WE come again to Matthew 5:38-42 and seek to understand the instruction Jesus is giving to his disciples. I feel it needs to be stressed again that Jesus is speaking only to those who are his disciples and he is speaking about how his disciples should conduct themselves. Jesus is not giving instruction which is about how society should be run or any instruction concerning legislation or the action of the police, and things like this. Teaching concerning government and legislation is given elsewhere in the Bible.

Jesus commences by saying “Do not resist an evil person“, or resist evil. As soon as we receive this instruction we see that it is impossible to interpret this so that it is a universal precept which covers all the time how we react to crime and evil done by people. Human beings are sinful creatures, and God has given us government to curb the expression of this evil. The police are there to do this and if they do not act, then evil will increase because those who commit crimes more often than not will be encouraged to go on doing evil because they are getting away with it.

Jesus is plainly speaking to each individual Christian, and telling us how we are to react to people who treat us badly. We must so have mortified self within us that we have conquered the desire to retaliate and stand up for our rights, but rather seek to be merciful and loving to people who do harm to us. If a person abuses us, this teaching tells us we must not retaliate in kind. If a person takes us for granted and perhaps treats what belongs to us as if it is theirs, we should not treat them in the same way, or get angry. However this does not mean that we become indifferent to sin in others. The truth is that if we do nothing when people behave badly towards us, we could be doing them harm by letting them feel such behaviour is acceptable. Although we don’t get angry and retaliate, this does not mean we should not do what we can to show a person that their action is not good, and seek to show them that evil in the end always produces harm, not least to the one doing the evil.

What is true is that because people fight for their rights, and retaliate when they are harmed, love and harmony fly out of the window. I remember an incident concerning my mother and her dealings with her next door neighbour. I had sought to help my mother by cutting back some blackberry bushes that had become very overgrown. In doing so I found that these bushes had grown over the fence and much of the growth was in this neighbours garden. By cutting back the bramble I took this growth from the neighbours garden, and I was not able to prevent some of the branches from falling over into her garden. I went round to tell the neighbour about this problem and ask permission to remove the mess, but she was not in. So I cleared up the mess as best I could. The neighbour was incensed because she felt I had cut down her bushes, and she retaliated angrily by throwing her rubbish over the fence into my mother’s garden, which she did more than once. I wanted to go and remonstrate with this lady, but my mother said I was not to but just to clear away the mess she had made in her garden. Mother did not resist this evil, instead when this neighbour was in need of help, my mother specially responded to this need and did all she could to help her. This reaction of my mother to her neighbour I believe is something of what Jesus is teaching us when he says “do not resist an evil person”. In the end after much aggravation which my mother still did not resist, this neighbour was touched in some way by my mother’s acceptance and forgiveness, and relations became much more positive. I don’t think this neighbour became a Christian, but she became more of a friend. What is certain that acrimony and hostility and such like was prevented, and Christ was commended.

Christ commended his teaching as Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2:21-23 - To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his footsteps. “He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth”. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

It is in this way that the other statements of Jesus in these verse before us should be interpreted and understood. Turning the other cheek means we must not hit back and retaliate, but rather forgive, and respond in love. In the same way the meaning of giving our cloak to someone who seeks to take away our tunic is instruction that we don’t feel that what we possess is for us alone, but instead to accept all we have is given by God, and if people ask us for material help we should be willing to give more than that which is demanded.

Forcing someone to go a second mile was in context of the situation of Jesus time. The Romans had conquered Palestine, and the accepted practice was that if some Roman soldiers needed equipment carried they could demand that a person do this up to the next part of the journey. Jesus says that when so forced a person should be willing to do a second stint. People may presume on our generosity, and use us. Even so Jesus requires us to give and to serve and to help without regard to self, and our own rights. We must be so forgetful of self that we are not upset to be used by others.