IF ANY MAN WILL SUE THEE…LET HIM HAVE THY CLOKE ALSO

The modern world is extremely litigious, thanks in part to the universal insistence on one’s rights - real or imagined. People have no tolerance for those who trample on what they feel are their entitlements. This self-centred thinking leads people to seek redress in the courts at the slightest provocation. More wickedly, some unscrupulous plaintiffs engender frivolous legal complaints, seeking to enrich themselves at the expense of oth­ers. While the Romans were proud of their orderly legal system, the first century courts were likewise beleaguered by a glut of lawsuits. The Lord’s comments offer a revolutionary contrast to the prevailing thinking of the times in which He lived.

To understand the force of His teaching, one must distin­guish between the coat and the cloak. The former is the undergarment; the latter, the more valuable outer garment. The Law forbade indefinitely depriving someone of their cloak, Exod. 22. 26-27, on account of its essential usages in ordinary life. The Lord commands the disciples to be willing to be dispos­sessed, even of what they would never think of parting with, for the sake of displaying their new life and nature.

Discipleship demands a willingness to suffer deprivation and loss in the service of the Master. The Lord Jesus said: ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me’, Matt. 16. 24. This self-denial includes the giving up of genuine rights, as well as suffering wrong unjustly. If the believer’s heart questions this seemingly aus­tere teaching, let him bear in mind that ‘even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me’, Rom. 15. 3. He gave up far more in coming to this earth to suffer and die than any of His followers will ever be called upon to endure. When the heavenly elders speak of Him, they sing of His worth on account of His death and what it has accomplished - making us ‘unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth’, Rev. 5. 10. This destiny is greater than anything that saints are called to give up or suffer for Him in this life.