Verse 33-35 deal with making and keeping oaths. In verse 33 Jesus uses his familiar opening phrase in the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ by stating,

 “do not swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King” v. 35.

Do you remember in elementary school saying to your friends “I swear to God!” in exasperation when they wouldn’t believe you? I sure do….more times than I would like to count!   We “swear to God” because people can’t think of anyone greater to swear to. One of my favorite Scriptures is Hebrews 6:13 when He states,

Amen. But when most people say “swear to God” it’s in a pretty flippant way like I did back in the day. The heart behind it is lost. In that culture they decided that they wouldn’t swear to God because He was too high of a standard so they starting swearing oaths on much lesser things like the earth, etc. In other words, they were pretty much making a mockery of the whole exercise. Jesus simply asks them to stop it because these oaths lack faith in God (v. 34-35). And then He reminds us how little control we have over anything (v. 36) so why make an earthly oath anyway?! This is a humbling reality.  We want to be in control and promise many things to people. Jesus wants us to simply trust Him day by day and seek His will for situations. By doing so, we will not be double-minded and  “over promise and under deliver,” but rather walk by faith, not by sight. I am convinced that much of my indecisiveness at times throughout my life comes from not really asking God what to do in a situation. We live in indecisive times when many people struggle to follow through on promises. The New York Times called it the “e-vite” phenomenon when the “maybes” outnumber all other responses. The Lord wants us to trust Him in small and large situations. Trusting Him affects how we impact relationships around us. Let’s try and act on these vital words of our Lord to

“Simply let our ‘yes’ be ‘yes’ and your ‘No, be No…..” v. 37.

He continues by stating that anything else beyond that comes from the Evil One. It’s a deadly trap when Satan cons us into indecision about God’s promises… “did God really say that?”

Jesus (in verse 38) describes that his listeners would have heard it said

Verses in Leviticus and other Old Testament passages seem to affirm a sense of exact retaliation for whatever the crime. They never advocate for more retaliation than is directly necessary. Again, Jesus does not abrogate the law, He fulfills it. And in fulfilling the law Jesus ups the ante as we response to people who want to cause us harm. He states,

“but I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, return to him the other also” (5:39).

Is Jesus advocating for us to be ‘floor mats’ to be stepped on and act like it’s not a big deal? Absolutely not! Rather, Jesus is showing us the depth of the message “love your neighbor as yourself.” He doesn’t want us to tear people up and down, just because we might be torn down. This radical response to people who have offended us causes conviction in their lives (whether they admit or not) and diffuses hate. It doesn’t mean we ignore evil, don’t challenge it or speak boldly to it. It speaks to radical love that responds to people boldly with love and disarms their anger. This means giving freely what the Lord has poured into us, for Jesus goes on to say in v. 41

We’ll stop at nothing to get the Gospel of Christ through to people, even if we have to go down a long, strenuous, seemingly never ending road with them. Whatever it takes! Whatever it takes for them to see and experience the fullness of knowing Christ. We give ourselves to the Lord and give ourselves to others for the sake of His name. “Give to the the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” (42).

How can you be giving yourself in 2017, to challenging situations and to people for the sake of the Gospel?

Who is God calling you and I to give to sacrificially in order for them to see Christ, even if we really don’t want to?

Do you really believe that the “Gospel of inconvenience :)” draws people to Him? After all, 1 John 4:19 says that,

Thanks be to God for this glorious Truth. We desperately need His perspective, not our own, on everything.

Jesus concludes this group of verses by stating,

This is something his audience would have commonly heard. Jesus now shows His perspective as He fulfills the law when He states, “but I tell you; Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” What?! Come on Jesus, aren’t you taking this too far?

Never too far with Christ when it comes to radical love, even of enemies. If this statement is shocking now, imagine how shocking it was then in their “eye for eye” culture. This was just too extreme. But that is the point…people could have never invented Jesus and the things He said and did, because there was no space in the human ethos to conjure up such profound and other-worldly thoughts. It had to come from the mind of God! Jesus was calling His followers to pray for enemies and those who hurt them.

Do we pray for our enemies? Some of us may think, “I don’t think I have any enemies.” Well, that is good.

But has anyone ever been hurtful to you, ignored you, spoke ill of you, mocked you, etc.?

If we have lived longed enough, we have been hurt, and the resulting wounds are real and hurtful. But we can linger in these hurts for years and years, giving those people power over us because we dwell in unforgiveness and anger.

One of the most powerful antidotes to dealing with enemies is to pray for them. The Lord is a God of justice, working all things out in His way. By praying for those who hurt us

it allows us to release people to Him and His sovereign work in their lives, taking control out of our hands for revenge and anger and

it grows a strange and unique love in us because in prayer we begin to see them as less one-sided. We have compassion for them that we never would have had before. God grows this in us as I can testify!

This is the amazing work of Christ in our lives. After all, Jesus reminds us that

            See you on Friday and this Sunday!

            Blessings,

            Pastor Andrew