The 3rd Way
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The Bible Study group and I talked a lot and joked a bit about Jesus’ opening statement about those who are still listening to him, but I have to tell you that I am having a hard time with it right now. We don’t know the exact timeline of all of it but in the last week or so, we have had several incidents here at the church. If you noticed as you came in to worship the last two Sundays the mailbox that used to adorn the top of a metal post has been twisted and ripped off said post. We also had some signs stolen from the parking lot that have now been replaced. Then on Thursday it was discovered that the shed in our parking lot was broken into and the door was smashed pretty good with a foot and a cement block. There’s really nothing of real monetary value, so it looks like nothing was taken, but the fact that they did it is just very upsetting. Now I can’t prove it, but we are also getting a new recycle bin because it has a giant hole in the back of it, but perhaps the same people that smashed into our shed decided to smash the recycle bin and punch a hole into it just for the fun of it. So today I am having a hard time with this text. I know that Jesus calls me and all of us to love our enemies and to pray for those who abuse you and that is what I will do, but I have to admit it is hard. Just talking about it has me all worked up again, and at the same time I know that Jesus calls us to a different way of living and caring for one another.
The reason Jesus calls for a different way of living and acting with others is that the way the world has worked and by and large continues to work today doesn’t change anything. Here is how he sees the world work: I sort of talked about this before in a different context, but the Greco-Roman world, and the larger world in general operated in a “I scratch your back, you scratch mine” mentality. I help you or give you something because that will ingratiate you to me. Perhaps at some point in the future you will not only want, but will also feel obligated from that favor, and societal pressure, to do something for me in return. We can see Jesus referencing that when he talks about how when we love people who love us and do good to those who do good to us. It’s no different than the world around us. If the world around us, including those who are sinners and people we would consider our enemies love their family and friends just like we love our family and friends then how is it any different? Today we still live in a world where favors produce someone to reciprocate and where both believers and non-believers can and do love and care for those whom they call family and friends.
So if that is the way the world worked in Jesus’ time, and it pretty much continues to be the way that the world works today, what is this different way that he is presenting in this sermon that I mentioned? Theologian and Methodist Pastor Walter Wink, who passed away in 2012, came up with and wrote about what he calls Jesus’ 3rd way. The first two ways of dealing with any situation like being struck on a cheek (attacked), or having your coat taken (robbed), etc is to either fight, or flight. In the fight model you are doing something else the world typically considers ok is an eye for an eye. You slap me, I slap you, and perhaps it then escalates from there. We have seen and are seeing in Ukraine right now this very concept at work; escalation. Fighting you could win or lose. In the flight model you are removing yourself from the situation and by default declaring the other person the winner.
So what is this third way? It is a nonviolent path of resistance. We have seen this in action in several important figures throughout history. Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa parks and others. These are just the first that came to mind. But back to Jesus’ examples. If someone strikes you on the cheek you offer the other. By offering the other you are forcing them to be more violent and causing them to hit you in ways that are unacceptable in society at that time. You are basically asking without using words, if the person is really going to be that violent to you and are they really going to treat you as less than a person.
If someone takes your coat then you offer your shirt also. If you remember when we talked about when someone with two coats should give one away to someone who has none, it wasn’t common to have two coats. So if someone takes your coat you don’t have a spare and if you also then give them freely your shirt then you are left naked. Nakedness makes you cold and you could possibly then get sick, and in a worse case scenario you die from being cold and sick. Again without really using your words you are asking the person if they are really willing to put you through the cold and sickness by taking your coat and your shirt. Remember they didn’t have closets full of clothing at home.
Basically Jesus is calling us to appeal to others common humanity and ask if that person is really willing to put us through that. It is a way to step away from the idea of an eye for an eye, it is a way to say that even if you are trying to do me harm and cause evil for me, I will resist in a way that neither adds violence and makes them aware of the injustice they are doing to you. And on top of all of that Jesus then says that we are to actively pray for them and love them, bless them and do good to them. Perhaps this is where the phrase killing them with kindness comes from.
We are to do all this because this is exactly how God is with all people. God is kind to the good and the wicked. God is loving to the faithful and the enemies. That is God’s nature and if we want to be followers of God’s way then we need to be as Luke 6:36 says: merciful, just as your Father is merciful. If that is how God is to everyone. You and me and the whole world then that is how we should be with everyone we meet. We should show love, do good, bless, and pray for everyone in this world. We should not allow them to walk all over us but to show them the wrongs they have done and how it affects us and pray for and work toward change in them. Just as God worked with change in us and through us. For we all are guilty of not being the people God has called us to be, yet God loves us the same, and that is the ultimate blessing in this message today. We have love, and grace, and forgiveness overflowing even and especially when we don’t deserve it, so let us share that abundance with others. Amen.