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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 human hearts.
When someone strikes you, strike them back. When someone speaks ill of you, speak ill of them. If someone is angry with you, return the grudge. 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 retaliation.
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In today’s Gospel, Jesus offers a new, revolutionary 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.”
Imagine allowing someone to strike you on one cheek… and then offering the other. Doing so would leave us feeling stunned; overpowered; defeated. Why would Jesus insist on such an impossible standard?
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Offering the other cheek is a type of olive branch; a path to peace; a refusal to allow someone else’s sin from becoming our own.
If someone strikes us in anger and we return the blow, then two people are now hurt and angry. The cyclical violence can only be broken, when one refuses to retaliate, choosing to allow the evil to stop with them.
Christ demonstrates this very truth on the cross, not only by receiving every blow, lash, ounce of spittle and nail, but also by praying to his Father, “Forgive them, they know not what they do.”
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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 practically is to reach that point in our spiritual journeys where we can say with Saint Paul: “It is no longer I who live, but Christ living in me.”
Help us, Lord, to live more like you today.
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Image credits: (1) Catholic Answers (2) Pastor Lester Bentley (3) Blog, Southside Baptist Church