Resistance is not futile

Text: Luke 6:27-38

Last week we talked about how Jesus’s actions in the world as well as his words in his teaching were focused on bringing God into the present. That when he says “the kingdom of God is like….” He was talking about how the kingdom can be made present now, not just looking forward to heaven after we die. He was giving instructions on how to live in this world, this complex world made up of competing systems and circles, so as to show God’s values through our lives.

The catch is, though, that the actions Jesus himself takes and also recommends to us, are often at odds with that world around us. That’s what countercultural means, anyway, against the culture, opposite the prevailing culture and its norms. The kingdom of God is not like an earthy kingdom or empire or republic because it is based on self-emptying love and a thirst for justice — and by justice Jesus didn’t mean locking people up, he meant making things right, he meant standing up for those who are victims of violence and degradation and lifting them out of that place.

And so today Jesus continues where we left off last week, with instructions on how to live out God’s kingdom values within the earthly kingdom in which we are placed, and he continues the focus on those who are mistreated. If someone slaps you, offer them the other cheek to slap also. If someone takes your coat, give them your shirt also. If someone curses you, do not curse them back. If someone hits you, do not hit them back. Practice love and peace, and you will avoid falling into the trap that hate and violence engender, a trap that will twist your soul and break your heart.

Do not mistake Jesus’s teaching for “rolling over” and being passive, though. Practicing non-violence is not the same as rolling over. Refusing to hit back takes a great deal of fortitude. But Jesus was clear that violence degrades everyone, both victim and perpetrator alike, and with these words today he also underscores that non-violence is not just giving in - it is meant to bring about change. Not responding in kind is unexpected and powerful. 

During the 1960’s, a movement sprung up among those working for civil rights in the Southern United States, particularly college students, and then later a broader range of folks, that espoused these teachings of nonviolence. Mainstream society saw this activity as subversive, and it was, since the word “subvert” means turning something upside down, which is also what the Gospel of Luke focuses on over and over, as evidenced when Jesus said the poor are blessed and when Mary says the powerful will be cast down from their thrones. 

I heard the other day an old interview with a former student activist talking to NPR’s Terry Gross about the lunch counter sit ins, when black students went to the Woolworth’s lunch counters and sat down to order lunch even though those lunch counters had a policy of only serving whites. He described the sit ins as an example of people acting to bring God’s kingdom into the present. Sure, others were asking for future changes - racial integration, civil rights for all - but those who sat down at the lunch counter were acting out what they wanted by bringing it into the present. They were denied the lunch, of course, but they still sat there. And in a few months, the whites only at lunch counter policies were dropped.

If you look at the pictures from that time, you see that the students at the lunch counters were calm and the faces of the white people around them are twisted with hate, and maybe that indeed shows what Jesus was talking about.

Because that’s another thing about this non-violence that Jesus described. Not retaliating, and also not cowering or slinking away but standing up straight and letting the bully hit you again or take from you again is supposed to shame the bully and make the injustice plain for all to see. When people watched the news and saw white officers beating black people marching, saw the tear gas and the dogs and the billy clubs and the firehoses turned on those who were peacefully marching to express their desire to be allowed to vote, the hope was that those watching would see and deplore the brutality and be persuaded to join the cause of the oppressed against the powerful and violent.

It often doesn’t work out that way, of course. The values of earthly kingdoms are skewed toward admiring power and aligning with it even when it is misused. And even while the non-violent movement was in full swing in the 1960s, there were also both black and white leaders who said, it will never work, you have to fight fire with fire. Walking around wearing a sign that says “I am a Man” will not change the minds of those who do not believe you are fully human unless someone tries to kill you and even then they may just say you deserved it.

Having grown up in those times, I have never been able to shake the images of the white people with their twisted faces, which I saw on the news and in magazines and also in person. I saw in those faces not only hatred but also fear and I saw also what those emotions and actions to do someone. It is not only the victims but also the perpetrators of hatred and power mongering and violence who end up damaged. 

So when Jesus said don’t fight back, he didn’t also say roll over. He said, resist. Resist the urge to get caught up in something that is going to hurt more than your face, to experience a loss that is more than doing without your shirt. Jesus teaches us to live differently, to espouse God’s values and not the world’s values, and he isn’t shy about saying that we aren’t going to be rewarded for that, either. Look at what happened to him when he did not fight back.

Finally, a caveat. When Jesus spoke these words he did not mean that those who are abused should stay with their abusers. Those who have used this scripture to shame abused women into staying with abusive husbands commit a grave sin. Laying down your life for your friends is a willful act, a purposeful act by someone who has the power to do it. Many women and children and marginalized people do not have that power, and they are particularly vulnerable to those who wish to prey on them. So today’s lesson from Jesus is not directed at these.

But many of us do have power at least occasionally, and Jesus asks us to use it to bring God’s kingdom into the present through our own actions, through resisting injustice and evil, actively, and thereby making that evil and injustice plain for the world to see, not to glorify it but to urge the world to repent and say “No, no more of this.”