The concept of turn the other cheek might be one of the most misunderstood in the entire bible. In all three of Jesus’ examples in Matthew’s Gospel (5:38-48), to “resist-in-kind” would perpetuate the cycle of harm. His goal was to break that cycle. As Martin Luther King Jr. says, “The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it… returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars.”
Yet the whole idea of the whole (possibly equally misunderstood sayings) “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth” (also known as the lex talionis) things was meant to limit the escalation of violent retaliation. In other words, it sought to break the ever-increasing cycle of violence by preventing people from taking personal revenge and ensuring that the punishment never became greater than the crime. Fulfilling the intention at the heart of the lex talionis means seeking true justice. And true justice reshapes the relationship between victim and perpetrator; it brings about restoration for everyone involved. Still, most people don’t fully understand this. Most take it to mean that they can hit back, while they believe Jesus was saying to never hit back, but that’s not entirely it.
Jesus invites his followers into the ways of God’s Upside-Down Kingdom. Rather than retaliating against insult or injustice, he calls them to engage in creative acts of resistance, characterized by love and generosity. To turn the other cheek means to see and treat everyone as a person created in God’s image, always seeking their highest good.
Now, turning the other cheek might appear to put a person in the “passive victim” role, but it actually makes them someone who asserts power in a way that is positive and unconventional. What might’ve been humiliation is met with an act of giving in which one asserts one’s dignity, perhaps even a kind of invitation to the aggressor, to a different kind of interaction.
Jesus’ “turn the other cheek” teaching aims at restoring the harmony God intended for humanity since the start of creation. He teaches us to avoid both shrinking back in passive fear and pushing back with violent words or actions. Instead, like him, we can approach enemies with creativity, love, and generosity. My uncle used to say that the man to throw the first punch was the first one who ran out of ideas. He was right. So was Jesus!