Our lessons
today provide us with examples and concepts of thinking outside the box. And that's the lesson that we have to learn
to apply to today's situations and thinking.
But today, let's look at the boxes presented first, or the context of
our readings.
The Old
Testament lesson shows Joseph's brothers, completely dumbfounded, and scared to
death, that this man – the one they had sold into slavery and told his father
he'd been killed and eaten by wild animals – was going to do them equal
harm. Their actions would finally be
coming home to roost, so to speak, because not only would the worst of them
undoubtedly be put to death, but their father and younger siblings would likely
starve to death. Their jealousy, their
breaking of the tenth commandment not to covet anything and everything
belonging to their neighbor, or in this case, their brother, puts them into the
mindset that justice requires they be punished.
But Joseph's
outside-the-box thinking recognized that each action and choice made by his
brothers was altered by God's grace. He
considers that God has provided him guidance and blessings that now allow him
to preserve not only the lives of the Egyptians, but also his family and many
from the land of Canaan, where the famine had spread to. As I talked about last week, this is
certainly all about attitude. And
Joseph's attitude – while doing no more than what amounts to pranking his
brothers as a little bit of payback – considers himself blessed. He has also figured out how to be a blessing
on those less fortunate, taking the warnings about the upcoming famine to
heart, and ensuring that God's grace would be spread out to a great number of
people.
So here we
then switch to the context of Christ's time and the social pecking order. Predominantly, Christ is speaking mostly to
Jews, who have been under the thumb of the Romans for quite a while, and some others
who were under the jurisdiction of the Babylonians. They have been low on the social totem pole,
certainly not equal to the Citizen of
the day. They certainly understand all
that Christ refers to, in changing the order of thinking of those who have been
superior in society.
First, it is
important to note that turning the other cheek had a particular meaning during
the time the gospel story was written, that is lost on us today. To hit someone
on the right cheek would require a blow with either the left fist or a right
backhand. Think about it: how would you
hit someone else on their right
cheek? At that time a backhand was not a blow to injure; it was a blow to
insult, humiliate, or degrade the person being hit. It was not administered to
an equal, but to an inferior. Masters backhanded slaves; husbands their wives;
parents their children; Romans, the Jews. The whole point of the blow was to
force someone who was out of line, back into place.
Jesus'
audience was made up of people who were used to being degraded. What He was
saying to them is, “refuse to accept this kind of treatment anymore. If they
backhand you, turn the other cheek."
Get outside the box they've put you in, and declare your humanity, your
status as a child of God. By turning the
other cheek, the servant makes it impossible for the master to use the backhand
again. The left cheek now offers a perfect target for a blow with the right
fist; but only equals fought with
fists, as we know from Jewish sources, and the last thing the master wants to
do is to establish this underling's equality. This act of defiance renders the master
incapable of asserting his dominance in this relationship, in this way. By turning the other cheek, then, the
“inferior” is saying: "No. I refuse
to be humiliated any longer. I am your
equal. I am a child of God. I won’t take
it anymore”. Now, this kind of defiance is really not a way to avoid trouble,
but the point has been made.
In a parallel
scripture in Matthew 5, this story includes the advice from Christ that we should
also "go the extra mile." In
that example, we see the same unmasking of an oppressive system. Roman soldiers could force or impress labor on
subjected peoples, but their practice limited forcing such labor to one mile.
For example, whoever was found on the street could be coerced into service,
like Simon of Cyrene who was forced to carry Christ's cross. At that time, armies had to move quickly. The
majority of the rank and file depended on impressed civilians to carry their
packs. Whole villages sometimes fled to avoid being forced to carry soldiers’
baggage that could weigh anywhere from 60 to 85 pounds.
What we tend
to overlook is the fact that carrying something an extra mile was, in fact, an
infraction of the military code. Recall
that the soldiers’ code allowed for one mile of forced labor at a time – that
was the limit. So, imagine a soldier’s surprise when, at the mile marker, the
civilian says, “I will carry it another mile”. Why would he want to do that?
Normally
soldiers have to coerce people to carry their packs, but the Jew who does so
cheerfully and will not stop is a provocation.
Is he insulting the legionnaire’s strength? Trying to get him disciplined for seeming to
violate the rules? Or will this civilian file a complaint?
What the
civilian has done is turn the tables. He has thrown the solider off balance by
depriving him of the predictability of the victim’s response. The victim has
seized the initiative and taken back the power of choice. Imagine a Roman
soldier pleading with a Jew to give back his pack! The humor of this scene may
have escaped us, but it could scarcely have been lost on Christ's listeners,
who must have been delighted at the prospect of bringing discomfort to their
oppressors.
What Jesus was
doing was laying the foundations for a social revolution. An armed revolution
against the Romans would have proven catastrophic, but a social revolution
becomes political when it reaches a critical threshold of acceptance. This in fact did happen to the Roman empire
as the Christian church overcame it from within.
While Gandhi
and Martin Luther King, Jr. advocated civil disobedience, a phrase coined by
Henry David Thoreau, Christ's examples spark creativity. He was not advocating this as merely a
technique for outwitting the enemy, but as a just means of opposing the enemy
in a way that holds open the possibility of the enemy also becoming just. Both sides must win. We are to pray for our
enemies' hearts to change, and to respond to ill treatment with a love that is
not only Godly, but also from God.
Jesus is
saying, don't react violently to evil, don't counter evil in kind, don't let
evil dictate the terms of your opposition, don't let violence lead you to
mirror your opponent. Find another way, a third way, a way that seeks to remove
evil from our world, not add to it.
Take the
adversity in your life, and find a way out of the box. Find the blessing, and then find a way to
share it with others, to enrich your "enemy" with kindness and
justice in such a way that their own actions will demand a change. As always, the Great Commandment is our
guide, but Christ also tells us to think outside the box.
I'm going to
end this with a Franciscan benediction:
May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears,
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger and
war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
turn their pain into joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done,
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the
poor. Amen
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