Insights On Turning The Other Cheek

Part 1 of Insights on Turning the Other Cheek, Enemy Love, and Judging Others

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Our reading this week is from the gospel of Luke:

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.

“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

“Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” (Luke 6:27-38)

Christians of privilege live in social locations more centered in our society. When these Christians speak of nonviolence, they’re often not speaking about nonviolent resistance, nonviolent protest, or the nonviolent fight for social justice. They are simply using the term nonviolence or “peace” to refer to the absence of conflict or social turmoil. This is why why Dr. King felt moved to write his “Letter From a Birmingham Jail.” Even if a Christian of privilege desires systemic change, they typically want to see that change come about through passive means. When a struggle for justice erupts, they also quickly critique protesters while remaining silent on the violence those protestors are standing up to and violence that protectors of the system are exercising against them.

I first learned of another way to interpret Jesus’ words about turning the other cheek from the late Walter Wink in his classic work Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way.

Here is a snippet:

“How does one strike another on the right cheek anyway? Try it. A blow by the right fist in that right-handed world would land on the left cheek of the opponent. To strike the right cheek with the fist would require using the left hand, but in that society the left hand was used only for unclean tasks. Even to gesture with the left hand at Qumran carried the penalty of exclusion and ten days’ penance (The Dead Sea Scrolls, I QS 7). The only way one could strike the right cheek with the right hand would be with the back of the right hand. What we are dealing with here is unmistakably an insult, not a fistfight. The intention is not to injure but to humiliate, to put someone in his or her “place.” One normally did not strike a peer thus, and if one did, the fine was exorbitant (4 zuz was the fine for a blow to a peer with a fist, 400 zuz for backhanding him; but to an underling, no penalty whatsoever-Mishnah, Baba Qamma 8:1-6). A backhand slap was the normal way of admonishing inferiors. Masters backhanded slaves; husbands, wives; parents, children; men, women; Romans, Jews. We have here a set of unequal relations, in each of which retaliation would be suicidal.” (Kindle Location 82)

A few years ago I wrote a series on nonviolence in Christian teachings called A Primer on Self-Affirming Nonviolence. If you can only read one section this week, read the portion on this week’s passage at A Primer on Self-Affirming Nonviolence, Part 3.

We’ll take a look at loving our enemies, next. (Read Part 2)

There are implications here for us at this moment. We’ll explore those in Part 2.

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