Hardest Work There Is

Hardest Work There Is  

Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.” MT 5:38-40        

"Who really does this? ," we have to ask, if we are honest.  The whole “turn the other cheek thing”, for example, resulted from real things that actually happened to Jesus People quite often, in fact. Jesus followers who heard this teaching had to shake their heads and think it was crazy talk. 

Back then,  a “cultural superior” would slap someone of a lower caste with the back of the hand. (A Roman Citizen would never hit a lower class person with the flat of their hand— too messy!) By “turning the other cheek”, victims of this kind of every day violence communicated to their perpetrators, “Hit me again if you will, but it will be as an equal, because I am a human being.” Turning the other cheek was and act defiance and assertion of  equality. By reminding the doer of violence that their victims were human beings  they could transform  violence and victimhood and perhaps even remind someone caught up in the intoxicating power of rage that they were hurting a fellow human being. 

Or how about this one-

A Roman citizen, by law,  could ask any subjected person to carry their stuff for one mile (and no more). Jesus says to his followers— “Don’t just carry their stuff a mile— carry it all the way home (the second mile).” I don’t want to carry my adversaries stuff a foot, much less a mile. Jesus is saying that we not only have to love our enemies in the abstract sense, but seek to do them good when offered the opportunity. 

When we put these teachings in perspective, we realize that they are still hard for people like us to do. 

Sometimes it seems as if the human story is just about one group of people gathering together in a tribe and working to suppress or destroy another group through violence. The end of these kinds of actions does bring about peace (for a while) but it never deals with the root causes of violence. So, Jesus is not just telling individuals how to act, but is laying  out none other than his vision for building peace in a violent world. He is also getting humanity to tell a new story. 

Loving our enemies and praying for our persecutors opens up our imaginations to the possibility of how we might serve them and love them. Seeking ways to insist upon our humanity to our victimizers is the most potent kind of resistance against evil.  Turning the other cheek ministers to our oppressors because they become more human when they see fellow children of God on the other side of whatever conflict that exists and not just people worthy of "the back of their hand."

As the walls between the haves and have nots and those who are in and out  are being made more pronounced in our national life, we might even find ourselves with new “enemies” - even as we feel even more victimized. So, living these teachings is hard work, takes the greatest kind of imagination and must be centered in our living lives of prayer in our beloved community called the Church. Let’s put our energies towards imagining how we will be called to turn the other cheek and what the second mile might look like. We can start with one another. 

This is the hardest kind of spiritual work, yet in it lies the keys to none other than God’s kingdom among us and with us.