Revenge (or Not)

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You would never have heard of the Hatfields and McCoys if either of those families believed Jesus. Lots of folks say they believe in Jesus; they just don’t believe Him, especially when He says things like this:

“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 someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” (Matthew 5:38-39)

It’s understandable for people to doubt that teaching. The urge to get revenge is so deeply seated in us and feels so satisfying, that Jesus’ teaching seems preposterous. I would guess that no other theme has been more predominant in movies than the one in which the good guy finally gets tasty revenge over the bad guy. And yet Jesus says, don’t do it. Instead, make a decision to not resist.

Jesus isn’t talking about cowering in fear. He means for us to turn the tables on our adversary, by responding generously to his hurt or his need. He continued with this:

“And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” (Matthew 5:40-42)

These teachings go together; the same Spirit that governs and enables the second part, also informs and directs the first. Without that Spirit, they seem ridiculous and are impossible to sustain. With God’s Spirit, they fit together with beauty and grace. The best illustration I know of how powerful and healing such actions can be is in another movie: Les Miserables. If you have seen it, think about the gift of candlesticks to the thief, and all that ensued. In you have not seen it, there’s your homework! Do it today!

When a person recognizes Jesus as God, understands the depth and sincerity of the love He poured out on the cross, and fully trusts Him, God’s Spirit begins to live in his or her soul. As He begins to transform our minds, things like not taking revenge but responding to an evil person with grace and understanding, that made no sense before, now seem not only beautiful, but also possible.

Honesty

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It is okay to lie, as long as you have your fingers crossed. At least that was the rule we had as kids. Now the rule is: you can lie, as long as you explain it in the fine print. That’s what they told you when you filed that insurance claim, right? In Jesus’ day they had rules about lying, too. Everyone assumed you were shading the truth, unless you took an oath. The extent to which you could lie under oath (government officials, listen up!) was determined by what you were swearing by. If it was something sacred or highly valuable, then you had to mostly tell the truth. If not… well, then the rules loosened up a bit.

Jesus blasted through all this insanity by saying;

“Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but keep the oaths you have made to the Lord.’ But I tell you, Do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.
 (Matthew 5:33-37)

Say what you mean and mean what you say. God’s design is for people to tell the truth. Imagine that! Sounds easy, until you consider all of our unwritten rules for “white lies.” But imagine a world in which “Do I look fat in this?” was a real request for honest input, and there was no implied compulsion for a reply that was anything other than the truth. Much easier, much more relaxed, I think. I have lived in cities where everyone assumed you were likely to lie (two forms of id, please…). I’ve lived in small towns where everyone assumed you were telling the truth. I’ll take the latter, any day.

The startling thing here is Jesus’ assertion that anything less comes from Satan, the evil one. Next time you lie (statistics say adults do so on average about 3 times an hour!) think deeply about the root of your motives. See if “the evil one” isn’t peeking out from behind them…

Tell the truth.

Divorce

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You can’t take a marriage apart; you can only break it apart. It’s not like a clock, where you can disassemble the gears and levers. It is more like epoxy, in that once it has been mixed together and made, it is no longer possible to “unmix” it. That is why divorce hurts – hurts everybody involved and even some who aren’t involved. That’s why God said He “hates divorce” (Malachi 2:16), because he hates it when we hurt ourselves. If you don’t believe those blunt statements, I would invite you to talk with thildren, parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters, co-workers and bosses who have shared with me their gaping wounds from divorce. Divorce is not how God designed it to be.

In Jesus’ day, divorce was considered to be okay, provided the husband gave his wife a certificate, which would allow her to remarry. In the conditions of that culture, a divorcee almost had to remarry – it was either that, move in with her parents or starve. Jesus challenged that understanding with this:

“It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to become an adulteress, and anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.” (Matthew 5:31-32)

If you define “adultery” as the act of sexual intercourse with someone other than your spouse, these teachings don’t make sense. But if you define “adultery” as breaking the covenant of oneness that God established in marriage, then they do. A divorced woman is (in that culture) forced to remarry, which forces her to do something that violates her covenant of oneness with her (former) husband. Once again, Jesus teaches that righteousness is not achieved by drawing a line and then not stepping over it. Righteousness is found in wholeheartedly pursuing the rhythm and flow of how God designed life to be lived.

It is ironic that many have used this teaching to justify divorce, saying “Since my spouse was unfaithful, if I divorce him or her I haven’t stepped over the line and sinned.” Jesus meant “Don’t force your wife to break her covenant of oneness – that is, unless she has already done so.”

Adultery

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“I did not have sex with that woman!”  Bill Clinton’s approach to morality was the ordinary one: Draw a line that defines what is going too far, and then you can tiptoe up to the line, as long as you do not step over it.  Sex, in his mind, was defined by the act of intercourse; as long as he did not cross that line, in his mind, he was not guilty.

Jesus’ view of morality is extraordinary.  Doing the right thing is not about staying on the good side of some arbitrary line; it’s about pursuing the heartbeat of God with all your heart.  It’s. about devoting oneself to the greater purpose behind a line or a law.

Jesus knew that a central component in God’s design for humanity was a covenant marriage relationship between a man and woman, established and maintained by faithfulness.  Not faithfulness as defined by Bill Clinton but faithfulness of the heart.  So He said:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’  But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”. (Matthew 5:27-28)

Jesus taught that God’s intent was not to prevent adultery, as narrowly defined by a sexual act, but to foster marriage, as defined by a heart oneness between the husband and wife.  Any act that breaks that oneness, even an unfulfilled lustful longing of the heart, is an act of adultery, since it damages the oneness of marriage.  If that seems extreme to you, think about how damaging even the suspicion of unfaithfulness is to the harmony of a marriage. 

That teaching was so radically different from the commonly held Bill Clinton approach, that Jesus shook them up with this:

“If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away.  It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.”  (Matthew 5:29 – Jesus continues this thought in verse 30)

Jesus was not advocating self-mutilation.  As you know, the eye only follows instructions from the heart…   Jesus was startling people with hyperbole in order to underlline how seriously flawed their understanding of morality in marriage was. 

2000 years later, human attitudes toward faithfulness and marriage have not improved.  But Jesus wasn’t joking and God’s design for how things work hasn’t changed. 

Murder

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“You gob of spit!”  Ever call someone that?  They did in Jesus’ day – the Hebrew word for it was “Raca,” which, if you pronounced it with a sloppy, wet “hhhhchhhr” sound at the front end, sounded about like hawking up a Louie (is that how you spell Louie?  Lewie?  Don’t know…).

Anyhow, if you did that, Jesus says,  you are just as far out of bounds with the Law of God as you would be if you murdered him!  It wasn’t the word, spit, that was so bad. He said,

“Anyone who says, “You fool!” will be in danger of the fire of hell.”. (Matthew 5:22b).

Well, He certainly had the Pharisees attention, because they badmouthed people all the time.  He’s got my attention, too.  There have been times…   probably for you, too.  Can Jesus be serious?

Jesus had just said, “For I tell you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”  (Matthew 5:20).  Jesus is serious, but He is also radically redefining what it means to be righteous.
Here is the deal.  The common religious idea is that righteousness is a matter of not doing bad things.  What are bad things?  The religion makes a rule, draws a line, and says, “Anyone who steps over that line is unrighteous.”  Jesus, however, says righteousness is more about what you do than what you do not do.  It’s not about not stepping over the line but rather, turning around and going as far as you can in the opposite direction.

In the case of murder, it’s not about stopping short of shooting someone, but turning around and repairing anything that has caused separation between the two of you.  Even your own caustic mutterings.
Jesus says,  (No matter what seems more important – even taking a gift to church) …” go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.” (Matthew First 5:24 – with my paraphrase of 23)

See the idea of this?  the righteous person does not stay angry with his brother, but does whatever is necessary to repair the broken relationship. 

Good Enough?

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How good do you have to be to get to heaven?  For most people, the answer is, “As good as me…  I hope…”. In Jesus’ day the Pharisees thought the bar was set very high and literally spent their every waking hour trying to follow God’s commands.  Then along comes Jesus, teaching that it isn’t the self-righteous who get to heaven, but the people who know they are unrighteous, the spiritually bankrupt.  (See the previous posts .).

Imagine being one of those Pharisees, working hard to be good enough for God, and then hearing some guy from Nazareth suggest that the spiritual losers were doing better than they were! 

Then Jesus made 4 radically confusing statements:
1 – He said He wasn’t abolishing the scriptures, but fulfilling them. (Matthew 5:17)
2 – He said all of scripture would remain intact, even down to the tiniest punctuation marks, until “all things are accomplished.”
3 – He said “Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven…’ (and vice versa – Matthew 5:19)

And then, when he had them really scratching their heads, He really made them furious:
4 – “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”. (Matthew 5:20)

Huh?  All the commands are essential, right down to the tiniest marks, but in order to get into heaven, you have to do much, much better than the guys who specialized in strict obedience to the laws?   If you are confused, good, because that is what Jesus was trying to do.  He knew that righteousness had very little to do with strict obedience and more to do with what was going on inside our hearts. 

In the next section of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus explains true righteousness, giving several challenging examples.

Stay tuned…

By the Book

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Maybe it seems that because the Bible was written so long ago, and since we understand so much more today, that we should rewrite it, to bring it in line with modern customs and attitudes.  But not according to Jesus – and He knew what He was talking about when He said:

“I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”. (Matthew 5:18)

Jesus wasn’t being vague.  Even the tiniest mark was important and would not be changed until the end of the age.  You’ve heard how a comma can save lives: “Let’s eat, Grandma” is a lot different than “Let’s eat Grandma!” 

By Jesus’ clear meaning, it is dangerous for us to assume we can overhaul the Bible’s teachings.  When we changed the rules for sex, the consequences in divorce and children born to a single mother have been much greater than anyone would have predicted.  Now the definition of marriage has been rewritten.  Buckle up; get ready for a bumpy ride…

But, you may wonder, if Jesus meant what He said, why did He proclaim all foods okay to eat, why did He break the rules for the Sabbath and develop a reputation as a drunkard and glutton?

The answer has to do with what righteousness is.  The religious leaders defined righteousness as a list of rules (over 600!) that one must not break.  Jesus had a very different understanding of what righteousness is. 

We’ll chew on that next time.

Filled to the Brim

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When the religious mucky-mucks accused Jesus of breaking God’s laws, Jesus threw them a curve.  He said,

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets (the Scriptures); I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.”  (Matthew 5:17)

When you think of the word, fulfill, think about getting a drink at McDonald’s.  You pay for the drink, but they hand you an empty cup.  You have to go over to the machine and fill it up.  You “full fill” it.  But in another sense, it is not until you actually take a drink from the cup that you have completely fulfilled its purpose.  When Jesus said He came to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, He meant both of those senses of the word.  He was going to fill the scriptures up with all they were intended to hold, and He was going to make those scriptures usable so we could really drink from them. 

He filled the scriptures up in several different ways.  For example, He fulfilled specific prophecies, such as the ones that told of His birth and His death.  He brought the descriptions of the character of God to life – filled them up with the tangible example of His life – showing people what it looked like that God was loving and forgiving and that He was with us. 

Some of the events in the history of Israel were arranged by God to foreshadow the work of the Messiah.  For example, when Moses rescued the people from slavery in Egypt and led them to the Promised Land, those events foreshadowed the work of Jesus in rescuing people from slavery to sin and leading them to eternal life.  Jesus filled those prophetic hints full.  The sacrifices God commanded people to make, to temporarily atone for sin, were “fulfilled” by Jesus’ one time, complete sacrifice of atonement.

Other parts of the scriptures were commands.  They told people about some of the ways we could live in harmony with His principles ( Do not steal, do not lie, etc.).  Jesus took these incomplete sketches of righteousness and filled them full.  His life was the perfect example of what it looks like to live in harmony with God.  

But the scriptures as a whole were given by God for the purpose of connecting us to Him.  If the purpose of a cup is not fulfilled until we drink, then the purpose of the Law and the Prophets is not fulfilled until we fully connect to God.  Jesus fulfilled them by connecting us to God through faith in Him.

The religious authorities were threatened and angry that Jesus would imply that the Bible was more than a list of rules, that it was incomplete without Him.  But you can decide who was right.  How?  By taking a drink! 
Isaiah said,

“Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters…”. (Isaiah 55:1a)

Jesus fulfilled that; He said,

“If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within Him.”. (John 7:37b-38)

Breaking the Rules

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Why was Jesus such a threat to  religious people?  A lot of it was because He seemed to be breaking the rules of their religion.  God said,  “Don’t do any work on the Sabbath.” Religious people were very strict in deciding what actions constituted work, so they could be sure they didn’t break that rule. 

They still are, today!  In Jerusalem,  Orthodox Jewish leaders have decreed that pushing elevator buttons is work.  Consequently, the hotel elevators are programmed to stop at every floor on the Sabbath.  But Jesus didn’t seem to care about or obey their rules about the Sabbath.  There were no elevators, but Jesus sure pushed a lot of buttons, especially on the Sabbath – healing people, walking too far, and picking grain to eat. 

When religious people are threatened by people who don’t obey their rules.  If they can’t make them conform, they throw them out and badmouth them so others won’t be corrupted.  That’s what they did to Jesus (and much worse). 

You can see why they got the idea  Jesus didn’t respect the Scriptures.  But they were wrong – wrong about the rules and wrong about Jesus’ attitude toward the Scriptures (in those days called “The Law and the Prophets). 

That’s why there was much scratching of heads when Jesus said:

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.  I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:17-18)

How could this teaching fit with Jesus’ apparent disregard for the rules of the religious?   Chew on that and try to figure it out.  Next time we’ll try to unpack what it means to “fulfill” the Law.

THE SHINING

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My friend, Jacques (not his real name), hated Christians – that is, until one day he met Jesus. I don’t know how that happened, only what happened next: Jacques and his wife sold everything they owned and gave the money to the poor, keeping just enough to get them to Denver and pay for one semester of seminary. You should have seen how God took care of that amazing couple. When we graduated, Jacques couldn’t be bothered with the ceremony; he had to get to Haiti as fast as he could to work among the poor. Jacques and his wife left Denver the same way they came, took the first plane to Haiti and started helping people. He picked up some gnarly Haitian disease and died not so many months later. Jacques shone like a welder at midnight.

Jesus said:
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

Not many of us are called to do what Jacques did. But when we follow Jesus, wherever we are, we are meant to light up the place. Jesus talked about acts as simple as a cup of water for someone who is thirsty. Light shines.
It is important to understand Who does the shining. In Jesus’ day, the light from a lamp was fueled by oil. No oil inside, no light. We are filled and fueled by Jesus’ Holy Spirit. Let Him do the shining.