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PRAY FOR OUR ENEMIES?
Matthew 5:38-48; Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18
A sermon preached at First Presbyterian Church by Carter Lester on
February 23, 2014
I have been worried about this sermon ever since I discussed this text with several of you last week at our “Next Week’s Sermon” gathering. But then I knew I reallyhad a problem at the Session meeting this past Wednesday. As is our custom, two of the elders were assigned opening and closing devotions. Both, independent of each other, chose to read something about joy – thinking that in a winter of so much snow, so much snow and ice, and so many cancellations, we could all use a shot of joy.
Which brings me to today’s text in Matthew – the one about turning the other cheek and loving our enemies. As one commentator I read this week says about this passage: “Some texts seem too difficult to preach. Not difficult for us as interpreters, but rather too difficult for people to hear and to bear. This is one definitely of those texts.”[1] I know yesterday’s warm temperatures helped, but I find myself asking what many of you may be asking: “Really, Carter? In a long winter when even school children are tired of school and cancellations you choose to preach this text? Where is the joy when we most need it?”
As you might already know, Kerry and I often preach from the ecumenical lectionary which offers a three-year cycle of reading through the Bible. The value of doing that is that it makes us read and listen to words we would just as soon avoid. It means that as preachers we are not just choosing the texts we like to preach, or the ones we find most attractive or easiest to follow. Instead, we preach what we find. So…what are we going to do with these words of Jesus in Matthew 5?
Let me begin by setting aside one set of questions that we might be asking in light of this text: whether Christians can ever take up arms to resist evil? That is an appropriate topic for a much longer discussion, and as with all difficult issues, it requires looking not at just what one passage says, but what all of the Bible, especially the New Testament, says. But let me just say this. Christians of conscience can disagree on this point – whether pacifism is always required or whether there are some cases when the right thing is to take up arms to prevent attacks and damage to our neighbors. However we are led by the Spirit in the exercise of our conscience, we are always called to respect the consciences of other Christians, avoid hatred, work for peace, and care for the victims of war, which includes not just unarmed citizens and bystanders but also the soldiers themselves who are often damaged or even crippled on the outside or the inside, by their participation in killing and war. General Sherman got it right: war is hell.
We also have to listen closely to what Jesus is saying here lest we get the wrong impression. There is nothing in these words of Jesus that requires Christians to condone evil, meekly accept abuse or appease bullies, or to think and act like a victim. Consider Jesus. He was never a victim. Out of love, he decided to give up his life for our sake and the sake of the world. And no one could ever say that he condoned evil or appeased bullies. Indeed, what is striking throughout the gospels is how Jesus always seems to be in charge, even when he is arrested and stands before the religious and political authorities, even when he hangs on the cross.
When you look closer at what Jesus has to say here, and you understand it in the context of his times, you can see that Jesus offers some creative ways to respond to problems of oppression and evil. Be aware that what he says here are not abstract lessons or empty platitudes for a classroom. He is speaking out in the fields to a people living under the oppression of an outside power – the Romans – who placed their garrisons of soldiers in Palestine lest the people get any notions of resistance or independence.
When Jesus talks about turning the cheek, did you notice that he specifically says, “But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also”? Did you wonder why Jesus specified which cheek? I won’t ask you to try it out now, but the only way to strike a person’s right cheek is with your left hand – which no respectable man at the time would do – or with the back of your right hand. Such a backhanded slap would not be so much an attack of violence as it would be an insult and expression of power: a backhanded slap is the way a superior strikes one who is inferior. By turning the other cheek – in effect offering to let the other person strike you again, but this time with a regular right-handed slap, Jesus’ followers would not be responding with violence. But neither would they be responding with subjection. In effect, they would be saying, “go ahead hit me again. But if you do it, do it in a way that recognizes me as an equal to you.” Picture the person looking his opponent in the eye and then deliberately offering his left cheek.
In much the same way, Jesus says, “if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well.” One is an outer garment; the other one an inner garment. “There were legal situations where a person’s coat might be taken, as in repayment of a debt; however, there were prohibitions against taking both garments.”[2] By offering both to the creditor, Jesus’ followers would in effect make the creditors break the law and look ridiculous.
As another example, Roman soldiers could compel a Palestinian in Jesus’ time to walk a mile in compulsory service, but one mile was the limit. By offering to go the extra mile, as Jesus suggests, the Jews would show themselves not bowed down or oppressed. Instead, they would be showing the Roman soldier that they have the will and energy to keep going – but it would mean that the Roman soldier would have to violate his own army regulations to do that.
If you want a picture of what such nonviolent resistance might look like, rent the movie, “Lee Daniels’ The Butler.” In the movie, there is a scene in which we see reenactments of lunch counter sit-ins in the early 1960s, where African American young men and women consciously sought to follow these words of Jesus to desegregate Southern lunch counters. They dressed up, they sat down where they were not permitted to sit because it was for “Whites only,” they sought to order food, and when not served, they refused to leave. They did not resort to violence, but their opponent did, jeering and pushing at them, even pouring catsup and mustard in their hair. In the long run it was the proponents of segregation who looked mean and ridiculous and one by one the lunch counters were desegregated.
But, while Jesus is offering ways for his disciples to resist evil without resorting to violence, he is not simply proposing a set of tactics for social change here. Much more is at stake here – we have to look at the big picture. Jesus is asking his disciples then and now to make a basic choice in how we are going to live. Are we going to continue to participate in the endless cycle of tit for tat, or are we going to do what we can to break that cycle? Are we going to try to overcome injustice, unfairness, and even evil with more of the same? Or are we going to try to overcome evil with good, meanness with kindness?
When we consider this basic choice before us, Jesus wants us to remember it is God – and not conventional wisdom – that is to be our guide. Consider Jesus’ example. As Hilary of Poitier observed centuries ago, “The Lord who accompanies us on our journey offers his own cheek to slaps and his shoulders to whips.” He does not shout from the cross words of retaliation and vengeance but words of love and forgiveness.
Which brings us to what might be the most difficult verse in a difficult passage: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Perfect – who can be perfect among us? Is Jesus setting us up for failure here?
No. The word translated here as “perfect” might better be translated as “completeness” or “wholeness” or “maturity.” As Tom Long observes “’Perfection is not making an A+ on every test...To be ‘perfect’ is to respond to other people – even our enemies – with the kind of compassion and desire for the good that expresses the way God responds to the world.”[3] I love the way that Eugene Peterson translates this verse in The Message: “In a word, what I’m saying is, Grow up. You [are] kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity. Live generously and graciously toward others, the way God lives toward you.”
With all this in mind, how can we grow up? How are we to act to those in our family, or school, or workplace, or even in this congregation, whom we find hard to be around? How can we love those who have done us wrong? How can we be generous and gracious with those who are anything but that with us? Here is some practical wisdom that others have shared with Kerry and me through the years.
First, recognize that love, in the Biblical sense, is not a feeling. Instead, love is something we do. When Jesus tells us to love our enemies, that is, those who have hurt us or with whom we have ongoing arguments and tensions, he is not telling us that we need to develop a warm and fuzzy feeling about them. Instead of feeling love, we are to do love, treating them the way we want to be treated.
Second, keep looking towards Jesus Christ and remember how God has responded to our failures and shortcomings. As revealed in Jesus Christ, God may be disappointed in us, hurt by us, even betrayed by us, but God does not retaliate against us. Instead God loves us and seeks what is best for us. Sometimes we need to keep our distance from those who have hurt us, or continue to hurt us – it is in no one’s best interests to continue an abusive relationship or a pattern of injustice. But let us also ask: how can I inject kindness and graciousness here rather than try to get even or return fire with fire? Perhaps over time, with God’s help, we can separate the deed from the person, as God does with us. Then perhaps – again with God’s ongoing help – we can see those people we consider our enemies as God sees them: not just as the persons who have hurt us but also as children of God. This is the scandal of God’s grace: Jesus Christ died for all of us sinners, including our enemies.
Third,we need to recognize that we are not perfect which means that our knowledge of the truth andour perception of situations is always imperfect, always subject to distortion. We think we know why someone did something, but do we? We think that there is no doubt that they are wrong and we are not – but is it possible to see the situation in any other light? We think we know what fairness demands – but is it possible that an impartial person might see things differently than we do, that there might be another way of understanding what has happened in the past or what should be done in the future?
Fourth, let us do what Jesus calls us to do: pray for our enemies and those who have wronged us. Sometimes we may just have to pray for the desire to pray. When we dostart praying, we can pray for compassion to grow in our ability to see that person as Jesus sees them. We can pray for their well being, that they might break unhealthy patterns or patterns of abuse, and that they might grow in their knowledge of the love of God. Something I am sure of from my own experience and conversations with others: the more you pray for someone, the harder it is to be angry with them or hate them.
And finally, let us remember maturity in love is our goal – but it is something we have to grow into. We will fail in loving our enemies. We will think we have gotten past our anger and even hatred, only to find it bubbling back up again. We will find ourselves returning tit for tat, even though we want to break the cycle. And so once again, we will have to confess our weakness and cling to God’s grace. God’s love is amazing; God’s grace is inexhaustible: Jesus always stands willing to help us turn around and take another step forward in loving our enemies, another step forward in becoming more mature in our faith and love, another step forward in becoming more like Him.
You see in the midst of these hard words of Jesus is good news: God thinks we can do it: love our enemies and break the cycle of tit for tat, grievance for grievance, meanness for meanness. Friends, with God’s help, we can overcome evil with good. Now doing that would breathe a breath of spring into a wintery world!
[1] Dave Lose, “Perfect,”
[2] Karen Sapio, “Matthew 5:38-48: Exegetical Perspective,” in Feasting on the Gospels: Matthew, Vol. 1, Cynthia A. Jarvis and E. Elizabeth Johnson, eds. (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2013), 113.
[3] Thomas G. Long, Matthew, Westminster Bible Companion Series (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1997), 64.