feelin' cheeky
A recent situation in my life has provided me the opportunity to practice turning the other cheek.
Is it just me, or does turning the other cheek feel COMPLETELY UNNATURAL?
Is it just me, or does turning the other cheek feel COMPLETELY UNNATURAL?
posted by Jana at 10:28 AM
10 Comments:
We are made in the image of God, right? So inherently it shouldn't feel unnatural to turn the other cheek or to pick up your cross or to become a slave or to be last or to give up everything...etc.
But it does feel so unnatural. So it begs the question, what does it mean to be made in the image of God? Is the surrounding culture so dominant that it replaces any notion to be like God that we might have been born with? So which is it? Are we born in the image of God or in the image of the world? ARGH!
I'm with you, Jana. Turning the other cheek and all the other messages about being a disciple seem so very unnatural.
Very un-natural for me. But spiritually rewarding. Rewarding because it is not my instintive response. When I do it, it is because I restrain, think, and try to act like my Savior. And that practice of discipline is rewarding. Brings hope that I can really change and that Christ really transforms.
Tony
I've heard that when Jesus said to turn the other cheek, he meant it in a manner of respect - slapping on one side of the face indicated slapping someone with the back of your hand and therefore you were slapping someone whom you regarded as beneath you. By offering your other cheek, you were saying in effect, if you're going to slap me, slap me like a man. I don't know how true that is, but it does give an interesting alternative to the traditional interpretation. In answer to your question, yes, it is unnatural
Little Light - I've heard the same thing! I always thought that was an interesting concept. I, too, wonder if it's true. Either way, you don't get to slap the other person...and sometimes that's what I feel like needs to be done!
Amen to that!
Interesting interpretation on the turning the other cheek. But I have a hard time accepting it. Smells like a justification for defiant or agressive reaction to persecution.
I cannot fit that interpretation into Jesus' ministry of love, sacrifice, service, foregiveness, and reconciliation.
Tony
Tony,
I'm not sure - I'm no expert, so I can't really argue the point, but I think Jesus was defiant to some degree.
If you were a Pharisee, you would have to say Jesus was defiant, that's for sure. He was defiant with Satan and demons too.
I love open discussion with differing thoughts and understandings. I think it is very dangerous to form an understanding of Christianity in your own little vacuum. I just get too much wrong too often to trust only my own mind.
Tony
Me too.
I too find it totally unnatural, the phrase surely meant "punch them in the other cheek"...
Of course I am not serious. It takes real maturity to be able to do this, sometimes I find that I lack that maturity.
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