Its the age old question. Is violence worth it? And secondly, did Jesus really call for us to jump into body bags and invite everyone to jump all over us?

My post begins in a confrontation between Jesus and the High Priest and the Jewish religious system’s father and one of the Priest’s guards.

Jesus has just responded to a question regarding His teachings, with the answer, “I’ve been open with everybody. Go and ask anybody out there what I’ve been teaching.” For this response He is rewarded with a slap to the face. Now, if He thought the noblest reaction was to just pretend to be nothing He would’ve started blubbering out apologies over and over and over. But. He does no such thing. Instead, He demands to be treated with dignity. “If I’m wrong, prove it! But if I’m right, why beat me?” Now for a little more depth, lets see if this is the only time Jesus shows up to stand up for ourselves? In my opinion one of the best places to see this is in Jesus’ famous “Cheek for Cheek” chat.

“If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also.”

First, some context. According to the customs of the ancient Hebrew world the right hand is the dominant hand. I’m not saying it was right. I’m just saying, it was what it was. The right hand was used for dignified things, and the left was, in short, the poopoo hand. Sorry. So anyway, moving on, due to this mindset, we know that the right hand would be the hand used for the slapping, referred to by Jesus in the above segment. So, imagine you are standing face to face with another individual. If he slaps you on your right cheek, with his right hand, what sort of slap is this? It’s what i would call a backslap. Now the backslap was the technique used to reprimand a disobedient slave.

So after all that, The slap on the right cheek is actually an insult against your humanity. Your equality. Its your oppressor saying, “I am better than you.” And you offering your other cheek is then you saying, “Hey! Me and you, we are the same. You are not better than me. So if you wanna hit me, at least hit me as an equal.”

So, I hope you found this, at the least, thought provoking. If you have any comments or questions. Please share. Thanks for reading and as always, love and peace. Have a great day. -Brad