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29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ~ Luke 6:29-30
In today's text, the Lord Jesus makes His love the major distinctive that sets His followers apart from everybody else.
We discovered four commands in v.27-28. Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you and pray for those who mistreat you. These are things that we initiate with those who treat us unkindly.
Never in the Old Testament did God sanction the idea that people outside the religion of Judaism should be hated. This idea came out of the heretical teachings of the Jewish religious leaders. It didn’t come from God’s Word.
According to Luke 6:29, “If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.” This is how the Lord Jesus leads us to demonstrate His love. In fact, if we have not experienced His love for ourselves, we will be unable to fulfill this calling. If we have not gone through the process described in the Beatitudes mentioned in Luke 6:23-26, we will have no proclivity toward this type of behavior.
In v.29, we read, “If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also.” In their culture, one was dishonored by being slapped across the face. This was a symbolic humiliation done in front of the synagogue congregation. One of the officials would slap the person across the face as a symbolic action causing humiliation.
“To turn the other cheek” simply means when you have been humiliated, you must look at it as an opportunity to grow in humility which is highly looked upon by God. When we have been treated with shame, when we have been despised, ridiculed and rejected, this is a great opportunity to be reminded of God's love which broke through our hostility. And, when we are being treated this way, we draw on the Lord's ability to keep on loving those who treat us badly. The M.O. is to not retaliate in like manner, for when we do, we are being defined by the lesser instead of the Lord Himself.
It was 1982 and I was working in a Jewish owned Pawn Shop in Savannah, Georgia. I had spent the better part of the year making friends with my Jewish coworkers and sharing my faith in the Lord Jesus with them. One man in particular who had worked there for forty years approached me. He did not like the fact that I enjoyed listening to a famous Christian teacher on one of the radios in the pawn shop. When he approached me he slapped me in the face. I must admit, it infuriated me. I was so mad. In my heart I did not react well. I wanted to punch him in his healthy gut but I turned away.
Once we have experienced the love of the Lord Jesus, we will want to be the conduits of His love. We will want to allow the Lord to show His love to our enemies because He cares about the their souls. His love makes us vulnerable, and by its constant availability, His love maintains a constant vulnerability.
The other cheek simply means we’re going to be humiliated again and again, and we will continue to keep loving our enemies in this way. No matter how many times they hit, we will keep loving them because it’s His love that on display. His love demonstrated in this way speaks of His work being accomplished in our hearts.
Once experienced, His love begins to frame up life for us. We discover a reality that others know nothing of, especially those who know not Him. It is His love that frames up reality in such a way that we increasingly see that the ways of this world are not substantive and real.
By the way, the elderly Jewish man who slapped me came back to me about thirty minutes later and apologized. That was huge for him to do for he was a very proud man. I only hope my actions that day, to resist reacting to his hatred, drove home the message of Christ that I was known to share with him up to that point. He has since passed away. I only hope to see him in heaven.
In the remainder of v.29 we read, “If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them." Many in that day were not wealthy. It was common that people had one outer coat to keep themselves warm and even to use as a blanket at night.
These early believers were persecuted when their enemies would take their cloak so that they were left without something to warn themselves. The Lord Jesus is saying, "when this happens, do not withhold your shirt from them." It was not their enemies who needed their coat or the shirt. No, they were just trying the reality of the believers beliefs. Often this is why the world treats us wrongly, trying to poke holes in that which we call reality.
We will be able to do these types of things when we remember that they were never really are our enemies. In fact, they are always our mission field. And, like us before we came to the Lord Jesus, they must be loved into His kingdom. Once His love speaks truth into their lives, the type of truth that frees them from themselves and this world, hopefully they will open up to Him.
In v.30 we read, “Give to everyone who asks you." As with all of the previous instructions in the Sermon on the Mount, this is another example of self-denial. Someone approaches you who apparently has a real need, but they’re going to take advantage of your generosity. The Lord Jesus is not describing a professional beggar which we have seen on the dramatic rise in this country over the past few years. The Lord Jesus says, “Give to everyone who asks you."
And then He closes v.30 with, “and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.” The world doesn’t know anything about this kind of love. Worldly love says, “I’m going to love you as long as you love me or you don’t harm me. I will love you, but, the day you abuse me, you’re done.”
His is an astonishing kind of love which is not possible for those person not walking with Him. When we come to the place where we embrace Him through our brokenness, love like this, becomes possible. And, when we experience it, there is no explanation except for the Lord Jesus.
I close with a quote from Tim Keller, "Religion says earn your life. Secular society says create your life. Jesus says, 'My life for your life."
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