God’s Love, Our Love

Matthew 5:38-48

Immanuel – 1/28/24

According to OpenDoors.org (a persecution watchdog), some of the worst persecution on earth is presently happening in Eritrea; much of which is so-called “Christian on Christian” violence. Eritrea’s neighbor, Ethiopia, is on the brink of all-out chaos and war; conflict driven by rampant tribalism. Just across the Red Sea there is war in Yemen. War between Israel and Hamas. War between Ukraine and Russia. Cartel wars in Mexico.

And our land is deeply entrenched in a divisive battle for ideas and identity. We see the mounting casualties of this culture war reflected through the unprecedented levels of depression, anxiety, and suicide – especially among our youth.

Ours is a world filled with violence, pride, selfishness, and lusts as diverse as its people. Can anything subjugate the raging of these nations? Can anyone speak peace over these violent storms?

The prophet Daniel speaks of such a One. He writes,

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before Him. And to Him was given a dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. -Daniel 7:13-14

In Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Man has come, the Christ, the King of kings. Only this Prince of Peace can quiet the raging of the nations. It is finished, and so it shall be!

Paul writes, For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

-1 Corinthians 15:25-26

Jesus has brought His death defeating, enemy subjecting, peace proliferating, life transforming kingdom unto earth. It is here. We are in it. We are a part of it. And through the Sermon on the Mount, Christ lifts the veil and gives us eyes to see a kingdom beyond sight – the kingdom in our midst (Luke 17:21).

Perhaps more profoundly than any other part of the Sermon on the Mount, our passage today gives shape and color to the otherworldly kingdom of heaven.

Purpose

1. The kingdom of God is governed by the law of love.

2. As far as the heavens are above the earth, so is God’s love above ours.

When Jesus went down to the water and was baptized in the Jordan, John protested. He couldn’t imagine why the promised Messiah could possibly need to receive a baptism of repentance. Jesus responded with,

“Let it be so now, for this it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.”

-Matthew 3:15

This whole section of the Sermon on the Mount – from verse 17 to the end of the chapter – shows how truly Jesus is the fulfillment of all righteousness; and His is a righteousness far exceeding the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

Read vs 17, 20

Through anger, lust, divorce, and oaths we’ve now seen how Jesus is the fulfillment of both the law and righteousness. Today we come to the very core of the Mosaic Law, to the beating heart of righteousness. We come to the unlegislated, unrestrained, otherworldly, law of love: heaven’s love/God’s love.

Read vs 38

Twice we hear Christ utter these words today: “You have heard that it was said…but I say to you.” Again, Jesus is neither abolishing nor minimizing the Mosaic Law. He is setting up a contrast between the Mosaic Law (or how people had come to interpret it) and the law of the kingdom of heaven. It’s a contrast between hand and heart, desire and action.

Remember those 4 points that Jesus’ contrast sets us up for:

1. Jesus is pointing to desires rather than behaviors.

2. No amount of rule following or avoidance of sin can produce the righteousness that God demands.

3. Jesus is moving His followers away from rule following and into open ended pursuit of Him.

4. Jesus satisfies those who hunger and thirst for righteousness with His own righteousness.

Read vs 38

This comes from a few longer passages in the Mosaic Law. Here is one:

But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

-Exodus 21:23-25

The idea is that whatever harm has been caused, the offending party would receive a proportionate penalty. It’s a just protection in two directions. First, the perpetrator would not “get off easy” and the injured party would receive justice. Secondly, the perpetrator would not receive a consequence greater than the offense he committed (like the escalating blood-feuds common in the ancient world). Thus, the perpetrator would receive justice for his offense, and no more.

Eye for eye, tooth for tooth: it’s fair, even if it is loveless and brutal. And then Jesus begins to set up the contrast.

Read vs 39

Otherworldly Love

For a right-handed person to slap someone on the right cheek means they must use the back of the hand. Since Jesus lived in a culture that valued the right hand over the left, that’s what Jesus is talking about: a backhanded slap to the face. To the first century Jew, there was no greater offense than a backhanded slap to the face. Even today it’s spectacularly offensive.

If someone offends you – even in the most spectacular, demeaning, humiliating, degrading, way - Offer them the opportunity to do it again; present them with the other cheek. This is so entirely unlike the laws that govern the hearts of men!

“Stand up for yourself!” “Protect yourself!” “Don’t let anyone disrespect you like that!” “Fight back!”

But remember again Jesus’ words from verse 5.

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” -Matthew 5:5

The last thing that meek is, is weak. Meekness is strength deferred; power held back. It would be like having the power to fight back and destroy your opponent, but instead you turn the other cheek. That’s powerful meekness.

Read vs 40

To lose your tunic would be to lose the shirt off of your back. Jesus is effectively saying, “If someone takes you to court, and they take everything from you, offer them more.” But to offer someone your cloak, that was a step very few would be willing to take.

Since ancient times, a cloak was considered a basic human right. No one was allowed to deprive a person of their cloak.

If ever you take your neighbor’s cloak in pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering, and it is his cloak for his body; in what else shall he sleep? And if he cries to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

-Exodus 22:26-27

According to Mosaic Law, no one was allowed to take your cloak from you. It was forbidden. It was a basic human right. But what your adversary has no right to claim, the disciple of Christ may freely offer.

In the context of the church, let this attitude be even more pronounced. For as Paul writes:

To have lawsuits at all with one another [in the church] is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? -1 Corinthians 6:7

Why not give up your rights for the sake of others, even if it is humiliating and impoverishing? Are you willing? Even more, as Christ is saying, are you willing to give away your most basic rights to those who would greedily take it from you?

Read vs 41

If you lived within a Roman occupied territory, the Romans could – at any time – enlist you into temporary forced labor. One of the ways they did this was to force people along the road to work as porters. Under the threat of severe penalty, you would be forced to drop everything and carry their heavy loads. (A mile was a Roman measurement, not a Jewish one).

This is exactly what happens when Jesus is too weak to carry his own cross and the Romans force Simon of Cyrene to take it the rest of the way to Golgotha.

I can just imagine being headed somewhere with some agenda on my mind when an arrogant oppressor forces me to drop everything and immediately work for him. And I could do nothing but comply, though everything inside would rage against it. I would be degraded, and fuming. But it would be even more infuriating as I watch this happen to the weak and downtrodden. It would make me want to take up arms, to become a zealot!

But Jesus says, if you feel oppressed by someone, there’s someone trying to unjustly control you, domineers you, then submit to their demands. But don’t only submit to their demands, go the extra mile, exceed their expectations, overshadow their injustice with your meekness and generosity.

In our age dominated by real and imagined strata of oppression, how unnatural are Jesus’ words?

Read vs 42

Growing up in southeast Pennsylvania, I had many excursions into Philadelphia. Every street in Center City seems to have people asking for money. And Philly, especially right now, has a terrible drug problem. It’s so hard to justify giving money to anyone who’s asking for it.

Then I’ve been to destitute neighborhoods in Zambia, slums in Costa Rica, refugee camps in Iraq, where at any moment you can be surrounded by swarms of begging children. There’s no way I had enough for everyone, yet to give to one and not another would only heighten the tension and desperation of the moment.

But regardless of the situation, and whatever the beggar will do with your money, however impractical, Jesus says, “Give to the one who begs from you.” It’s unqualified, open ended, without restrictions. They ask, you give.

Similarly, if someone wants to borrow money, let them. If they ask, lend. Again, Jesus’ words are entirely without nuance, without any qualification.

But there is a sentence I have left out that takes each one of these four situations to the next level. In fact, this sentence takes these four situations to a level beyond any of our grasp. Truly, this is a righteousness only found in heaven. See this sentence in verse 39: Do not resist the one who is evil.

So, if the person who backhands you to the face is arrogant to the core and delights in your humiliation, give him your other cheek and take another. Give up your rights to the person who doesn’t care one bit about your rights; let him take it. Serve the person who actively, knowingly, oppresses you. Give money to the beggar, even if they immediately blow it on drugs and alcohol. Do not resist the one who is evil.

Jesus’ words are breathtaking; breathtakingly unnatural and impractical and unreasonable and impossible! If this is the law of the kingdom of heaven, then who could possibly live this way?!

But what we must remember again is that the law of the kingdom of God does not function like the laws of men. Jesus is not delivering dictates we are to obey with precision and rigidity.

For if you give to every beggar, you’ll soon have nothing left to give. If you let oppression go unchecked, oppression will grow. If everyone is supposed to give up their rights to evil men, then no one but the powerful will be right. And sometimes it is more loving to correct than just silently suffer abuse. Each situation calls for nuance and wisdom and a righteousness exceeding that of the Scribes and Pharisees.

Again, Jesus is not delivering dictates we are to obey with precision and rigidity. Rather, He is delivering a principle meant to govern our hearts, our lives. And should not this principle be so clear to us?

Through Christ’s words, see the complete lack of self-interest in the kingdom of heaven. His disciples are to be governed by the principle of self-sacrificial love. Let our own interests suffer, let us lay aside our rights, let us serve without reciprocation; if only for the good of another.

And then watch Jesus’ words get even more challenging. Our Lord takes us into absolutely revolutionary territory.

Read vs 43

The Law did command love for neighbor, but nowhere does it command hate for enemy. And yet that is how the Jews had mutated the Mosaic Law. They wanted to think only of fellow Jews as their neighbor.

They thought those on the outside, the Gentiles, they were not neighbors. They had no obligation to show love towards them. In fact, they could scorn the Gentiles, discriminate against them – and in effect – hate them. It was a twisting of the Law; one that Jesus will untwist through the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Read vs 44-45

Perfection

Love your enemy? Isn’t that oxy-moronic? Isn’t an enemy, by definition, someone you do not love?

Your enemy would see your harm. They are for your failure. They would take from you. They would persecute you. Pray for them.

Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, in verses 11-12, Jesus said, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice, and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.” Perhaps part of the blessing that the persecuted receive is the blessing of praying for those that have persecuted. In the kingdom of heaven, what a privilege it is to bless those who would curse you.

And truly it is a blessing because it marks you as sons and daughters of our Father who is in heaven. He indiscriminately rains blessings upon the just and the unjust. His love is unmeasured and vast.

Who else but the children of God could pray for those who actively, openly, oppressively, hate them?

And praying for your persecutor is just an expression of how we are to love our enemies. Oh, loving our enemies is so much higher than just being nice to them!

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. -1 Corinthians 13:4-8

More often than not, this passage is applied to marriage – and that is a good thing. But does this not also apply to how we are to love our enemies? In the face of hate, the disciples of Jesus are patient and kind, hoping, believing, enduring. We long to see that enemy reconciled unto God and reconciled unto man.

Read vs 46-47

Even the evil person from verse 39 loves those who love him. It is easy to love the people who love you. It’s comfortable to invite your friends into your home. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful thing to be with friends, to have people you’re comfortable with; but this is not the supernatural type of love than can only be found in the kingdom of God.

The love that can only be found in the kingdom of God is a love so deep, so selfless, that it spills out even upon enemies. And only the sons and daughters of God are marked by such otherworldly love.

Read vs 48

Be perfect as God is perfect. Can anything be more unachievable? Oh but praise this Perfect One, in whom there is no shred of selfish ambition or conceit.

Who though He was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself to the point of death, even death on a cross. -Philippians 2:6-8

Constantly surrounded by the begging masses, Jesus fed and healed and had compassion with unbounded patience and generosity. When on trial before that cursed cross, the Son of God was slapped in the face and spit upon.

He was forced to carry the Roman cross until His body gave way beneath its weight. They took his cloak and gambled it away, leaving Him to hang naked upon the cross. And in all of this, evil as His persecutors were, with supreme meekness, and love, Jesus gave no resistance. Instead, He prayed for those who persecuted him: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

There stripped of all dignity, in agony and shame, Jesus died for His enemies.

For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. -Romans 5:7-8

To all who believe, Jesus’ death turned aside God’s wrath towards you. Now through His resurrected life you shall live forevermore! You have been reconciled unto God, and now God speaks His command: “Be perfect as I am perfect.”

The world hears that as something impossible and absurd. But the Disciples of Christ hear His command like the unformed void once heard, “Let there be light.” “Let there be new creation, clothed in righteousness, perfect as I am perfect! Disciple, you are made new! Come alive!”

The law of the kingdom of God is no law of men. No amount of rule following or avoidance of sin can produce this perfection. Rather, we come to God in open-ended pursuit, hungry and thirsty to know Him and be known by Him, counting everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ. And if we seek Him first He will indeed satisfy us, body and soul.

And we will love with otherworldly love, for His love has become our love. How can we not? For we were the enemies transformed by His love. Who then are we to withhold love, even from the one who is evil?

So, when we see the beggar, the oppressor, the offensive individual, we are obligated by no regulations. Rather we are governed by an otherworldly love. Let us live as sons and daughters of the Perfect One, having ourselves been newly created to love as Christ loves.

The Prince of Peace has poured out His love upon us, and we have been given a peace that surpasses understanding. Christ subdues His enemies with love. And as His Ambassadors we are called to this community and to the ends of the earth, to love and watch the raging nations bow their knee.

For God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. -Philippians 2:9-11

And to Him was given a dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. -Daniel 7:14

For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

-1 Corinthians 15:25-26

For all those who would come to Him, His dominion is an everlasting dominion of love. We are enemies that have been subjected by love and He has promised to destroy our death. Oh enemies of God, we implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled unto God. For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:20-21), righteousness fulfilled by faith in Christ, newly made perfect as God is perfect.

1(2023) Eritrea. Open Doors. https://www.opendoors.org/en-US/persecution/countries/eritrea/