Prayers for Reconciliation (after WWII Bombings)
Prayers for Reconciliation (after WWII Bombings), from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=59144 [retrieved February 18, 2022]. Original source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reconciliation_Church_of_Dresden_97265915.jpg.
Love is not fundamentally…a matter of sentiment, attachment, or being “drawn toward.” Love is active, effective, a matter of making reciprocal and mutually beneficial relation with one’s friends and enemies. Love creates righteousness, or Justice, here on earth. To make love is to make justice….
We are not automatic lovers of self, others, world, or God. Love does not just happen….Love is …a willingness to be present to others without pretense or guile. Love is a conversion to humanity-a willingness to participate with others in the healing of a broken world and broken lives.
Carter Heyward, Our Passion for Justice
We are not automatic lovers of self, others, world, or God. Love does not just happen….Love is …a willingness to be present to others without pretense or guile. Love is a conversion to humanity-a willingness to participate with others in the healing of a broken world and broken lives.
Carter Heyward, Our Passion for Justice
Imaging the Word An Arts and Lectionary Resource, Volume 1
Exploring the Text: Does Jesus really tell us tolerate injustice?
There are some elements what Jesus says here that sound wrong. We get the idea of loving and praying for others, even our enemies, but turning the other cheek and giving freely to those who take by force sounds wrong to our ears. Does Jesus really want us to turn a blind eye to injustice? Does Jesus really want people to stay in abusive relationships? Does Jesus really want us to be doormats? Does following Jesus mean being completely passive no matter what kind of injustice or evil is perpetrated in the world around us or to us?
When we encounter injustice in the world or in our own lives there are two different approaches we typically take, one is violent resistance, and the other is passive acceptance. We are often tempted to fight fire with fire, injustice with injustice, and hope that the ends justify the means. We want to strike back at those who perpetrate evil, those who oppress others, those who harm or injure. Jesus clearly does not support this approach. But neither does he advocate meek submission to injustice and injury.
The problem with understanding this passage is we read it through the filters of our society, our culture, and our understanding rather than that of a first century Jew. Let’s start with what Jesus says in verse 29, possibly the most controversial of these verses. Jesus is not referencing any time of violence, he is talking about a specific, deliberate action in a specific circumstance. To strike someone on the right cheek was a serious insult (see the parallel passage in Matthew 5:38-42). A master would strike a slave on the right cheek with the back of their right hand to show that they were superior, and the slave was inferior. It was a way of asserting and reinforcing dominance and superiority. A person who considered themselves your equal would never strike your right cheek with the back of their right hand. Instead, they would strike your left cheek. This was still an act of aggression, but it also indicated that they recognized your worth and significance, that they considered you to be equal to them and not inferior to them.
While we do not have the same kind of formalized social stratification in our culture, people still consider themselves superior to or better than others. They take advantage of and oppress people they consider to be below them in ways they never would someone they consider their equal or their superior.
Jesus’ response to this situation is not to strike back or to slink away, but rather to stand your ground and offer your left cheek instead. This presents a problem for the person who struck you. If they strike your left cheek now, they are admitting that you are their equal, not their inferior.
Again, we do not have the same cultural ideas that Jesus is speaking to, but we can understand the principle he is advocating. He is saying that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect and that we, his followers, should actively promote that view of dignity and respect for all, even ourselves.
Similarly, when Jesus talks about offering your tunic to someone who has forcibly taken your cloak or not demanding justice when someone has stolen from you, he is not suggesting that we meekly accept injustice. Instead, he is saying that we actively offer what we can freely. This is not submission, this is actively taking control of our own lives and letting others know what we are making choices for ourselves. This is communicating that we are equal and are treating them with dignity, respect, and compassion.
When we are confronted with injustice, whether to ourselves or others, rather than striking back in violence, meekly accepting the situation as the way the world is, or quietly ignoring it and hoping it goes away, we should pursue Jesus’ way of actively advocating for dignity and respect for all. Everyone is created in the image of God and is worthy of the respect that calls for (Genesis 1:26-27).
David W. Dalton
There are some elements what Jesus says here that sound wrong. We get the idea of loving and praying for others, even our enemies, but turning the other cheek and giving freely to those who take by force sounds wrong to our ears. Does Jesus really want us to turn a blind eye to injustice? Does Jesus really want people to stay in abusive relationships? Does Jesus really want us to be doormats? Does following Jesus mean being completely passive no matter what kind of injustice or evil is perpetrated in the world around us or to us?
When we encounter injustice in the world or in our own lives there are two different approaches we typically take, one is violent resistance, and the other is passive acceptance. We are often tempted to fight fire with fire, injustice with injustice, and hope that the ends justify the means. We want to strike back at those who perpetrate evil, those who oppress others, those who harm or injure. Jesus clearly does not support this approach. But neither does he advocate meek submission to injustice and injury.
The problem with understanding this passage is we read it through the filters of our society, our culture, and our understanding rather than that of a first century Jew. Let’s start with what Jesus says in verse 29, possibly the most controversial of these verses. Jesus is not referencing any time of violence, he is talking about a specific, deliberate action in a specific circumstance. To strike someone on the right cheek was a serious insult (see the parallel passage in Matthew 5:38-42). A master would strike a slave on the right cheek with the back of their right hand to show that they were superior, and the slave was inferior. It was a way of asserting and reinforcing dominance and superiority. A person who considered themselves your equal would never strike your right cheek with the back of their right hand. Instead, they would strike your left cheek. This was still an act of aggression, but it also indicated that they recognized your worth and significance, that they considered you to be equal to them and not inferior to them.
While we do not have the same kind of formalized social stratification in our culture, people still consider themselves superior to or better than others. They take advantage of and oppress people they consider to be below them in ways they never would someone they consider their equal or their superior.
Jesus’ response to this situation is not to strike back or to slink away, but rather to stand your ground and offer your left cheek instead. This presents a problem for the person who struck you. If they strike your left cheek now, they are admitting that you are their equal, not their inferior.
Again, we do not have the same cultural ideas that Jesus is speaking to, but we can understand the principle he is advocating. He is saying that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect and that we, his followers, should actively promote that view of dignity and respect for all, even ourselves.
Similarly, when Jesus talks about offering your tunic to someone who has forcibly taken your cloak or not demanding justice when someone has stolen from you, he is not suggesting that we meekly accept injustice. Instead, he is saying that we actively offer what we can freely. This is not submission, this is actively taking control of our own lives and letting others know what we are making choices for ourselves. This is communicating that we are equal and are treating them with dignity, respect, and compassion.
When we are confronted with injustice, whether to ourselves or others, rather than striking back in violence, meekly accepting the situation as the way the world is, or quietly ignoring it and hoping it goes away, we should pursue Jesus’ way of actively advocating for dignity and respect for all. Everyone is created in the image of God and is worthy of the respect that calls for (Genesis 1:26-27).
David W. Dalton