His Sermon, My Story #52 -- Matthew 5:38-42 -- Has my generosity ever astonished anyone?

Astonishing generosity. In the midst of NT Wright’s book, entitled, Jesus and the Victory of God, he uses those two words to describe a key characteristic that Jesus’ expected of his followers. Astonishing generosity. Let those two words roll around in your brain a bit, those who follow Jesus should be marked by astonishing generosity, not just marked by the astonishing generosity of Jesus to us, but because of his generosity to us, we should be marked by our astonishing generosity to others. 

Now Wright isn’t talking about money. It would perhaps be a bit easier if it was just money. He’s talking about a more difficult kind of generosity. Grace. Forgiveness those who betray us. Loving our enemies. When it comes to that kind of generosity, ask yourself, "Has my generosity ever astonished anyone?"

Transcript

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Hey, welcome to another episode of More Than Bread. We have been making our way through the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus mountaintop message that began to lay a blueprint for life lived in the kingdom of God, a life that truly thrives. And we're almost done. I'm thinking, I don't know, maybe five to six more episodes, maybe a wrap-up, which if you're listening as they drop, will get us to sometime the third week of November. Now, I might hit an episode or two on gratitude, because that's a favorite topic, and that's such a part, a key part of letting the words of God saturate into our souls. But but I'm also going to take a week or so break before we dive into an Advent series. We'll do an Advent series. Not sure of the theme yet, but I'll figure that out during my break. And so I just encourage anybody, even if you're not caught up, go to the Advent series while we're in Advent. In any case, let me preface the reading of the next part of the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5, 38 through 42. Actually, I'll probably read verses 38 through the end of the chapter, verse 48. But before I do that, I just want to share this thought. In the midst of N. T. Wright's book entitled Jesus and the Victory of God, he uses two words to describe a key characteristic that Jesus expected of his followers. It was astonishing generosity. Astonishing generosity. Just let those two words roll around in your brain for a moment. Those who followed Jesus should be marked by astonishing generosity. Not just marked by the astonishing generosity of Jesus to us, that should mark us. But because of his generosity to us, we should be marked by our astonishing generosity to others. Now, Wright isn't talking about money. He's talking about a bit more difficult type of generosity. His quote is a reference to Matthew 5, 38 through 42, where we're at in this episode, when Jesus tells his followers to turn the other cheek when struck, give their cloak when asked for a coat, not a coke, or to carry a load an extra mile when a person makes you haul something for them. He's saying, in effect, that even when people use you or take advantage of you or hurt you or offend you or betray you, they must be met with astonishing generosity. It's not enough to just be a little bit generous, Jesus is saying, but our generosity must astonish the people around us, leaving them dumbfounded for an explanation, confused by how we came in such an opposite spirit. It's not enough to be good to the people who are good to us. If we're going to be his followers, our generosity must flow to the very people with whom we don't want to be generous. In other words, Jesus is summoning us to a real revolution, which will come about through his people, reflecting the generous love of God into the whole world. This is not just a strategy for adding a bit of kindness to the world. It's not just about making things a bit better for people in the margins of life. This is his strategy for changing the world. It's not just about making the world better. This is how we make the world new. Our generosity is to remind people of God's generosity. Perhaps we might say that God's strategy for changing the world is not politics. But rather it's the generous forgiveness of those who fail us, betray us, and hurt us, as well as serving and helping those in need. When we do this, we become a reflection of the generous love of God to the whole world. Or as Jesus put it, you become the light of the world. So with that in mind, let me read Matthew 5, 38 through 48. You've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. You've heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect. Well, over a decade ago, Louis Zamperini died at the age of 97. Louis was a troubled kid, but because he could run fast, he went to the Berlin Olympics in Nazi Germany in 1936. In fact, his scrapbook contained a do not disturb sign that he stole from Jesse Owens. You know that name. After the Olympics came World War II, on May 27, 1943, his bomber left Oahu in search of survivors from a downed plane. And about 800 miles from the base, one of the engines cut out and they plunged into the sea. For 47 days, at that time, a record for survival at sea. Zamparini and another soldier survived on this tiny life draft. For 47 days they fought starvation, dementia, sharks, and then they were rescued. I mean, can you imagine the joy they had when the ship came into view? Now imagine the despair they felt when they realized it was an enemy ship. Zamperini spent the next two years as a prisoner of war in the notorious Sugamoo, Sugamo prison, a prison run by a guard who became notorious around the world for his sadistic torture. The guard's goal, his name was Watanabe, was to break the spirit of the American soldiers. Lewis endured constant physical torture, verbal humiliation. He became Watanabe's number one hated prisoner. And this guy, Watanabe, was like something out of a horror movie. Lewis said he'd beat POWs every day, fracturing their windpipes, rupturing their eardrums, shattering their teeth, tearing one man's ear half off and leaving them unconscious. He combined physical with emotional torture. He wanted to humiliate, to destroy, Zamprini wrote, he wanted to destroy a prisoner's sense of humanity. Lewis was thrown into conditions of unspeakable filth. He was tortured, humiliated, subjected to medical experiments and made him want to die. Forced into slave labor, he was starved. And when he did get food, it was awful. One form of punishment, think about this, was one of the guards had all the enlisted prisoners hit their officers in the face as hard as they could. If they didn't hit them hard enough, guards would club them. In one two-hour period, the officers, including Lewis, got hit in the face by their own men over 200 times. I can't even begin to imagine all the hurt, physically, emotionally, spiritually. So I I just want to make this personal. Draw you a little bit back from Lewis's horrific experiences and simply ask this question Who are you mad at today? Who's hurt you? Who's offended you? Who betrayed you? Who let you down? Who humiliated or demeaned you? Who who acted like they were more important than you? What do you do if somebody hurts you? I mean, for most of us, it it wasn't or isn't to the same degree as Lewis. It may be a whole different type of hurt or different result, but but what do you do? You're you're in line for a promotion, but a coworker lies about you and gets your job, or a classmate calls you uh a name related to your race or economic status or sexuality, and everybody laughs. Maybe it's a betrayal by your spouse or friend, or it's just a series of little things. Your sister ruins your favorite sweater, your dad reads your diary, your husband cuts you down in front of friends, your neighbor puts a dent in your new car and says it's no big deal, or maybe it was a tragic abuse or hurt, or maybe it's just the offense of social media or the conflict and division of politics. What do you do? What do you do when they're on the other side? So I want to suggest that we have three relational choices. And we begin to see these in Matthew 5.38, where Jesus says, You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Now, I want to say our first choice, and this kind of leads us to it, but it's not quite what Jesus says here. But the first choice is that we can choose vengeance, right? An eye for an eye. Vengeance is a desire to do harm that arises from the hate that comes from unresolved hurt. You hurt me, I hate you, I will harm you. I mean, Lewis was filled, you can imagine this. I would be, was filled with hate, the hate that came from hurt. I mean, they had little ability to harm their captors, but they did what they could. For example, the prisoners were forced to pack and load rice that would go to feed their captors and other enemy soldiers. So the prisoners would drink excessive amounts of tea on the job. You know what they did. The enemy couldn't figure out why they loved Japanese tea so much. Lewis writes, it was actually an elegant, elegantly simple form of sabotage. We'd drink tea all day and then take turns peeing on the rice. Doesn't seem like much, but it came from hate and rage. When Lewis got home, he was still imprisoned by his rage. He had a dream one night where he was finally able to attack Watanabe. And when he woke up, he realized he was in his own bed choking his pregnant wife. Jesus said, You've heard that it was said, an eye for an eye or tooth for a tooth. Now, to some that sounds just short of barbaric, but it's actually a biblical principle. It wasn't a call to vengeance. I mean, rarely is vengeance, think about this, rarely is vengeance so fair as an eye for an eye. It's usually a lie when we say, I just want to get even. Because vengeance is all about getting one up. But in fact, an eye for an eye was a call away from vengeance. It was a call to choose justice. That's the second way we can relate in these relationships, justice. An eye for an eye was a courtroom principle. From Exodus 21, Leviticus 23, Deuteronomy 19, everywhere the law is mentioned, it's a judicial call to exercise justice, not too severe, nor too lenient. It's a good judicial principle. It works well in courtrooms, but not in relationships, right? That was kind of the perversion of the Pharisees. They had taken the legal principle of justice, applied it to their personal relationships, and made it all about me. Be fair to me, give me my due. Three relationship choices: vengeance or justice. We understand both of those. Or we can choose grace. Grace is really another word for astonishing generosity. But unfortunately, grace has become a religious word, right? A church topic. But what does grace look like in the real world? A world where hurt happens, a world of angry X's and racial injustice, a world of real evil. Well, in this passage in Matthew 5, 38 through 42, I think Jesus gives four simple, profound, simply profound portraits of grace. The real life blessing of grace, of this never quit grit kind of grace. He says, You've heard it was said an eye for an eye, but I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. So Jack's mother ran into the bedroom when she heard him scream and found his two-year-old sister pulling his hair. She gently released the little girl's grip and comforted Jack, There, Jack. She didn't mean it. She doesn't even know that it hurts. Mom was barely out of the room when she heard more screaming. This time it was her daughter, rushing back in. She said, What happened? Little Jack said, She knows now. Now that's not grace, but it kind of brings back some fond memories of my childhood. The first picture of real life grace is humbly turning the other cheek. In other words, grace is not easily offended. Jesus said, Do not resist an evil person, the one who is evil, an evil person. This is not an accident or a misunderstanding. This is a bad guy trying to do you harm. Don't resist an evil person. And you know, sometimes those words are twisted, right? This is not a call to passivity in the face of evil. It shouldn't be used to tell a victim of abuse to live with their abuser. When your child comes home with a black eye courtesy of the school bully, don't send them back tomorrow to offer up the other eye. When robbers break in to steal your TV and you wake up in the middle of it, it's not more spiritual to direct them to your treasures or stereo. Grace is not stupid. This is not an invitation to wimps and training. It isn't a call for silence or compliance in the face of evil. Jesus says, if your right cheek has been slapped, offer your left. Now most people are right-handed. So if you stood facing someone, picture this, and someone slapped you with your right hand on slapped and you slapped them. No, I'm sorry, picture this different. If you stood facing someone and you slapped them with your right hand on their right cheek, how would you do that? You'd have to use the back of your hand, right? In Jesus' day, to be given the back of the hand was an insult of the greatest magnitude. It was meant to label someone as weak, incapable, inadequate, and worthless. It was an act of humiliation. Lewis said that Watanabe's goal was to humiliate. Have you ever been humiliated? Does it hurt? I have. It does. In fact, I still remember talking to a girl on the bus and hearing her friends make fun of me. Look back and think, well, that's not that big a deal, but it was humiliating. Has someone ever ruined your reputation? I mean, don't you just want to go go up and give them a great big hug? No. Not my first thoughts either. Jesus says that grace turns the other cheek, which means grace is incredibly difficult to offend. I don't know. Sometimes it seems like this political season and every news cycle, every every time I get on social media, it's an exercise and trying to get us offended. Trying to get us offended. Like we love the division. We hold up as our heroes, the ones who offend either side. I'm not even talking about sides. We're doing it on both sides. But see, rather than hanging on to our rights, grace humbles up. Grace gives up our rights for the life of others. Grace gives up the right to trade insult for insult. Grace forgives. And when we forgive, when we forgive, we have an opportunity to practice astonishing generosity. In the next episode, we'll come back to Lewis and this call to turn the other cheek and love our enemies, to practice grace, a grace that is astonishing, astonishingly generous. But for now, let me just ask you, who is your Watanabe? Who's your mini Watanabe? Maybe they're not nearly as horrific as Lewis's guard, but but who is the one for you? Who comes to mind? God, as as these folks come to our minds, I pray that you would give us the grace. I pray that you would pour out so much grace in our lives, in our hearts. Just an overflowing sense of your grace and forgiveness that we can't help. But let that flow into the lives of those who have hurt us, offended us, betrayed us, failed us. God, I pray that you would cause us to be a people of such astonishing grace that it causes people to think of you, that it causes people to think of Jesus and the astonishing generosity of God. God, for every person who's come to mind, would you help us to forgive them? Would you help us to love them as you call us in a few episodes to even love our enemies? In Jesus' name. I pray. Amen. God, I I want to practice generosity. Let that be your prayer today. God, I I want to practice generosity, but I need your help. Jesus, I need your heart. For whoever has come to my mind, God, I want to practice generosity, but I need your help. Jesus, I need your heart.