“Turn the Other Cheek” – a Response to Brad Jersak by Grant Corriveau

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Hi Brad,

I just read your article “Turn the Other Cheek.”   When I first read Wink’s analysis of these commands (“turn the other cheek,” etc..), I realized he was speculating and I also wondered about the implied, all-too-human struggle therein to remain “in control.” I could see that his explanation was about how to ’triumph’ within the situation on some level and that this attitude was not actually Christlike or ‘cruciform.’ You’ve clarified all this wonderfully. Thanks.

Wink’s concepts around attempting to beat the oppressor at his own game remind me of some lyrics in a Leonard Cohen song – about our human experiences of ‘broken love’ and ‘broken hallelujahs’…

I saw your flag on the marble arch

Our love is not a victory march,

it’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah…

…………………………..

As for me all I’ve ever learned from love

Is how to shoot somebody who outdrew you…”

But Christ’s Love is very different. No one can ‘abuse’ us if we are willing to give even more than they’ve asked for … as a transformative act of love. Who knows if maybe, during the course of walking that extra mile, the ‘abusive’ Roman soldier begins to seem more and more like a scared, conscripted young man… a real person with fears and doubts about the situation within which he is trapped (marched off to fight battles he cares nothing about because he was either hijacked or needed to eat). In short, he may begin to seem human, just like me, a fellow traveler in this complex journey called life.

Thanks again for the way you clarify complex topics.