How Can Christians Turn the Other Cheek Without Being a Doormat?

This past Dominicus I taught our developed Sunday Written report course. As always, it turned into a wide-ranging discussion only remotely connected to the topic, in which nosotros noted and immediately solved all the world's problems. (Simply kidding, of course. It took us at least 45 minutes to solve them all.)

One of the things that came upward forth the manner was Jesus' famous "turn the other cheek" command. Information technology was suggested that maybe this and other commands like information technology are for an platonic, future "kingdom of God" and aren't expected to piece of work in the real world right now. Or, perhaps these sorts of commands are simply for our individual relationships and not for our wider social relationships.

"Turn the other cheek." Aye, it'due south a hard ane. Information technology seems utterly unrealistic, unworkable in the existent world of playground bullies or abusive spouses or oppressive regimes or vehement extremists.

Here'south the text from Matthew's Gospel:

You take heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a molar.' But I say to you lot, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other as well; and if anyone wants to sue y'all and take your glaze, requite your cloak as well; and if anyone forces y'all to go one mile, go also the second mile. (Matt 5:38-41)

This is immediately followed by some other seemingly incommunicable command:

Yous take heard that it was said, 'Y'all shall beloved your neighbor and hate your enemy.' Just I say to y'all, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, and so that you may exist children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sunday rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous…Be perfect, therefore, every bit your heavenly Begetter is perfect. (Matt 5:43-48)

What exercise we do with these commands? Is it true that they're merely for our individual relationships, or perhaps that they're simply for some time downward the road, when God's eternal kingdom comes to fruition?

To the idea that these commands are not intended for the real globe right now, we have to say an unequivocal "No." At least, that's not the way Matthew sees them. The Sermon on the Mount concludes with Jesus' emphatic announcement that he expects his followers to "hear these words of mine and act on them" (Matt vii:24-29), and the Gospel as a whole concludes with Jesus' call for his followers to make disciples who will "obey everything that I have commanded you" (Matt 28:18-twenty). Everything. Fifty-fifty the hard bits.

But at that place's something else from these teachings themselves that suggests these are not simply for some ideal "heavenly kingdom": in that ideal kingdom at that place would be no demand for these commands, because no one would strike you on the cheek to begin with. In fact, these commands of Jesus only make sense at the place where the kingdom of God collides with the kingdoms of this world. These commands only brand sense in a world where there are oppressive enemies and trigger-happy retribution—clashing with a new world in which there are no enemies and there is no vengeance.

How would Jesus' first disciples have heard these words? Who were their "enemies" who struck their cheeks or made them give up their cloaks or forced them to walk a mile? Probably, as time passed, in that location were several "enemies" who could be named. Simply for those first Jesus-followers the "enemies" that would have immediately come to listen were the Romans.

The Romans. Seen past many (by no ways all) first-century Jews as godless oppressors, Gentile dogs trampling on God'due south holy people all over God's holy turf. And the immediate, mankind-and-blood symbol of this imperial oppression? The Roman soldier, with the power to knock heads and commandeer cloaks and force brunt-bearing marches.

Suddenly Jesus' commands here take on new significant. "Turn the other cheek"? "Love your enemies"? This isn't for some idealized hereafter, nor is information technology just for our everyday relationships. This is near a clash of empires, a collision of kingdoms, two worlds coming caput-to-head—and affecting all our real-earth right-now relationships, from individuals to families to communities to societies to nation-states.

Think about this: if someone in a position of power over you "strikes you on the right cheek," what are your options?

Ane pick is to fight dorsum, to strike them on the cheek, to become all "eye for middle" on them—but they take all that raw ability behind them, and this is but going to become ugly fast. Violence, fifty-fifty "justified violence," e'er, inevitably, begets violence—on you, on them, on innocent others.

A second pick is to back abroad in abject submission, to be a "doormat." This is what people typically think Jesus ways here—just take your licks and have your lot in life. But only as Jesus does not say, "If someone strikes you on the cheek, strike them back," so besides Jesus does not say, "If someone strikes you on the cheek, bow down to them in subjection."

No, Jesus commands a third mode, a way that is neither the "return evil with evil" way nor the "passively submit to evil" manner. Jesus commands his followers to stand up upward with nobility, expect the oppressor in the eye, and challenge them to expose their injustice and inhumanity by inflicting another gratuitous blow.

In other words, Jesus advocates what Walter Wink calls "defiant vulnerability," or what Tom Yoder Neufeld perhaps better calls "creative non-vehement resistance": "artistic" because giving the extra garment or walking the actress mile are outside the normal rules of enemy engagement (Killing Enmity, 25). Glen Stassen and David Gushee become even further, maxim Jesus' commands hither are "transforming initiatives": they "accept a nonviolent initiative that confronts injustice and initiates the possibility of reconciliation" (Kingdom Ethics, 139).

Creative, transforming, not-violent resistance. Just like all those in recent history who, inspired to diverse degrees past Jesus' life and teachings, initiated some of the most momentous changes ever seen toward more just societies: Mahatma Gandhi in British colonial Republic of india; Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Jim Crow-era southern United States; Lech Wałęsa and Karol Józef Wojtyła (afterward Pope John Paul II) in Soviet Communist Poland; postal service-imprisonment Nelson Mandela under South Africa's Apartheid.

It'due south counter-intuitive, for sure. Simply opposite to popular opinion, "redemptive violence" is a myth while "plow the other cheek"—rightly understood—reallyworks.

It's of import to get this correct. This is not a command to an driveling wife that she should just stay with her husband and submissively accept the blows, whether physical or otherwise. This is non a command to terrorized Iraqi Christians that they should just take what'southward happening to them equally God'south volition. This is non a command to the male child being bullied after school that he should just take the blackness heart and slink abroad in fright. These kinds of things are most emphatically not what Jesus is saying here.

It'due south helpful to look to Jesus' own example. It is clear in Matthew's Gospel that the many things Jesus commands his followers to do in the Sermon on the Mount, he demonstrates for them as he goes to the cross. Plough the other cheek? Check. Love your enemies? Check. Pray for your persecutors? Bank check.

Simply here's the thing: Jesus does not practise these things for himself, but for others. For all the "poor in spirit" who are in "mourning," for the "meek" who "hunger and thirst for justice" (Matt 5:3-6), Jesus steps into their place as "merciful peacemaker," "persecuted for justice'southward sake" (Matt 5:vii-eleven).

Jesus becomes the champion of the oppressed, taking the accident aimed at them, standing upward for them with dignity, looking the oppressor in the centre and exposing their injustice and inhumanity with every free accident—and this becomes the spark for true justice and lasting peace and flourishing life.

This is what the bullied child, the abused spouse, the oppressed people, need. They demand a champion. And not a champion who volition strike back blow for blow, and just make the problem worse. They need a champion who will stand up to their oppressor on their behalf, who will betrayal the oppressor's injustice and inhumanity and initiate the process toward justice and peace and new life, whatsoever the price.

So how do we "turn the other cheek"? Not by being a "doormat," passively submitting to violence or oppression or abuse over and over again, spiraling downwards until all involved are de-humanized and eventually destroyed.

We "plow the other cheek" with creative, transforming, non-violent resistance in the footsteps of Jesus—which means imagining and enacting means to expose evil and injustice which maintain our nobility, which practise not demonize our "enemies" just instead show pity toward them, and which open up the door to possibilities of reconciliation and a better future.

We "turn the other cheek" with creative, transforming, not-violent resistance in the footsteps of Jesus—on our own behalf if there is no one else to have up our cause, and certainly on behalf of others who are beaten down and need a champion.

None of this makes Jesus' commands to "Turn the other cheek" and "Beloved your enemies" any easier. If anything it makes them harder—because information technology commits us to non merely speak of justice, not just pray for justice, but to actually stride out and piece of work for justice.

Mayhap I should become back to solving the world'due south issues with my Dominicus school class. This "walking in the fashion of Jesus" thing is way too convicting, way as well challenging, way too hard. Kind of like walking on a really narrow way…

A special note for abused spouses and children… Please hear this conspicuously: You are nether no obligation to remain with your calumniating partner or parent. "Turn the other cheek" does not mean that, neither does "Wives, submit to your husbands" or "Children, respect your parents," and if someone tells you otherwise they are wrong. Contact an system like Genesis House that can provide communication and shelter for y'all and initiate the procedure of healing for y'all and whatever others involved. I know this is easy to say and difficult to do, and if you are unable to take this footstep then I pray you lot will know God'due south sufficient grace through your suffering and God's ability through your weakness—and that y'all volition again consider taking this pace if the abuse continues.

Cantankerous-posted from http://world wide web.mordenmennonitechurch.wordpress.com. © Michael W. Pahl.

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Source: https://michaelpahl.com/2014/10/01/turn-the-other-cheek-%E2%89%A0-be-a-doormat/

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