Readings:
Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18 Matthew
5:38-48
Let us pray: may
the words of my mouth and mediations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight,
O God, our rock and our sustainer. Amen.
We hear the
commands for living in the way of God in the reading from Leviticus. Practical,
caring, catching love to neighbour in all of them. Then we come to the reading from the Gospel
of Matthew this morning/evening, and perhaps quietly went ‘well that’s one of
those ‘if only’ passages’ so we will just hold it loosely and move on. What Jesus asks of us is problematic and
can’t always be followed. So we can’t be
perfect as God is perfect.
I want to start
with a story of someone who came up against this and other teachings of Jesus
in very practical way. It sounds a bit
contrived but they, lets say Joe, decided to live for a year following every
tenet of Jesus teaching to the letter.
And so it was obvious what he had to do when, early in the piece, a
person came to the door, telling a story of deprivation and need. Joe gave them what they asked for and then,
remembering the teaching of Jesus that if they ask for your coat, then give
them your cloak as well, he gave much more that he was asked for. It was quite
a few months later that there was another knock on the door, and lo and behold
it was the same person with the same story and a look of expectation on their
face. Who can blame them? I wonder what Joe did and what Joe was
tempted to do?
This is the kind of impasse that we often come
to in these teachings of Jesus when we struggle to understand the context of
the words and yet still try to apply them to us today. And it often means that a very important
teaching is put aside as not so relevant.
Jesus’ troublesome truths challenge us again this Sunday.
A colleague put me
in touch with a paper by Walter Wink entitled ‘Jesus’ Third Way’[1]
– some of you may be familiar with it – and it raises some very interesting
challenges on our interpretations of this piece of scripture.
He first of all
identifies the ways in which he feels Christians over the centuries have
mis-interpreted this passage, where we believe that turning the other cheek
means we are to allow ourselves to be beaten into submission while doing
nothing. Giving your cloak and going the extra mile can also engender a
sense of passive over indulgence in the hope that it will make a difference.
Do we see Jesus in
this submissive passive behaviour – we do not.
Yet the only other
alternative seems to be to hit back, only give what is asked for which are
contrary to the teaching that we are to love, and love generously. So in our desire to follow both the true word
and to be realistic about our living in this world we have created what we call
‘just wars’ – where the need for protecting ones neighbour supersedes this
impractical passivity – and we enter into the violence.
Hence the title of
the article – The Third Way. Wink
questions the interpretation and points to the similar phrase used several
times in the Epistles, where we hear said ‘do not repay evil for evil’.[2] And he says that the Scholars version of the
verses in Matthew is the most helpful translation – ‘Don’t react violently
against the one who is evil.’ Jesus is
not saying to do nothing and be browbeaten into the ground – no, he is telling
us to stand up to evil but not with the weapons of evil.
A little context
here might help. Jesus here says
something quite strange and superfluous if we are talking about someone hitting
you and you not hitting back. He tells
us what cheek we would be first assaulted on: the right one. And as the left hand was, in those days,
considered unclean and you could be excluded from the temple for any gesturing,
then the right cheek could only be a backhanded slap. And that was used only to insult, humiliate,
degrade. It would be used on those over
whom you had control, seeking to put them in their place. So turning the other cheek, Wink explains,
was actually refusing to submit to that treatment – the backhand would no
longer work. And the fist wouldn’t be
used – that kind of fighting was only between equals. The beginning of social revolution, he
suggests.
So Wink says that
what Jesus is actually saying is "Stand up for yourselves, defy your
masters, assert your humanity; but don't answer the oppressor in kind. Find a
new, third way that is neither cowardly submission nor violent reprisal."
In the same way he
sees the handing over of the cloak as well as the coat not as super generous
giving but rather in the context of a poor man being taken to court over his
debt and, knowing he couldn’t beat the system that went right to the door of
Roman exploitation of the Jews, telling him to walk out of there naked,
effectively letting them know what the debtor thinks of their justice and
hoping that it would lead to some serious rethinking. For me this is a bit more of a stretch but
interesting none the less.
The extra mile,
similarly, came from the ruling that the Roman soldier, while able to impress
into service any person on the street (remember Simon of Cyrene) could only be
made to, for instance, carry their packs for a mile. The extra mile returns the initiative to the
oppressed, shakes the foundations of what is expected – is revolutionary and
unsettling. Imagine the soldier trying
to figure out how to respond, how to get his pack back even.
So far from these
words of Jesus offering only violence or submission, they are, according to
Wink, in fact a social earthquake which, if taken up, would change the face of
the world. Now that sounds more like the
teachings of Jesus!
It doesn’t mean
that there won’t be unhappy consequences to those who dare to challenge
accepted injustices but it does give a new meaning to being like Christ in our
living.
So, if we accept
this approach of ridicule and non-violent resistance to injustice and
oppression is what Jesus is asking of us, how might this interpretation of the
Gospel message look for us today?
For a start the
purpose is not to oppress or put down the other – always when we walk the path
of Jesus the purpose is to bring understanding and transformation not just to
the downtrodden but also to the oppressors, that there might be reconciliation
and a new way of living for all.
This is a timely
message for us as we seem to be seeing an increasing degree of overt government
sanctioned injustice and inequality for the vulnerable in our world. And I think that we are seeing some very
Jesus like responses by people who do not choose engage in the bullying tactics
but stand strong by peaceful and sometimes burlesque methods. One hopes there
is a desire to reconcile as well.
Jesus looks for neither violence or helpless passivity: What are some of the ways we, in our daily
life, can turn the other cheek in this Jesus like way – we hear stories of
people gathering, peacefully but very intentionally against violence – like the
events in Egypt where Christians
surrounded and protected their Muslim brothers and sisters at worship and
Muslim men did the same to as Christians worshipped.
Jesus tells us to
challenge oppressive systems: Where have we given the cloak away as well as the
coat to make a stand for justice? What about those people who plan to swamp any
proposed Muslim register in the states with their names to show the
ludicrousness of such an unjust move.
Jesus encourages
us to behave in unexpected ways: When have we walked the extra mile in order to
challenge the status quo and possibly befuddled the system? When people turn up with unconditional gifts
to the prisoners where the prevailing attitude works on punishment by
deprivation – that might be one.
Jesus word for us
today is as true as it was then. For he
goes on to say that we are to live in love in everything we do – and this includes
our enemies, those who cause us grief, not just because it is the ‘right’ thing
to do but because by doing so we are taking action, shaking the foundations of
all that is wrong and unjust. We are
standing up to those who would harm us using the most unexpected weapon of
love.
Living in the love
of God, we become free in the Spirit to find imaginative and radically new way
to challenge all that is evil. Walking
in the Third Way of Jesus we can only be amazed at the places it takes us and the
hearts it transforms. Thanks be to God.
Margaret Garland
