The End of Revenge

Sara Phillippi

Sermon on the Mount • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

Matthew 5:38–42

Forgiveness

Revenge

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As I read a chapter book to my children about some missionaries in Ecuador, something stuck out to me, and it’s something that I have pondered over the course of the last few weeks. What if we lived in a culture that had no word for forgiveness? How would society function today if we had no understanding of forgiveness?

We were reading a story about Nate Saint and his fellow missionaries who gave their lives trying to reach a remote tribe in the Amazon Rain Forest. You may be more familiar with the name Jim Elliot, as he was also on this expedition with Nate. The Auca tribe, also known as the Waorani tribe, was known for their brutality. They quickly killed any invaders because they wanted to protect their tribe. Knowing the Auca’s past, five missionaries decided that it was worth the risk and flew into the heart of the Amazon to reach the Auca tribe with the good news of Jesus. They had spent months flying over the Auca’s small community of huts, dropping gifts for them, in order to prepare for the day when they’d see them face to face. After these friendly exchanges, they decided it was time to land the plane and invite these men and women to their tree house. They spent days standing in the river, shouting in the Auca language to come see them. And one day, three villagers appeared. A man and two women came out of the forest and spent the day with the missionaries. It was a very exciting time for all of them, the men too the tribesman up in the plane and flew him over his village. All of the villagers were amazed by this. Once these three visitors left, the missionaries anticipated the arrival of the other members of the tribe. It took a few days fr that interaction to take place, and unfortunately it did not go to plan.

The Auca men snuck up on the missionaries, who were unarmed, and speared them all to death. You see, the three villagers went back to their tribe, and because of cultural issues, they lied and told the tribe that the missionaries were unfriendly and forced them to stay the night at their camp. The young man and woman did not want their tribe to think that they had spent the night alone together in the forest, so they lied to cover up their actions. Then the chief took the opportunity to weave tales of all the white men had done to harm their tribe. By daybreak, the warriors were ready to get revenge. And they did.

We look at this tribe and we think to ourselves, “how uncivilized, I’m so glad we’re not like them.” How easy it is for us to label “them” because they choose to act out the revenge that is buried in their hearts. But I want us to examine our lives today and see if any of the Auca ways are alive and well in our own hearts.

In the next portion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ w 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. 40 And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. 42 Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”

The principle of proportionate retribution was older and more widely recognized than the Mosaic law. Today, we read these laws and think that they are quite barbaric, but compared to other cultures, they were more lenient than most. In ancient times, severe punishments were the common way to handle criminals. God wanted His people to handle things justly and mercifully. The intention of the law, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, was given back in Exodus, then again in Leviticus and Deuteronomy, with the intention that the judges would give fair disciplinary measures. The saying, let the punishment fit the crime stems from these laws.

By the time Jesus is addressing the crowd, He has already laid the foundation for heart transformation. He has already identified the heart issues that had gone unchecked for far too long, and now He is changing their paradigm once again. The laws that were supposed to provide justice and mercy had given way to personal vendettas of revenge. Instead of letting the judges do their job, people were taking these laws into their own hands, making sure that those who hurt them paid for their crimes.

Again, it’s easy for us to sit here in our church and think, “I’m so glad I don’t take revenge on my enemies.” But I am here to say that revenge is alive and well. It may not be an eye for an eye kind of revenge, but it could be a nasty post made in retaliation to a political policy, or a snide remark made when we’ve been falsely accused of something.

Revenge is not the way of Christ.

Whenever we are insulted or persecuted in any way, our flesh immediately seeks revenge. The slap on the cheek that Jesus is referring to is the backhanded blow which was often used to put people in their place. This is more of an insulting action rather than physical violence. Jesus is implying that if any of His followers are insulted, they must not seek revenge. They should instead, turn the other cheek without pausing in the middle to curse their oppressor. That’s where we get in trouble. We play the victim after we’ve been insulted, and as we turn our head to let our oppressor give us another blow, we stop in the middle and tell them exactly what we think of them. As we turn our other cheek to those who insult us, our mouths should remain closed.

This was how Jesus lived His life. He never let the words or actions of those who hated Him stop Him from what He came to do. Isaiah 50:6 prophecies about Jesus, “I offered my back to those who beat me,

my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;

I did not hide my face

from mocking and spitting.”

And then Jesus fulfilled this prophecy in Matthew 26:67 when Jesus was being assaulted before His crucifixion. “Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him and said, “Prophesy to us, Messiah. Who hit you?” And Jesus kept His mouth shut. The entire time, as He was being insulted, He didn’t say anything, and He didn’t seek revenge. By turning the other cheek, He rose above the actions of those mocking Him, and did what He had to do.

There are so many avenues that people can use to insult us and mock us. They rarely do it face to face anymore, instead they hide behind screens and do it behind our backs. But the blow hurts just as much. In those moments of insult and mockery, we have a choice to make. Will we seek revenge, or will we turn the other cheek?

2. Self -control is the way of Christ.

This fruit of the Spirit is often left out of our prayers because we have forgotten about the power it holds. Self- control allows us to keep our mouths shut when we need to. It is holy restraint when we want to retaliate. Self- Control is evidence of our identity in Christ which lets us stand strong even when people are trying to tear us apart. Proverbs 16:32, “Better a patient person than a warrior, one with self-control than one who takes a city.” The Holy Spirit gives us His power through self-control. Those who remain controlled in a volatile situation hold the power in that situation.

Jesus calls us to lay down our issues of revenge by turning the other cheek, then He goes on to challenge us to lay down our rights and our property. He says, “If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well.”

According to Exodus 22:25-27, “If you lend money to one of my people among you who is needy, do not treat it like a business deal; charge no interest. 26 If you take your neighbor’s cloak as a pledge, return it by sunset, 27 because that cloak is the only covering your neighbor has. What else can they sleep in? When they cry out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.” The law was in place to make sure that peoples’ basic needs were met. Every person had the right to have their cloak to keep them warm at night. The law forbade its confiscation on humanitarian grounds. When Jesus addresses this He is actually addressing the rights we think we should cling to.

3. Being unselfish with our rights and property is the way of Christ.

Having a radically unselfish attitude to our rights and property proves which Kingdom we belong to. This flies in the face of our culture right now. If someone is asked to give up their rights or their property, they fight it tooth and nail. We forget that our freedom in the Kingdom is secure. If we give above and beyond what is being demanded from us, it breaks the oppressors power.

The last part of our passage today deals with doing something that we do not want to do. It deals with sacrifice.

4. Sacrifice is the way of Christ.

In the time Jesus lived, Romans required Jews to be their civilian laborers in an occupied country. If Roman soldiers had to go a long distance, they would force Jews to carry their equipment for them. Jesus is deliberately dissociating himself with any militant nationalist. Instead of resisting, or resenting the Romans, disciples of Christ should volunteer to serve their enemies with enthusiasm.

We see this happen as Jesus is on His way to His crucifixion. Matthew 27:32, “As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. 33 They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”). I wonder about the profound affect this had on Simon. Could you imagine carrying the cross of Christ to the place of His crucifixion? While Simon walked with Christ up that hill, I wonder what happened between them. All we know is Simon, a bystander, was called upon to carry Jesus’ cross to the place where all of our sin were heaped upon Him so that we could experience salvation through His death. In going the extra mile, you never know how your service will meet the deepest need of someone in that moment. How Christ can take your selfless action and use it to bring people into the Kingdom.

As humans we want to see things as black and white. We think there are only two ways to handle these situations. We can either seek revenge, or we can become a doormat for abuse. Neither of these are the ways of Christ. He offers us a third way. The way of selfless love, radical grace, and persevering faith.

Prior to their final journey into the Amazon Rain Forest, the five missionaries had many meetings and discussions about how they were going to reach the unreachable tribe. These men entrusted themselves fully into God’s hands, even unto death. Many believed that their deaths were in vain. They didn’t see how their deaths did anything for the gospel. But a few years after their deaths, a couple of women came out of the Amazon and approached Elisabeth Eliott and Nate Saint’s sister, Rachel. They wanted to know why nobody sought revenge for the murders of their husbands. In their culture, revenge would have been the only way to handle such an attack. For the years after their deaths, these tribesmen had been preparing for an attack that would never come. As the women began to share the Gospel, they used a word that was foreign to the Auca’s, forgiveness. Forgiveness was not a word in their vocabulary. Not until these women introduced them to the life changing work of forgiveness in Christ. These women were invited to stay and they began sharing the Gospel with anyone who would listen. Many from the Auca tribe were saved and their lives were completely changed because these faithful followers of Christ chose to live out the ancient words found in the Sermon on the Mount.

The Word of God is clear about our position as His enemies before we come to Christ. Romans 5:10, “For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!” Before being saved, we actively seek revenge on our enemies because we we don’t understand forgiveness. We withhold our possessions and cling to our rights because we can’t comprehend the radical provision and freedom we have in Christ. We refuse to do anything above and beyond for those who hold power over us because we are selfish with our time, resources and energy. But while we were still sinners (enemies), Christ died for us. He forgave us for all our sin so that we could be people who live in that forgiveness and offer it freely.

The widows of the martyred men offered forgiveness before it was ever requested. And the power of their forgiveness brought those who were enemies of God into His Kingdom for all eternity.

5. Forgiveness is the way of Christ.

Throughout this passage we’ve been studying today, Jesus encourages his followers to create encounters between people. Encounters in which we look each other in the eye and recognise each other as fellow human beings. The way we engage the world around us can either turn people into a foe or a friend. Jesus always created space for people to encounter Him and His love. When we turn the other cheek, we engage our enemy by giving them time to look into our eyes and see that we have only love for those who persecute us. God can use that moment to transform their hearts. When we give those who oppress us our coat, we create space where they can see that they have completely stripped us of everything we have. This gives them the opportunity to evaluate their actions, and it gives God space and time to soften their hearts. When we enthusiastically go the extra mile, we create space for our enemy to speak to us. Maybe that extra mile is the time they begin to open up about their own brokenness. That space can be filled with God’s grace and love as we listen and offer them the hope of a Savior who can change their lives.