MELVIN M. NEWLAND, MINISTER
RIDGE CHAPEL, KANSAS, OK
(REVISED: 2019)
(Powerpoints used with this sermon are available for free. Just email me at mnewland@sstelco.com and request #116.)
TEXT: Matthew 5:38-41; Luke 23:34
A. Fifty-two years ago Ethel & I became acquainted with Dr. Vijai & Pushpa Lall of India. The story of their family’s introduction to Christianity & their subsequent efforts to serve Christ in a very hostile environment is an amazing & thrilling one.
Dr. Lall died 20 years ago, but the Mid-India Christian Mission which he & Pushpa established continues on as an ever-expanding witness in India & beyond.
The Mission now includes several hundred churches, a Bible College, two hospitals, numerous village clinics, two Christian schools with nearly 3,000 students, & a Media Centre which produces professional quality radio & television programs which are being used all over India and Southeast Asia.
Over the years, Vijai & Pushpa were guests in our home a number of times, & we had the opportunity to hear them speak again & again.
And the more we heard, the more we came to understand what it is like to be part of a very small Christian minority in a pagan land. Their spirit, their faith, their dedication & love for God & his people shone through every time they spoke.
But I was dismayed when he told how Christians were almost universally depicted as immoral people in Indian television & movies. In them, prostitutes, murderers, the dregs of society, are given Christian names, leaving the people with the impression that is what Christians are like. Is it any wonder that the average Hindu shuns contact with Christians?
But wait a minute. How do most of our own movies & TV programs portray Christians? Christians are often pictured as simple minded, gullible fools, manipulated by hypocritical leaders.
Anyone "religious" is almost always pictured as a fanatic, eccentric, a pain to be around, & the laughing stock of the community.
B. Dr. Lall also talked about the Hindu belief in reincarnation, the belief that when people die they are reborn again into another life. And that the cycle goes on & on through countless rebirths or reincarnations.
Their Hindu faith teaches that whatever blessings or sufferings they experience in life is a direct result of their previous incarnation. If they are suffering today, it is because they're being punished by the gods for something that happened in their previous life.
So, a devout Hindu can walk right by terrible suffering & not even consider helping, because to do so would be to thwart the punishment being meted out by the gods. The gods might turn against you, if you dared to interfere.
Are Hindus so heartless that they don't even care when people suffer? No, it is not that at all. The way they react is a result of what they have been taught & what they believe.
C. Now let's leave India, & go to the Mid-East where terrorism is so prevalent.
How can terrorists deliberately set off bombs on crowded streets? How can they place a bomb in an airplane to take the lives of several hundred innocent men, women, & children? How can they slaughter patients lying in hospital beds, & take as hostages doctors & nurses whose only crime was that they were there to minister to the suffering?
Once again, in the Mid-East conflicts, we can find the answer in their faith, what they have been taught & what they believe.
1. First of all, they consider all the rest of the world to be infidels. We are unclean. We're worst than nothing. Whether we live or die is of no consequence. And if anything can be gained by our destruction, so be it!
2. Secondly, their own life is of no real consequence, either. In fact, they're taught that if they die killing infidels, that they will immediately be transported to a Paradise where they'll enjoy every sensual pleasure. So they're willing to kill & be killed. After all, "It is the Will of Allah."
SUM. Now I have taken a bit of time to make the point that your faith, what you have been taught, what you believe about God & His will for your life, makes all the difference in the way you act, in the values you hold dear, & in the standards that guide your life.
PROP. So let me ask you. What does it mean to be a Christian? What kind of people are we supposed to be? Well, maybe one way to answer that is by listening to what Jesus had to say in Matthew 5:38-41. He said,
"You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
"And if someone wants to sue you & take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.”
I. JESUS TELLS US THAT WE ARE TO HAVE A RADICAL LOVE
A. Don't you get the feeling that there are times when Jesus deliberately shocked his audience? I think He knew that an effective teaching tool was to say something so revolutionary that the audience was instantly shocked to attention. As a result, they listened carefully & never forgot what was said.
I think that was what He was doing here. He is saying, "Now you've learned some things about love, & you're beginning to put them into practice, seeing how they work. But I want us to stop talking about common love. Instead, let's talk about radical love, a love that loves completely, & never holds back."
And to illustrate radical love, Jesus told three simple little stories. Let me retell them for you.
B. First of all, let's suppose that you're a Jew walking down a street in Jerusalem, & you see some folks gathered over here arguing about something. Curious, you stop to listen. And as you are standing there, someone asks, "What do you think?" So you begin to express your opinion.
But as you talk you become aware of a man who seems to be getting angrier & angrier as he listens to you. Finally, he says, "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard." Then he strikes your right cheek with the back of his hand.
What are you going to do? The Law says, "… eye for eye, tooth for tooth..." (Leviticus 24:20) The Law entitles you to strike him back.
But Jesus says, "Don't retaliate in a vengeful way. Rather, show him love, not just average love, but radical love - love that goes the limit, that gives & forgives - love so powerful that it will not turn into hatred in the face of persecution."
C. Then he tells a second story. You have to understand a little bit about the Jewish wardrobe to understand this story. You see, a Jew who lived in Jerusalem had a standard wardrobe.
First of all, he had several linen tunics, loose fitting robes that covered him from his shoulders to well below his knees. But usually he had only one outer garment, his cloak. Today we might call it a poncho or overcoat
His cloak was made out of heavy material & was an important piece of clothing to him. Not only was it his coat, it was also his blanket at night. It kept him warm & protected him from the elements.
In fact, so important to him was his cloak that laws had been written saying that you can't sue a man & take his cloak. You can sue him for his tunic, because he has more of those. But you can't take his cloak because then he would be unprotected & cold.
Jesus was saying, "Let's suppose you own a business that fails, & you're unable to pay back all you borrowed. So the lender sues you to get back as much as he can."
You go to him & say, "To show you that I am a man of integrity, to show you how concerned I am that I'm not able to meet my obligations, I'll not only give you my tunic, I'll give you my cloak, too. I'll give it all."
D. Jesus tells a third story. And again, you have to understand the background. Whenever the Roman Empire conquered a town, a Roman yoke was put in the market place or in the principal gate of the town.
Sometimes they made everybody pass under it; sometimes just their leaders, thus promising that to the Roman Empire they would give obedience, tribute, & many other things.
One of the "other things" was this: Whenever a Roman soldier or official wanted you to carry his pack for a mile, or run an errand for a mile, or guide him for a mile, you had to drop everything & do it. It was a Roman law for conquered nations.
Well, this was a most humiliating experience for the Jews, for as God had said to Moses, "…they are a stiff-necked people indeed." (Deuteronomy 9:13)
We are also told that, in order to be fair, Roman Law stipulated that except in an emergency no one would be required to go farther than a mile.
I've also read that as a result, nearly every Jew had marked off a mile each way on the road from his house & had driven pegs down to mark those spots exactly.
Now, with that in mind, look at this group standing around Jesus. They're listening intently, marveling at the way Jesus is pronouncing these great truths. Then suddenly He drops this bomb, "If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles."
I can see them clench their fists, nudge the man next to them, shake their heads, & look at Jesus in astonishment. What in the world is the matter with Jesus? Maybe nothing Jesus had ever said before had shocked them as much!
APPL. I think Jesus deliberately made that obnoxious Roman rule a carrier for a great principle of life, & it would be tragic if we missed His message & failed to apply it to our lives, too.
So what is Jesus saying? What does He expect of us? I'm convinced that Jesus expects His followers to be the kind of people who will do more than we are required to do, more than anyone can expect. And to do it with love.
How come, when the world thinks about someone caring for the old & poor & sick, the name of Mother Theresa comes to mind? Why, when we hear of hospitals & orphanages in third-world countries, do we discover that they were almost always started by Christians seeking to help the helpless?
How come, when famine arises & people are starving by the hundreds of thousands, that Church World Relief, & World Vision, & IDES are names that pop up over & over again?
SUM. Jesus is saying, "What I am trying to show here is radical love. I'm trying to show you how radical love behaves. It does the unusual. It does the extraordinary. It goes the second mile."
II. JESUS PRACTICED WHAT HE PREACHED
A. I'm convinced that the greatest sermon we can preach is the life that we live, & the way that we live it.
ILL. One of the most moving stories in all of scripture is the story of the callused Roman Centurion standing at the foot of the cross. He has been watching Jesus now for several hours.
He saw Him as He stood before Pilate. He had heard them mock Him as they put a crown of thorns on His head & a reed in His hand, & a purple robe on His shoulders.
He listened to the insults that were shouted again & again. He watched Jesus being beaten with a cat-o-nine tails. He watched carefully as Jesus carried His cross, & when the nails were driven into His hands & feet.
He heard Jesus cry out, "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34) And he watched as Jesus breathed His last breath. Then that hard, callused Roman Centurion himself cried out, "Surely he was the Son of God." (Matthew 27:54)
B. You want to know why he said that? I’m convinced he said that because Jesus turned the other cheek. Even as they were crucifying Him, Jesus prayed, “Father, forgive them…”
The Centurion didn't realize it, but on the cross, Jesus went the second mile. The law of the sin offering required the sacrifice of an animal. But Jesus went beyond that law, & offered Himself as the sacrifice for sin. Now that is radical love!
ILL. Some of you know I attended graduate school at Lincoln Christian Seminary in Lincoln, ILL.
Each year Lincoln has a big homecoming celebration & urges its alumni to come back & visit. Homecoming is a great time to greet old classmates & reminisce about the past. But it has been many years since I've been back for Homecoming.
I wish I could have been there for a particular homecoming a number of years ago, because one of the alumni present was George Bajenski. George is Polish, & he loves the people of Poland, & his ministry has been with them for many years now.
He became a student at Lincoln just about the time I was finishing. He had a tremendous tenor voice & soon distinguished himself in the singing of a great song entitled, "Ringa da Bells." He sang that song in such a way that it inspired all who heard it. "Ringa da bells, ringa da bells, let the whole world know!"
Well, he & his wife were visiting in the United States, & while here they attended Homecoming. It had been 20 years since most of his former classmates had seen him. You can imagine how happy a reunion it was!
It was happy, that is, until his friends heard the news. You see, just 3 weeks before, their 14 year?old son had been tragically killed in a bus accident.
George Bajenski had a picture of his son. In it, the boy was wearing a tee?shirt that displayed a picture of empty tennis shoes with some smoke rising from each shoe. And underneath was this scripture, "In the twinkling of an eye." (1 Cor. 15:52) That was what he was wearing when he died.
Well, on the closing night of that Homecoming, George sang "Ringa da Bells" one last time. My classmates sat there & listened & thought of the circumstances under which he sang, & they told me that their tears flowed freely.
SUM. What a great fellowship we enjoy in Christ. What a blessing to be able to cry together, & laugh together, & praise together. To know how wondrously God loves us, & to bask in the joy of that love each & every day.
CONCL. I think that is what Jesus is talking about. He is saying, "It is wrong to keep it to yourself. It is wrong to just hold it close & enjoy it & not share it with the world." So he says, "You go out & imitate me. Go out & show the world my love."
If you have never experienced His love, then we invite you to respond to His invitation & accept Him as your Lord & Savior, as we stand & sing.
INVITATION
