A Cheek For A Cheek
"Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Matthew 5:38-39). The concept of "an eye for an eye" was already almost two thousand years old by the time Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount. It must have seemed then and for most of us today it still seems now like an ironclad law of nature. Indeed, it's remarkably similar to Newton's Third Law of Motion - for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. And maybe if we could limit ourselves only to a proportional response, this system could work. But more often than not, we don't want to give back an equal and opposite reaction to the people who have wronged us. We don't want to be revenged just once, but sevenfold. If they take one tooth, then we are taking several. And then they feel fully justified turning back around and taking every last tooth out of our head. When Jesus tells us to turn to them that smite us the other cheek also, He is offering us a way to short circuit the endless cycle of escalating violence. If we offer a cheek for a cheek, we give them no excuse to continue the violence. I don't really think that Christ is counseling us to sit idly by and continue taking abuse after abuse. I think what He's saying is, you don't have all of the facts. You don't know why they smote you. You're certainly not in enough of an emotionally stable and disinterested and unbiased state to serve as judge, jury and executioner for the crimes that this person committed against you. So give it to me. Give me all of your pain and your hurt and your betrayal. Let me dispense perfect judgment and perfect Justice and perfect Mercy. Christ tells us not to resist evil. Carl Jung once said "What we resist persists." We can keep taking eyes for eyes until the whole world is blind. Or we can offer a cheek for a cheek and resist not evil and turn it all over to the Lord and the evil and violence and pain will shrivel up and disappear because none are giving place for it in their souls.
