Upside Down Kingdom: Sermon on the Mount part 3

Dr. Ryan and Matt continue their series on Sermon on the Mount
and look at Nonviolence & Enemy Love
(Matthew 5:38-5:48): 


-Israel’s law of retribution included both capital punishment
(Life for life) and Corporal punishment (tooth for tooth) 


-how should we view the inspiration of the Bible? Is Jesus
contradicting the OT here? He said he came to fulfill the law and
to overthrow it… but here he’s overthrowing it. 


 -Cruciform Approach- This is similar to the Narrative
approach, but it is building on it saying that all of scripture
should be viewed through the lens of Jesus and his act of love on
the cross (Greg Boyd)


 -Jesus reshapes his follower’s response to injustice
according to how He interprets the Law (Love God Love Others).
His response is not retaliation but with grace, compassion, and
mercy in a way that reverses injustice in a way that an “evil
person” becomes a “neighbor”.     


 -This is addressed to Jesus’ followers and not to
governments (We’ll get into a believer’s involvement in systems
of government at the end of this)    


“Jesus advocates not for balmy passivity but for nonviolent
hyperactivity soaked in stubborn love”- Preston Sprinkle
    


To be perfect means to love all humans, Jews and Romans, as
neighbors. This lines up perfectly with Jesus’s hermeneutical
approach to Torah. As Jesus says in Matt 22:34-40 that all the
Torah and the prophets hang on Loving God and Loving others and
this fulfills the entirety of God’s will, this too is surpassing
the Righteousness (covenant behavior) of the Pharisees.
  


Is God Violent? If nonviolence is the ethic, we
are supposed to be living towards then what about God? He seems
particularly violent in the OT and in Revelation.  We have a
few options 


1. We can question the morality of God. Perhaps God is, at times,
monstrous. 


2. We can question the immutability of God. Maybe God does change
over time. 


3. We can question how we read Scripture. Could it be that we
need to learn to read the Bible in a different way?   


Conclusions and thoughts: 


-It’s hard to discount the violent picture of God and Israel in
the OT or even that God’s enemies will be defeated in the end,
but I don’t see believer called to take up arms at participate in
killing. 


 -I do believe that God was working with his people as he
found them and moving them towards his ideal which is love of
enemy and nonviolence. We are called to give ourselves up in the
same way Jesus did. He was the truly human one and revealed to us
how we are to live.   


-How do followers live this out today?


 -Are we called to effectiveness or faithfulness? Jesus
seemed to win by losing in the world’s eyes. We are called to do
the same.  


-We are called to be perfect as our father is perfect and in
context that is radical love of enemy, even if it costs us.
 


• This is about being overtly pro-life in our actions, speech,
and protection/respect of all life from conception to grave as
the image of God.  


• Romans 8:12 If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at
peace with all men.