Loving enemies and not resisting evildoers

Amy-Jill Levine, a New Testament scholar from Vanderbilt University, visited Macon for Mercer University’s annual Harry Vaughan Smith Christianity lectures a few years ago.

She was teaching on Jesus’ parables, about which she is an expert, and someone asked her, “Of all of Jesus’ teachings, is there anything he said that was unique?” She answered, “ ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’ I don’t know of anyone else from antiquity to have given this instruction.”’

“Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” These may very well be the hardest words in Holy Scripture. Some people are our enemies for a reason, after all. They offend us, hurt us, disgust us or act in evil ways. How are we to love them?

For Jesus, love is not about warm, fuzzy feelings. Love is about action. Jesus gave us some specific and concrete examples of what this looks like, of how we are to respond to people who have wronged us.

Jesus challenged his followers to stop retaliating against wrongdoers: “But I say, 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 5:39-41).

Jesus is not asking his followers to be pushovers here; this is not an “anything goes” kind of ethic.

In Jesus’ culture, the right hand was the one generally used for writing a letter, opening a door, extending a handshake or yes, even a punch. So if you were struck on the right cheek, presumably by the other’s right hand, you had just been backhanded. This slap was an insult. It was an act intended to put someone in his or her place.

So when Jesus tells the one struck to turn the other cheek, he empowers him. In the words of theologian Walter Wink, the person turning the other cheek was saying, “Try again. Your first blow didn’t work the way you wanted it to. I deny you the power to humiliate me.”

In the second example, Jesus portrays a court case in which a man is being sued and literally loses his shirt. The victim was commanded to not only give it willingly but also to give his cloak. This leaves the victim nude in the courtroom. Nakedness was taboo in the culture, and the shame fell not on the naked one, but on the person seeing the nakedness.

So there stands the creditor, beet-red with embarrassment, the victim’s outer garment in one hand and underwear in the other. Once again, the victim has turned the tables and has refused to be humiliated, all while protesting a system that would have allowed such a thing to happen.

The third picture Jesus paints reflects the Roman practice by which soldiers could compel citizens of their occupied country to carry their equipment a certain distance. The disciple is commanded to do more than the law requires. Imagine what might be going through that abusive soldier’s head: “Are you insulting my strength? Trying to get me disciplined for making you go farther than you should?” By going the second mile, the disciple could claim his own inner freedom from the rule of another over him.

What is Jesus up to here? Is this some kind of political strategy, or a tool for changing the enemy’s behavior?

Jesus is showing his disciples a new way. Jesus’ command for us to love our enemies and refrain from retaliation is a call to be a different sort of people. You do not have to fight back tit-for-tat. You do not have to lie down and take it. You can respond in a way that is different altogether.

These examples are meant to shock the imagination into seeing a new way of living in God’s intention. The old ways of retaliation and self-protection just will not do it. Jesus is calling for a different way of loving that holds up justice without violence, and that preserves one’s dignity in a spirit of humility.

Perhaps this kind of loving might just have some relevance for our society today.

This story was originally published March 24, 2017 at 6:48 AM with the headline "Loving enemies and not resisting evildoers."