“When you hear the phrase “whatever it takes” or “going the extra mile”– a phrase we will hear in today’s text – what comes to mind?” …”Going the extra mile” means we make a special effort or go beyond what’s expected.” Here’s what typically comes to mind…Going above and beyond to get the job done… we use a phrase like this to talk about staying up late to finish a project when you could have left at the usual time… but you do what needs to be done to finish a crucial task even it means working overtime… or to volunteer your time at a food bank or mentoring a student… or to be great at customer service, going outside of your job description to help somebody out… or taking initiative to help a friend or family member resolve an issue, even if it requires some extra effort. Or listening to a friend in need… dedicating your time and attention to a friend who is going through a tough time, being a support for them. Or doing a random act of kindness… you do something thoughtful and helpful for someone without expecting anything in return, like holding the door open for someone or offering to help an elderly person. Running farther than you have to in order help someone else finish the race.
When it comes to going the extra mile… those kinds of things probably come to mind… but we probably don’t think of it in these terms… Going the extra mile to love your enemies. In our text today, Jesus places this theme in a different and difficult context…
Here’s the big idea from the get-go… Loving your enemies turns your enemies into your mission fields. And in loving your mission fields, your mission fields become your friends.
In first century times, people understood loving your friends and hurting your enemies. Anger, hurt, bitterness, and resentment were all huge forces in life, and no one was exempt from these realities. Naturally we ask questions like, “how do I forgive a person who is not repentant?” Or how do I let go of my right to hurt you back? Or what does reconciliation look like if both parties aren’t sincerely involved? Surely I am not commanded to pretend to trust someone who is untrustworthy, right? … and underneath all that the command to love remains. I am called to love the repentant person who has hurt me and I’m called to love the unrepentant person who has hurt me.
Jesus is calling us to a radical way of living… a way of life that images God to the rest of the world… and in doing so the world is forced to wonder about a love so radical… forced to confront their ideas of “a better way.” Let’s open the text and consider the Jesus way…
Matthew 5:38-42, “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 an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. 40 If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. 41 Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. 42 Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.”
Tit-for-tat retaliation… Eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth… Jesus is quoting from the Old Testament book of Leviticus, from what is called the Lex Talionis… “law of retaliation.” If someone punches you and knocks out your eye, the law limits what you can do to get even. You can take out their eye, too, but you can’t take out both eyes and cut off both ears. If someone knocks out your tooth, you can knock their tooth out, too, to get even—that’s justice—but you can’t knock out all 32 teeth; that would be too much.
The law of retaliation says: you give people back what they gave you.
But Jesus raises the bar. He moves from retaliation to selfless sacrifice… Jesus says that’s not how it’s supposed to work in the kingdom of heaven. Then he gives three examples.
- If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, what’s the game plan? Punch them back? A slap on the cheek was a common insult and would have been gladly returned… Mark Moore conjectures that this tit-for-tat often escalated into a full-fledged brawl. Instead… turn the other cheek.
- If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, what’s the response? Countersue and take them for everything they’re worth? No. Hand over your coat as well. Give them even more than what they’re asking for. Not just the inner garment, but the much more valuable outer garment, too.
- If anyone forces you to go one mile, what do you do? This was about Roman soldiers not wanting to carry their heavy loads. The law said a Roman soldier could make any Jew carry their pack for up to one mile. If he demanded one mile, Jesus says to give him two… thus, our fitting proverb… “go the extra mile…”
The Jews hated it. Could you imagine if foreign enemies conquered our country and at any time they could force you to stop whatever you were doing and carry a fifty pound backpack and walk for a mile with it? That would be miserable. Jews would understandably do anything to avoid it. But what does Jeus say? “Go with them two miles.”
Forget the bare minimum; go above and beyond. Do you see how radically different the way of Jesus is from the way of the world? It’s not about limiting our revenge as we strategize our counterattack. It’s simply grace. Loving grace.
These three examples all share the same principle… nonretaliation.
What’s the call from this passage? Selflessly love the people in this world who, as expected, do evil against you. As we dig into this… I want to bring in some other teachings from Scripture so we can be clear on what Jesus is NOT saying here. And this is important because Jesus’ words here could be easily misunderstood.
Jesus is NOT saying: Don’t resist the evil one.
- James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” That’s the same word that Jesus uses here in Matthew 5:39…
- It’s used again in 1 Peter 5:8-9, “…Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 But resist him…”
- So the devil is the author of evil and the Bible makes it clear that we are to resist him. So Jesus is not saying don’t resist evil.
Jesus is NOT saying: Don’t hate evil.
- Romans 12:9, “Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.”
- We’re called to hate evil enough that we are willing to live completely different – and that includes how we treat people. Jesus’ whole point in this text is NOT to just let evil run rampant – but to behave in such a way that people who do not know God are forced to consider this revolutionary way of life.
Jesus is NOT saying don’t oppose evil in the church.
- In fact, in Matthew 18, 1 Corinthians 5, and Titus 3, we are taught to address evil in the church lovingly, but firmly… even imposing discipline AS A WAY to bring a brother or sister who is being divisive or is trapped in sin back. We are supposed to confront evil – because we love enough to do so!
- The church is to be a place for sinners to find forgiveness and healing and purpose. But, when someone persists in evil and even flaunts evil – whether that be the blatant sin like in Corinthians, or the “factious man” in Titus… we are called as a church to address evil and to lovingly confront, even discipline to turn lives around.
Jesus is NOT saying don’t practice justice in government.
- Speaking of the government as the authority given by God Paul says in Romans 13:4b, “if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil.”
- …God gives government to promote good and to protect from Evil.
All of this to say when Jesus says “do not resist the one who is evil” he’s not saying any of those things. So, what is he saying? Well, look at the context you see the standard of justice in the Old Testament legal system… but you get the idea that people were using that legal system to take personal revenge.
Where God outlined a civil standard for living in community, they were using it to get even on a personal level… and it’s like Jesus is saying, “no, I’m calling you to selflessly love the people who do evil to you now.”
And I understand this is a high standard… a high calling… and I would think that the only people who can live the way Jesus is calling us to live is the person who has died to themself. When someone speaks evil against you or about you or does evil against you, that threatens you or your reputation, or your safety, or your wellbeing… the only way you can turn your cheek is if you are more concerned about that person than you are yourself.
These illustrations all show a willingness to sacrifice your reputation… your rights… your resources… your life… even for someone who is doing evil against you. Which is exactly what God calls us to do… Jesus is calling us to consider the one who does evil against us and love them selflessly… which is the exact word he uses in the next few verses…
Matthew 5:43-48, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? 48 Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
The word Jesus uses for love here is agape… which is the highest possible form of love… it’s committed, costly, self-sacrificial… it exists to seek and work for another person’s highest good… and Jesus says that’s how you should respond to your enemy. Jesus commands you to love them with the highest kind of love.
It was counter-cultural then, it is counter-cultural now. And once more… Jesus does not call us to do what He Himself has not modeled…
- In Matthew 8 Jesus must have shocked his followers, it was early in his ministry. Things were going pretty well; he’s drawn a crowd so large that he has to get into a boat so that the crowd will be able to hear him. Later that evening he says to his disciples, “Let’s go over to the other side.”
- Now that’s the phrase…the “other side” was the region of the Decapolis, the ten cities… to Israel this was considered enemy territory. These were pagan people.
- Now the tradition in Jesus’ day said the Decapolis, the “other side,” is where the seven nations of Canaan had settled. The peoples which God overthrew and gave their land to Israel. Which means the Decapolis was probably full of pagan worship… known for violence, sexual immorality, and greed. This stands against everything Israel was supposed to stand for. To the Jew, the other side was not where you wanted to be.
The “other side” was seen as an evil place… dark, oppressive, demonic… nobody goes to the other side!! Especially not a rabbi! Except for one…Jesus…who just casually suggests one day, “Let’s go over to the other side…” Can you guess what the disciples were thinking? “What is he doing? Doesn’t He know that the kingdom is for our side!?”
The disciples are probably not happy about this suggestion but they go. They were used to having large crowds on their side… but that’s non-existent on the other side… the only welcoming committing there to greet them upon their arrival is a couple of deranged, tormented, tomb-dwelling, self-mutilating demoniacs. They’ve caused so many problems they’ve been thrown out of their own community… one welcomes Jesus by throwing himself at Him saying, “what do you want with me? In God’s name don’t torture me!” Jesus asks the evil spirit his name and the response is, “Legion, for we are many.” Jesus casts them out, sends them into a herd of pigs nearby… and then they all rush over a steep bank to their destruction.
The people’s response to this miracle is fascinating…we’re told that those tending the pigs ran off and reported this widely (v 34). The people on the other side come out to see what’s happening…they see the demoniacs dressed and in his right mind and they do not respond to this miracle like those in Galilee or Jerusalem, they don’t start bringing Jesus their sick children or their crippled friends. They begged Jesus to go away….why? Well maybe because this probably cost them a lot of money first all, an entire herd of pigs just ran to their own deaths… but also because Jesus clearly had great power… AND he was not one of them. A person with such power who wasn’t on their side, was a huge threat.
He’s from the wrong side! They’re afraid. Jesus agrees to go. The previously demon-possessed man begged Jesus to go with him, but Jesus says no, “stay here and go tell your story.” He does what Jesus asks and the people in the Decapolis were amazed.
Now this is not the end of Jesus’ interactions in the Decapolis! Just a few chapters later in Matthew 15… Jesus returns to the “other side” and this time is different…great crowds come to see him. They came from all throughout the region, and they carried their sick people on mats to wherever they heard Jesus was. And everywhere Jesus went, villages, towns, countryside, they placed their sick. They begged Jesus to let them touch even the edge of His cloak…in other words…the seven nations of Canaan are praising the God of Israel. People were more receptive to Jesus here, on the other side, than almost any other place he’d ever gone! Because they heard that this Jesus cared about people on their side.
Let me remind you… Loving your enemies turns your enemies into your mission fields. And in loving your mission fields, your mission fields become your friends.
This theme of Jesus loving the other side goes on beneath the surface all through the New Testament. It’s also found in what is sometimes known as the dueling crowd feeding stories.
- In Mark 6 Jesus feeds a big crowd on Israel’s side of the lake… and in Mark 8 Jesus feeds a crowd on the other side. It’s almost as if Jesus is saying, “I AM Good news for this side. I AM Good news for the other side.”
I don’t know about you, but it feels like with everything we have to pick a side. Love of enemies, love of the other is maybe Jesus’ teaching that is most famous, but also most violated. We human beings are side takers. We all tend to divide the human race up into us versus them. And it happens in the church, too… We divide ourselves up in just about any and every way we can! Two of the most powerful words in the human race are “us” and “them.” If people are on my side, I will tend to ignore their negative qualities and magnify their good qualities. If somebody is on the other side, I tend to see the bad and overlook the good.
But Jesus teaches us a different way. He seems to have regarded himself as the man for all sides. Now here’s where the rubber meets the road… it happened in Bible times.. and it happens now… Jesus’ followers tend to collapse back into this “us vs them” mindset. We’re not just guilt of making non-Christians into “them” or the “other side”… we do it with each other.
But there’s something about Jesus and the way that He taught. He was a man for all sides and nobody was a “them” but to Jesus everybody was an “us.” And that changed the world.
In Luke 9:51-56, Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus wanted to stop at a Samaritan village but it wasn’t welcoming. They were Samaritans. Jesus’ disciples asked him, “Lord do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them?” They thought Jesus would be pleased by this offer…were gonna take a stand and were gonna be on Jesus’ side! They thought they were gonna be like Elijah calling down fire on the prophets of Baal!
But Jesus turns and rebukes them…he protects the Samaritans and rebukes his own followers! What an odd little story. There’s a lot of those odd little Samaritan stories in the New Testament!
- In John 4 Jesus befriends a five times married Samaritan women and she becomes the first foreign missionary of His.
- In Luke 17 He heals ten lepers and only the Samaritan returns to thank him.
- In Luke 10 He tells a story about an Israelite, a Levite priest, and a Samaritan and the Samaritan turns out to be the hero of the story!
He treats people on the other side like they were people on his side! On our side! He doesn’t just love us, he seems to love Samaritans. And not just them. He seems to love the Canaanites, and not just them, He seems to love everybody! Even His enemies!
There is a saying in the Godfather, “keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” With an entirely different meaning, this statement could be theologically correct…Jesus proclaimed this message to the world! In the movie, Conan the Barbarian, Conan paraphrases Genghis Khan when he gave his famous answer to the question, “what is best in life?” he said, “To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations of their women.” This is the current state of our world. We like to see our enemies suffer.
But an alternative idea came from Galilee….what is best in life…to love your enemies, and see them reconciled to you. This was not a popular idea in the ancient world.
When Jesus was approached by soldiers to be arrested and killed, Peter picked up a sword and cut off the ear of a guy named Malchus. Jesus told Peter to put the sword away, he picks up the ear and puts it back on Malchus’ head.
Can you imagine the dialogue? “Hey Malchus, I apologize for my disciple Peter…I’ve been working on him for a few years now, but I haven’t made it very far. Sorry about the ear thing.” This strange little story about Jesus healing an enemy, is regarded as so important that it was included in all four Gospels. Dale Bruner puts it like this, “Jesus’ enemies are not his only problem. Jesus’ overzealous followers have historically been just as painful to him.”
Its like for Jesus the categories break down like this… not us versus them. It’s perfect and not perfect. It’s holy and sinful. Which puts all of humanity on the same side. The wrong side, the other side. But Jesus was determined to make that side his side. And this changed the way that people thought about humanity. The teachings of Jesus to love enemies, to forgive, to pursue reconciliation. All these things were so counter-cultural to life in the ancient Roman world, just as they are today.
This is the age-old story. There are good guys and there are bad guys. Everyone knows you are supposed to root for the good guys and root against the bad guys. But Jesus says that’s not how it works in the Kingdom. No… in the Kingdom, we love our enemies and we pray for those who persecute us.
Love my enemies? Pray for them? How is that possible? Who in the world would do that?!
Check out verse 45a, “…so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven…”
This is image bearer talk… we are called to go back to garden-like living… to image His purposes for the world… as it is in heaven on earth… it happens through us…
Jesus frames it all up this way… when we love our enemies… we image our Father. We demonstrate our sonship through our love, even for those who would do us harm. If we bear His name, we are called to love like Him.
How does God treat his enemies? “He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous’” (Matthew 5:45b).
Jesus says everyone in the world is good to the people who are good to them, but God is good to everyone, even those who aren’t good to Him, and if you want to be His children, you must treat your enemies that way as well. Of course, that is exactly how God treated us: “While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Because that is how God loved us when we were His enemies, if we really want to live in His kingdom, we must love others the same way.
“You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Mt 5:48). That’s the call. That’s the expectation. Live your life so focused on your Father in Heaven that day after day in this hostile world, filled with enemies, you keep your focus on following Him… becoming more and more like Him… growing closer and closer to Him… and loving like He loves because you know that He is your reward.
Keep looking to Him… not to them… how do you selflessly love your enemy? The people in this world who, as expected, do evil against you? Well… you don’t look to them for your joy, your security, your stability, your esteem… no… you look to your Heavenly Father whose love and joy and security and esteem by far outweigh anything this world could ever offer!
Keep your eyes fixed on Him… knowing one day you will be with Him fully and perfectly conformed to His image. Free… not only from all your sin… but free to experience pure and perfect enjoyment forever… free to forever rejoice and be glad…
Why do we love our enemies like this? 2 reasons…
- Because we’re loved by God in this way. The cross of Christ means that those in Christ are not counted as guilty and are restored to Him for all eternity. As followers of Jesus, we love our enemies first because of how we’ve been loved by God.
- Because our enemies are loved by God. Every single day God raises the sun and sends the rain to bless people who hate Him… think about it… every single moment God is causing hearts to beat and lungs to breathe in people who defy and despise and disparage Him. And the Holy Spirit lives in you, so you love them the same way He does!
Application – what do we do today and tomorrow?
- Don’t just put this text in the framework of terrorists across the world who would love to see death and destruction to the Christian West… we are certainly called to love them…
- But think about those in your family… your work… your church… your neighborhood… your political arena… see this text a little closer to home… think about someone you might be in conflict with right now… someone who has demonstrated hostility towards you, besmirched your name… challenged your reputation… belittled you… or maybe intentionally sought your harm or downfall… no matter how right or how wrong they may be… be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect… and love them as He does.
And we do this because we’re different than the world… everybody likes those who like them… but this is where we differ… we actually love people with the highest form of love possible… people who are hostile to us… because we died to ourselves and we’re living for another world. We love them for their sake… more than our own reputations or lives… we want their sins to be forgiven… their souls to be saved for all eternity… and when viewed from that perspective it changes the way you love today.
That is the heart of Christ, and this is the heart of the church. That every tribe, tongue, and nation would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
When you love your enemies, your enemies become your mission fields… and your mission fields just may well become your friends.