or rest.
To all of this the culture would say, “No way! They’ve got you for 40 hours and that’s it. Don’t be a chump.” The world would say your boss doesn’t care about you, that you are being taken advantage of and all the rest of the arguments.
But Jesus says, be countercultural. Don’t just work late, if they demand it, go above and beyond and do whatever you are doing there to the best of your ability not grumbling and complaining and not doing a half hearted job. Perform with excellence.
And why should you? Because, you are representing Christ.
The bottom line is our right response is to go to any length we can in order to be peacemakers, even when that means we may get the short end of the stick, even when other people might mock us and even in the instance that someone might take advantage of us.
In Romans 12 Paul says it like this: 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
Now this is countercultural. On the playground, if you make fun of Johnny’s mama, Johnny’s gonna throw down. In the workplace, if the boss makes Jodi work on the weekend, she’s gonna “get sick” or sluff off on her responsibilities in protest. And if, for some reason in the marketplace, someone is trying to get one over on Jim with some of his property or finances, Jim is going to hold on to that material possession until they pry it from his cold dead hands.
Those are the cultural responses. And remember the people coming up against us and against our dignity, or possessions and our freedom, those are bad people. It’s not like we’re missing something. These people are our enemies in the worlds eyes and that’s why the world says, defend your stuff and get revenge when you are hurt in these areas.
And in all of those situations, everyone around the offended person is likely to say they were right to come back against the offender. In fact, there have been times in my life when someone hasn’t retaliated and My first thought was that they were either weak or stupid.
Jesus isn’t saying anything about the sinner, He’s simply saying this is how you and I — as Christ followers — deal with the offence.
But we cry out, “What about them!? They’re gonna get away with that!”
And we know what everyone else is going to think if we don’t retaliate. We don’t want to look weak or stupid. So, what do we do?
We ignore Jesus and we lash out.
And if history and life prove anything it is that retaliation begets retaliation begets retaliation begets retaliation begets retaliation…
Look at the gang wars in Los Angeles between the Cripps and the Bloods. Look at the battles between the Israelis and Hezbollah in the West Bank. Look at the battles between the Sunnis and the Shiites in Iraq. The retaliation cycle never ends!
So Jesus says live a different life. Live a life that is in stark contrast to the madness of the fallen world we live in.
And, it will rise up against everything that we have been conditioned to think, especially in the West. Our culture is a “me first” culture. Jesus teaches something different. Jesus teaches a “Kingdom first” culture.
And we are to sacrifice and be an example in everything we do, not just when life is sunshine and rainbows, but also when it seems the whole world is against us.
And remember, this wasn’t just what Jesus taught. This is what He lived out.
After praying in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was taken captive by the soldiers and He went without a fight (save for Peter who wasn’t following the will of God)
In His trial before the Sanhedrin before His crucifixion, Jesus was smacked and mocked. Yet, He did not retaliate.
And as they wanted to take His life from Him on the cross, scripture says no one could take it but that He gave up His life.
And in every aspect He showed love. 1 Peter 2:21 tells us He showed us a perfect example.
Lets close tonight with Matthew 5:42
Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.
If you look at this verse in relation to the verses right before it, it seems to be concluding a thought.
In this world we often times are so worried about getting taken for a fool, so worried about being taken advantage of, that we build up our defenses and we just don’t help anyone. And again the culture applauds that. We are told even in churches to be careful, most people with cardboard signs are really just conmen. They live like kings on what they take us for.
Or we are told, don’t give to the gentleman sitting out, homeless on the street, because he is just going to spend it all on drugs or booze.
And what happens is we convince ourselves that we don’t need to help.
But that isn’t scriptural. Now, I’m not saying go and support someone’s vice. But there’s other ways you and I can offer support. Ask what they would like for lunch and take them some food.
And personally, I think it may be true that some – not all— of the cardboard sign-toting people may be conmen. But I’m also convinced that homelessness and desperation is a paycheck away for some people and if they really are in need and my few bucks will help, than I’m not going to regret giving up that $5 that I would probably waste on soda and fast food anyway.
Just like anything else, this is between you and your father in Heaven.
We are going to conclude this, these countercultural teachings from the Sermon on the Mount next week.
Until then I would just ask that you view any hardships or conflicts that come your way in the light of this teaching and just start practicing the self sacrifice that Jesus talks about for the glory of God.
Let’s pray…
