Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5:38-42

Matthew 5:38-42, John 15:12-21, Revelation 22:12-13 

Confession: I often do not wait for the justice of the Lord, but love to enact my own. Jesus is speaking to me here. It comes most often in fighting on behalf of my more passive friends. You know this person, (maybe you are thinking of me reading this) the strong justice-oriented person who’s not afraid to get up in anyone’s business. It seems like more and more people in our country are becoming like this. 

The Lord is greatly grieved by injustice. However, Jesus here is showing us how we respond to individual injustices. Here this: we should not be passive to systematic and large-scale injustices of this world. This is not what Jesus is talking to. We should vote for laws that weed out systematic racism, we should help organizations who fight human trafficking,  and we should “give to those who are truly needy” (Matthew 5:42). But Jesus is teaching us how to respond to personal injustice. When someone comes up and insults you, turn the other cheek. We don’t respond with an insult (which can be very hard when you’ve just been offended). Jesus throughout this whole sermon is teaching us how to live in the new Kingdom. If we are always ready to be offended doesn’t that show us where we are value comes from? 

You belong to God, that is why you have entered into his Kingdom. When should be offended by the things that offended God? When we are personally attacked and we respond out of offense, where does that actually come from? A firm foundation on our God-given identities or our shaky insecurities given to us by the world?

Christians shouldn’t retaliate because we should live out of eternal identities by the unshakeable God. He rules forever, so why should we let the world dictate when we should be offended when we’ve surrendered all things to our reigning King Jesus?