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Gospel: Matthew 5: 38-42
Jesus said to his disciples:
“You have heard that it was said,
An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.
When someone strikes you on your right cheek,
turn the other one to him as well.
If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic,
hand him your cloak as well.
Should anyone press you into service for one mile,
go with him for two miles.
Give to the one who asks of you,
and do not turn your back on one who wants to borrow.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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This is, perhaps, the oldest law in the world: An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
Before it was written in stone, it seems it was written into our fallen human nature.
When someone strikes you, strike them back. When someone speaks ill of you, speak ill of them. If someone is angry with you, be angry with them. However you must, get even.
It’s a cyclical flow of revenge; a guarantee of destroying relationships – and by extension, the world itself. As Ghandi once said, “If we all lived by that rule – an eye for an eye – then we’d all be blind.”
And yet… how many of us are to some extent blind? Guilty of following that ancient law of revenge.
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In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers a new teaching.
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye,’ but I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.”
Think of someone who’s struck you on your right cheek, as it were. Now imagine turning the left.
Doing so can leave us stunned, feeling tense within, as if such a standard is not only difficult, but also ludicrous. Impossible.
Why would Jesus insist on such a standard?
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An easy way out is to say, “Well, he’s God. Forgiveness comes easy for him.”
But what about us?
“Offering the other cheek” is a type of olive branch; a path to peace. It means preferring reconciliation to revenge.
Turning the other cheek also prevents someone else’s sin from becoming ours. If someone insults you in anger and you return the favor, then two people are now angry. But if you brush it off – or let it go – then their anger will not become yours.
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This is not an easy Gospel passage to digest. Nor is it meant to be. Perhaps the only way to live it is to reach that point in our journeys where we can say with Saint Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ living in me.”
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Image credits: (1) Threadless (2) Society for the Blind (3) Genesis Bible Fellowship Church