“Be
perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” That Jesus – what a kidder – no pressure
folks! Be perfect – doesn’t he know that
some of us kill ourselves everyday trying to be perfect? And these are the ways he tells us to do
it?
This
reading only comes up occasionally but is very central to who we are as
Christians, right? Seems out of
proportion – like we should hear it more often.
And when we do hear it do we completely understand it? Yet we quote it often enough – “turn the
other cheek” “give your cloak as well” “go the extra mile” - sounds all pretty and simple doesn’t
it? Let’s look closer.
There
is a biblical scholar, Walter Wink, who has done a great amount of work on this
passage. His exegesis is extraordinary
at showing exactly what’s at stake in these relatively simple-sounding
sayings. It’s amazing how he explains it
– I will attempt to explain it here, but you can google his paper – or look on
Facebook at the Text This Week page for a link – it’s really fascinating!
“If
anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also” is actually A LOT
more specific than how we have generalized it to “turn the other cheek” – the
only way for someone to strike you on the right cheek in those days was with a
right-handed backhand. Your left hand
was considered dirty, contaminated, unclean – it was used for personal bidness
– not for any sort of social interaction.
A backhand was considered the most humiliating sort of slap and could
only be used for servants, slaves, those less than you. A slug was for equals – an open-handed slap
was an insult of sorts. A back-handed
slap was to remind the other of their place – remind them that they were less
then human. By turning the other cheek, with
the left hand being rendered unclean, that would force the slapper to either an
open-handed slap or a slug – either of which equalized the people. No longer slave or free… sounds familiar?
“If
anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well” – this
suit would be to pay a financial debt – usually to pay unfair taxation. Nakedness was a huge humiliation – but Wink
paints the picture of being summoned to court and forced to give up your coat. You only wear two garments – no undergarments
– Jesus says give it all up and walk out naked and free! Can you imagine the shock? Maybe the suer would try to force your
garments back on you – who is ultimately shamed?
“If
anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second” takes on another layer of
meaning - the Greek words used in this
point to the Roman Army’s privilege of being able to compel ordinary citizens
to carry their military packs. The packs
could be 40-60 pounds and you were obligated to carry it a mile. However, the soldiers would get into serious
trouble for making you carry it more than a mile – there was a limit to the
amount of forced labor you had to endure.
There were mile markers on every road.
Imagine the soldier following you, when you continue past that mile larker
and head to the next… all of a sudden, he’s facing a flogging for breaking the
military law. He’s at your mercy to give
up his pack.
The
Leviticus reading today was about recognizing those around you as human – from
the top view – it assumes you own the field, you pay the laborer, you are
able-bodied, you are the judge. This
Gospel reading is about making other’s recognize your humanity – your dignity
as a human being – being an agent of your own humanity – giving you the power
to make a choice from the view from below.
Jesus is talking to those oppressed by society. Let’s be careful here though: “turn the other
cheek” should NEVER be used to urge a spouse to stay in a marriage –
NEVER. Reclaiming human dignity then
would be to leave – remove oneself from the situation. Jesus is very clear that we are no called to
be doormats! One of my favorite images
is Jesus overturning the tables in the Temple – nothing passive about
that! In this gospel today, he’s telling
us about turning the tables in much more subversive ways.
What
keeps us from claiming our own human dignity?
What keeps us from seeing the systems that stifle the human dignity of
those around us? It is so much easier to
go with the status quo. Lord, open our
eyes… help us to claim our own selves – our own dignity – our own belovedness,
so that we can then see the belovedness in others! It’s only when we are mature enough in the
love of God to accept ourselves as beloved children, that was can see others as
equal, as just as loved, as forgiven. We
can learn from this Gospel lesson today that we are not to willingly accept
humiliation – we are to overcome it by shaming those in power.
Be
perfect – that’s how the phrase from the Greek is translated here. A more accurate translation might be “Be
whole – be what God intended for YOU to be – be beloved” – we live our entire
lifetime striving toward this – “being sanctified by the Holy Spirit” – we
believe that we will fall short, but we will keep striving – and with God’s
help through prayer and supplication, by Sacraments, by community, by striving
for social justice for ALL, that we will indeed move closer and closer to
wholeness – to perfection. Jesus never
said any of this would be easy. There
was only one perfect man – and look what we did to him - but he modeled this Gospel to the very end – he
refused to accept the humiliation – he himself declared his own agency with “It
is finished” – and then he rose again… AMEN.
