I’m pretty sure most of us have, at one time or another, found ourselves in the position where we identify how we feel, we don’t like it, but we are completely powerless to change those feelings. I know. I find myself here quite often. It’s like some part of me wants to hold on, needs to feel this way.
Anger is probably the emotion that most commonly occupies this position. I know I shouldn’t be angry, I don’t like the fact that I’m angry, I know God is disappointed in me over my anger, but there is this part of me that just … doesn’t … want … to let go… I am, after all, entitled to my anger, aren’t I? The one I’m angry at did hurt me. They did do wrong. They went against God’s laws in hurting me, not me! Don’t they deserve to be punished?
This is beginning to sound like a devotional on allowing God the right to vengeance, doesn’t it? Actually, that is not where I am feeling impressed to go with this devotional. Rather, my mind goes back to something I recently read. It was printed in a piece of historical fiction written by one of my favourite Christian novelists, Ted Dekker. But even though I read this in a book of fiction, the truth of the words have haunted me ever since, and they have completely changed the way I deal with my anger, no matter how justified it may be.
In His famous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus turns the world around by going against everything that was considered culturally — and spiritually — acceptable: “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also! If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.” (Matt. 5:38-42 NLT)
I don’t know about you, but I’ve often puzzled over this passage. I mean, if someone slaps us, we are supposed to forgive. I get it. But surely God doesn’t want us to put ourselves back in the path of danger! I mean, if a woman is beaten by her partner, Jesus asks her to forgive; but she shouldn’t go back to him so that he can beat her again, should she? Surely God doesn’t want us to purposefully put ourselves in the place where we can be bullied and abused! Why, then, is Jesus telling us to “offer the other cheek also”?
But wait. What happens when you “offer the other cheek“? Please tell me if I’m wrong, but I believe, anatomically-speaking, that the act of offering the other cheek requires that we turn our head, and with it, our eyes. When we “offer the other cheek”, our focus turns away from the one who has offended us! What Jesus is really asking is this: Rather than keeping our eyes on the offender, we need to turn them away, placing them, instead, on Jesus Christ.
Why?
Because Jesus is the only One who loves unconditionally and fairly. As undeserving of our punishment as He was, He willingly took our sin upon Himself. He suffered and died, He willingly went to the cross. That is the image we need to be looking at! When Jesus asks us to “offer the other cheek also”, He’s asking us to take our eyes off the one who offended us and to place them instead upon … The Cross of Jesus Christ!
It didn’t take very long after reading this for me to have reason to put it to the test. Someone sent me an email that offended me, and I got angry. As is my typical pattern, I began distancing myself from the offender, and all the while, my anger at that person continued to grow exponentially. Only this time. This time, God placed Matthew 5:38-42 on my heart and I remembered what I had recently read! I needed to “offer the other cheek”! No, I didn’t need to “undistance” myself from the offender; rather, I needed to turn my eyes away from this person. I needed to do a 180 degree turnabout. I needed to place my eyes on … the cross of Jesus Christ!
Wow! It was amazing. As I saw, in my mind’s eye, my Lord and Saviour on that cruel cross, bleeding, suffering, broken, all for the sin that I had committed, suddenly there was no longer room for anger in my heart. I forgave the one who sent me the email then and there.
Funny thing, about then I received another email from that same person. He said he hadn’t realized the negative tone of his email, and he wanted to apologize…
Looking at it slightly differently, when we are angry at someone, we usually see this as if we are looking in a mirror. We see ourselves in the mirror, and we reason that we would never do what that person has done; therefore, they are deserving of our anger. What we need to do, however, is look at it as if we are looking, not in a mirror, but through a window, a window overlooking Golgotha, a window on the cross. When we do, our focus is shifted away from the offender. We have, in essence, offered, “the other cheek”!
May I suggest that you try this one day?
In His love,
Lyn Chaffart
P.S. And if you are looking for other new and enlightening ways to interpret Jesus’ sayings as recorded in Matthew 5, I highly recommend the novel, AD30, by Ted Dekker.
