Doormats need not apply! Preached by The Revd Lindsay Meader, Acting Priest-in-Charge on Sunday 20 February 2011

 

“Do not resist an evildoer . . . 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.”

 

Taken at face value, it’s not surprising that the chapter in Matthew’s Gospel from which these words come, the same chapter which also includes the Beatitudes, has been dubbed by some as a ‘manifesto for doormats.’

 

This whole chapter is not so much about submission as resistance, and to use modern day vernacular “thinking outside the box”, but that only becomes clear when we consider these three examples Jesus cites in context, and here, I am grateful to the progressive theologian Walter Wink.

 

“If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.” Why is Jesus so specific about being hit on the right cheek? Because in Semitic society the left hand was only used for unclean tasks – you couldn’t even gesture using your left hand in public. Therefore, to be struck on the right cheek would have to be with the back of the hand.

 

Wink observes, “the back of the hand is not a blow intended to injure. It is a symbolic blow. It is intended to put you back where you belong. It is always from a position of power or superiority. The back of the hand was given by a master to a slave or by a husband to a wife or by a parent to a child or a Roman to a Jew in that period. To offer the left cheek to someone who has dealt you such a blow is in effect to bar the possibility of them delivering a second such blow. It is a form of empowerment – a form of resisting the intended slight or assertion of power and superiority. It is a way of maintaining one’s dignity.

The second example Jesus gives regards security for a loan. Normally this would be in the form of animals for land, but the book of Deuteronomy includes provision for the poorest of the poor to offer instead their outer garment. This garment doubled up as a robe by night and a coat by day. The creditor had to return this garment every night but could come get it every morning and thus harass the debtor and hopefully get him to repay.

 

Jesus says, “If anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well. “ In other words, turn the tables on the creditor. You know you can’t win the case, so push the envelope. If they sue you for your outer garment, give them your undergarment as well.

 

This would mean presenting the creditor and the court with what in Israel was considered a taboo – nakedness. Moreover the shame of nakedness fell not on the person who was naked, but on the person who observed their nakedness. Thus the creditor would be put in the position of being shamed by the nakedness of the debtor. Doubtless it would create quite a stir. Wink comments wryly, “You can imagine it is going to be some time in that village before any creditor takes anybody else to court.”

 

The final example Christ gives is “if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile” and refers to the laws of the occupying forces. The military law made it permissible for a soldier to force any passing civilian to carry their pack (which would usually weigh 65-85 pounds), but the civilian was only to carry it for one mile. There were mile markers on every Roman road. If the civilian carried the pack for more than a mile, then the solider was in infraction of the military code – military code was always more strictly enforced than civilian. Until now, soldiers had always known the routine – they stop a civilian and force them to carry their pack. The civilian may not be happy, and may well complain, but they will also comply, and at the end of the mile will drop the pack immediately.

Imagine the soldiers’ surprise and confusion when one day, out of the blue, one of the civilians they commandeer doesn’t stop after a mile, but continues to carry the pack. They can’t understand this action, but they do know that if their centurion sees or hears of this, then they will be in big trouble.

 

“Jesus”, writes Wink “is teaching these people how to take the initiative away from their oppressors and within the situation of that old order, find a new way of being.”

 

Here I’m reminded of a period in my life when I used to spend a lot of my working day driving, and found that by far the best to way to deal with motorists who were impatient or prone to aggressive gestures was to smile and give them a friendly wave. They simply didn’t know how to handle the reaction they least expected. They were more than ready to join in a war of signs, gestures and horns, but simply didn’t know what to do when ambushed a smile.

 

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, from which the Beatitudes and these three examples come comprise a radically subversive way of looking at the world, of challenging – and indeed reversing - the values by which the world seems to operate, and in which it seems to set so much store.

 

These teachings of Jesus were – and still are - a counter-cultural agenda for change, made possible in and by and through the love of God, and particularly because of that love made manifest and incarnate in Christ. Because Jesus came to live and love among us, we have glimpsed the glory of God and the possibilities and potential that lies within humanity. We know that there is another way to live – not always comfortable or easy, in fact usually demanding, challenging, exhausting and frustrating, but still another and better way.

 

As always, Jesus offers us an example to which we can aspire. Of course, despite his exhortation, we will not attain perfection, but perhaps what matters more is the effort we put into trying – not to how much we achieve, but how hard we aspire to live with the Spirit that was in Christ, and to let God’s agenda be our agenda too. 

 

“Do not resist an evildoer”. Hard words to hear, and even harder to act upon. But it does require action nonetheless. Not retaliation, but action. This is resistance, standing against, refusing to become like the person who is showing aggression towards you, refusing to become like them. It is a way of regaining the equilibrium, of refusing to perpetuate the cycle of violence or aggression or injustice.

 

There is a danger however, that we still think in terms of combat. If we silence the aggressive driver, albeit with a smile and a wave, it can still feel like “we’ve won”. Christ wants us to go one stage further, wants more of us than that . . . “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.

 

One of the best bits of advice I’ve been given, is that it’s very hard to stay angry with someone if you pray for them. It doesn’t necessarily mean you are able to forgive them the hurt they may have caused you, but it does help to change you from within – to change your attitude towards them, albeit subtly. It doesn’t mean you have to like them, but it does mean working hard to let go of feelings of anger or hatred or desire for revenge. Again, it’s an act of revolution, but peaceful revolution – a conscious decision not to perpetuate the cycle of hatred, persecution or bad feeling. It’s an act of resistance – standing against their actions - not letting those who hurt us bring out the worst in us, but rather, offering the best of ourselves, precisely because that’s the model we have in Jesus, who cried out from the cross not for revenge, or for his followers to get even, but that his opponents be forgiven.

 

In both his teaching and his ministry, Jesus was advocating a grass roots movement in and through which people could overcome injustice and domination by finding in their midst, a new way of being - a way that will not create new forms of violence, a way that is not so much about what we gain as what we give.

 

In many ways it is the same as the modern philosophy expressed in the goal of whenever you encounter something ugly, try to do something beautiful – offer the opportunity for transformation.

 

The Sermon on the Mount is without question an agenda for change. “Resist evildoers” – the Greek word used here is anti stenai meaning ‘to stand against’. Not to lie down, but to stand up, not only for your dignity, but also for the potential dignity of your aggressor. To offer, by your example, your action, your reaction, an alternative way of being.

 

How many times in our world today have we seen the powerful example of someone who reacts to an act of violence or terrorism not with anger or cries for revenge, but with words of forgiveness or the desire for reconciliation.

 

Peaceful protest is still protest. Standing up against and speaking out for is not doing nothing or taking it lying down. It’s about living with an open mind – believing not only that things can change, but that we can play a part – however small – in bringing that change about. Applicants are invited to demonstrate a new way of being, to live a life of faith, peaceful revolution and non-violent protest, a life of standing up and speaking out. Creative thinkers particularly welcome. Doormats need not apply.

 

Amen.