The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth: “Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God’s sight. As it is written: “He catches the wise in their craftiness”; and again, “The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile.”
When I read through the Bible, I like to vary the translations I use, because that allows me new insights. A different way of wording things often opens up entirely new understandings of God’s Word. So, during the week, you will often find me on biblegateway.com , a website that allows me to pick from many different translations, looking at a passage through the lens of the NIV, the NRSV, the Message, the NKJV, the KJV, even the Greek or Latin or Hebrew versions, trying to get a deeper understanding of the Bible and what it means to us in our lives.
Invariably, it is the odd things that stop me in my tracks. I’ve learned over the years that God’s Word – particularly the New Testament – is full of odd ideas, ideas that don’t conform to the way the world would have us to act, ideas that simply are counter to all the common sense and wisdom of this world. And of all the people who wrote or speak in the Bible, no one flips our worldly wisdom on its head more than Jesus Christ Himself.
But before we get to Jesus speaking today, let’s look at our first reading, our reading from Leviticus. For it is full of odd ideas, strange commandments, revolutionary new ideas that can flip around our ideas of what is right and proper and just.
When I was growing up, when I went to high school and to college and then again in my jobs, it was drilled into me that I was to avoid “wasting things”. Don’t waste that food, don’t waste that drink, don’t waste the electricity! Make sure the lights are turned out, the windows are closed when the air conditioning is on, the heat is turned down in your room during the day (we had an all electric home with heating panels in the ceiling that allowed us to control every room separately). My grandmother taught me that the cuttings from making a dress or curtains could be pulled together later to make a patchwork quilt. My teachers taught me that old tests could be mimeographed on the back with new handouts. And my father taught me that you don’t throw away the 6-inch long cutting off a two-by-four because you never knew when you’d need a block or a shim – and, of course, all metal was precious, to be kept for future welding projects. And you made sure they were properly separated into neat piles in the outbuilding or beside the outbuilding, for you didn’t leave things lying around where people could steal them.
In farming, you harvested all the potatoes, all the ears of corn, and all the radishes. The cherries all came off the tree, as did the apples, and the peaches, because all of them could be eaten fresh or canned or turned into a sauce. You simply didn’t waste anything.
And here comes this reading from Leviticus 19, which says:
“‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God.”
Gleanings are the last little bits of grain and fruits and vegetables that have been left behind by the first pass. LEAVE food on your property for people to steal?
This took a bit of getting used to.
But, you see, after you read through a bit more of the Bible, you begin to put things together. God created everything. Everyone is God’s child. Everyone is precious to God. God owns the cattle of a thousand hills. Everything is actually God’s, and we are simply to take care of it for God.
And then it begins to make sense.
There are several good reasons for this passage.
First, there is food available for the homeless, the man or woman without property, the poorest of the poor. They can walk through your field and pick up the food that you don’t really need…the wheat stalks, the grapes, the ears of corn, the small carrots, the finger-sized potatoes. It was the farming equivalent of a food pantry.
And then there is the fact that that fruit and those seeds are there to fertilize the land for the next season, for nothing is a better fertilizer for fruit trees or vines than decomposing fruit, nothing is better than wheat chaff for fertilizing a wheat field, and nothing is better than a few tiny carrots to attract carrot-eating grubs to the edges of your garden. Just don’t plant the carrots in the exact same place next year – plant them ten feet away.
But the third and most important reason for leaving the gleanings, the scraps around the edges of your field is that the habit of doing so reminds you that you aren’t harvesting YOUR food for YOUR family…You are harvesting God’s provision on behalf of God and doing what God asks. Yes, most of it goes to you, but after some years of this you remember that this is God’s field which God has asked you to take care of for God’s purposes, and one of those purposes is supporting other humanity near you. Gleaning changes YOU for the better. You learn to see your starving neighbors as neighbors instead of thieves.
Before Christmas, my niece let me know that she had acquired an extra king-sized mattress at an auction. The mattress was new – she had bought the package for the box springs. We needed the mattress, for our old mattress was about 25 years old, so a week later, we had the mattress. But now, what did we do with the old mattress?
We tried the mission. No, only pristine condition mattress would be picked up. We called Waste Management. Because our trash is picked up as part of the church’s business account, they’d pick up the mattress for $150. (If our trash account was residential, the fee would have been less than $10.) We couldn’t just burn it. So what to do with it?
When we lived in Georgia, which is a place where the churches are large and packed full on Sunday mornings, there was a Friday and Saturday ritual. Late the night before, when the weather was dry, people would put old couches, chairs, dishwashers, refrigerators on the curb outside their home. It was like having a yard sale for free.
The next morning, between sunup and 9 am, men and teenage boys driving old, broken down pickups would drive through the neighborhoods and the old furniture would disappear. These scavengers were part junk dealers, partly families looking for a good deal, partially flea market dealers. The system worked well – the wealthy suburbanites got rid of their junk, while the scavengers made a few bucks every weekend.
Eventually, Saundra was talking to a guy who had an idea where he might use the mattress and we paid him to take it away. We really missed those gleaners from Georgia over the 6 weeks that mattress sat in our hallway. God’s system works.
There’s more in that passage, but let’s jump to the Gospel where Jesus is giving instructions about how we are to live.
You’ll recall that in the Old Testament law, the idea of just compensation was put forth. In Exodus 24, the Law of Moses states:
“‘Anyone who takes the life of a human being is to be put to death. Anyone who takes the life of someone’s animal must make restitution—life for life. Anyone who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury. Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a human being is to be put to death. "
This law set a standard for the people of Israel. It seems somewhat brutal now, but recognize that before this Law, the standard was, “I can get whatever revenge I can take.”
There might be a fight that leads to a broken arm, and before this law, a family might show up and kill all the children and wives of the man who punched the man, and then, just for good measure, they might kill him by torture. This law limited the revenge punishment to “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, etc.”
But there was a problem. This detailed punishment applied in only a narrow situation – when a person was convicted of a crime with two or more witnesses. Not in the general situation where someone was harmed. This was not something for individuals to punish other individuals with. It applied only to criminal trials. Yet over the centuries, people simply repeating that easy to remember “eye for eye, tooth for tooth,” formula. had taken it to be applied to all situations – even to a couple of children wrestling on the front lawn.
People considered it to be a standard justifying revenge in all cases.
Jesus 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. “
What? I’m not supposed to take revenge on someone who has harmed me? If you punch me, I’m not supposed to punch you back?
Then Jesus goes on:
“If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. “
When my wife Saundra explained this to our then-four-year-old son Ian, Ian said, with all his four-year-old wisdom, “That’s just stupid!”
And, you know. He’s not the only person confused by this wisdom of God. When we were mentoring some Chinese college students a few years ago, we explained this to one of the students, who replied, “That’s just crazy!”
Jesus took it even farther:
“And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.”
Why does Jesus ask us to do these things which appear foolish to our worldly wisdom? Didn’t He realize that if you let someone slap you around, they’ll be doing much worse to you soon? Didn’t he realize that if you give a thief something easily, he’ll take more? Didn’t he realize that if you give a beggar money, he’ll ask for money all the time from you?
Of course Jesus understood these things. But if either the Hatfields or the McCoys had understood it, there would have been a lot less murders on the Big Sandy River. If gangs understood this, there would be a lot less murders in Chicago today. If this was generally used in Libya, in Syria, in Iraq, there would be peace in those countries today.
Mohatma Gandhi, not a Christian, but a man who had nevertheless studied and understood much of what Jesus taught, was faced by a growing cycle of revenge killings in the newly independent India and Pakistan, and he famously said to his friends on both sides of the Hindu-Moslem fighting: “An eye for an eye means the whole world goes blind.”
You see, deep under these commands of Jesus are a couple of principles, a couple of deep ideas, a couple of bedrock concepts that we simply must get in our minds if we are to react in a holy Christian manner to situations that popup from time to time.
The first principle is this: EVERY human being is an image of God and therefore EVERY human being is worthy of deep respect as if they were God.
If Jesus, the Son of God walked in here today and said to you, “I need to borrow your vehicle.” I would bet that as soon as you had confirmed for yourself that the man was really Jesus, you’d hand over the keys.
(BTW, did you know that Jesus drove a Honda? In John 12:49, Jesus says, “I do not speak of my own accord.”)
Our task, our holy training for ourselves, our goal is to reach the point where when someone simply says, “I need your shirt!”, you offer him your coat, too.
Our task, our holy training for ourselves, our goal is to reach the point where when someone says to us, “I need to borrow a hundred dollars,” we say, “Let’s go to the ATM.”
Our task, our holy training for ourselves, our goal is to reach the point where when someone calls us vile and nasty names, we simply say, “is there anything else I should know?” in a calm, steady voice, treating our antagonist with respect, even if they don’t treat us with respect. Our antagonist will often calm down when we react peacefully. But this does not mean you need to be destroyed by robbers or bandits.
Sometimes, people don’t get it and a further reaction is called for because we KNOW they don’t get it and there is no point to a further beating. No one will see your testimony, no one will ever speak about your goodness, no one will come to Christ because of your patience.
There is a story about Evander Holyfield, the four-time heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Holyfield is a long-time committed Christian and lived in the Atlanta area while we were living there. The story goes that one day a group of three or four men knocked on his door one day. When Evander answered the door, they shoved him back and pushed their way into the house, planning on robbing the place. Holyfield simply said, “how can I help you?” One of the men punched him in the side of the face and said, “tell us where your money is.” Evander turned his face back around to look at the man and kept quiet. The man punched him again, this time hard enough that the 270 pound Holyfield stumbled backwards a couple of steps. At that point, the retired boxer said, “Gentlemen, I have no further instructions from my Lord.” The police were soon called and arrested the dazed and hurting men fifteen minutes later. I think you know what happened.
It should be noted though that at another time, Peter asked how many times he should turn the other cheek. Jesus told Peter that he should turn his cheek “seventy times seven “ times. Clearly Evander Holyfield had not heard that teaching if this story is true.
Jesus went on to tell us:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?"
The second principle that Jesus was teaching is that it doesn’t matter what other people are doing to you…the question is your response. Will you do the right thing? Will you treat them right even if they don’t treat you right?
Imagine that I give you these instructions. I want you to drive to Circle Drive and stop at every home and knock on every door. I want you to deliver a specific message to every person there, on the Drive and in the subdivision, which will save them from a terrible poison that is in the water. Then, I want you to come back here. Tonight at 8 pm, the people of Circle Drive will arrive, and because of their reaction to your message, they will corner you in the church, and they will beat you and cut you and kill you tonight. And furthermore, most of the people will ignore your message and die from the poison anyway.
Would you do it? Would you do it if the Holy Spirit asked you? If God asked you?
(Of course this is hypothetical – there is no poison in the water that I know of.)
Jesus had to do that. Knowing everything ahead of time, He had to come to earth, deliver a message telling us how to live and avoid death and because He brought that message to Him, we killed him – as He knew we would. He died for the few of us that believed Him. He would have died if only YOU believed Him. He cared that much for each of us.
Yet Jesus doesn't ask us to make that sacrifice. Jesus simply asks us to turn the other cheeks if someone slaps us and to pray for our enemies. He simply asks us to give up some of our possessions to people in need. He simply asks us to take insults without looking for revenge. He asks us to forgive when people say mean things to us and not to react with gossip or backbiting. He asks us to be holy. So far, He has not asked you to do what He did. He has not asked you to die to save another.
The final line of this Gospel reading, the final line in this chapter, the final thing He says about this tells us much, too:
"Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Perfection, you see, allows for waste – the right type of waste. In God’s Universe, there is no waste, for the grapes that are left on the vines, the wheat that wasn’t harvested, the grapes that fell to the ground are eaten by the poor who were not given their own land or feed the insects and mice.
Perfection, you see, does not apply to honor, for those who would be perfect do not respond to insults such as the slapping of our faces.
Perfection, you see, is not about holding onto our stuff, our clothing, our money, for Jesus says the perfect will give away these things, not just to the deserving poor, but even to thieves.
Perfection, you see, is not about how well we are doing in the material things of life, our jobs, the size of our 401k, the number of rooms in our homes, the size of our W-2’s, for God sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike.
Perfection, you see, is about loving God and loving all the images of God, the portraits of God, the people who love you and the people who hate you, the people who are nice to you and the people who beat you and steal from you, the people who are friends and the people who are enemies. Perfection is understanding that God will always take care of you and never leave you, that God loves you, that you understand this so much you don't need to worry about insults or possessions or clothing or even death itself because God has it all covered for you.
Now go and find a stranger to help and to love today. Share the Gospel in word and deed.
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