Turn the Other Cheek
“Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:38-39
In Exodus 21:22-25, God gave to Moses His judgment concerning the lawful solution to a situation whereby a pregnant woman is injured by a fight between two men. If she lost the baby, but she lived, then her husband would determine the amount of the fine, with a judge’s approval, that the perpetrator would pay. If the woman died, then the perpetrator would also have to die, a “life for a life”. Since God considers an unborn baby to be a person (Jeremiah 1:5), I would speculate that a “life for a life” meant an adult life. To make the punishment fit the crime, the law was written such as to require a person give up an eye if he put out another person’s eye, “Tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe”. Similar passages are found in Leviticus 24:20 and Deuteronomy 19:21. None of these punishments were to be taken into the hands of the victims but were to be carried out by the authorities having jurisdiction over such matters. In Romans 13:1-7, Paul made it clear that God ordains rulers to have authority over those who do wrong. One who fulfills this roll is “the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil” (Romans 13:46). I don’t know what happened to that Biblical principle in our day. Authorities are favoring the evildoers over the victims, but that’s for another blog.
Jesus’ solution was for a victim to not fight back. It takes two to argue or get into a fight. It is man’s natural tendency to strike back when struck. That’s how wars get started. But what Jesus is referring to here is for His people to not be revengeful. Taking revenge is what the ungodly do. Revenge, according to Webster’s Dictionary is “the affliction of punishment as an act of retaliation, usually for an injury against oneself and connotes personal malice, bitter resentment, etc. as the moving force”. Jesus tells us not to resist evil. I don’t think He means for us to be doormats and let evil people run all over us without defending ourselves or our families. He means for us to not try to “get even” with others when they have attacked us physically or verbally. Jesus wants us to be like him. Remember how He was treated when He was arrested, and how He responded.
Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah did not resist the evil done against Him. “He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth” (Isaiah 53:7). The New Testament gives us example after example of the cruel treatment that Jesus received, yet He never complained or retaliated against those who hated Him. He gave us three examples in His sermon of how His people are to react when confronted by unbelievers. If someone slaps us across the cheek, we are to allow them, basically invite them, to slap us on the other cheek. It takes the power of God in our lives to be struck and not strike back. Oswald Chambers wrote, “The hypocrite and the saint are alike in the public eye; the saint exhibits a meekness that is contemptible in the eyes of the world; that is the immense humiliation of being a Christian. Our strength has to be the strength of the Son of God, and ‘He was crucified in weakness’ (II Corinthians 13:4). Do the impossible, and as soon as you do, you know that God alone has made it possible.”
As the second example, Jesus uses an illustration of a legal matter. If a man is sued and forced to give up his coat unjustly, rather than countersuing or protesting, he should give up his cloak also. The cloak was the outermost garment, very needed to keep warm at night. A creditor was allowed to take a man’s coat but not his cloak. Therefore, a defendant in a court case was not required to give up his cloak. To give up something when not required to do so shows that a person has a humble, submissive spirit. Jesus was humbly submissive to His Father. If anyone had a right to exert his rights, it would have been Jesus, but He gave up His rights in order to set an example for His followers.
The third example Jesus gave to instruct His followers is found in verse 41: “whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain”. If someone requests our help, do more than asked. Our problem today is that folks only want to do as little as they can get by with rather than going the extra mile, as Jesus urged. For the believer to do just the basic is almost like cheating, because we have the capacity to do more than asked, and, as followers of Christ, we are more like Him when we give 110 percent or more of our time and effort to help others. (For further discussion, see the blog of 12/5/21, “Going the Extra Mile”). How do we desire to be known–as someone who reluctantly agrees to help someone out and does the bare minimum or someone who can be counted on to go the distance? After all, Jesus did say to do for others as we desire for them to do for us (Luke 6:31). As followers of Christ, we have a work to do, an example to set, and a smile to share. So, let’s get busy.