Being a Kingdom person is not for the fainthearted!
If you are struggling, you are blessed!
You are the salsa that makes this world spicy!
Your love, who and how you love, reveals the very heart of God!
Remember, let love, not your anger be your guide!
We aren’t to think less of others than God does!
We are to be truth tellers, no lie!
And now, we are to treat others better than perhaps they deserve!
This Sermon on the Mount is tough! And it gets worse!
Jesus is teaching his disciples, followers, the Pharisees and the scribes about what the Kingdom of God looks like and feels like, and he is stressing them the heck out!
I mean really Jesus?
These folks want to live in a very concrete Kingdom that is primarily about stuff. They want land, they want flocks, they want houses, they want money, they want a Jaguar in the driveway, just saying!
And yet Jesus is instead talking about a Kingdom that is primary about relationships.
About how we see each other, about how we treat each other.
Don’t call your brother, sister, aunt, uncle, parents, children, coworkers, government officials, soldiers, police officers, barmaids, sex workers, even the idiot in the car in front of you that has no idea what a “yield “ sign is for, “raca”, or you will be in danger of the fires of hell.
Gotta say, this is freaking impossible!
We delight at being mad at those who treat us poorly. And to be clear, we are not supposed to let people abuse us!
But Jesus has a bit of a twist on the appropriate response.
Remember, Jesus was living in a land that much like today, was in political, economic, and spiritual unrest. Uprisings were common. Riots in the streets of Jerusalem kept happening.
And Pontius Pilate was a _____, fill in the blank, hated, because of all the times he had intentionally incited the Jewish people’s anger by being a religious bigot.
So, when Jesus once again goes off the deep end with his teaching on the values of the Kingdom of God, everyone is shocked!
Because in the Kingdom, Jesus says, we are supposed to treat even those who are mean to us as if they were brothers and sisters in Christ and return to them not evil for evil, but love for evil.
In the ancient world slapping the right cheek was a serious insult, because it was only possible by lashing out with the back of the hand by a right-handed person. It was the kind of treatment reserved for slaves and others for whom you had nothing but contempt.
Let me be clear. Jesus is not suggesting that the slap is justified!
He is instead telling us that Kingdom people are to see beyond the insult, to the person behind the insult, and treat them as if they were one of God’s beloved children, because even though their behavior is reprehensible, they are still loved by God.
Okay. Ow. Hard.
And lest you see this as some kind of evangelistic tool, it is hard to imagine that this behavior would somehow win them over, but… that’s not the point!
The point is you and I are not to sink to their level, to begin thinking as they do. We are not to have our minds on revenge, but on the amazing power of God, who has declared that “vengeance is his”, but also, that each person is his beloved child.
We are not to worry about exacting punishment for punishment, that is the restrictive “eye for eye and tooth for tooth” that minimized vengeance, but rather to turn the whole equation upside down.
So, when a soldier demanded you carry his pack one mile, or even a cross like Simon of Cyrene was forced to, you should instead of being angry, joyfully carry it another mile, and confound him with love!
This is not something you do without the Spirit’s power. This is not something that is possible without the support of the Christian Community. But it was what Christians became known for: for their generosity, their compassion, their amazing love for even the least of these. Treating everyone as if they were fellow Kingdom people whom God loves!
We live in angry, difficult times. It is really easy to focus on what we don’t have and how we are being mistreated.
Instead, we are invited to look and see something completely different.
Jesus!
Amen.
Let me be clear. Jesus is not suggesting that the slap is justified!
He is instead telling us that Kingdom people are to see beyond the insult, to the person behind the insult, and treat them as if they were one of God’s beloved children, because even though their behavior is reprehensible, they are still loved by God.
Okay. Ow. Hard.
And lest you see this as some kind of evangelistic tool, it is hard to imagine that this behavior would somehow win them over, but… that’s not the point!
The point is you and I are not to sink to their level, to begin thinking as they do. We are not to have our minds on revenge, but on the amazing power of God, who has declared that “vengeance is his”, but also, that each person is his beloved child.
We are not to worry about exacting punishment for punishment, that is the restrictive “eye for eye and tooth for tooth” that minimized vengeance, but rather to turn the whole equation upside down.
So, when a soldier demanded you carry his pack one mile, or even a cross like Simon of Cyrene was forced to, you should instead of being angry, joyfully carry it another mile, and confound him with love!
This is not something you do without the Spirit’s power. This is not something that is possible without the support of the Christian Community. But it was what Christians became known for: for their generosity, their compassion, their amazing love for even the least of these. Treating everyone as if they were fellow Kingdom people whom God loves!
We live in angry, difficult times. It is really easy to focus on what we don’t have and how we are being mistreated.
Instead, we are invited to look and see something completely different.
Jesus!
Amen.
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