Persistent Resisting
Last weekend, I had the honor of standing in for Rev. Sarah Majors at Open Table UMC while she healed from a serious car wreck. The sermon has been reworded for a blog post this week.
We begin with a quote, unpack some scripture, and then bring the two together and offer some challenge and hope.
Renowned Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung said that “what you resist not only persists, but will grow in size.” This counter-intuitive thinking means that the more you resist something, the more you call it to yourself. You are giving it attention, aligning yourself with it, and ignoring what is your reality. Your reality is what’s in the present. What you have been given.
Now let’s get a brief history of the Israelite community. Over and over, the people of Israel fought and were conquered by other nations of people. Repeatedly, they lived under the boot of another empire. When Jesus comes onto the scene, it was the Roman Empire who had control of their land as Caesar sought to spread his kingdom further and further. Caesar was referred to as the “Prince of Peace” for his ability to create “peace” as he spread his kingdom. This peace was found through the ruthless murder of anyone who stood in his way. Peace had to do with no-one opposing him….because anyone who would is DEAD. Roman propaganda, including coinage said “peace through military victory” or “peace through strength”, a phrase also picked up by a number of US presidents and leaders. It also serves as the motto for the 8th Air Force. So can you see why we, a militaristic superpower with military bases in most every other country, might miss some of the major themes of oppression and liberation?
So when Jesus takes the nickname, prince of peace, he raises eyebrows and for some, feeds the narrative that he would become a dominant political leader that would save the Jewish people from their oppression. But what we find is that Jesus offers a counter narrative to this cycle of violence that lived in the dominant culture of his day. We find a man walking with humility, hanging out with marginalized people groups, healing on the sabbath, and refusing violence. In the sermon on the mount, we find Jesus offering that same counter narrative.
Matthew 5:38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39 But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. 40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. 41 And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
Let me offer you a look ahead. Jesus says in the second line “do not resist”.
He begins by saying, you have heard it said eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. But let me offer this other way of being. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. Now turn the other cheek has been misconstrued as turning ourselves into a doormat and allowing others to continually abuse us. If we dig a bit into that one sentence and factor in jewish culture instead of American culture, we might see something else is going on here. In Jewish culture your left hand was the hand used to clean up after going to the bathroom. Your right hand is the hand you used to engage other people, including hitting them. Now, to backhand someone was to put that person beneath you. Slaves were backhanded by masters. Roman soldiers backhanded the Jewish people. If you were seen as an equal, you got punched with a closed fist. So to be backhanded by someone with their right hand meant you were struck on your right cheek. Jesus says, if this happens, turn the other cheek so he can hit that one. Jesus is calling us to acknowledge the injustice of our abuser in their dehumanizing slap and invite our abuser to treat us an an equal by inviting a punch.
Can you imagine how, by turning your other cheek to the abuser, it would cause them to stop and rethink what’s going on? It’s a subversive teaching. He calls the people to stop resisting and step deeper into making things right. To step deeper into creating justice. To stop the cycle of violence because, as Ghandi said, “an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind”.
The next two verses continue to address this. If someone wants to sue you for your underwear, give them your clothes too. If you are in such a low place that someone has nothing left to take from you but your underwear, give them the cloak too. That way the shame is on the person who took your clothes, not you. Because in Jewish culture, the shame was not on the naked person but the one who looked at the naked person. Think of Noah after the boat, drunk and naked, his sons see him and the shame is on them, not the naked drunk man. Again, Jesus issues an invitation to name and call out the injustice. If you are being dehumanized, step fully into that instead of resisting it. Let the world see what’s really going on.
Next line: "And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go two with him.” It was Roman military law that if a soldier came up to you and asked you to carry his pack, you had to do it. BUT, they could only ask the person to go one mile. Jesus invites you keep walking, forcing that soldier to be the one at risk because he has broken the law and inviting him to acknowledge the injustice that’s happening.
We are not invited to keep the violence in circulation. Because doing nothing and retaliation both keep the violence in circulation. Both are a resistance to what we are currently experiencing. Doing nothing is choosing to ignore what’s going on and allowing it to continue. Retaliation is choosing to engage in the same dehumanizing behavior instead of sitting with what is happening.
Jesus calls us into a third way of being. A way that ends the cycle. A way that sits with and acknowledges what’s currently there instead of resisting it. It’s a way that gives power rooted in goodness and subversion. It is courageous. It is refusal to engage in things that strip the inherent dignity and divinity found in another human.
So now that I have validated our beloved Carl Jung with Jesus’ own teachings, I invite you into some reflection. If resisting evil, injustice, violence…only grows it, how then does it affect our everyday lives?
And if we can live into the counter-intuitive knowledge that our persistent resisting only causes more persistence, what could our lives look like?
For you, in your own individual journey. What are you resisting so much that you are continually finding yourself met with that which you are resisting?
Maybe you are the parent of a child or teenager, so hell bent on making sure nothing bad happens or behaviors stop that you keep finding yourself saying or doing the same things over and over because it persists. (Raise hand - Guilty as charged).
Maybe you are approaching your golden years so focused on anti-aging that you find yourself finding more and more wrinkles, weird bodily functions, or loss of abilities.
Maybe you’re a teenager so determined to not turn into your parents that any slight behavior that resembles them infuriates you.
What would it look like to step into what you are resisting? Hold it. Show it love.
Maybe we meet the behaviors of our children with curiosity. Love our bodies for bringing us to where we are. Find some appreciation for ways our parents genes made us who we are.
As a congregation; a community of people, grounded in the teachings of Jesus, what is it that we are resisting? What cycle are we caught in? What would it look like to embrace what we are resisting?
The beauty of this is that you have the opportunity, for yourself, and for our congregation, to be different. To live different. To stop the cycle.
Shalom, my friends
References
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-robcast/id956742638?i=1000382288976
And a ton of books I’ve read
