You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But 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. Matthew 5:38-41
Jesus is not telling us to simply accept mistreatment, though at first it may sound that way. When he says “do not resist an evildoer”, he is rejecting the common retaliatory response of “an eye for an eye”. Instead, Jesus envisions a different type of resistance to evil, which he explains in three practical examples, tailored to the context and culture of his day.
The first situation describes a back-handed slap of insult, the only way a right-handed person could strike another person on the right cheek. Jesus says one ought to turn the other cheek, which does not invite them to do it again but actually makes it impossible for the same slap to be given. Try it. Turn your left cheek toward a supposed assailant and you will see it is impossible for them to slap you again.
This action resists their aggression without being retaliatory. The insulting person will have to strike with a fist if they want to hit again, which in Jesus’ day, as in ours, puts them in violation of the law. Now their action is assault and not insult. This is the nonviolent resistance that Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King learned from Jesus – to present the offenders with the dilemma to either cease their evil actions or violate the law.
Consider the second example and this Jewish law:
If you take your neighbor’s cloak in pledge, you shall restore it before the sun goes down; for it may be your neighbor’s only clothing to use as cover; in what else shall that person sleep? And if your neighbor cries out to me, I will listen, for I am compassionate. Exodus 22:26-27
God had forbidden keeping another person’s cloak, even if one received it as a pledge. Since the cloak had to be returned by evening, Jesus’ advice is to give the evildoer what is unlawful for them to keep. Since they are trying to take everything from you, giving the cloak highlights their unjust desires, and the one suing now has to refuse to take the cloak or violate the law. The evildoer switches from seeking to take whatever they can to pleading that one take back one’s cloak.
Jesus’ final example addressed Jewish interactions with the occupying Roman soldiers. Going a second mile with the soldier’s pack was not a matter of simple kindness, but put the Roman soldier in the awkward position of having to beg the bearer to stop. A soldier could get in trouble for forcing a local person to carry the load beyond what was lawful. Once again, Jesus describes nonviolent resistance to what is wrong, and the response cleverly reveals the evil of what is happening.
In all three instances, Jesus is saying that we should never retaliate in kind. He does not want us to find a passive-aggressive way to hurt those hurting us, nor does he want us to simply accept mistreatment. Instead, when understood within the cultural and social context of his day, we see that Jesus is teaching nonviolent noncooperation. The way to resist should highlight the injustice which is occurring without doing something equally unjust. His responses make evident the evil for what it is, not only to the perpetrator, but to others to awaken their consciences.
As happened finally with the Roman persecution of Christians, toward the end of British rule in India, and during the Civil Rights Movement in America, some of those doing wrong became ashamed of their actions. Many others saw what was happening and became aware of the injustices. The mistreatment of those who were resisting peacefully, doing as Jesus taught, finally brought about change through nonviolent resistance.
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