Jesus on Breaking the Cycle of Violence – Matthew 5:38-42
Humanity has long suffered under the perpetuation of violence and revenge. Jesus desires for his followers to take action that breaks this cycle of violence, and create opportunities for those who were once our enemy to be transformed into our neighbor.
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. 42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.” – Matthew 5:38-42 (ESV)
The Sermon on the Mount is not an isolated speech.
The whole sermon is Christ describing what life in the kingdom and allegiance to him looks like.
Obedience to the Sermon on the Mount is a practice in imagination.
On The Lex Talionis
38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’
In Latin this is the lex talionis, or the law of retribution.
“But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise.” – Exodus 21:23-25
“Anyone who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury.” – Leviticus 24:19–20
“Show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.”
– Deuteronomy 19:21
In The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck asks Buck “what a is a feud?”
“Well”, Buck says, “a feud is this way: A man has a quarrel with another man, and kills him; then that other man’s brother kills him; then the other brothers, on both sides, goes for one another; then the cousins chip in—and by and by everybody’s killed off, and there ain’t no more feud. But it’s kind of slow, and takes a long time.”
This is the cycle of violence.
01. The violence of the First Century
Jesus was born into a world drowning in violence. The years between the OT and NT were not quiet. Rather, they were filled with bloody revolutions and armed conflicts.
200 hundred years before Christ was born Israel was under Greek occupation and practicing Judasm was outlawed.
Judas “The Maccabee”, led his fellow Israelites to take up their swords and overthrow the unjust regime. Thousands were slaughtered in just a few weeks and the Israelites gained their independence and religious freedom. The Israelites became utterly convinced that the Maccabeans were their messiah and that this was the “Kingdom of God”– the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies.But the Maccabean family would quickly shift from war heroes to violent oppressors. The swords they used to free were quickly turned on their own people.
Rather, Jesus desires for his followers to take action that break this cycle of violence, and create opportunities for those who are our enemy to be transformed.
02. Breaking the Cycle of Violence with the Third Way.
39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil.
“Do not resist” is a somewhat misleading translation in that we assume inaction, but non resistance is not the same as inaction.
Fight or Flight; to strike back or to remove ourselves from the situation. But at every turn Jesus rejects this fight-or-flight binary.
“A person shaped by the Jesus Creed [love of God and love of neighbor] responds to injustice not with retaliation and vengeance but with grace, compassion, and abundant mercy in such a way that it reverses injustice.” – Scot McKnight.
03. Four illustrations for the third way of Jesus
Physical Violence
But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
B. Legal Violence
40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
“So the person suing goes for what is legal (a shirt), but Jesus goes further by urging his followers to relinquish their rights to a robe. This would deprive the person of standard comforts and provision. What Jesus says, at face value, is to strip in front of the person as a means of exhibiting radical distance from social custom. Jesus experienced this too (cf. Matt 27:35).”
– Scot McKnight
Political Violence
41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
Financial Violence
42 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
“Our voluntary renunciation of counter violence confirms and proclaims our unconditional allegiance to Jesus as his followers, our freedom, our detachment from our own egos. And it is only in the exclusivity of this adherence that evil can be overcome.”
– Bonhoeffer, Discipleship
04. My convictions –
I cannot kill an unbeliever for it is our calling to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to those who are yet to believe.
I cannot kill a fellow believer because it is in our love for one another that the world will know our God.
I cannot participate in activities of the State that violate conflict with the way of the Kingdom of God.
I am a follower of the Messiah who said “pick up your cross and follow” and then picked up his cross and was executed by the government.
I am called to loving action in all situations on behalf of both the victim and the perpetrator.
I do not own a gun, nor will I take an action that intentionally puts another’s life in risk.
I give up any right to vindictive, retributive, vengeful, or violent actions– for my calling above all is love.
05. Unanswered Questions
What can you do in protection of the innocent?
What about non combatant military roles?
Is any physicality violence?
What about violent forms of entertainment?
What about violent sports?
What about the violence in the Old Testament?
Is any warfare justifiable for the Christian?
Should a Christian hold a government to the same value system?
WHAT ABOUT HITLER?
06. Rethinking Violence
Jesus’ announcement from chapter 4– “Repent, for the Kingdom is arriving.” And repent is not simply sorrow over your sinful actions but a process of rethinking.
Jesus was fully aware of the violence in the OT. He still called it scripture. He still gave this teaching– he still choose death on a cross.
As followers of Jesus we are privileged to have his Spirit speaking to us and acting through us. Trust that. May we foster a listening ear that picks up on the still small voice even as we face violent conflict.
“Mugged by Jesus” by Jarrod McKenna
