Jesus Third Way

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Jesus Third Way

• Walter Wink

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Matt. 538-41

• You have heard that it was said, An eye for an
  eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you,
  Do not resist the evildoer. But if anyone strikes
  you on the right cheek, turn the other also and
  if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat,
  give your cloak as well and if anyone forces you
  to go one mile, go also the second mile.

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• Jesus counsels resistance without violence, NOT
  nonresistance

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• Refuse to oppose it on its own terms
• Ie. (who?)

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Third Way

• Transcends passivity and violence
• Assertive yet nonviolent

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Turn the other cheek

• Told to slaves/oppressed/poor/outcast
• Right cheek backhand
• Meant to insult, humiliate, degrade administered
  to an inferior
• Challenging them to strike you with their fist
• Only equals fought with fists
• Renders the master incapable of asserting his
  dominance in this relationship

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Inferior says

• Im a human being, just like you. I refuse to be
  humiliated any longer. I am your equal. I am a
  child of God. I wont take it anymore.

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Gandhi

• The first principle of nonviolent action is that
  of noncooperation with everything humiliating.

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Jesus

• Stand up for yourselves, defy your masters,
  assert your humanity but dont answer the
  oppressor in kind. Find a new, third way that is
  neither cowardly submission nor violent reprisal.

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Strip Naked

• Creditor could take as collateral for a loan a
  poor persons long outer robe, but it had to be
  returned each evening for the person to sleep in

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Jesus says

• Use the system against itself by giving over
  their undergarments as well they would leave
  court naked.
• Shame fell less on the naked party than on those
  viewing or causing the nakedness
• The debtor brings shame on the creditor

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• The tables have been turned
• The system by which debtors are oppressed is now
  unmasked publicly

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Go the second mile

• Roman soldiers could ask anyone in the street to
  carry their things one mile
• Carrying it a second mile was an infraction of
  the military code
• Jesus doesnt counsel direct violence- would be
  deadly

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• The oppressed here take back the power of choice
• This is a way to protest, not a way to gain favor
  in heaven rather to recover their humanity

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Jesus

• Abhors passivity and violence
• Resist without emulating
• Break cycle of humility while exposing injustice
• Enemy should be neutralized without being
  destroyed