Turn your Cheek
Sermon on the Mount VI
Pastor Gary Tolbert
May 6, 2006

Intro: Ill. The Apprentice, a TV program led by billionaire Donald Trump gives people the chance to succeed in a business venture. If you don't perform to his standards of character and business you fire. Others are rewarded. In the process you learn from the “master”. And apprentices one who learns from another. In the Christian realm the apprentices called a disciple.

What does Donald Trump good at? Tiger Woods? Martha Stewart? Charles Schwab? Jesus Christ? Let's see, turn the other cheek… At Jesus’ trial the soldiers beat him and spit upon him then they crucified him; like a lamb led to the slaughter he did not defend himself in anyway. This is just one, yes; it was his passion, his glory. There were many other experiences not quite so traumatic. Do you want to be Jesus apprentice knowing that his passion for people needs to be yours?

George Barna asked people what Christians were like. The answer he received was they were judge-mental, selfish, unloving, unaccepting, and stuck-up. How could it be that Christians who are the apprentices of Jesus are seen as so different from him? Maybe we as Christians learn about him without becoming like him.

Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe what Jesus believed? We can become extraordinary of what Jesus was extraordinary at. Are you an apprentice or just an admirer? An apprentice is one who follows Jesus. Notice what he said and did.

I. Turning your cheek

Matthew 5:38, 39, Turning the other cheek. This is not so easy when you've been hit on one side. A slap on the face was the ultimate personal insult for a Jew. And now Jesus is telling us to turn the other one. Impossible!

Here Jesus is doing something he often does, which is to contrast how things generally run among human beings with what life looks like in the kingdom of God. In the case of dealing with angry people, conventional wisdom of his day, you have heard that it was said, suggests that when someone hurts you, you should hurt them back. If you have any doubts about the universality of this tendency, just watch a couple of two or three year-old brothers or sisters playing for five minutes.

However, in the kingdom of God, but I tell you, it is not so. Don't resist evil, don't meet violence with violence. In the kingdom of God, the commitment to offer love transcends the automatic desire to hurt back. Jesus is saying here that his followers must make a basic decision: My commitment to act in love is not contingent on the behavior of any other human being. My commitment to other people as a follower of Jesus Christ is to seek always to respond in love.

This does not mean that my commitment is always to become a doormat. A loving response to anger might well involve confrontation and difficult words. Jesus point is not that I might never do something that might cause of another person pain. He is simply say that his followers are to be liberated from the world's system that automatically says, “You hurt me and I hurt you back.” It might help to consider the context.

In part, he was speaking to the ways of the scribes and Pharisees. In rabbinic tradition each person was permitted to retaliate up to the letter of the law of an eye for an eye. (Leviticus 24:17-20), The law of retaliation. Each person was permitted to be, in effect, judge, jury and executioner. The original law was a fair one; it kept people from forcing the offender to pay a greater price then the offense deserved. It also prevented people from taking personal revenge. Jesus replaced the law with an attitude: be willing to suffer loss yourself rather than cause another to suffer. The person who retaliates only makes himself and the offender feel worse; and the result is war and not peace. Thus Jesus is speaking to their legalism and to ours.

Several other Bible texts can help us further in this issue. Matthew 7:12, The Golden rule.

Proverbs 24:29, Repaying evil.

Matthew 5:41, Another mile. Occasions of irritation to the Jews were constantly arising from their contact with the Romans. Troops were stationed at different places throughout Judea and Galilee and their presence reminded the people that they were enslaved to Rome. They hated to hear the blasts of the trumpet and see the troops forming around the standard of Rome. They hated to bow in homage to this symbol of power. Incidence between the people and the soldiers were frequent and these inflamed the people’s hatred. Sometimes as a Roman official with his guard of soldiers went from place to place he would grab a Jewish peasant who was laboring in the field and make him carry burdens up the mountainside or render any other service that might be needed. This was in accordance with a Roman law and custom and resistance would only cause threats and sometimes cruelty. Each day the people wanted to be free from the Roman yoke. And the people looked to Jesus, hoping that he was the one who would humble the pride of Rome. Jesus taught the opposite from what they wanted to hear. “If the Roman makes you carry his stuff for a mile,” the limits of Roman law, “offer to go two miles.”

This approach goes against all our natural reactions. Defending ourselves, standing up for our rights, refusing to accept unfair treatment -- that's more like our response. But God has good reasons for us to go the extra mile. Christ is our example. These are the principles of the Kingdom of God, not to do the natural thing but the supernatural.

Does this mean Christians are supposed to be gutless wonders? No, but more and more I realize that truly following Christ and living by his principles calls for a commitment that sometimes will appear naïve and unreasonable. What must the Roman soldiers have thought of Jesus when they were spitting on him, mocking him, crushing the crown of thorns onto his head, and he never uttered a word? Was he a spineless wimp? No. Sometimes a servant's attitude looks that way to others, even to other Christians. It differs radically from most behavior, but it should be the norm for Christians.

Turning the other cheek is not an act of passive cowardice but of action designed to exert the maximum of moral pressure on the enemy. Gandhi and Martin Luther King understood this as a most potent kind of offense – one involving profound moral force -- even though an apparent defensive action. In order to turn the other cheek, we must stay were we are and not run away. This demands both faith and love. It also means that we will be hurt, but it is better to be hurt on the outside then to be harmed on the inside. It further means that we should try to help the attacker. We are vulnerable, because he may attack us again. Ill. I attacked Johnny. Psychologists tell us that violence is born of weakness, not strength. It is the strong man who can love and suffer hurt; it is a weak man who thinks only of himself and hurts others to protect him. He hurts others then runs away to protect himself. Our goal is not just to find ways to experience less hassle in a world of cranky people. Our goal is to become agents of the Kingdom of God, to penetrate the age of rage.

What do we do when someone next to us is being attacked -- say, a defenseless child? What does turning the other cheek mean to my wife or daughter who is about to be assaulted by a sex maniac? Even Jesus cared for those who were with him when he faced the enemy. John 18:8, Let these others go.

John 18:36, My servants would fight. Paul mentions those ministers of God who are likened to our police force being put here for our protection. Romans 13:4, He has a sword. With encouragement, cooperation, and my taxes there may be times when I can share in their ministry. 1 Timothy 5:8, Provide for your own. Providing for includes protection.

The Christian is involved in a duel set of obligations that sometimes appear to conflict with each other. On the one hand he has been given the trust of providing for his family and surely this must include their safety. On the other hand he is required to love everyone.

It is not enough to suggest that we just pray to God and everything will be all right. Pray, yes. Prayer is vital. But, prayer is not a magical solution to difficult problems. Prayer is the means by which we draw on the resources of heaven. And prayer is the means by which we store up such resources in advance of the crisis moment so that when we find ourselves in the middle of something unpleasant we can act as if God has prepared us well.

When faced with the threat of personal injury the Christian is to adopt the posture of nonviolent vulnerability as a weapon of supreme moral power. But he must also be realistic enough to recognize that its effectiveness depends upon the capacity of the enemy to respond. Sometimes bad things happen to good people. Ill. Ft. Myers murder. God will be with me in any situation. Ill. Nelson Mandela.

Following Jesus makes a man more responsible, not less, stronger not weaker, active rather than passive, gives courage in place of cowardice -- and, above all, helps us to know what has to be done and gives us the moral presence to do what has to be done in the right way and for the right reasons.

II. Give freely

Matthew 5:40, If you are sued? This is not an easy saying. Like the turning of the cheek, this saying about being sued hits us at the center of our self defensiveness.

In order to understand what Jesus is telling us, we need to look a bit more at his words. The tunic was a saclike inner garment made of cotton or Lenin. All but the poorest person would have a change of tunics. The cloak, on the other hand was the warm, blanket like outer garment that a person wore as a robe by day and used as a blanket at night. The average person would have only one cloak.

Jewish law held that a person's tunic might be taken as a pledge, but not a person's cloak, unless it was returned by sundown. (Exodus 22:26, 27) The point is that by law a person's cloak could not be permanently taken.

What is Jesus saying to us? He is giving us counsel we do not want to hear. He is telling us that a concern for our rights is not to be at the center of our Christian walk. Once again Jesus is telling us that we need to die to our own selves. William Barclay puts it: The Christian is one who has forgotten that he has any rights at all; and he who will fight to the death for his legal rights is far from the Christian way.

Jesus’ teaching about the cloak means we have died to self. That was the lesson in the preceding verse also. There it had to do with our person; here it has to do with our possessions. Jesus really does expect us to be like him.

Matthew 5:42, Give to him. How many of you receive letters in the mail asking for money? Not much door-to-door solicitation is done today. This afternoon many are going out to the community giving a book away, not asking for money.

This church receives numerous calls a week for people asking for money. Sometimes people come by the church personally requesting money and help. But we do not personally help everyone who calls. Many times we refer them to other organizations here in town like Interfaith Assistance Ministries or The Salvation Army or others. Sometimes that bothers me. As I read in the Gospels I do not find any place where Jesus refused anyone anything they asked for. The only exception I have found is when the church leaders asked Jesus for a miraculous sign to prove who he was. He refused that. But no one who came to him asking for anything else went away empty. And so the words that Jesus says ring in my ears, give to him who asks. Jesus always cared for the poor. In his statement to answer John the Baptist, “Are you the one?”Matthew 11:4, 5, Gospel to the poor. Jesus did to say there were some things more important than giving to the poor. Matthew 26:8-11, His anointing.

Ill. Years ago a person would walk 5 or 10 miles to someone's home and asked for help, a meal, or a place to stay. He often received what he needed. Today people sit in front of their phone books and call a dozen churches on the telephone asking for help. I tell myself that there is a difference.

The first one puts forth physical effort, demonstrating his need and his humility. This is often rewarded as simply a handout or at least a way to earn what he needs.

The second is a voice on the phone, maybe faint, maybe sad sounding, but still little effort is put forth, but often there is great expectation for help. That is not to say that the individual calling on the phone is any less in need, just less obviously in need.

Years ago personal help came because it was obvious and in simpler times people were more likely to recognize another’s simple needs. Today we send people to various agencies that are here for that purpose. Unfortunately that can cause us to make a habit of just passing people off to someone else, not wishing to personally be involved in their case and soon forget them. That is one of the dangers of living in a technical logically advanced and communication enhanced age.

The principal Jesus gives, the poor you will always have with you, means we should always help, not just for them but for us. We need to help others to hold our selfishness and materialism in check. We also need to demonstrate faith in God.

Conclude: The whole earthly life of Jesus was a manifestation of this principle. It was to bring the bread of life to earth that our Savior left his home in heaven. Though he received persecution his whole life, only expressions of forgiving love came forth from him. Isaiah 50:6, My back and cheeks were hit.

Turning the other cheek might mean we suffer allot, many of us already suffer and we want the suffering to end. Ill. Many are broken inside, I am. There are things that bother me that are bigger than I am. There are issues I deal with that break the inside. I will go into the details but I need Jesus everyday.

The father's presence encircled Christ and nothing came to him but that which God permitted for the blessing of the world. Here was his source of comfort and it is for us. You and I who have the spirit of Christ can abide in him. Nothing can touch us except by our Lord's permission and all things that are permitted work for our good. Ill. Blind vengeance. Ill. Gandhi on violence.

I would encourage you to pray for those who are going out this afternoon, passing out a book about the 10 Commandments to our community. Some people may not like it. Some say this is not for me. That's okay. There are other ways to show we care. But, our world is dying for lack of Jesus alive in their life. This is just a small way to touch our community.

Ill. Radio, turn it on, created to make radio waves available. You and I were created to make Jesus live in the world.

Turn your Cheek
Sermon on the Mount VI
Possible screen info

Matthew 5:38, 39, Turning the other cheek

Matthew 7:12, The Golden rule

Proverbs 24:29, Repaying evil

Matthew 5:41, Another mile

John 18:8, Let these others go

John 18:36, My servants would fight

Romans 13:4, He has a sword

1 Timothy 5:8, Provide for your own

Matthew 5:40, If you are sued?

Matthew 5:42, Give to him

Matthew 11:4, 5, Gospel to the poor

Matthew 26:8-11, His anointing

Isaiah 50:6, My back and cheeks were hit