(Audio)
But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.
We are terrified of what Jesus suggests. If we offer no resistance and turn the other cheek will evil not triumph? If we give our cloak and our tunic, if we give expecting nothing in return, will we not quickly be left with nothing? And if we are pressed into service and go above and beyond will we have any time or strength left for ourselves?
Let us look at Jesus, who offered no resistance when the guards came out against him as though as were a robber. He was beaten and mocked. Soldiers cast lots for his cloak and pressed him to the ignoble service of carrying his own cross. All of this happened and he did not resist, though he could have summoned more than twelve legions of angels.
Even Jesus, however, was strategic about his self-offering. He knew when his hour had arrived and he did not surrender himself prior to that hour.
So they were seeking to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come (see John 7:30).
Jesus calls us to have the same Spirit that marked his self-offering. He did not simply offer himself to be abused. He offered himself in the way, in the place, and at the moment, that would achieve salvation for the world.
Like Jesus we must be able to endure violence and abuse without letting it diminish our love for others. We must be able to offer our possessions and our lives in service of the mission. And it is precisely for this reason that we cannot throw them away or treat them lightly. There is a time and a place for our own offerings, just as there is for Jesus. To have something to give we may have to first guard our possessions from the thief who will not put them to good use.
To be able to offer our lives for the sake of others we must keep our body and hearts intact until we are called to do so. Yet we are called to be ready at all times to give, to be able to welcome the hour when it comes. In guarding the treasure of the offering of our own lives we learn not to let ourselves be consumed by vengeance, by the need to see the scales balanced again in our favor. Only by always keeping this mindset which was also in Christ Jesus will we be able to meet the challenge of our own hour when it comes.
It is better to err on the side of faith than on the side of prudence. Even if we are stoned and our vineyard is taken it isn't our job to seek vengeance. Vengeance is the LORD's (see Romans 12:19). The ultimate responsibility to bring about justice on the earth does not fall to us, nor even to the government (thank goodness), but to the LORD. In a world that insists that everything can be fixed with the right structural changes we are called to remember that even in the absence of those changes hearts which entrust themselves to the LORD will be vindicated, and that vindication will overflow to all of the afflicted.
Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours (see Isaiah 61:7)
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