The Old Gray Dog Ponders. . .Beyond Retaliation

 

You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'  But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.  And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.  Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.

Matt. 5: 38-42

 

'An eye for eye,' carried to its logical conclusion,

would leave everyone blind.

OGD

 

    Jesus taught His disciples that retaliation was self-destructive. He illustrates His point with three examples.

 

    whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. . .

 

    Most of us are right-handed.  In order for a right-handed person to slap someone on the right cheek, he would have to do it with the back of his hand.  To a Jew, this is doubly insulting to being slapped with the palm side of the hand.  Jesus' point is simply this:  No matter how insulting someone is toward you, don't come down to his level.

    Look at all the insults hurled at Jesus:

 

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' But wisdom is justified by her children."
Matt. 11: 19

 

    Jesus is teaching His disciples to be like Him.  Do not react to every insult; do not hang on to every resentment; and never seek retaliation. Jesus understood the wisdom behind a line from a Brenda Lee song: While you're throwing mud at me, you're only losing ground.

 

If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. 

 

    The tunic was a long, sack-like inner garment, usually made from cotton.  Even the poorest people would several own tunics. The cloak was the blanket-like outer garment which people wore as robes by day, and covers by night.  Most people had only one cloak.  Under Jewish law, a tunic could be used as collateral, but not the cloak.

 

If you take your neighbor's cloak as a pledge, return it to him by sunset,  because his cloak is the only covering he has for his body. What else will he sleep in? When he cries out to me, I will hear, for I am compassionate.

Ex. 22: 26-27

 

The right to do something does not mean that doing it is right.

William Safir

 

    Too many today people are more interested in their rights, rather than their responsibilities.  When I first read the following "rules," I believed they were from an address to students by Bill Gates.  This is not true; but regardless of the source, they are a good reminder to us all.

  Rule 1:  Life is not fair - get used to it!

  Rule 2:  The world won't care about your self-esteem. The  world will  expect you to  accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about  yourself.

  Rule 3:  You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school.  You  won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

  Rule 4:  If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

  Rule 5:  Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity.  Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping:   they called it opportunity.

  Rule 6:  If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine  about your mistakes, learn from them.

  Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are  now.  They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and  listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were.  So before you  save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's  generation, try  delousing the closet in your own room.

  Rule 8:  Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life  HAS NOT.  In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll  give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer.  This doesn't  bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

  Rule 9:  Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF.   Do that on your own time.

  Rule 10:  Television is NOT real life.  In real life people actually have  to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

  Rule 11: Be nice to nerds.  Chances are you'll end up working for one.

 

    Too often people let their rights become barriers to their relationships.  Jesus is teaching His disciples that it is better to give away the only thing which will keep you warm at night than to erect an obstacle which would separate us from another.

 

Priorities only matter when they are practiced.

Nathan Currey

 

    When our rights have a higher priority than our relationships, we aren't acting like Jesus.

    whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.

    Israel was an occupied country.  At any time, a Roman could compel a Jew to carry his baggage, or anything else.  Remember Simon of Cyrene?  A Roman soldier compelled him to carry Jesus' cross.

    Jesus is teaching His disciples to do what is required of them -- us -- without resentment.   Even if the job is cruel and unreasonable, go the extra mile.

    It was the least I could do.

    There are always two ways to approach a task:  begrudgingly, doing the absolute least possible to get it done, the whole time resenting what I have to do.

    There used to be a cartoon character named H. R. Puffinstuff.  His motto was: I can't do too little because I can't do too much. A person with this mind set approaches all chores with this attitude: This is something I want to do.

    There is a world of difference between looking upon today's agenda with an I want to rather than an I have to attitude. Christ is glorified when His disciples do even the most unreasonable jobs with an I want to attitude.

    Jesus wants His disciples to resist the temptation to retaliate when offended; to put relationships ahead of rights; and to approach even the worst of jobs willingly, not begrudgingly.

Always do right.

This will gratify some people

and astonish the rest.

Mark Twain

    But, that's just not natural; that's not the way normal people act!

    That's the point!  No one ruled by his old, sinful nature would ever behave like this. People who are seeking their own glory would never behave this way. Only those born-again to a New Life in Christ would ever, could ever, act this way. Only those seeking to glorify Jesus by acting like Him would behave like this.

    Andy Capp and his wife, Flo, are having an argument.  Andy's pal, Chalky, is outside listening.  Finally, Flo says, I'm sorry.

    Andy joins Chalky outside.  Chalky says, You know, it takes a big person to apologize when she's wrong.

    Andy responds, Yeah, and an even bigger one to apologize when she isn't.

    Jesus wants His disciples to be bigger people. That's how others will know we are His disciples.

 

 COFFEE CUPS

 

     A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the coffee.

     When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

-Now consider this: Life is the coffee; the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life and the type of cup we have does not define, nor change the quality of Life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us."

God brews the coffee, not the cups.....

 

Enjoy your coffee!

"The most blessed people

don't have the best of everything.

They just make the best of everything."

Live simply
Love generously
Care deeply
Speak kindly

Leave the rest to God
You are the miracle, my friend
Your life either shines a light or casts a shadow.

 

 "Dream...Hope...Believe"

 

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

John 13: 34-35

 

 

 

Almighty and most merciful Father,

Grant that Jesus our Lord may be formed in us,

In all humility, patience, and absolute surrender of our souls and bodies

To Thy holy will and pleasure,

So that is every circumstance we may act like Jesus,

To whom be all glory, now and forever!

Amen

 

Blessed are the saints who are equipped with the sound doctrines of TULIP!

The Old Gray Dog
Jim Tuckett

The Westminster Fellowship
Clearly and Unequivocally Proclaiming What It Means To Be Reformed Christians http://www.westminsterfellowship.org

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