Matthew 5: 38-42 (ESV)

³⁸ “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 the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. ⁴⁰ And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. ⁴¹ And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.⁴² Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you

Live Long Enough

We live long enough and we may experience some things - some good, some not-so-good experiences. We live long enough and we may not be as rich as Bill Gates or Jack Ma of Alibaba of China. We live long enough and you and I may not be as famous as Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie, or as powerful as President Trump or Xi Jin Ping of China. But if you live long enough, you and I would have faced and experienced evil. Evil from evil men and women. And this is often what strikes fear in our hearts, brings disappointment to us, weakness in our needs, and doesn't allow us to carry on living life with purpose and joy. That is why today’s passage on “An eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth” by the Lord Jesus is very important.

Guiding Principle

Allow me firstly to explain the background to this. “An eye for an eye, and tooth for a tooth” is a quotation from Deuteronomy 19: 20-21 given by God to His people as in the law of retaliation. What does this mean? It was God's way to prevent disproportionate response. For example, if somebody stepped on the toe of your young child, it’s to make sure that you don’t go and do more harm on bashing up this child, where the response is worse than the first wrong that has been done onto the child. So, the law of retaliation was both to prevent and to minimize personal vengeance, personal vendetta which was totally disproportionate to the wrong or the evil done to us as we experienced.

Justice vs. Vengeance

I was once listening to a talk given by the judge of this country who serves in the highest positions. And in one of the questions being raised, she was asked “What was the hardest thing in being a judge?” Her immediate response was “The hardest thing about being a judge is that when people bring their cases to court, in the end, many people may not realize that they are not looking for justice, but are actually looking for vengeance”. And she said something that really struck us, that if you are looking for justice, you might find it in the law courts; but if you are looking for vengeance, you will not find it because that's not what law courts are for.

Stories told of a man who was so unhappy with some injustice he experienced in the law. And out of his unhappiness, after the case was finished, he claimed that he had poisoned a batch of biscuits. This company had to withdraw all the batches of biscuits from the supermarket shelves!

When people are seeking revenge and vengeance, there is no limit to what they may do. Between the initial wrong and evil that they have experienced, to the final response that it will take to cope with the initial wrong. The law of retaliation given by God to His People, Israel, was both to prevent, to check and to minimize personal revenge that were then spiral into outright family, community and national chaos if we do not think of how to respond rightly.

Responses upon Insult

So, Jesus gives very practical examples to His kingdom disciples. If anyone slaps you on right cheek, turn to him the other also. Most of us are right-handed and try to understand this -- for us to be struck on the right cheek, if the average person is right-handed, how does this person strike us on the right cheek? You have to use the back of your right hand to strike a person on the right cheek. And to use the back of your hand is both a symbol of insult, a symbol of putting the other person down.

So, when was the last time you were humiliated? When was the last time you were insulted both personally and in public? One of my staff was sharing with me that as she came out of the train at the train station, she didn't see a puddle of water, and she stepped on it and slipped and fell. She said “Chris, this is so embarrassing to fall in public.” You know there is a difference between an embarrassment and humiliation.

What Jesus is speaking about here, when someone slaps us on the right cheek with the back of his/her right hand, it is actually to humiliate and to insult us. The normal person, flesh and blood like you and me, whenever we experience a personal humiliation or insult, everything within us screams, everything within us shouts to immediately hit back, to immediately take revenge. And Jesus says ‘As kingdom people who believe in Him and follow Him, we are not to do this. We are indeed to go the extra mile. This is Jesus again as we have seen dealing with anger, lust and keeping oath. The behaviour that calls us to, is totally revolutionary, totally radical. It really up the standards of God's law in the Old Testament. Why? This is totally expected because Jesus has come as God's end-time king ushering the end time and eternal kingdom of God. And so the standards of God and His kingdom to Jesus Christ are totally radical, totally revolutionary, and so it says, “Go the extra mile.”

Out of Scope

Firstly, as kingdom people, we have no right to take personal revenge and personal vengeance into our own hands. However, this teaching of “Do not resist a person who is evil” is not to be a plug at the general level in regards to policing work, army and to wars. Jesus is not speaking about that. When there are real wrong done to us, at those level, we need police; we need the policing of the right authorities; we need the responses of the right authorities to public general evil. He is speaking about personal vendetta.

Evil Response vs. Jesus’ Teaching

In a Christian magazine that I read years ago struck me till today. A woman was expecting together with the husband expecting their first child. I do not know about you but the average couple that expecting their first child is full of excitement. And then, she discovered that her husband was having an affair with someone in the very last stages of pregnancy. She discovered that not just anyone, the husband was actually having an affair with her best friend.

She discovered this while her husband was out at work and she waited for him to come back, to confront him with the evidence. I think she found some letters, some notes, and some receipts of the outings. The moment he walked in, she confronted him and this is what he said: It is better that you know sooner than later. I was intending to tell you but never had enough courage or the chance.” He walked up stairs to the house; he packed his bags and then walked straight out to live with her best friend, whom he was having affair with round the corner.

How do you respond to a man like this? How do you respond to a betrayer like this? She went on to bear and raise the first child, a son, by herself and helps from her friends in church. They filed for divorce, and as was the procedure, she still had to drop her son every week at her husband's place. She said in a testimony that every time she had to do so, she had to pray sincerely and deeply for a fresh dose of forgiveness, a fresh dose of grace to be able to face her husband, face her good friend, as she dropped her son to spend time with them once a week.

This lady had learned, and still was learning how humanly impossible it is, for us not to take wrong and evil into our own hands, and how not to embark on personal vendetta. There were so many options before her of what she could have done to her husband -- to spoil his reputation, to go on an acid attack… Things like that happen all around the world, my friends. I was in Cambodia. To my horror on my first mission trip, I found out that the very common response of wives who have been betrayed by their husbands, is to hire people to do an acid attack on the mistress or the concubines. And it's so sad to hear that.

Impossible vs. Possible

As kingdom people, we don’t! We don’t fight evil with evil. We respond to evil with the goodness of God’s heart. This sounds impossible! it is impossible apart from our faith and our salvation, and being a new person to Jesus Christ, our Savior and our Lord. And when we believe in Jesus as our Savior and our Lord, He grants us His words, He grants us His Holy Spirit that empowers us to live such different lives. May God empower you and me to live onto His glory.

Summary & Self Reflection

How do we respond to this message that Jesus Speaks on fighting against evil, insult and humiliation? Do we choose to fight evil with evil? Or, do we choose to respond to evil with goodness of God’s heart? How can we human live it out in such situation(s)? Is it ever possible for human to respond evil with goodness? If not, who should we come forward to? May God bless you all with a totally transformed life. Amen!