Retaliation & Opposition

My older brother comes running down the stairs with tears streaming. A few seconds later, I make the same descent trying to keep up with him using my little, three-year-old legs. When my brother and I arrive in the living room, my mom is startled and concerned. She asks my brother "What's wrong? Why are you crying?" My brother musters up an answer through his tears, "Grant hit me for no reason!". I’m agitated by my brother’s slander against me, and before my mom has a chance to respond, I contend, "That is not true! He is lying! I didn't hit him for no reason... I kicked him for no reason!"

We are often treated by others in ways that we don’t deserve and it can feel like we’re being “kicked for no reason”. Jesus’ original listeners were acutely aware of this reality. Their land was occupied by the Romans who often treated the Jewish people in degrading and dehumanizing ways. When someone’s actions or words imply that your life is less valuable than theirs, how do you respond? Revenge, wrath, or self-despair are all possible and common responses. But Jesus offers another more ingenious way to respond to mistreatment and a more subversive way to view our enemies altogether.

The Old Testament Law essentially taught that the punishment should match the crime. You knock out one of my teeth. I knock out one of your teeth. We’re even. That may sound barbaric in our cultural context, but it was a law that limits a person’s desire for vengeance. You knock out one of my teeth. I am not allowed to knock out all of your teeth. It appears that some of the religious leaders had begun to view the judicial system as a license to exact revenge when that was never God’s intention.

So, Jesus looks at his disciples and the crowd surrounding them, fully aware of the oppression they’ve experienced all their lives, and he offers a couple of the most challenging statements in all of scripture. First, he tells his followers, when mistreated, not to respond in the same manner as those mistreating them. Instead, followers of Jesus are to take their non-violent stand by engaging their enemies with unexpected and unprecedented generosity and endurance.

But Jesus puts a finer point on this revolutionary teaching by digging a bit deeper into the way we think about our enemies in general. The Old Testament command to “love your neighbor” had been sadly misinterpreted to imply that you should also “hate your enemy” (a command never found in scripture). Lifting his disciples’ gaze to the the indiscriminate grace of God the Father, Jesus calls them to love not just their neighbors, but also their enemies. He notes that most of humanity is inclined to love their own people, but as citizens of God’s kingdom, we are to be distinct in our commitment to love our enemies as well, looking beneath their sinful behavior to recognize they are broken humans who need God’s grace just like us.

Jesus has been clarifying limited understandings of the Old Testament Law and calling out the faulty moral standards of the religious leaders. In doing so, he’s been painting a picture of the kind of people who live in God’s kingdom, and here in the final verse of the chapter, he makes it abundantly clear. People who live in God’s kingdom are called to be “perfect” or “complete”. God’s desire for us as citizens in His kingdom, is not merely that we would be moral, law-abiding members of our society, but that we would become like Him. As we accept the call of the King, we embrace the longer-than-life process of becoming complete.

Discussion Questions

• Icebreaker: What’s your favorite rivalry in sports or pop culture?
• What is the most challenging statement, for you personally, in this passage?
• How would you determine when a creative and generous response to mistreatment or a complete removal from the environment of mistreatment is warranted?
• Have you ever prayed for someone you didn’t like? How did you feel when you prayed for them? What was the outcome or the effect?
• How challenging is it for you to recognize the humanity of someone opposed to you? Are there any practical steps you’ve found that help you look beneath their behavior to recognize their humanity?
• How does Jesus’ call to be “perfect” or “complete” strike you?