The Second Mile
John Shuck
August 21, 2005
First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton
Jesus said: I tell you, don’t react violently against the one who is evil:
when someone slaps you on the right cheek,
turn the other as well.
If someone is determined to sue you for your coat,
give that person the shirt off your back to go with it.
When anyone conscripts you for one mile of service,
go along the second mile.
Matthew 5:39-41, Luke 6:29--Source Q
Scholar’s Version
About eight or nine years ago I had a chance to spend a week with biblical scholar Walter Wink. Walter and his partner June led a spiritual renewal week entitled “Journey into God.” Walter led us in a biblical study of Jesus and June led us in dance. It was a great combination. At one point I remember, we shouted the Lord’s prayer at the top of our lungs. I should explain that. Wink defines prayer in a unique way. In his book Engaging the Powers, he says this of prayer:
“Praying is rattling God’s cage and waking God up and setting God free and giving this famished God water and this starved God food and cutting the ropes off God’s hands and the manacles off God’s feet and washing the caked sweat from God’s eyes and then watching God swell with life and vitality and energy and following God wherever God goes.” P. 303
The theory is that we have imprisoned God by our lack of awareness. Our awakening is the awakening of God. For us to be transformed by the power of God, we need to wake God up.
So we didn’t passively say our prayers. We shouted them--as if we believed them. In a world in which we do not see God’s will being done, or God’s kingdom coming we shouted to God:
Your kingdom come! Your will be done!
There is a risk in praying like that. A huge risk. When we pray like we mean it, there is a risk that God may actually wake up. We risk that God’s will may be done and God’s kingdom will come and that will mean on my part that I am in for some pretty big changes.
You can imagine what kind of week that was.
It was a transforming week for me.
It was there that I was introduced to his book, Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination. (Fortress Press, 1993)
I find myself turning to that book again and again.
Wink’s writing is lucid and passionate.
He is irrepressibly hopeful.
Wink is hopeful and confident that human beings are on the cusp of a new era.
This era will witness humanity responding to conflict in a new way.
Wink believes and provides evidence that non-violent resistance to violence in all forms is coming of age.
Wink writes:
“And the world, and the church are waking up! What an exciting prospect! What an auspicious opportunity! What a time to be alive!” (p. 193)
For Christians, this reawakening involves meeting Jesus again for the first time.
This has already begun.
Jesus is being freed from the manacles and chains of dogmatism.
The echoes of the original voice of this visionary are being heard.
Today I have chosen a sampling of phrases from Jesus to consider.
I know you have heard the phrase, “turn the other cheek.”
What do you think this means?
It would more effective to ask this question in a group in which we can have discussion, rather than in a sermon. Since this is our format, my intent this morning is to offer what I have to say as a discussion starter.
What does this teaching from Jesus say to you?
I tell you, don’t react violently against the one who is evil:
when someone slaps you on the right cheek,
turn the other as well.
If someone is determined to sue you for your coat,
give that person the shirt off your back to go with it.
When anyone conscripts you for one mile of service,
go along the second mile.
To get this discussion started, I am going to offer what this teaching has said to me.
I hope this discussion will continue—either in response to me or in conversation you might have with one another.
My personality, historically, has been one in which I would respond to conflict or to threat or to perceived threat by either avoiding or accommodating. I started to realize this in my late 20’s, when my presbytery required me to take a battery of psychological tests in order to prepare for the ministry. I scored low on assertiveness.
I thought of myself as a “nice guy” when in reality, I was afraid that if I did more than accommodate the wishes of others or avoid acting assertively that I would lose friends or that somehow the sky would fall.
This passive type of behavior was reinforced by passages such as this one from Jesus.
“Turn the other cheek, go the second mile, give someone the shirt off your back” seemed
to suggest that my passive behavior was the way Jesus would have acted.
Even though I went against myself, and not very happy with myself,
I tried to console myself that I was spiritually superior.
I did what Jesus would have done.
I no longer think that way.
I have been working on this aspect of myself for some time.
While there are times in which I lapse into avoiding or accommodating,
I generally act more assertively than I used to act.
I offer this self-revelation as a way to get to this text.
This teaching by Jesus has created many problems.
Before it can be a liberating text, we have to acknowledge that.
This text, as it has been traditionally interpreted,
has not been good for people who are naturally passive.
It has served to keep them from accepting themselves as loving children of God who have legitimate wants and needs.
Some have even heard in this text religious sanction to stay in unhealthy relationships.
I am grateful to people like that great theologian Dolly Parton.
She offered this wisdom to a woman who thought she should stay in an abusive relationship for Jesus’ sake:
“Get off the cross, honey. Somebody else needs the wood.”
Walter Wink helped me to hear this teaching from Jesus in a new and liberating way.
Wink, following in the tradition of Ghandi and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., sees this teaching of Jesus as a manifesto for nonviolent resistance to violence and oppression.
The wisdom of Jesus is similar to Ghandi’s: Do not cooperate with anything humiliating.
How do we respond to the person who is abusive or violent toward us?
In short, how do we respond to the bully?
The rest of the sermon will address those questions in three parts:
First, I am going to offer a possible setting for this teaching.
To whom was Jesus speaking, what was their situation?
Second, what was Jesus saying to them?
Third, I will name some principles this text suggests for dealing with bullies in more general way.
First: The setting:
Jesus is speaking to people who have less social power.
They were subject to the abuses of an occupying military.
They had little recourse in the judicial system.
They were abused by superiors.
We can tell this by looking at the specifics of each saying.
“When someone slaps you on the right cheek…” refers to a backhanded slap from a social superior to an inferior—such as master to slave. The intent of the slap is to humiliate—to keep you in your place—to show who is boss—to demonstrate power over—to make you feel like you are not important or valuable and so forth.
What do you do when someone does that?
If you are passive, you might cower, fall down, look with downcast eyes, plead for mercy. You will live, but the cycle of humiliation continues.
If you are aggressive and have a death wish, you might strike back.
You have stood up for yourself, and that is good, but you might end up dead--quickly.
In neither case has the violence or oppression stopped.
Jesus offers a third way.
Instead of striking back or cowering, Jesus says to turn the other cheek. The person who has slapped you with the back of his right hand, now has a choice to make. Does he pursue bullying you or walk away? You have not done what is expected. You have thrown the bully off guard. Most importantly, you have not given up your dignity.
You are saying in effect, “Yes, you can slap me. But you cannot humiliate me. You have no power over me.”
In the second scenario, you have lost your outer garment in a judicial case. This is a situation in which the poorest are abused. What do you do? Again, if you respond aggressively, you might end up dead. If you respond passively, you will be humiliated and feel beaten once again.
Jesus offers a third way. Make a show. Take off your undergarment and give it to the person who took your coat. What a scene. You would be left naked, demonstrating to all present the injustice that has just occurred.
In the third scenario, a Roman soldier has commanded you to take his pack for a mile. This was something soldiers could do. However, there was a limit. Soldiers could only conscript a person to carry the pack for one mile, no more. By insisting on carrying the pack another mile, you put the soldier in an embarrassing position. Rather than be humiliated or to respond aggressively, you turn the tables putting the soldier in the awkward position of taking the pack back from you!
(Engaging the Powers, ch. 9, pp. 175-193)
Did Jesus mean to follow this advice literally? Was he joking? Perhaps. Yet the conditions of shame and oppression were real enough.
This is what Jesus was saying to them.
Jesus inspired his friends to keep their dignity.
He inspired them to be creative.
He inspired them to use their sense of humor.
He encouraged them not to be afraid.
We might see Jesus’ teachings as inspiration to creatively deal with the bullies we face in life.
Walter Wink and his partner, June, spent a great deal of time in South Africa with the liberation movement in the 1980’s. In his book he offers some stories about that experience.
In one case a black woman was walking down the street with her children when a white man spit in her face. This is how she responded.
“She stopped and said, ‘Thank you. And now for the children.’ He was so non-plussed he was unable to respond.” (p. 191)
In another instance,
“…Bishop Desmond Tutu was walking by a construction site on a temporary sidewalk wide enough for one person. A white man appeared on the other end, recognized Tutu and said, ‘I don’t give way to gorillas.’ At which Tutu stepped aside, made a sweeping gesture and said, ‘Ah, but I do’.” (p. 191)
This is called non-violent resistance.
The goal is to stop the spiral of violence.
It is to affirm the dignity of the self and of the oppressor,
while at the same time diffusing or disarming the situation.
The methods will vary but often involve the creative use of humor.
The way to human dignity required non-cooperation with anything humiliating.
Here is our challenge.
We face violence and oppression, war and aggression, everyday in many different ways.
We are told by the powers that be that there are only two ways to respond:
1) With passivity, or
2) To meet violence with violence
Neither is adequate.
The third way is the way of the historical Jesus.
Creative, non-violent resistance.
We are waking up.
How we respond to bullies at the personal, communal and international level is beginning to change—tentatively—slowly—but change is coming.
Prophets among us are helping us to find ways to stop the spiral of violence—to resist evil—without becoming the evil we resist.
We are discovering that the historical Jesus may be an important resource as we engage the powers.
I have no more time this morning than to offer that introduction.
Perhaps we can continue this conversation,
sharing our insights and experiences as we work together for a more just and peaceful future. Amen.