Weekly Bible Reflection
Matthew's Communities of Justice

1st Sunday after Trinity

Matthew 5. 38-end: Jesus' Third Way: non-violent resistance of evil

Begin by using the Bible Study method as outlined

Sharing together

Have you or your church community ever been treated as ‘doormats’, by people taking advantage? Or have you felt angry and indignant over someone or some group being treated badly or unjustly? Share your feelings as well as your thoughts.

Reflection on the text

How can we stand against injustice without resorting to violence? That is the central question addressed in this passage. Jesus doesn’t throw out the ancient ‘eye for an eye’ principle (v 38), justice must always be seen to be done, but instead shows how the powerless can regain self-respect and dignity in a non-violent way.

We need to know three basic things about life in Jesus’ day and in the first century Roman world to make sense of this passage:

1. Anyone who was superior could humiliate and put an inferior in his or her place by using the back of their right hand to the victim’s right cheek: a master to slave, a husband to wife, a parent to child, a Roman to a Jew. Hitting with an open right hand was reserved for fights between persons of equal status and the left hand was only used for doing ‘dirty’ jobs.
   
   
2. Poor people in first-century Palestine wore only two garments? When they couldn’t repay debts, first their moveable property was confiscated, then their lands, and finally the very clothes on their backs. In Israel, nakedness brought shame, not on the naked person, but on those looking at them.
   
   
3. Roman soldiers could force a person to carry their equipment for one mile. If they asked them to carry it further they risked punishment.

Jesus encourages his followers to be proactive not passive in the face of injustice through acts of resistance. Each example, full of humour and ridicule, has potential for breaking the cycle of humiliation. Tables are turned on oppressors, causing them to stop and think about what they’re doing. It is a non-violent way of exposing injustice and helping the oppressor see the oppressed in a new light as a fellow human being.

The oppressor had to stop and think whether or not to slap the slave again using the palm of his right hand on the slaves left cheek, and so make the slave his equal (v39).

The creditor with a naked debtor before him in court had to stop and think about his heartlessness and greed (v40). The Roman soldier had to stop and view the Jew in a different light (v 41). In each case, Jesus is championing the underdog, with examples of actions that empower the oppressed.

To cap it off, Jesus asks his followers to adopt two further, remarkable and seemingly outrageous, patterns of behaviour:

“Give to every beggar and borrower who comes to you, no questions asked.”
(v 42)

“Love your enemies.” (v 43f)

Application: some questions for group discussion:

1. Share together examples of individuals and groups who confronted oppressors by acts of non-violent resistance? Can acts of violence ever be justified?

2. Jesus set out a pattern of behaviour that was to mark the community of his disciples, not just one or two heroic individuals. The Matthew community in Antioch was challenged as a community to adopt a stance of pro-active non-violent resistance towards enemies, which included an oppressive Empire.
   
   In our world today, so focused on the individual, how might your church go about adopting Jesus’ manifesto of non-violent resistance of evil as a community?
   
   
3. Consider some instances of oppression and injustice, global or local, which need addressing. What actions might your community take to address them?

   For example, might your church to become a Jubilee Congregation? Last weekend, in Birmingham, a celebration was held of the 10th Anniversary of the 1st Human Chain for Debt Cancellation in 1998. Was anyone in your community involved in Jubilee 2000? Did you know that Jubilee Debt Campaign continues to campaign on the issue of the unfair and un-payable debt that is crippling poor countries?

   Alternatively, what response should we make to bio-fuels in light of the hunger and recent food riots in third world countries?

Praying Together

1. Light a candle, and name aloud the injustices that have already been highlighted, saying after each one, “Your kingdom come, O God.”
   
   
2. Give thanks for the courage of all who have followed the way of non-violent resistance to evil in India, Iraq, South Africa, Latin America and the USA … etc etc. You might like to do this by reading aloud Isaiah 58.
   
   
3. Give thanks for all those involved in starting it; all those who were in Birmingham in 1998 and 2008; for all debt that has been cancelled as a result of this pressure and for the health, education and social care that has improved for many people because of it. You might like to read aloud Leviticus 25: 8 – 12, one of the texts that inspired the formation of Jubilee 2000.
   
   
4. Pray for people throughout the world who are suffering today the burdens of poverty, humiliation, discrimination and marginalisation. End with this prayer:

Lead us from death to life; from falsehood to truth.

Lead us from despair to hope; from fear to trust.

Lead us from hate to love; from war to peace.

Let peace fill our hearts, our world, our universe. Amen.

Going Deeper

1. 1. For a more detailed account of the background to this passage go to: http://www.cres.org/star/_wink.htm. For an in-depth study of the problem of evil and how to both discern and resist it in a world of domination by “powers and principalities” see “Engaging the Powers” by Walter Wink, 1992. ISBN 0-8006-2646-X.

2. Jesus is not overthrowing the Old Testament principle of appropriate compensation – “an eye for an eye”- but instead gives four examples of actions that enable the downtrodden and powerless to regain self-respect in a non-confrontational way.
   
   
3. The principle of proportionate retribution (quoted in Exodus 21: 24-25; Leviticus 24: 20 and Deuteronomy 19: 21) was even older and more widely recognised than the Mosaic Law, it was already in the Code of Hammurabi, c 1700 BCE, with the same examples of eye and tooth. The intention was not to sanction revenge, but to limit hostilities by stating that the legal punishment must not exceed the crime. By Jesus’ time physical penalties had generally been replaced by financial damages.
   
   
4. One example of non-violent resistance to Roman oppression in Jesus’ day is when crowds of Jews protested about Pilate’s introduction of busts of the emperor attached to military standards, which were seen as idols and a desecration of the Holy City. For five days they remained prostrate in front of his headquarters, after which they were summoned to the stadium on the pretext of being given an answer. Pilate signalled to his soldiers to draw their swords when the Jews refused to admit Caesar’s images, whereupon the crowd flung themselves to the ground, extended their necks, and exclaimed that they were ready to die rather than transgress their holy law. Pilate ordered the standards to be removed immediately from Jerusalem.
   
   
5. For information on how to become a Jubilee Congregation see www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk
   
   
6. If you want to spend more time thinking and talking about Jesus’ alternative way go to the Weary Pilgrim website: http://thewearypilgrim.typepad.com/the_weary_pilgrim/community/index.html and scroll down to The Narrow Path video. This is a most powerful presentation.