To The Blue Sky. . .

2.09.2006

Man, how awesome is Jesus? I want to share something that I read on Erica's site. It's from the book "The Lost Message of Jesus" by Steve Chalke and Alan Mann. I'm really going to have to get a copy of this I think.

"Whatever he was, Jesus was never passive. Even the briefest reading of the Gospels quickly confirms this. And in line with everything else he stood for, his teaching about loving enemies was not a command for his followers to act like apathetic doormats. Rather he counselled active, creative, and strong responses to aggression, but without resorting to violence. He clearly viewed violence as not only in opposition to God's character, but ultimately impractical and impotent for solving dispute.

As part of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus chose to address the issue of how to deal with injustice by presenting three vivid pictures. 'When someone slaps you on the right cheek,' he began, 'turn and let that person slap you on the other cheek' (Matthew 5:39). This piece of advice, if we are honest, seems absolutely ridiculous. Why should we let someone openly abuse us in this way without fighting back? However, Jesus' words would have sounded very different to the oppressed and downtrodden audience whom he first addressed. Whether they were for or against him, none could have failed to appreciate just how radical, active, and downright confrontational his teaching was.

In Jesus' illustration, the initial blow suffered by the victim would have been backhanded, designed not so much to injure as to offer insult, to humiliate and degrade. This kind of blow was only administered to 'inferiors', so a master would backhand his slaves, husbands their wives, and Romans, Jews. But by teaching his lowly hearers to turn the other cheek, Jesus wasn't suggesting they take this insult lying down. In fact, the reverse is true. By following Jesus' advice, a servant would make it impossible for his master to hit him again with the back of the hand. The left cheek may now have offered a perfect target to strike another blow, but strong cultural taboos meant that the person hitting could not use his left hand, which was kept for 'unclean' tasks. In practice this meant that aggressors only had one option if they wanted to continue to hit. Because they could only use their right hands, they would have to slap or punch their victims - but only equals fought this way.

Thus turning the other cheek wasn't passive; it was proactive. The 'inferior' was saying, 'I'm a human being, just like you. I refuse to be humiliated any longer. I am your equal. If you want to hit me again, you will have to acknowledge that.' Jesus' way was neither cowardly submission nor violent reprisal. It was non-violence, but definitely not non-resistance. It involved bold, energetic, and even costly confrontation."

- posted by Jonathan@ 12:55 PM