Tuesday, July 13

And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. - Matthew 5:40-42

This passage used to really bother me. It is not that I was against giving to people in need or sacrificing for the good of others or anything. It is just that it sounded to me like Jesus is telling us to let ourselves get walked on, or taken advantage of. Shouldn’t we be allowed to stand up for ourselves? Perhaps some of you have similar feelings in regards to this passage.

I remember a time when I opened myself up to a man who was seeking my help both spiritually and materially. His story was one of great pain and struggle and he seemed very sincere in his desire to “get right with God” and get his life back together. After spending a lot of time and resources to help him, it became clear that he was really only interested in the financial assistance I could offer and the spiritual talk was just a ploy to endear himself to someone like me. Eventually he just disappeared when he didn’t get what he wanted from me. I admit that for a while, I was really angry. I felt like a fool, like I had been duped.

In this passage Jesus gives us a couple of examples of what it looks like to live out his Kingdom principle of self-less generosity. First, he says that we should be generous even to those who might be looking to take advantage of our generosity. The taking of a cloak was forbidden in Exodus 22:26-27. The poorest Jewish person always had the right to a cloak, which was a garment that they would use at night as a basic defense against the elements.

In his second example, Jesus addresses the question of someone taking advantage of your time and your energy when you have something better to do, coercing you into their agenda, or getting you involved in their program. Roman soldiers were allowed to impress those who were under their political control to carry their pack for up to one mile. If a Roman soldier was tired of carrying his pack and saw you standing there, he could say, "Hey, I'm walking a mile down the road. You take my pack and carry it." He could do that just because he was in charge and you weren't. That is what happened when Jesus stumbled with the weight of the cross; they just picked someone out of the crowd and made him carry the cross (Matt. 27:32). Roman soldiers could always put burdens on people whenever it occurred to them.

Jesus is pressing this point because he wants us to understand that life in his kingdom means to live with an attitude of radical, and selfless generosity. The best way to learn this lesson is to give ourselves away for the sake of the Gospel. To give up our rights on purpose, with a smile on our face. So we need to learn to yield at times, to have the experience of not fighting back, not claiming victimhood, not insisting on our rights, not advancing our cause above someone else's. When we do this, we become the kind of people who are so supported by Christ that we don't have to have our rights. We can give them away. We can give freely to any and all (even the undeserving) because Christ has freely given his grace to us when we were undeserving!

Prayer:
Father may we become like your Son and learn to give ourselves to others freely for his sake, just as he gave himself freely for ours – Amen.

Jeff Frazier