Scripture Matthew 5:38-42
[Jesus said,] “You all have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye’ and ‘a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you: Do not set yourself against the wicked. But when someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to them also. And when someone wants you to be judged and take your coat, let your other clothing go as well. And when someone forces you to go one mile, go the second mile too. Give to those who ask from you, and those who want to borrow from you, do not refuse.”
Translation: the Rev. Dr. Wilda Gafney, A Women’s Lectionary for the Whole Church, Year A.
Sermon
I’ve been reading “People of Means,” by Nancy Johnson, UPC’s Book Group selection for the month of October. It’s a truly wonderful novel, about the coming-of-age of two women across two generations of a black family: Freda, who heads for Fisk University, an historically black liberal arts college, in 1960; and her daughter, Tulip, who has a job as a publicist in Chicago in 1992. At Fisk, Freda becomes involved in Civil Rights actions, including sit-ins and covertly ferrying money to help the cause. Tulip becomes an organizer of a march protesting the not-guilty verdict for the police officers in the Rodney King trial, the suspended sentence for the killer of Latasha Harlins, and the dreadful living conditions in the Ida B. Wells public housing project.
Many students at Fisk receive training in nonviolent protest. Freda and two friends watch one such session in amazement, as students submit themselves to being punched, and make no response whatsoever. Of course, the students are guided in all this by the work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who was, in turn, inspired by the nonviolent protest movement of Mahatma Ghandi.
In the Civil Rights Movement Archive, we can find a list of the kinds of violence the students were being taught to anticipate. One veteran trainer of the time shared his list of things he addressed with his students:
Verbal abuse
Spitting on
Kicking and stepping on
Beatings with fists, chains, and police billy-clubs
Dragging female protesters across a room by the hair
Throwing manure, eggs, tomatoes, exploding firecrackers, rocks, & bricks at us
Knocking sit-ins over and rolling them down a flight of stairs
Chokings by police (the infamous "choke hold")
Attacks with home-made flame-throwers (hairspray ignited with a cigarette lighter)
Pouring hot tar over heads
Cars attempting to run over picketers
Stabbing with a knife... [1]
Is this what’s happening in our passage this morning? Is Jesus recommending entirely nonviolent responses to abuse almost certainly doled out by Roman soldiers or angry rich people? Yes, and…
Abuse by soldiers was a routine feature of life in first century Judah. It was not unusual for a soldier to order a man to carry their pack for them, or to backhand them across the face for refusing to follow such an order. It was a time when the most vulnerable and impoverished people routinely were taken to court when their debts went unpaid, and they often had to part with basic necessities, such as their cloaks, in order to avoid prison and the cascade of disasters still faced when people are held without bail in our carceral system.
Jesus is advocating nonviolent response to violence. This stands in contrast to the traditional understanding of justice he invokes at the beginning of the passage. He is quoting Leviticus. Here’s the full passage, God speaking to the people through Moses:
“Anyone who kills a human being shall be put to death. Anyone who kills an animal shall make restitution for it, life for life. Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered. One who kills an animal shall make restitution for it, but one who kills a human being shall be put to death. You shall have one law for the alien and for the native-born, for I am the Lord your God.” ~Leviticus 24:17-22
This is known as the lex talionis, or the law of retaliation. It formed the basis of justice, what was considered fairness, for the people of ancient Israel. Professor Emerson Powery, of Messiah University, writes,
Wherever harm is committed–whether intentional (cf. Leviticus 24:20) or not (cf. Exodus 21:24)–the judges of ancient Israel were expected to authorize the law of retaliation (i.e., “eye for an eye”). It is not to be practiced only in cases when an evil person causes injury. Rather it is a law that expresses a commitment to justice (cf. Deuteronomy 19:21). And, it ensures that the penalty is not arbitrary, making the punishment more severe than the crime. [2]
That last item, the punishment being more severe than the crime, was the cause of uproar over the killing of Latasha Harlins, a 15-year-old who was shot in the back of the head because the owner of a shop believed she was shoplifting. It also applies to the violent responses to black activists who were sitting peacefully at lunch counters, hoping to be served food, during the movement for Civil Rights.
Jesus begs to differ. Jesus envisions a world in which human life is a gift from God to be treasured. Dr. Powery continues,
But Jesus admonishes followers not to oppose the evil doer violently… Rather, Jesus has an alternative strategy for dealing with evil. His objective is to overcome evil with good. His goal was to overcome humiliation by shaming those in power. [3]
In a now-famous interpretation by the late, great biblical scholar Walter Wink, we see how Jesus’ suggestions for responding to abuse are not in any way designed to further the humiliation or submit to the subjugation of the people being abused. Rather, these are tactical actions, designed to show the powers-that-be that real human beings stand before them and are every bit as worthy of respect as the ones in charge.
Let’s take the cloak, won in court by a plaintiff. The cloak was not some incidental piece of clothing that was easily given up. Most people had only one, and it was of the highest quality weave and fabric the person could afford. There was every expectation that it would be worn for many years. Losing it was significant. But Jesus encourages the defendant to remove the next layer of clothing and hand it over in addition. In most cases, this would render the defendant nearly naked, and to look upon a naked person was a shameful act. The plaintiff—usually a landowner, a lender, or another person with wealth—was now publicly shamed for suing someone with so few resources. They might even relinquish the cloak.
Similarly, the “turn the other cheek” advice just sounds wrong, right? But that’s because we’re not citizens of the ancient Middle East. If someone hit you on the right cheek, that would be because they had given you a backhanded slap—which was how people in power, such as masters of slaves or Roman soldiers—would hit someone they considered inferior, below their rank. To turn your other cheek to them would mean they had to hit you with their fist—the way they would fight with an equal. Turning your other cheek reclaimed your power and autonomy. You were insisting upon be treated as an equal.
And finally, going the extra mile—which is still a phrase we use today, indicating generosity. The military code of ancient Rome permitted their soldiers to enlist non-military folks to carry their packs, but they could only carry them one mile. If the person were to carry the back further—which they might have done if the soldier had sent them away, which was more likely than a companionable walk—the soldier found themselves in hot water. Now they had violated the military code. It was an act of generosity. But it was also an act that pointed out that the common folk had dignity, too. They could stand up for themselves in ways that would not penalize them, but which reminded the powers-that-be that they were human beings worthy of consideration. [4]
What do we make of all this? Generosity has many motives. We might give because we see something as good, as worthy of our time, talent, or treasure. And here, Jesus encourages generous behavior that appears to be designed as an act of protest. That’s because Jesus believes that human beings are worthy of dignity—all human beings. No matter their wealth of lack of it. No matter their race. No matter their color. No matter their country of origin. No matter their sexuality or gender expression. No matter their religion. No matter their ability or lack of it. Human beings are worthy of dignity, because God created us in love, and loves us passionately, so much so that we are imprinted with God’s very image. The Imago Dei, the image of God, reminds us that no one is worthy of our contempt. Not even the bullies.
Where does that lead us? It leads us to the words of Jesus that come next, right after this bit:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’
But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.
~Matthew 5:43-45
Even these delicately defiant acts of protest are, in the end, loving. After all, weren’t we all created to be God’s children? Jesus is asking us, here, to be who we were created to be, and to encourage others to do the same: to be people who are entitled to dignity and who are called upon to see the worth of others, even when that’s incredibly difficult. Who wants to “love their enemies”? No one, because the definition of an enemy is the one who wants to harm you. But this is the call. We are called to love our enemy, to perform our own acts of protest, always, always, in service of an overarching desire to make the world a better place. I’m going to close with the words of a queer pastor, who puts it this way:
… If there is truth in [this] way of reading Jesus’ words, I have to believe that it is not simply in shaming the soldiers or creditors, but it is in helping them acknowledge at least two things, two things that bring us right back to why we treasure God's commandments: One is that the only true power that we Judeo-Christians look up to is the one, true God. And the second is that God wants God's people to live into abundance for all. [5]
Thanks be to God. Amen.
[1] Bruce Hartford, Nonviolent Training, Civil Rights Movement Archive: History, Stories, Materials, and Images by Freedom Rights Veterans, 2004. https://www.crmvet.org/vet/hartford.htm.
[2] Emerson Powery, “Commentary on Matthw 5:38-48: In this passage, Jesus continues to explore the relevance of the Law for his followers and society,” February 20, 2011, Working Preacher. https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/seventh-sunday-after-epiphany/commentary-on-matthew-538-48.
[3] Powery, op. cit.
[4] Walter Wink, as quoted by the Rev. Melissa Campbell-Langdell, ed. Peter Carlson, “Seventh Sunday After the Epiphany,” A Queer Lectionary: (Im)Proper Readings from the Margins, Year A (New York: Seabury Books, 2025), 98-99.
[5] Melissa Campbell-Langdell, op. cit.