The world seems so confusing and upside down now! The Corona virus seems to be spiking again, and the economic and mental impact is far from over: systemic racism has once again caught our national attention and protests and riots rage throughout the country. Psalm 5 gives us words we can read daily in these troubled times and find comfort and solace. “Heed my call for help, my king and my God! For you, O God, delight not in wickedness; no evil man remains with you; the arrogant may not stand in your sight.” God always is the constant and we must rely on Him in these tumultuous times.
Sadly, we’ve become a divided nation over every issue, whether life-and-death like Covid-19 and social injustices or trivial, petty personality clashes. Happily, Jesus has given us some good advice to deal with this nonsense.
“If someone strikes you, turn your face and let him strike the other cheek” (Matthew 5:38-42). As I reflect on this teaching from Jesus a little more, I think we’re not being asked to just take injustices and evil. When Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, what He’s really saying is to face our accuser. If someone strikes, say, a slave, backhand, the striker doesn’t see whom he strikes. But if that person turns and faces him to present the other cheek for a slap, the striker must look his victim in the face and recognize his humanity. Turning the other check is not just a call to passive submission to injustices. Jesus was never passive when it came to evil. There was nothing cowardly about the way He engaged with opposition. What Jesus does provide, however, is another way to resist evil that’s not violent. We are to refuse to oppose evil on its own terms by defying it, not submitting to it. The challenge to us to stand up for ourselves and what’s right without using violence is difficult for us because we’re called to unmask the behaviors of those who wrong us as unjust. Jesus tells us how to take on not just individual evil doers but entire systems of cruelty and injustice. But we’re to maintain our human dignity and humanity by responding to oppression from the rules of God, not the rules of the oppressors, over which they hold all the power.
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