Turning the other Cheek
Nearly everything Jesus and Paul teach in the scriptures is merely an echo of Jewish writings before. As such, one would think that the connection between Biblical Judaism and Biblical Christianity would be more clear. Alas, it is not. A perfect examples is the Jesus’ teaching to turn the other cheek.
In Luke 6, it says:
 27“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. 30Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31Do to others as you would have them do to you.
People today speak of this as a new teaching by Jesus, but it is not. It was simply a truth about righteousness that had never been embraced by God’s people… well, it actually was embraced to a large degree in if you study history. The Jews typically give, give, give, and they continuously get slapped down for it. Remember Camp David? “When Jews compromise, Jews die” seems to be a tragic modern day truth, as true today as yesterday. But, they do love peace, and continue to sacrifice in the hopes of achieving it.  However, it is not an explicitly Jewish teaching, but a Christian teaching; yet it isn’t a Christian practice as much as it is a Jewish practice. Then why don’t Jews recognize themselves in Jesus’ teaching? Why do skeptics point to Jesus’ teaching as evidence against Christians, but not against Jews? Perhaps because people are not familiar with Isaiah, who wrote in Isaiah 13:
4Â The Lord God has given me
the tongue of those who are taught,
that I may know how to sustain with a word
him who is weary.Morning by morning he awakens;
he awakens my ear
to hear as those who are taught.5Â The Lord God has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious;
I turned not backward.6Â I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.
Isaiah new that righteousness was his highest calling. It isn’t that being tortured is righteous though. However, if your torture will only end if you give up God, then enduring against the torture, submitting to more though you could end it any day, is the righteous thing to do. Surely, those familiar with this verse would have heard Jesus’ teaching and grasped His reference to Isaiah. But sadly, today we miss it. We not only miss the reference, but by missing the reference we miss the point. The point is being righteous. When righteousness calls for compassion, face it. And when righteousness calls for rebellion against your torturer, then face it. The point is that righteousness is easy to turn away from… don’t give to charity, say lies to get of out of torture. It’s easy. We do smallscale versions of it every day, and few of us will every be called to do more than that… but if it takes a shocking image like this to get us to see ourselves for our choices, well then, a shocking image it is.
If Jesus embraced Isaiah’s writing, then we should embrace Jesus teaching.
November 11th, 2008 at 7:46 am
Here is another example from Lamentations 3:
25 The LORD is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the LORD.
27 It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.
28 Let him sit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;
29 let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;
30 let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.