On Turning the Other Cheek (Matthew 5:39 & 41 by James Goldberg)

What if soldiers give us trouble?” says the southern Simon.

“The laws of their kingdom say an armed soldier can make an unarmed man carry his pack for a mile,” says Jesus, “but if one does, go two miles to show him that in God’s kingdom, it’s the strong who will carry the burdens of the weak.

“The laws of their kingdom say a soldier can slap us with the back of his hand, like he would strike a slave,” says Jesus. “But if one does, turn your face so he has to slap you with an open hand, the way he would challenge an equal.”

—The Five Books of Jesus, pg 106, James Goldberg

39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also…. 41 If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.

Matthew 5:5-9

Blessed are the people who don't have anything, because I'll give them everything I have.

Blessed are the people who are hurting, because I will send them comfort.

Blessed are the ones who take me at my word, even when they don't know what it means, because they will receive every good thing.

Blessed are the people who hunger for beauty and goodness and love and peace, because they will be filled with those things.

Blessed are the ones who struggle to forgive over and over, and succeed over and over, if only temporarily, because they will be forgiven.

Blessed are the ones with deep kindness, because they will see God's face.

Blessed are the people who get what peace really is and work to have it in their lives and communities, because God will call them His kids.

Blessed are the ones who get called names and have much worse things happen to them because they took on God's name, because good things are coming, and you get to be part of them.

Romans 8

So there are a couple of ways of going through the world: you can and follow after the things you can see and touch or you can try and pick your way after Jesus, even though you can't see or touch Him and the ways that you know Him will feel counterintuitive a lot of the time. Because when Jesus came He brought a new law, one that offered an escape from sin and death, and by this new law, you can feel your way after Him. But to make the law live—we are the life of the law—we have to follow it and fill it, we must walk by faith and hope, following after things we can't see or touch.

Because if you model your life after the things you can see and touch, then that's it, that's all you're becoming, physical and material and tangible. And those aren't bad, God is in those things too. But, like God, you're more than that. You are beyond the touchable, and you have to make place for those unseeable things in you, you have to follow after them to become them. As you fill the law with life, so it fills you with life and peace.

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John 1

In the beginning (the very beginning, the Genesis) there was Christ, who was the organizing principle of the universe, reality itself. And He was with God, and was God, but also wasn't, in some confusing ways that people have been disagreeing about for a long time, because it's both somehow. Regardless, everything's being and beginning came through him; nothing was created without him (so every person you meet and particle you breathe is touched by divinity, is stamped with His mark). What He made was life, all life, life now and the possibility for eternal life, and light, all light, physical light and metaphorical light. There was darkness too, but the darkness could not overcome the light. This is a dark story sometimes, so we're going to tell you that upfront. The light wins.

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