Introduction

The Christian has a calling to wear a yoke, bear a load, and carry a cross. With love, he "endures all things" (1 Cor. 13.7). With patience, he receives instruction to bear with others or to be forbearing (Col. 3.13). These ideas of carrying a cross and of bearing a load reach beyond the household of faith. They include the heavy load of injustice that occurs in relation to those outside the church.

A narrative by Tolstoy illustrates this heavy load of injustice. The title is "God sees the truth but waits." It is the story of a man by the name of Ivan who went to prison for a murder that he did not commit. After twenty-six years in prison, he received a pardon but he died in prison. Vindication came after his death. Tolstoy’s lesson was in his title, "God sees the truth but waits." Part of the message Tolstoy wanted to convey was the fact, the hard truth, that injustice can be life-long for some individuals. Actually, it is life-long for all of us in this world of sin and sinners. Tolstoy put two things together in a very powerful way; he juxtaposed injustice with non-violence because Ivan did not take revenge when he became aware that the murderer was there in the same prison. To one degree or another, we, like Ivan, must endure the heavy load of injustice for our entire lives. In the big picture, we know that Tolstoy affirms that there will be a balancing of the books at the end of history. Things will be set straight after death.

It seems evident that a text of Scripture that was influential on the thinking of Tolstoy was Matthew 5.38-42. This is the part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus discusses the famous theme of turning the other cheek. This text was influential on the thinking of many world famous leaders such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. However, it is a fair and necessary question to ask if these men properly understood the teaching of Jesus in this text.

It does seem correct to juxtapose non-violence with injustice but we might use a better word to summarize the text and capture all that is involved in the endurance of injustice. What word could we fittingly use to replace "non-violence" to help us see what Jesus is teaching? We can summarize the endurance of injustice with the single, but still loaded word non-resistance.

Now what is non-resistance? Webster’s dictionary states that it is the practice of not resisting violence by responding with violence (do not use force against violence). In war, non-resistance becomes pacifism. In the courts, it means to have no capital punishment. In political idealism, it seeks a state with no police where love conquers all. Biblical non-resistance, however, has a distinctive meaning. What we want to do then is define and apply the biblical teaching on non-resistance in Matthew 5.38-42.

1A. The principle of non-resistance defined

This principle emerges in the context of another contrast between our Lord’s use and the Pharisaic abuse of the OT. Here we can consider the OT pattern, the abuse of the pattern, and the implication of that abuse to arrive at the definition we are seeking.

1B. The OT pattern

In the OT, there is this basic principle of public justice: an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Although it has a ring of severity, this principle restrained extreme and severe punishment. It did so by limiting the punishments and it put retribution under the care of the judges in Israel taking it out of the personal realm.

2B. The abuse of this pattern

The flow of thought implies that the Pharisees violated this principle in two ways.

1) They made it a matter of personal and private retaliation.

2) This retaliation gave vent to a heart full of revenge, vindictiveness, and spite (seeking and wreaking hurt to others).

3B. Implication of this abuse

The implication is an important distinction between public justice and personal revenge. Jesus does not do away with public justice or with the eye for an eye in the public realm. There is to be punishment for crimes that correspond to the nature of the offense. (Contrary to the priest appearing on Ted Kopple’s Nightline who said, based on this passage, that capital punishment is returning violence for violence instead of adopting the teaching of Jesus on non-resistance).

What Jesus does do is condemn the abuse of the eye for an eye principle in the private realm to justify personal revenge. Non-resistance is the promotion of justice without vindictiveness, vengeance, or spite. On the other side of the equation, resistance involves conflict with injustice out of an angry desire to see someone hurt or to make someone pay.

2A. The principle of non-resistance applied

What kind of conduct should characterize the Christian in the private realm regarding things that do not come into the arena of the courts and public justice? (Though much applies to the public realm as well; the heart attitude applies across the board)

The answer is that Jesus teaches the promotion of justice without vindictiveness and spite. In your mind, receive the wrongs and much more. Restrain all overt acts of retaliation. Restrain even the desire to hurt. Curb your wish to return hurt for hurt. He applies His teaching in a series of familiar examples. He thus tells us to turn the other cheek, go the extra mile, give away coat with suit, and give to those who ask you for money.

Consider each example in the following pattern: note what Jesus is not saying, the absurdity of taking Him literally, the general point, and the specific application.

1B. A blow to the face

1) Jesus is not saying if someone hits you on one side of the face, turn the other side toward the perpetrator and invite a blow to the other side as well. He is not saying you cannot be satisfied with being hit once; it is better to be hit twice!

2) Literally, this is absurd.

Going through the literal reading to its logical outcome is revealing. It usually (always) shows the absurdity to which a literal reading leads. Of course, that means that we are looking at the text the wrong way if we are "caught up" in literal renderings. It seems easy to fall into a literal or semi-literal way of reading (some of the best commentators fall into a mixture of literal and non-literal interpretation, cf. Ridderbos and Carson).

3) The general point

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus continually uses various forms of figurative language to catch the listeners’ ears. The language of these examples fits well with graphic metaphors and absolutes that exaggerate something to make a point. Jesus uses a case from real life of someone hitting another in the face but when He explains the response, He exaggerates and embellishes the example.

From the literal but exaggerated response, we are to learn how to respond in a godly way. The general point is that we are to learn a principle. Jesus directs us to a tone of living, to an attitude, and to the spirit of things. Think literally and apply spiritually based on a typical-actual problem to an embellished solution. He is forcing us to think about godliness in general by exaggerated cases that arise in daily life in a context of injustice.

4) The Specific application

We are to apply the principle here to the reality of injustice. How do we do that? One way to answer this is to do the "as if" test. When you are treated unjustly, you are to be so far from retaliation in thought, word, or deed that it is as if being struck in the face you simply turn the other cheek to be struck again. Don’t do this physically but do it spiritually. When you are hurt, opposed, sinned against, and wronged in various ways, your response is to be resolute: instead of reacting, brace yourself for more injustice so that you can stand tall, calm, and focused in your devotion to Christ. Thus, because of Christ, you seek to stand tall and calm in your devotion to love others despite the injustices they direct at you.

2B. Losing your suit in court

1) Jesus is not saying that if you lose ninety per cent of you life’s savings in a civil law suit that you should volunteer to give the remaining ten per cent to the court or to your accuser.

2) Just think that through and you see how absurd it is to think literally.

3) The Lord makes a general point of attitude here by speaking of exaggerated circumstances. He is pressing toward the attitude that would be at work in such a literal case where you lost your suit and therefore gave up your topcoat along with it.

4) The specific application pertains to the fact that a person’s "overcoat" belonged to him as an inalienable right (Ex. 22.26f).

It means that we have a figurative example that shows us a spiritual lesson by exaggeration. In the literal case we would not fling the over coat with the words, "I hope you freeze in it." The conduct of the literal case teaches what ought to be-no retaliation whatever, only a yielding spirit. Jesus teaches us to give up our "rights" as a key in dealing with injustice in this fallen world. Injustice involves infringement on our rights, on what is rightfully ours. A godly attitude in this sinful world will be to plan to forfeit your rights here and there as a difficult but necessary reality of true spirituality.

3B. Involuntary labor

The Roman soldier makes you carry his bags a mile (a right he had because of the rule of Rome over Israel). How do you respond?

1) Jesus is not saying when you get to the end of the mile, volunteer to carry his stuff another mile. He is not saying that you should indicate to the Roman military man that this has been your privilege and you would like to double the duty.

2) The impact here shows the absurdity of thinking literally. Literally, it would mean that at the end of the mile when the soldier releases you from your charge that you pick up his bags and insist on going another mile with him.

3) What Jesus is showing us is the general point of attitude and focus in the inward man of the heart rather than outward actions in this scenario that occurred often in an already aggravated relationship of Romans and Jews.

4) The specific application: Think of what you might do in such a case after the mile hike. You could throw down the bags in disgust. Give them a good kick and go your way. You could say in your heart (or say it aloud), "I hope you fall and break your legs in the next mile you walk for what you have done to my legs and my mental state in this mile." Alternatively, you could say, "O, you don’t want to carry your own bags. You think you are somebody high and mighty. When you get to Jerusalem, I hope a stone falls from the temple onto your neck so you are crippled and can never carry your own bags ever again!" Some may act in deep anger and when the mile walk leads to a secluded place, they may take a sword to the Roman in pious Jewish anger.

The specific application is that you are to be so far away from replying in any vindictive way that it is as if you were to say, "Please, let me go another mile with your bags in my hands." In other words, this is a figurative picture of your willingness to suffer, bear, and endure injustice like this in a godly way.

4B. Giving gifts and loans

1) Jesus is not saying that you are to give to every single person that asks you for money.

2) The implications of doing that show how absurd it is to think literally. Otherwise, you would be duty bound to give money to the professional beggar that uses the money he receives to buy alcohol or drugs. That would cut against all the principles of wisdom in Scripture.

3) Jesus makes a general point regarding the attitude that should govern our outlook. He begins with the case of people in need who seek money in a broad context of injustice regarding possessions.

4) The specific application pertains in this crucial way: Jesus exaggerates the situation by telling us to give people that have wronged us. The story is that someone who is evil and has done you wrong comes upon a time of need. They then seek you out for some money by either gift or loan. In the literal case, Jesus says you are to give what they ask from you. Applied spiritually, this means that when people who have wronged us come into a crisis and perhaps even seek us out, we are not to turn away from them. This is an attitude that goes beyond refusing to give; it turns away from them in the potent gesture of turning our backs on them. Thus, Jesus paints a figurative picture of your willingness to do good things to those who have hurt you, to return good for evil instead of evil for evil.

How do we handle the literal cases? What do we do if we are actually hit in the face, if we lose our suit in a lawsuit, if we must work involuntarily for a foreign government (or if you have to work for someone you do not like), or if an evil person comes to us in need of money?

As literal happenings in a fallen world, Jesus is not telling us how to deal with them in any other way except in heart attitude. The responses He cites are not for literal application. They are purposeful exaggerations. He is emphasizing the vital principle of non-resistance. He is stressing the importance of no retaliation in thought, word, or deed. He teaches the negative, what not to think and do; the exaggerations do not teach us what we are to do. Regarding the specific situations, other principles of wisdom in Scripture apply. Regarding physical blows to the face, we have the wisdom principles flowing from the 6^th commandment (yes, stop a blow to the other side of the face to protect yourself). Defending property rights in court relate to the 8^th commandment. Living under human authorities like Rome or Uncle Sam is a matter of the 5^th commandment. It is the 8^th commandment that spear heads wise principles in the promotion of your own wealth and the wealth of others (you cannot wisely or rightly give away all you have to whomever without exception or qualification).

We need to handle all of these cases with wisdom in an intelligent and coherent picture that takes in all the commandments. Such wisdom will look carefully and meditatively at the teaching of Jesus by sometimes-difficult figurative language.

Conclusion

1) We have talked before about the reality that the kingdom of God has come and there is a delay of judgment until the harvest. Now the wheat and tares grow together (Mat. 13.30). In the time of this mixture, we must endure the heavy load of injustice (cf. Rom. 12.17f; 1 Thess. 5.15; 1 Pet. 3.9). It is to be expected. It should not surprise us (though it does). We should prepare ourselves for it (though we often are not prepared for it). Our Lord said, in the world you shall have tribulation but I have over come the world; I have told you this ahead of time that you not stumble. Paul stated that through much tribulation we enter the kingdom of God.

2) The ruling principle of our lives in relation to injustice is to be the acceptance of injustice without revenge or redress. We must refuse to satisfy ourselves by taking personal revenge or acting out of spite. Instead, we are to return good for evil. This is biblical non-resistance. It is biblical love. Therefore, we are to leave vengeance in the hands of God where it belongs.

3) Ultimately, all of this is a call to faith to trust in the Lord Jesus as risen Lord and Sabbath King. He determines the color and number regarding the hair on our heads. He determines our life span and our trials on the way to heaven.