“Non-violence in the Kingdom” on Luke 6:27-38 by Joe Ellis — February 23, 2025

“They hit me and I hit them back harder, and they disappear,” Donald Trump said in 2016 during his first presidential campaign, explaining an ethic developed in New York’s savage real-estate market. This was the opening line of a recent article titled, “Donald Trump is taking presidential power to alarming places" by Jack Goldsmith. I was struck by the contrast with today’s Gospel passage: “If anyone hits you on the cheek, offer the other also.” Now, there has never been a president who has successfully been able to apply the words of Jesus’ nonviolent teaching to the presidency — which is why the Anabaptists say Christians have no place in politics. Yet Trump’s words pretty well summarize the default response to threat and violence.  Christians are no exception. We feel the power and the draw behind the statement: “They hit me and I hit them back harder, and they disappear.” Jesus does not allow his followers to adopt such an approach.

Simply put — Followers of Jesus Christ are to resist violence in a way that is nonviolent, in a way that renders the world less likely to be filled with violence in the future. Or to put it another way — Followers of Jesus Christ are to counter violence with love, in a way that renders the world to be more likely filled with love in the future. Followers of Jesus are to live in the world lovingly, nonviolently, so as to bring about the Kingdom of God. 

Yet, we are in a ‘you hit me, I hit you back harder’ type of world. This world is filled with violence — there is violence amongst families. There is violence in media. There is violence in our town. There is violence in politics. There is violence amongst nations. There are multiple types of violence: verbal, sexual, physical, emotional, religious, financial, military. Jesus does not allow his followers to live a ‘you hit me, I hit you back harder’ sort of ethic. When we encounter violence, we are to oppose violence, but nonviolently — aka, lovingly — and we do so in a way that debilitates the ability for violence to thrive in the future.

Note that Jesus is assuming that the people he’s speaking to encounter violence. He is speaking to the underdog, the vulnerable, the ones without power, the abused. He is speaking to people who are hated — he’s not speaking to the people who hate. He is speaking to the people who are cursed,  who are mistreated, who are struck on the cheek, who have their property demanded from them. He is speaking to the ones who are hit and don’t have the capacity to hit back harder.

And how does Jesus challenge these people to respond? Hitting back harder is not an option. Instead of responding to hate with hating, Jesus calls for love. Instead of responding to a curse with cursing, Jesus calls for blessing. Instead of responding to violence with violence, Jesus calls for nonviolence — turning the other cheek. Instead of responding to wrongful seizure of property with litigation — Jesus calls for generosity. 

Responding in this way demands that His disciples be prepared to suffer. Like Jesus, His disciples must be strong to bear the pain of the insult, the curse, the hit, the theft. Not retaliating requires bearing pain. You could call this taking up the cross. Taking up the cross is bearing the full pain of violence; the insult; the hurt; the impact of the hit, the loss of the theft. Taking up the cross is a choice not to hit back. Jesus could have hit back. This is not simply a conflict approach for losers. When arrested in the garden and Peter attacked a slave of the high priest, Jesus said, “Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?” Jesus encountered violence and he did not retaliate. That is what forgiveness looks like. Forgiveness is the choice not to take your enemy’s eye when they have taken out your eye. Forgiveness is the call and challenge to all Christians: to bear that pain, to not retaliate when you encounter violence. 

Followers of Jesus are to resist violence in a way that is nonviolent. But we don’t just resist violence passively, or thoughtlessly. Our nonviolent actions must work towards the effect that violence will be less likely to occur in the future. I believe this is also what is behind Jesus’ examples of loving enemies, doing good to those who hate, blessing those who curse, or turning the other cheek. These actions go beyond simply shrugging your shoulders and saying, “It’s okay that you hit me.” These responses create conditions so that violence is less likely to occur in the future. 

Both the goal (which is peace), and how we achieve that goal (nonviolently) are crucial to following Jesus. Sometimes, this passage can get out of whack when you separate the goal of peace and how we achieve that goal (non-violence). When we tell people to not retaliate when they are being abused, sometimes that can imply they should just let the perpetrator keep punching them. Telling a woman to stay in an abusive relationship and turn the other cheek, that’s catastrophically wrong, only living into one half of the equation.

Remember, the goal of living nonviolently is so that the world will be a less violent place — a place more resembling the Kingdom of God. Imagine a woman is being abused by her partner and stays in the relationship anyway, she just keeps turning the other cheek. Imagine that the abuser keeps hitting her — the cycle of violence is not being broken. On the one hand, she is responding nonviolently, but remember the goal is to render the world a less violent place. The hitting needs to stop. The violence needs to stop. That’s the other half of the equation. That might look like helping the battered person nonviolently to leave the abuser. That’s both halves of the equation — they’re responding nonviolently, and the violence has stopped. Sometimes people can’t resist violence on their own and need our help. When we see violence, we need to come alongside the vulnerable and resist violence with them nonviolently, but also help insure violence will be less likely to occur in the future. 

It is important to see how this situation of a battered person fits into the logic of the passage, and results in justice. So, if staying in a situation is going to result in continued violence, the logic of this passage demands that we partner with this woman in getting out of the abusive relationship.

I’ve chosen to spotlight the abuse in a relationship between a man and a woman because gender based violence is so prevalent in our country. At times, the church has turned a blind eye to this type of violence. This is not to say that this is the only type of abuse that matters. Men are abused by women — that matters. Children are abused by parents or caregivers — that matters.  God’s Kingdom is a world free from violence, a Kingdom of humans flourishing, a Kingdom where the vulnerable are protected. As Christians, we are called into this work of mitigating violence and protecting the helpless. When we only think about turning the other cheek for the sake of turning the other cheek, the victim stays in an abusive relationship. This passage then results in the injustice of a person being abused and the abuse horrendously justified with Scripture. The impulse then is to create a list of exceptions to Jesus’ admonition to turn the other cheek, to love your enemies, and to do good to those who abuse you. We want to say, “No, what Jesus is saying about turning the other cheek doesn’t apply to you in this situation…”

The fact is that all violence is wrong, all violence cries out for justice, all violence demands to be stopped. When we don’t see how Jesus’ words challenge us to stop the cycle of violence, we look for other strategies to stop violence, like: “They hit me and I hit them back harder, and they disappear.” Jesus challenges us to respond nonviolently — but also to develop strategies on how to stop the violence. The goal is to render violence less likely to occur in the future. So, if staying in a situation is going to result in continued violence, the logic of this passage demands that we partner with this person in getting out of the abusive relationship. 

What happens when we abandon the ethic to which Jesus calls us? What happens when you hit the person who hit you? If they are still conscious, they will hit back. What happens when you rob the person who has robbed you? What happens when you curse the person who has cursed you? What happens when you hate the person who hates you? Nothing unusual. Well, this is the normal way of things. Violence begets violence begets violence. Perhaps if we can be the most violent, we can be safe. The logic of “They hit me and I hit them back harder and they disappear,” is powerful.

Yet the cross shows us a different way. On the cross we see Jesus struck on the cheek — and we do not see him strike back. We see his robe stripped from him — and he does not grasp for it back. We see Jesus cursed — the cross itself was a curse — and in response Jesus blesses, crying out: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus responds to violence in a nonviolent way.

But I want you to note something: if the cross were only a nonviolent response to violence, we would not know anything about it. History would not remember Jesus’ death. The cross was not only Jesus turning the other cheek. The cross is the means by which all violence will ultimately be destroyed. Yes, Jesus responded nonviolently to violence, but his response was also the ultimate solution to end all violence — which is to bring salvation and healing to the ends of the Earth.

When we encounter violence we need to ask two questions. First, how can I resist the pull of violence? Violence always pulls us to respond violently or to shut down. So, how can I resist being pulled into a violent response? That is the first question followers of Jesus ask. The second question we ask is, How can my response render violence less likely to occur in the future? This requires much thought, planning and strategy. Sometimes Christians have had to play the longest possible game — that is, the only way for me to respond nonviolently is to let them kill me, and I just need to give the rest of this to God to sort out how to redeem this situation of impossible violence. But often we can play a shorter game that doesn’t involve being killed. If we look, the Spirit will guide us into nonviolent ways of responding that render violence less likely to occur in the future. 

Let me close, by reflect that violence can often come from within a Christian community. As followers of Jesus, we want to bring about the Kingdom of God, we want our communities to be good, holy, righteous and just — we want to bring about the Kingdom (a world that is free from violence), and often we can forget to do so nonviolently. We get caught up with the pure and good goal, but we forget Jesus’ call to use the nonviolent way, that the way we pursue those goals matters profoundly. I suspect that Luke 6: 36-37 are reminders against using violence to justify our pursuit of God’s Kingdom. In verse 36-37, Jesus says, “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.”

Judgment and condemnation are two violent ways that Christians can bring about the Kingdom of God. When we see others not lining up with the behaviour suitable of God’s Kingdom — Christians can often respond violently with judgment and condemnation.

If you are wondering what I’m talking about, take the woman caught in adultery in John 8. The Pharisees hauled her before Jesus, saying “Teacher this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” The Pharisees had this goal of making their community more pure, maybe they saw this goal in service of the Kingdom of God. But they did so with violence.

Followers of Jesus can at times become so zealous on bringing about God’s Kingdom of love, they forget that perpetrating violence is not the way Jesus brings about His kingdom. We see Jesus respond in John 8 with a powerful, strategic nonviolence. He says, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Then he bends down and starts writing in the sand. Jesus resists violence nonviolently, in a way that renders violence less likely to happen in the future. Jesus counters violence with love, in a way that renders this world more likely to resemble His Kingdom of love. One by one the people leave, and he is left alone with this woman. Jesus straightens up and says to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? She said, “No one, sir.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go away, and from now on do not sin again.” 

This is a fascinating case study of Jesus words “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.” We see Jesus, resist violence, resist condemnation, resist judgment in a way that is inherently loving. When we see other Christians live in what we see as being antithetical to God’s Kingdom, we can respond like they’re our enemy. But Jesus calls us to love our enemy.  Jesus resists the violence of condemnation in a way that helps people move towards holiness without guilt, in a way that brings everyone involved deeper into the Kingdom of God. We are called to do likewise. We are called to ask, “How can I bless this one who I want to condemn?” This requires careful thought and prayer. Followers of Jesus Christ are to resist violence in a way that is nonviolent, so that world will less likely be filled with violence in the future. Followers of Jesus Christ are to counter violence with love, so that the world will be more likely to be filled with love in the future. Followers of Jesus are to live in the world lovingly, nonviolently, so as to facilitate bringing about the Kingdom of God.