Dcn Tom Lindell

My brothers and sisters,
[With apologies for being a little out of synch with this offering…]

Matthew’s Gospel (5:38-42) in the Eucharistic lectionary for Monday, 13 June, is perhaps one of the most misunderstood passages in the New Testament that requires some cultural context. In it, Jesus counsels if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. Jesus is not advocating passivity. To understand this, one must reenact this act of intimidation to grasp its meaning. Someone who is at a higher socio-economic station is striking you on your right cheek with his right hand (the left hand being reserved for unclean things). As you turn your other cheek, if the assault continues, he must strike you with the back of his hand, and the blow would land directly on your face, which is culturally unacceptable, thus robbing the oppressor of the power to humiliate you.

Jesus goes on to tell of some poor peasant appearing in court to demand payment for past debt.  If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well. The debtor is demanded to give up his outer garment, or coat, as all he has in his possession. (By law, his coat must be returned to him by sundown as he would need it for warmth overnight.) Jesus counsels to give up your cloak (inner garment) as well. This would mean that the debtor would be standing in the court stark naked, and nakedness is taboo, especially to those who observe it.

Finally, it was common for Roman soldiers to demand that a civilian carry a heavy pack for only one mile. …if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile. If the civilian offers to carry the soldier’s pack an additional mile, the soldier could be severely punished under military law, a subversive act of getting back at the oppressor.

Jesus does not condone physically acting out against the oppressor. Instead, he counsels a non-violent approach to dealing with oppression. Notables such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King used this approach to deal with oppression, with some significant success, even though people suffered at the hands of those in authority. The message is simple...,do not resist an evildoer. At the end of the day evil is revealed for what it is, oppression of those who do not have the same privileges as those in power. The sad thing is that if power shifts from the oppressors to the oppressed, will the oppressed use intimidation against those who initially oppressed them?

With thanks to Walter Wink for these interpretations of Jesus’ Third Way.[1]

Dcn. Tom Lindell

[1] Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way, Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, 2003.