[Propertalk] Sermon tips for Matthew 5:38-48 - Part 4

[Joe Parrish]

A literalistic treatment of Jesus' words here about retaliation has left people sometimes defenceless and abandoned. It is surely wrong to have these words used to make people feel that they ought to put up with domestic violence and other forms of abuse, for instance. The context of these sayings is the issue of retaliation, engaging in return-hate and return-violence. 
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Matthew's presentation has passed a censor who did not note its disparities. Why cite Gentiles as people one should not emulate? He does it again in 18:17. And what about the tax collectors? Elsewhere Jesus shows them grace. And what about bad weather? Unevenness lies also in these positive affirmations of love when set beside Matthew's preferred pedagogy: to warn people of how God will torment them forever in hell if they do not respond. This passage provides some threads to pull which can unravel that scheme. Matthew's theology is at times in danger of presenting God as doing what these contrasts declare a failure of righteousness and justice. 

http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/MtEpiphany7.htm

William Loader
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Bonhoeffer. This young man was something of a genius. He received his doctorate cum laude when he was still 21, and as he was too young to be ordained, he went to New York to study further there. And while he was there a wonderful thing happened. He became conscientised. It started with him worshipping in a black Baptist church in Harlem. He fell in love with Negro Spirituals, but more, he began to understand what his theology looked like 'from below'. He began to understand what life was like for those who were marginalized, for those who were powerless, for those who suffered social injustice. 
And because he had been conscientised to the dignity of  marginalized black people in America, he was able to be conscientised to the dignity of marginalized Jewish people in Germany. And so he stood up.

http://sacredise.com/blog/?p=691

John van de Laar, 2011
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Jesus is using exaggeration and hyperbole to make a very important point:  These laws are unjust, and the Lord God is not on the side of your oppressor.  Yes, there was much money-lending in the time of Jesus, but this activity was, itself, illegal according to Torah.  Exodus 22:25 clearly says:  "If you lend money to my people, to the poor among you, you shall not deal with them as a creditor; you shall not exact interest from them."

"Release your coat also" is an expression of disgust at the whole rotten system that perpetrates poverty, denies dignity, takes everything you've got, and encourages the ones who benefit from it to imagine themselves superior.  "You can't take my coat;  I free give it"--this is a way of asserting personal agency in the face of dehumanizing oppression.

http://www.progressiveinvolvement.com/progressive_involvement/2011/02/lectionary-blogging-matthew-5-38-48.html

John Petty, 2011
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Matthew's Jesus is not recommending a blanket policy of non-resistance, say when weak and vulnerable members of a community are threatened with violence. Nor is he dismissing the validity of negative consequences for negative behavior (10:32-33; 6:14-15). He is saying that "an eye for an eye" is not a legitimate motto for his followers when they suffer personal insult (Allison, 94).

http://www.patheos.com/Resources/Additional-Resources/Sketchy-Scenes-Reflections-on-Matthew-Alyce-McKenzie-02-14-2011.html

Alyce McKenzie, 2011
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In the context of the Roman Empire, the Sermon on the Mount is a radical proposal for resistance. Written just years after Titus (who succeeds his father as Emperor during this period) destroys Jerusalem along with the temple, it is a call not to arms but an invitation to a nonviolent reorientation of civilization. There is only one problem; it might depend on our ability to be perfect.

http://thehardestquestion.org/yeara/epiphany7gospel/

Russell Rathbun, 2011
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...the hardest of a slew of hard verses: "Be perfect." When we hear that command, most of us hear an injunction to a kind of moral perfectionism. But that's not actually what the original language implies. "Perfect," in this case, stems from telos, the Greek word for "goal," "end," or "purpose." The sense of the word is more about becoming what was intended, accomplishing one's God-given purpose in the same way that God constantly reflects God's own nature and purpose. Eugene Peterson's The Message gets closer to the mark, I think, when he translates it, "You're kingdom subjects. Now live like it. Live out your God-created identity."

http://www.workingpreacher.org/dear_wp.aspx?article_id=456

David Lose, 2011
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...if these people take advantage of us once, what's to stop them doing it again and again and again? Aren't the disciples of Jesus an easy target, a push over? Well, I believe that if you show them your God-centred-ness (I love making words up), if we let our light shine, then that witness will be a catalyst for change. I don't believe Jesus said these things just to get us ripped off and exploited. But by living generously he meant for us to be change makers, for us to make a difference. It's a call for us to live the servant life, like Jesus lived the servant life. 

http://aweirdthing.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/what-do-you-want-a-medal/

Neil Chappell, 2011
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These are actions that refuse to be determined by the system of military and economic
power that was characteristic of the Roman Empire. Jesus' words about loving your
enemy were an extension to human practice of the logic of God's goodness. That is, since
God is good to those who do evil as well as those who do good, we also ought to follow
the example of God who does good to all and whose desire is peace for all. The
completion of the logic of the kingdom of heaven is therefore that to be complete,
mature, full-grown adults, perfect in the sense of having attained the end or purpose of
human life, is not to pursue the mentality of the warrior who becomes a hero by killing
the enemy. It is rather that completeness and maturity is evidenced in loving the enemy,
in finding ways of non-violent resistance to evil that will in turn create the possibility of a
peaceable kingdom on earth.

http://gotell.org/pdf/commentary/Matthew/Mt05_38-48_commentary.pdf

Thomas E. Boomershine, 2011
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