and posted in Explore
If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the left also.*
Masters used to strike their slaves regularly in a degrading manner by only using the back of their right hand. Therefore, striking a slave's right cheek. If the slave's left cheek was then offered, the slave was asking to be treated like an equal by inviting their master to punch them.
Maybe if that happened every time a master hit one of his slaves, masters would start seeing their slaves as people who didn't deserve to be hit ...
If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.**
Roman soldiers were allowed by law to force conquered natives to carry their backpacks for a single mile. If a Jew walked more than a mile then Roman soldiers faced severe punishments for breaking Roman law.
Imagine then if a Jew who has been forced into carrying a soldier's backpack doesn't stop when the mile is over... The Roman soldier would try and stop him, perhaps even start to panic, get desperate, and maybe even say sorry in order to get the Jew to stop...
Maybe that soldier won't take the risk of asking a Jew to carry his pack again...
Jesus offered people a revolutionary third way to face oppression
To respond "an eye for an eye," would be to put the victim on the same violent level as their oppressor; to walk away would be to let the oppressor win.
Jesus offered the oppressed a third way that gave them back human dignity by requiring courage and strength; a way of creativity and generosity that might even lead to the end of the oppression...
And maybe, just maybe, it would lead to the oppressor's redemption too.
FOOTNOTES:
* Matthew 5:39
** Matthew 5:41