Doesn’t Make Sense

“But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil.
When someone strikes you on your right cheek,
turn the other one as well.”

Matthew 5:39

I am confident we have all heard of the phrase, “turn the other cheek.” Perhaps we understand that as to keep quiet and just walk away when someone attacks us and provokes us. To some this is a cop out and shows that we are afraid of confrontation. To others this may be the way to avoid unnecessary pain or violence. But to Christians, this means none of the aforementioned. For Christians, “turn the other cheek” means something different: it means exactly what is written.

Could Christ really mean for us to turn the other cheek if someone slaps us on the other? Maybe so. Does Jesus really want us to take the shirts off our backs and the pants around our waists and leave ourselves indecent and exposed for all to see? Maybe so. Is Jesus serious when He says for us to help someone double the time that is asked of us? Maybe so. This doesn’t make sense. But, does love have to always make sense? Does it make sense that the Son of God became man, and not only that but also died for His creatures in the most shameful of ways — naked and exposed for all to see on a bloody cross? It doesn’t make sense, but God chose to will it. Of all the many different ways He could have shown us His love, He chose to do so in that manner. (In fact, God really didn’t have to prove to us that He loves us, but He did.) It doesn’t make sense. But that is why God did it.

To love someone who hurt us and wants us to suffer seems foolish. To greet those who slander us makes us look weak. Yet, that is what the Lord instructs us to do. To “turn the other cheek” then is not a “cop out” or a sign of avoidance from confrontation; rather it is an invitation to see the other as Christ sees them. To peer into the heart of the one who slaps us, figuratively and literally, and seeing that this act of violence is really a cry for help, the fruit of feeling unloved, the product of sin — this is what it means to “turn the other cheek.” To look upon the other with love and sitting with their pain and anguish, showing them that someone cares and that they are not alone.

We turn the other cheek because that could be the only act of love that person has experienced. Why isn’t he yelling back at me? Why doesn’t he punch me? Because he sees me. Someone finally and really sees me. Only acts of genuine love that is rooted in the love of God that can melt hearts and build relationships. So yes, to turn the other cheek does not seem to make sense, but if we look closely and dig deeper and try to understand it from the level of faith and not merely sense, we can come to understand why Jesus said what He said. We turn our cheeks because Christ first turned His when He endured the spits and buffets, scourging and crowning with thorns, the drilling of the nails into his hands and feet, and when mounted on to the Cross, looking out and seeing the people mocking Him and humiliating Him. He turned His cheek because He loved them, because He loved us. Jesus turned His cheek because only by doing so would we have eternal life.

Brothers and sisters, let us imitate Christ today and turn the other cheek.