‘Do not resist an evil person.’ Really?

In the second in our series exploring challenging Bible passages for peacemakers, Victoria Mason explores the meaning and context of Jesus’ instruction to turn the other cheek.

It takes a lot to get me to watch a whole film – just ask my friends and family. Life is short, films are long. But offer me a true story of good triumphing over evil – justice over injustice – and I’m there. Whether it’s the story of the voting rights marches led by Martin Luther King in Selma or Bryan Stevenson fighting to overturn wrongful convictions in Just Mercy, these stories seem to connect with something deeper and keep me watching.

Each of these people stood up for human dignity, resisting powerful unjust systems. Heroes very often are people we admire for their willingness to notice and challenge what is wrong.

So it can be rather a shock to read Jesus’ words in Matthew’s gospel (5:38-42):

³⁸ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ ³⁹ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. ⁴⁰ And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. ⁴¹ If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. ⁴² Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

‘Do not resist an evil person.’ Really?

This message seems deeply unsettling. Surely it’s right to stand up for justice when we or others are wronged? We appear to be hardwired to admire the people who do just that.

Don’t use violence to resist evil

It’s important to sit with the discomfort and allow the challenge of Jesus’ words to disrupt our way of thinking. But it’s also essential that we engage with what Jesus actually said and the context in which he said it.

Let’s begin with that phrase: ‘do not resist an evil person’. Scholars have grappled with how best to translate the original Greek of the New Testament into English. More recently, Biblical scholars have suggested that a more accurate translation would be ‘don’t use violence to resist evil’ (Tom Wright) or ‘don’t resist in kind’ (Bible Project). This suggests that the point is to avoid revenge, rather than offering no response or challenge.

Reclaiming dignity and reimagining

The specific examples Jesus used also require us to understand Jesus’ context. Let’s take Jesus’ first illustration: ‘If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.’

In Jesus’ culture, to be slapped on the right cheek (with the back of another’s hand) was an act of shaming. If, in response, you turn your left cheek, this then challenges the other person to slap with an open hand. Unlike a slap with the back of the hand, a slap with an open hand was reserved for a social equal. So, to turn the other cheek is to dare the other to treat you as a peer worthy of respect. It is no act of passivity. It is a non-violent – potentially risky – act of reclaiming dignity and agency.

This dynamic is also seen in Jesus’ other examples too – offering your coat, or walking the second mile. Jesus is reimagining – and prompting his listeners to reimagine – the possibilities open to us in situations of injustice. It’s not just a choice between passivity and revenge. We can engage with boldness, courage, challenge, generosity and peace. What has been unjustly demanded of us (our dignity, our belongings, our effort) can become something we reclaim and choose to offer. And, in doing so, we not only draw attention to the injustice, but we subversively challenge its very foundations.

A context of domination and power

It’s also important to remember the wider political context in which Jesus lived. Jesus was addressing people who were living under the harsh and humiliating rule of an occupying power – the Roman Empire. The Romans could make demands of the people under their control, bound only by the limits of their own Roman laws. The responses that Jesus is suggesting here are radical and could be risky.

The theologian Tom Wright puts it like this:

‘Roman soldiers had the right to force civilians to carry their equipment for one mile. But the law was quite strict; it forbade them to make someone go more than that. Turn the tables on them, advises Jesus. Don’t fret and fume and plot revenge.

Copy your generous God! Go a second mile, and astonish the soldier (and perhaps alarm him – what if his commanding officer found out?) with the news that there is a different way to be human, a way which doesn’t plot revenge, which doesn’t join the armed resistance movement, but which wins God’s kind of victory over violence and injustice.’

When faced with injustice, it can be tempting – even instinctive – to respond like for like – ‘tooth for tooth’. There’s a strong human impulse to mirror one another. If someone raises their voice to us, we do the same. Jesus’ words invite me to check that impulse. This doesn’t mean being silent in the face of injustice – far from it! But I sense an invitation to look for the opportunities to respond differently and creatively, courageously shifting the way we engage with one another. In the words of Martin Luther King:

‘Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction.’

Jesus encourages us to reimagine and break free from that spiral – showing that a different way is possible.

Reflect:

• In what situations of injustice or power imbalance do you need God’s help in reimagining the options open to you?
• How do Jesus’ words in this passage challenge or reassure you when it comes to facing injustice?

Pray:

• Bring to God the situations you thought of and ask him how you might reimagine your response.

Go deeper:

• For a brilliant deep dive into the cultural context for all three of Jesus’ examples, check out this article by the Bible Project.

Victoria Mason is Editorial Lead and Theological Manager for the Difference team.