Changes - Matthew 5:38-45
2022 Johnstone House Chapel Sermon
‘But we’ve always done it that way’.
How often have you heard that as a justification against change?
So often it seems that we remain tied to tradition or the simply the maintenance of the status quo, just because we like the way things are, it’s comfortable and familiar. We become reluctant to change for fear of what that might bring or what might happen in response to that change.
But the line ‘we’ve always done it that way’ of not usually a good enough reason to avoid change.
I’m a mad cricket fan and I think it’s a great example of how change can have a lasting impact. Throughout its history there has been massive changes to the game. But that’s only happened because people were willing to imagine a changed format. In the 1970s people couldn’t imagine a game that was less than five days. Then World Series Cricket came in and suddenly we had One Day Cricket and the game was changed forever. Then in the early 2000s people couldn’t imagine a game any shorter than 50 overs. But then we had the development of Twenty/Twenty cricket and once again the game was changed forever.
These changes weren’t easy, there were lots of people who said ‘we’ve always done it that way’ who opposed the change. But we look back on it now and we can’t imagine the game of Cricket without these formats.
So often change is hard, and people are reluctant to embrace it, but once the change occurs and becomes embedded in culture, we end up being unable to imagine a world without that change.
This reluctance to change was the very attitude that Jesus was seeking to combat in his time and through his preaching. Time and time again he came up against the attitude of ‘we’ve always done it that way’. But time and time again he pushed against it, he challenged it and provided an alternate way forward.
In the reading we heard read we see a prime example of Jesus working against the reluctance to change. This reading comes from a larger collection of teaching of Jesus called the Sermon on the Mount, perhaps one of his most famous teachings. In it he explored many different things about what it means to be a Christian and follow God’s ways. In the section we heard, he’s combatting some of the strongest laws of the day.
In this reading we hear Jesus challenging a number of key Jewish laws by providing his new, changed way of approaching these laws. He does it using a clever devise. He proceeds each teaching with ‘you’ve heard it said’ and then counteracts it with ‘but I say to you’. In doing so provides a radical and revolutionary new way of approaching the laws of the day and the way people engage with one another.
He starts with restorative justice. Instead of repaying violence with violence, an eye for an eye, he suggests non-violence, turn the other cheek.
He then moves on to theft. Instead of retaliating when someone steals from you, he suggests you offer your other possessions as well.
He follows it up with physical punishment. Instead of walking one mile when compelled to, as was the requirement of Jewish people towards Roman soldier, he suggests walking two miles.
He ends with possibly the most difficult one of all. Love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute you. When people hate you or mistreat you, show them love.
In each of these instances, he radically inverts the power dynamic. In the face of violence and evil, Jesus suggests non-violence and tolerance.
This was a dramatic change for his listeners, and even for us reading it today. It’s a change that would have been incomprehensible to those listening to him. This challenge to the Jewish laws of the day would have been met with great opposition and to a large degree it goes against human nature. But it’s a change that would come to symbolise Jesus’ counter-cultural message.
Where there is hatred, offer love. Where there is violence, offer peace.
This attitude of non-violence has become emblematic of the way Christians have acted in many instances over many centuries. Perhaps most famous in recent history is the teaching of Rev Dr Martin Luther King jr who used these Bible passages to develop the theory of Non-Violent Direct Action. MLK and his follows achieved much of the successes of the American Civil Rights movement through peaceful resistance and fighting for change without violence.
This form of action that Jesus teaches does not mean being passive, that you simply submit to mistreatment. It also doesn’t mean you resort to violence. It creates, what Professor Walter Wink suggests, is a ‘third way’. By not passively accepting mistreatment or violently resisting it you are taking the power out of those abhorrent actions and demonstrating an attitude of love and tolerance that transcends the evil.
In the world we live in today we see so many examples where this powerful change is needed. When we look at the abhorrent events unfolding in Ukraine or the actions of power hungry dictators, it can be easy to think that violence is the answer. After all, ‘we’ve always done it that way’.
But what if, instead we stove for a different response. A third way. What if in the face of hatred and evil, we spoke about care and love. In the face of violence, we strove for peace.
That kind of change is hard, in fact it is extremely difficult. That kind of change goes against our base instinct for revenge. But that’s the kind of change that Jesus calls us to live out. The kind of change that challenges the status quo, challenges the accepted ways and rather strives for a new way, a different way, a better way.
In the world that we live in today may that be the kind of change that we strive for in all that we do.
Amen
