“The Myth That We Are To Exert Our Personal Rights”
Matthew 5:38-42
Sermon Series: “Myths That Make Us Miserable”
Introduction: In my opinion, most of the Sermon on the Mount is straightforward and fairly easy to understand but difficult to live. However, for me at least, this passage is both difficult to understand and difficult to live out because in the words of Mark Driscoll, we are “addicted to our rights and oblivious to our obligations.” In fact, people such as Gandhi and Tolstoy have misunderstood and misapplied this passage in extremely pacifistic and non-retaliatory ways, when in fact what Jesus said about evil in these verses makes their teaching false and unworkable.
We are going to have to work together and give our best effort in attempting to understand this passage together. Even beyond that, this is one of those passages that tests whether or not Scripture is truly authoritative in our lives. By that, I mean that we have to choose to take Scripture at face value instead of twisting it into something that is more palatable to us, and we have to choose to obey it even if we do not like what it is teaching. Of course, we are to obey Scripture simply because Jesus is Lord. We do not get a vote in the matter.
1. The Context: Remember that in this section of Scripture that Jesus is correcting the Pharisees misuse of the Old Testament and giving us the spirit of the law. That is true in this particular case as well. Verse 38 is a quote from more than one place in the Old Testament, but it was to be administered by the judges as a governmental function and not by individuals. In fact, even in the Old Testament, individual citizens were commanded to “not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18). Furthermore, while the eye for an eye command was given to ensure justice, it was also given to prevent vengeance. The Pharisees, however, were misusing the Scripture to seek personal retribution instead of a loving response.
2. What this is not referring to:
A. Punishment of criminals by a government
B. War (see Romans 13:1-7 for both of these)
C. Self-defense or the defense of others
D. Enabling something evil or unbiblical
E. Problems between Christians or in the church (That
is addressed in Matthew 18:15-18 and handled in a different manner. Jesus is very specific about the fact that this is a situation where a non-believer is mistreating a believer.)
3. The Actual Principle: When wronged by unbelievers, we are not to respond by demanding our rights or by repaying them in kind. Instead, we are to go the extra mile by showing them love in tangible ways as a witness for Jesus (see Romans 12:17-21).
4. The Deeper Issues:
A. As Christians, we don’t really have rights. Mark
Driscoll says, “Take everything you hold dear and let it
go…Jesus did.”
B. This is the opposite of the prosperity gospel, which is idolatry.
C. This is a test of the reality of Christ’s Lordship in our lives. Mark Driscoll says, “The most difficult parts of life are the best opportunities to live out the Kingdom ethics.”
D. Life in the Kingdom of God (as expressed by the Sermon on the Mount) is revolutionary and counter- cultural. As Steven Furtick says, “We are not called to fit in-but to stand out.”
E. We should be so thankful (because it is our only hope) that Jesus gave up His rights and gave Himself to people that have mistreated Him (Philippians 2:5- 11).
F. We are following Jesus’ example by living this out (1 Peter 2:21-25).
