JESUS NEVER PREACHED NON-RESISTANCE!
(Preached on Sunday, October 3,2004)
But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the
right cheek, turn the other also;... -Matthew 5:39
These are probably some of the most well-known words from the Bible and at the same time some of the most misunderstood.
Jesus sounds ridiculous to most people in this teaching.
Turn the other cheek, sounds like cowardice.
It sounds like a call to be a door mat for Jesus.
Strikes many people as suicide, as an invitation to let someone wipe up the floor with us. Battered women have all too often been told by their pastors that the Bible requires them to turn the other cheek when they are being pulverized by their husbands or lovers. Sounds very much like a "mixed message," to call someone an evildoer, but not resist them.
As ridiculous as it sounds, it is, none the less, Jesus' teaching and something we should seriously struggle with and not just shrug our shoulders, mumble something about "unreachable, idealistic, foolish" and go on about business as usual.
For one thing, it is not totally unreachable.
Kenneth W. Morgan in his book Reaching For the Moon tells a story from his past.
"Once in Damascus years ago, while strolling on a street called Straight wondering whether it is truly the most ancient street in the world that has served continuously as a marketplace - I watched as a man who was riding slowly through the crowd on a bicycle with a basket of oranges precariously balanced on the handlebars was bumped by a porter so bent with a heavy burden that he had not seen him. The burden dropped, the oranges were scattered, and a bitter altercation broke out between the two men. After an angry exchange of shouted insults, as the bicyclist moved toward the porter with a clenched fist, a tattered little man slipped from the crowd, took the raised fist in his hand, and kissed it. A murmur of approval ran through the watchers, the antagonists relaxed, then people began picking up oranges and the little man drifted away."
After telling the story Morgan relates: "I have remembered that as a caring act, an act of devotion by a man who might have been a Syrian Muslim, a Syrian Jew, or a Syrian Christian. My reaction some time later to the episode on the street called Straight was regret that I wasn't enough of a Christian to have thought of kissing the fist myself."
All of this sounds so outrageous to us because we live in an ethos of violence. It is the last resort in conflicts, and increasingly the first.
Violence is the real religion of America.
As an example, take note that both candidates for President in the debate on Thursday stated continued support for the war on terror; that what we need to do is hunt down and bring to justice (which has become a euphemism for "kill") the terrorists.
One of the consequences of this war on terror has been the legitimization of vengeance. In our current culture it is acceptable "to get even."
As a matter of fact, getting even is considered the honorable thing to do and fair payment for the tragedy that our nation has experienced.
So it is that in our society, the teachings of Jesus for a different way to deal with violence and evil, seem so strange and alien.
But that is exactly why these teachings are so important.
Because the great ethical task before us is how to overcome evil without becoming evil ourselves and creating new forms of evil.
How can we overcome those who are trying to dominate us or others in the world, without becoming dominators ourselves?
It is important that we try to understand these very strange teachings of Jesus.
To do that, we need to understand the world to which he was speaking.
First century Palestine was a region under the dominating occupation of the Roman Empire and its troops.
It was a highly stratified society where everyone was looking for someone to be lower than them so they could dominate them, all the while being dominated by someone else higher up the ladder.
These teachings of Jesus are directed to people low down on the totem pole, hanging onto the bottom rungs of the ladder.
These are people use to being dominated, put down, oppressed and abused. What Jesus is offering them is another way, rather than fight or flight, to respond to violent domination in their lives.
"If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also." Most of us think this is a right hook, but that would land on the left cheek. A left hook would strike the right cheek, but in Jesus' day, the left hand was reserved for unclean tasks and would compound the insult to be used to strike someone.
The only conceivable blow Jesus could be discussing would be the back of the right hand - a blow not intend to injure, but to humiliate.
A blow struck by a superior on an inferior.
The suggestion to turn and offer the other cheek is to take the initiative to indicate a refusal to be humiliated.
By doing that you are saying, "I am a human being, a child of God. You can kill me, but my soul is out of your reach. You may have power over me, but you do not ultimately control me."
That is not passivity, but active, non-violent resistance.
"If a creditor takes you to court and sues you for your outer garment, give him your undergarment as welL"
Again, this is not passivity, but active, non-violent resistance.
It is saying, in essence, "You want my cloak? Then take everything I've got."
In Jewish society, to behold another's nakedness brought shame on the beholder, not the one naked, and that shame would be compounded if you forced another to be naked.
Finally, "if one of the occupation troops forces you to carry his pack one mile, carry it two." Roman law allowed a soldier to force a civilian to carry his pack, but only for one mile (and all the Roman roads had mile markers).
So to cheerfully refuse to relinquish the burden after the legal one mile limit and proceed another mile would put the soldier on the defensive, again taking limited control of the situation, at least in terms of your own participation.
It encourages the oppressed one to seize the initiative.
It is not passivity, but active, non-violent resistance.
Jesus did not teach nonresistance.
Rather, he disavowed violent resistance in favor of nonviolent resistance.
Of course we must resist evil!
No decent human being could conceivably stand by and watch innocents suffer without trying to do something to save them.
The question is simply one of means.
Many wise spiritual teachers have pointed out that to resist evil we must first resist the evil within ourselves.
To ever triumph over evil means beginning with the truth about ourselves. Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thick Nhat Hanh puts it this way: "We begin by recognizing that, in the depths of our consciousness, we have the seeds of both compassion and violence. We become aware that our mind is like a garden that contains all kinds of seeds: seeds of understanding, seeds of forgiveness, seeds of mindfulness, and also seeds of ignorance, fear, and hatred. We realize that at any moment, we can behave with violence or compassion, depending on the strength of these seeds within us. When the seeds of anger, violence, and fear are watered in us several times a day, they will grow stronger. Then we cannot be happy or accept ourselves; we suffer and make those around us suffer. Yet when we know how to cultivate the seeds of love, compassion, and understanding in us every day, those seeds will become stronger, and the seeds of violence and hatred will become weaker and weaker."
Two suggestions he offers to cultivate those seeds of love, compassion and
understanding are to write a love letter and to practice deep listening.
Many of us are good at writing letters of protest or complaint, but few of us can write a love letter.
To do so I must be willing to open my heart to the goodness within me and then from a place of calm, clarity, and compassion express what I want to say. Practice doing this for those close to you.
Practice doing this for those who bring difficulties to your life.
Practice, but do not send.
Second, by practicing deep listening, I offer to another an opportunity to open her heart.
Try listening to people with little intent of responding, but simply keeping the awareness that you are offering a gift and doing so with compassion in your heart the entire time. It will be a true gift you offer.
It will cultivate a sense of peace and calm in you.
It will also begin to open you to the experience of others and deepen your understanding of that experience, which will cultivate your compassion for them.
These practices are not easy, but they are so needed for our time.
They are so needed for our own health.
Jesus, like Buddha, saw that we are all intimately connected - what we do to others we do to ourselves, in actions rich with future consequences.
The Dalai Lama has said: "If you hold on to the spirit of revenge, you will not be a happy person. You will not achieve peace of mind."
The way of Jesus is not the path of revenge.
It is not the path of passive nonresistance.
It is the path of nonviolent resistance that looks for creative ways to stand up to evil without becoming evil ourselves.
Let us pray for the strength to follow Jesus on this way that leads to wholeness and life for all.