tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if
anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if
anyone wants to sue you and take your outer garment, give your
undergarment as well; and if one of the occupation troops forces you to
carry his pack one mile, go two" (Matthew 5:38-41).
Jesus' second example deals with indebtedness, the most onerous social
problem in first century Palestine. The wealthy of the Empire sought
ways to avoid taxes. The best way was to buy land on the fringes of the
Empire. But the poor didn't want to sell. So the rich jacked up
interest rates—25 to 250 percent. When the poor couldn't repay, first
their moveable property was seized, then their lands, and finally the
very clothes on their backs. Scripture allowed the destitute to sleep
in their long robes, but they had to surrender them by day (Deuteronomy
24:10-13).
It is to that situation that Jesus speaks. Look, he says, you can't win
when they take you to court. But here is something you can do: when
they demand your outer garment, give your undergarment as well. That
was all they wore. The poor man is stark naked! And in Israel,
nakedness brought shame, not on the naked party, but on the one viewing
his nakedness. (See the story of Noah, Genesis 9.) Jesus is not asking
those already defrauded of their possessions to submit to further
indignity. He is enjoining them to guerrilla theater.
Imagine the debtor walking out of the court in his altogethers. To the
question what happened, he responds, That creditor got all my clothes.
People come pouring out of the streets and alleys and join the little
procession to his home. It will be a while before creditors in that
village take a poor man to court! But, of course, the Powers That Be
are shrewd, and within weeks new laws will be in place making nakedness
in court punishable by fines or incarceration. So the poor need to keep
inventing new forms of resistance. Jesus is advocating a kind of
Aikido, where the momentum of the oppressor is used to throw the
oppressor and make him the laughing stock of the community. Jesus is
not averse to using shame to kindle a moral sense in the creditor.
