07/14/2025
I am thinking about what it means to turn the other cheek this morning. Is it a sign of cowardice, bravery, or something else entirely? I think it might be the latter. Although it could be construed as a sign of weakness, or that it takes courage to stand and not retreat, it also demonstrates great faith to resist being provoked or enticed to sin.
“But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
Matthew 5:39 KJV
I had a childhood friend who could neither hear nor speak but because of his hearing impairment he did make odd utterances. He was a big guy, but as meek and as humble as any person I have ever met. We were very good friends, but didn't see each other very often because he went to a special boarding school in England. However, when he did come home we were inseparable. His name was Gino Palm and he had an incredibly innocent nature.
Being innocent is a hard thing when you live on a military base... especially as a boy in the 1960s. Although most kids were good, you faced way more than your fair share of bullies. This world was foreign to Gino... you see, he was much like many sermons preach that Jesus must have been... meek and totally lost when faced by cruelty and sin, but a loving and perfect friend. (We will talk more about this later)
One morning we were to meet on the playground of the housing development we lived in, but as I approached it, I could hear his distinctive voice crying out in pain and fear. I started running towards it, and there, by the sandbox, were two boys with bullwhips, and they were whipping Gino. He wasn't running but doing his best to fend off the blows. By nature, he really didn't know what to do. I, on the other hand, knew exactly what I needed to do, and that I needed to do it fast... without forethought.
I fought both of those boys that day and sent them tearfully packing. I didn't like fighting, and I hated how it made me feel, but my friend would not, could not, defend himself against such evil, and I felt compelled to do so.
With the bullies defeated and driven off, I put my arm around Gino's shoulders and walked him home. I explained what had happened to his mother and then went home myself. When I saw my mother at the door, I started crying... she thought I had been hurt, but between sobs I kept repeating the word "fight". She then thought I had been beaten up, but I told her "No." You see, I was crying because of how fighting those boys made me feel. It raised something up in me that could very easily have allowed me to hurt them badly, you see, it brought out in me the creature that all Christians fight so desperately to resist.
Maybe I should have just grabbed Gino and run, perhaps I should have called out for help, or maybe I should have taken the whipping myself, but I chose to let loose something terrible on those boys... my anger and my vengeance. It overpowered me, and although they were bloodied, it could have very well hurt those boys beyond a cut lip and bloody nose. It also hurt me... but in a place that only God and I could see… my soul. So, I prayed for forgiveness and wept.
Turning the other cheek is not cowardice, and it is not courage, it is great faith and restraint; It is resisting the incredibly powerful urge to meet sin with sin. It is not allowing the sin of another to bring out the creature in us and giving it free rein. In all the New Testament there is only one example of Jesus exhibiting anger, and that was in casting the money changers out of the Temple. There is no other time when He was provoked, and in this instance, He was defending faith itself.
I said earlier that many preach how Jesus was meek and totally lost when faced by cruelty and sin, but He actually wasn't... He was courageous, brave, and would not allow himself to be brought to the place where He would meet sin with sin or demand an eye for an eye. You see, He was just as human as you or me, so the creature that is inside us was also inside Him. The difference was in the strength of His faith, love, and the restraint that those attributed gave Him. What we saw in the Temple showed us that He was certainly capable of lashing out at those who opposed Him... but He didn't.
I prayed then and now that the Lord forgives me for how I felt that day on the playground... and on a few others occasions like it. I have asked forgiveness for pushing aside my faith and losing my grip on the chains that bind the creature within me. I beg that the Lord sets aside those times in my life when the other cheek wasn't presented, and that anger, hatred, and my nature towards sin, was allowed to control my reaction to certain extreme situations. Not all were childhood fights, but all have made me feel just as dirty, and just as lost. Have you ever been there? Has the creature in you made you feel this way?
“Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.”
Romans 6:12-14 ESV
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for the faith that chains down the sinful creature within me, and I thank you for being able to turn vengeance over to you. Your exercise of it is just, and without the unbridled hatred, or desire to carry it to the point of sinning and beyond. The great sins of man, as detailed in your commandments, all begin by not leaning into your love and occasionally by not turning the other cheek. Father, I thank you for the lessons of your Son Jesus and in the constant renewing of my faith. Strengthen me Holy Father in my dedication to you, and when situations confront me, let me always hold tight to the reins of my passions. Abba, Father, reveal to every soul the truth that turning the other cheek represents... let each of us see the power and bravery represented in what appears to be weakness. Teach each of us that turning our cheek to sin takes strength beyond measure... a measure of faith that only you can perfect in us. Let us hear the words Jesus spoke at the end of this lesson, and allow us to carry it forward into our lives... Praised be your name Father for convicting us, and leading us into contrition and prayer. Thank you for your mercy, grace, and forgiveness, and thank you for both seeing into our hearts, and hearing our prayers. Let the glory won when we turn our other cheek be yours, and yours alone.
Amen.
“Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
Matthew 5:48 KJV
Rich Forbes