As we come to the end of the fifth chapter of Matthew, roughly
1/3 of the way through the Sermon on the Mount, we encounter some of the most
difficult language thus far. “Do not resist evil doers.” Really? I am just
going to say that this is a less-than-helpful translation from the Greek. The
people who heard these words first had a great advantage.
- They knew the times they lived in; therefore, they did not need to have the context of the times explained to them.
- They understood Jesus’ words and didn’t have to have them translated.
- They knew that just these eleven verses were not the whole sermon. They knew more was coming that would more fully explain what it meant to live in the kingdom of heaven, and
- They didn’t have someone standing in front of them trying to explain what Jesus meant without the context of the whole sermon.
So, as we come to the end of our reading of Jesus’ words for
us in Epiphany, understand that we will be coming back to other parts of his
sermon throughout the year. Indeed, part of the sermon is assigned for Ash
Wednesday, just a week and a half away. These words will continue to challenge
us as we wrestle with what it means to be the body of Christ for the sake of
the world.
Before talking more about Jesus, let me tell you a story. Emma
stood in the middle of the room screaming with tears running down her face. Her
mother came into the room and asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Johnny hit me,” Emma shrieked.
“She hit me first!” Johnny retorted.
“That’s enough.” Mom said. “Say you’re sorry to one another
and give each other a hug.”
Emma and Johnny looked at each other for a long time, and
then each of them mumbled, “I’m sorry.” Then they hugged. As they hugged,
Johnny whispered, “Tattle-tail,” and then he began to squeeze as hard as he
could. Emma held her breath and started to get a little red in the face, but
stubbornly refused to say anything. Finally, Johnny released her. Emma stepped
back and kicked Johnny in the ankle as she appeared to lose her balance from
the hug.
Mom said, “That’s better. Now play nice. Lunch will be ready
soon.”
As she left the room, Johnny picked up a block and threw it
at Emma. She ducked the block, and, putting her head down, she butted Johnny in
the stomach. Suddenly, a hand grasped each of them, and Mom’s voice, no longer
conciliatory, said, “That’s it. Go to your rooms and don’t come out until you
can be friends again.”
Be honest. Don’t you wish that the problems of Syria could
be solved this way? Or, don’t you wish the issues surrounding our last election
could be solved like this?
Now I could tell you that the whole argument got started
because Johnny broke Emma’s favorite crayon, or I could tell you that Emma
wouldn’t answer Johnny when he asked her what she was doing, but little of that
will change the fact that Emma and Johnny are living in an eye for an eye,
tooth for a tooth (plus a little interest) world. It is this tit-for-tat world
that Jesus wants to address.
“Stop escalating the violence!” Jesus says. Understand that
Rome is in power and returning punch for punch with Roman power will only get
you crushed. Power does not rest in muscular strength, power rests in endurance
and peace. Therefore, when the Roman soldier tells you to carry his load for a
mile, smile and carry it two miles. If you show that you are willing to carry
the load, you take away the soldier’s power over you.
“Yes,” Jesus says, “there is evil in the world, but if you are
my follower, then you do not need to respond to evil with evil’s methods.
Instead of responding to evil with evil, respond in a way that recognizes the
person in front of you as a person. Treat that person as you would like to be
treated, because, if what you see before you is an enemy and that person is
stronger than you, then you are always going to be crushed.”
This is the beginning of what Gandhi understood. This is
what Martin Luther King, Jr. understood. If Gandhi had organized an army to
fight the British, we would be living in a very different world today, but
instead, Gandhi chose to turn the imperial power of the British against itself.
Martin Luther King, Jr. did not organize people around him
with great speeches of strategy, planning the overthrow of white privilege and power.
He spoke to the nation with words of hope and vision. He did not speak of strategy
but of dreams. How differently we would have heard “I have a strategy…” rather
than “I have a dream…”.
It is sometimes hard to imagine what a world of
de-escalation might look like, and so I wish to share this story with you. In
the early days of the Massachusetts Bay colony, John Winthrop noticed that his
wood pile was diminishing much faster than he thought it should. Suspecting
someone of stealing wood from his wood pile, he was enraged. So, he decided to
wait in the shadows one night to see who was taking his prized wood. Around
midnight, one of the men from the colony who had fallen on hard times, showed
up and started to load up some of the wood. Stepping out of the shadows, John Winthrop
said, “Friend, I see thou hast need of wood, and I have plenty. Help thyself to
what you need.” John Winthrop wrote, “In this way, I ended the thievery.”
God has given us so much—enough to share. I know that there
are times when that sharing makes us feel uncomfortable, but, when we remember
that God’s abundance is for all of creation, not just those who believe, or not
just for those who believe like us, we begin to have a glimpse of God’s amazing
love for all of God’s people and the privilege we have been given to share the
news of God’s love—a love that reaches beyond the category of enemy to person;
a love that goes beyond our differences and embraces our common needs; a love
that does not objectify those around us with labels of black and white, male
and female, old and young, gay and straight, abled and disabled, Republicans
and Democrats, residents and foreigners, English-speaking and some other
language, Lutheran and pick your denomination, but as children of God’s loving
creation. Christ died once for all. And we build on that foundation waiting to
be tested.
The Lord told Moses to tell the people, “You shall be holy
for I, the Lord, am holy.” Indeed, we are separate from the world because God
is separate from the world. We are “In the world but not of it,” as Luther has
said. And we are perfect as God is perfect—not perfect in the sense of being
without sin, but perfect in the sense that we are complete, whole, what God has
created us to be. We are one in Christ.
As we have heard in the Sermon on the Mount these last few
weeks we are blessed, not by our own work, but in Christ’s love; we have been
assured that our saltiness is restored in Christ, and our light shines out in
Christ; our righteousness is fulfilled in Christ; and we have learned the ways
of Christ; so now we find that our wholeness, our holiness, our perfection, is
not from us, but from Christ himself.
As we are gathered in worship today, hear these words of
Christ for you.
“You are blessed, that is, you are assured of God’s presence
in your life. Christ is with you.”
“You are the salt of the earth and light to the nations.”
That is, you are essential qualities needed for the body of Christ to continue in
health and to thrive.
“Your righteousness will exceed that of the scribes and the
Pharisees.” That is, through Christ, all things are possible and our ability to
raise people up from the valley of the shadow of death’s darkness into the
resurrection of Christ’s light is our mission and ministry by grace, through
faith, in Christ alone.
And having learned what it means to be followers of Christ, “Do
not escalate the level of violence in the world. Be wholly perfect as your
Father in heaven is wholly perfect.”
