Clowning love
Photograph by Ranurte via Unsplash
Rev. Dr. Robert Wallace
Anecdotally, it’s been said the root problem with the evangelical church in America is that it has read the book of Revelation as literal and the Sermon on the Mount as metaphor. Christ’s command to “love our enemies” is perhaps the hardest command we are given in Scripture, but like the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, it is a command that calls us to take on the character of God.
Though often caricatured, the love Christ calls us to is not passive or milquetoast. Indeed, the love of God is full of prophetic truth. It’s a love that offers grace generously to those in need and a love that calls out the shallow concerns of this world.
Walter Wink in his powerful book “Jesus and Non-Violence: A Third Way” offers an interpretation of the Sermon on the Mount that explains the challenging actions of the sermon not simply as indications of the qualities of the kingdom of God (although they are that, too!) but as powerful acts of prophetic preaching. Turning the other cheek, giving someone your clothes, walking an extra mile, these are acts of defiance against an oppressor.
Hefty fines and punishments were in place for striking a peer in the ancient world.[i] No restrictions existed, however, on how one treated someone they held position over. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ message isn’t to the person doing the slapping (who should have known better). Instead, Jesus’ call is to the one who has no agency in the situation. The one who has no power in the relationship is empowered by Christ to respond. The response is not an act of passivity, but an act of love that is also a powerful act of defiance.
By turning the other cheek, they are saying, “Sorry, that didn’t work. You didn’t ‘put me in my place.’ You weren’t able to shame me. Maybe try again.” This simple act completely changes the power dynamic. The oppressor is no longer in control. This act denies the ability to humiliate,[ii] not with an act of violence, but with an act that honors personhood and restores individual agency of the oppressed.
Turning the other cheek also puts the slapper in an awkward place. It’s almost guaranteed that any slap came from the right hand. So, by turning the other cheek, the oppressor is invited to use their left hand for the second slap. Unfortunately, social convention prevented using the left hand for actions like this. In fact, one of the laws at the Qumran community at this time said if a brother merely gestured with their left hand they should be put out of the community and pay penance for 10 days.[iii] Turning the other cheek is not repaying evil with evil. It’s repaying evil with absurdity. “Wow, the cheek slapping didn’t work. Weird. You’re strong too. Maybe try using your left hand.” The love of God is a call to bring judgment on the bullying acts of this world by clowning the oppressor.
The crucifixion of Jesus shows judgment on the terrible ways of this world when they come up against the love of God. The cross is the love of God seen in Jesus, clowning us in the ultimate way. With the resurrection Easter Sunday to put a bow on it.
In fact, the coat/shirt command goes exactly to the point of clowning your oppressor, too. When an individual was trying to collect on an unjust debt, they would often take whatever was of material value from the person. Obviously, land would be ideal, but failing that, any and all possessions, including clothes, worked too. So, Jesus says, “When they take your cloak, give them your undergarments as well.” Here, the oppressed says to the oppressor, “You want to put me in my place and perpetuate this unjust system? Okay, excuse me while I leave the court completely naked thanks to you. And don’t worry, I’ll let everyone know it’s thanks to you.” It’s a ridiculous act that works within a legal setting to reveal the absurdity of the law and shame the one using it.[iv]
All of these are acts that push the ways of this world to their absurd conclusion and remove their power by pointing out their absurdity. It’s an act of love because by the spirit of God, these are powerful, symbolic acts of prophetic street theater that proclaim judgment on all the ways that aren’t of God.
Most importantly, each of these powerful acts seek the transformation of the enemy, not the destruction of the enemy. They provide the opportunity for an enemy to see what God really looks like in the eyes of “the least of these.” Because lest we forget, the point of Jesus’ sermon is to show people what God looks like, so they can look like God.
Frankly, all of these actions are very God. Loving, powerful, symbolic acts of clowning, prophetic street theater are right in God’s wheelhouse. They’re exactly what the cross is. The crucifixion of Jesus shows judgment on the terrible ways of this world when they come up against the love of God. What was supposed to be an act of judgment against this one called king of the Jews was, in fact, a man who turned his cheek and gave up his cloak and fully revealed the cross as an indictment against our sin. It was an act condemning the ways in which we allow the world to work.
Viewing that naked man on the cross should bring us shame, for all the times and all the ways we’ve agreed with the world’s ways. The cross is the love of God seen in Jesus, clowning us in the ultimate way. With the resurrection Easter Sunday to put a bow on it. The resurrection says: “So, your way didn’t work. God turned the death of your way into beautiful, risen, uncorruptible life.”
The Sermon on the Mount will test how strong our faith is. If we really believe, then this sermon of Jesus won’t seem so strange; however, I am certain we will seem strange as we try to live in the world as God would.
Rev. Dr. Robert Wallace is senior pastor, McLean Baptist Church, McLean, Virginia.
The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of American Baptist Home Mission Societies.
[i] Wink, Walter. Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way. Minneapolis, MN: Augsburg Fortress, 2003, p. 14.
[ii] Ibid., 15-16.
[iii] Ibid., 14.
[iv] Ibid., 19-20.
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