Turn the Other Cheek

Turn the Other Cheek
By M.T. Clark — P-2098 | 10/19/2026 – Today’s Audio Podcast
Today’s Message on YouTube:

Today’s photo of a rustic wooden lean-to shelter with a corrugated metal roof, standing in a quiet autumn clearing with a fire ring and split-log benches scattered around, comes to us from yours truly, as I captured this view behind Dunc’s Place at Merck Forest and Farmland Preserve, in Rupert, VT, on October 10, 2026.

Well, it’s Monday, and I share this photo from behind the weekend cabin where TammyLyn and I recently spent a family backpacking trip to remind us that the Lord is faithful to meet us wherever He leads us.

God shows up in the ordinary rhythms of our lives when we go into them with Him, and I can tell you that the Lord certainly met us during our short stay in Vermont. Not only was I blessed through the beauty of Vermont’s forests, but I also spent a considerable amount of time in “talking to God” through prayer, study, and silence. If that wasn’t enough, God also showed up with His mercy and grace in ways that were unexpected during and after that trip and would take too long to share here.  The bottom line: God is with us, and He is worthy of our thanks, praise, and trust. Speaking of the Lord’s faithfulness…

Our series “The Beatitudes” continues today with another instance where Jesus takes a familiar commandment and asks for a response that will surprise us. He moves from the honest word to how we respond when we are wronged.

Turn the Other Cheek

Jesus continues to work through the familiar commandments and the deeper meaning they were always pointing to. In Matthew 5:38-42 (NKJV), Jesus takes one of the most quoted rules from the Old Testament and surprises us with what He does with it:

“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 an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.”

Before we hear what Jesus does with this, we need to know what the original rule was for. “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” came from Exodus 21:24 and Leviticus 24:20. It was never a license for personal revenge. It was a limit on it. In a world where people were killing each other’s families over small offenses, God’s law said the punishment must match the crime and not exceed it. This was proportional justice in the courts, administered by judges, so that one lost eye would not become a dead village.

The problem is that by Jesus’s day, people had taken this limit on legal justice and twisted it into permission for personal retaliation. If you hurt me, I get to hurt you back. If you insult me, I get to insult you worse. Jesus steps in and lifts the standard above what anyone thought the Law ever intended.

Jesus then gives us four examples that would have hit His first-century audience hard, and that still carry weight for us. If someone slaps you on the right cheek, which was a specific humiliating backhand in that culture, Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, which would have been a nonviolent form of resistance, stripping away the aggressor’s power to humiliate you and forcing them to either back down or openly acknowledge their violence as an attack between equals. 

Jesus also teaches that: If someone sues you for your tunic, you should give him your cloak as well. If a soldier compels you to carry his gear one mile, Jesus tells us to carry it two. If someone asks you for something, Jesus tells us to give it, and if someone wants to borrow something from you, we shouldn’t turn them away. The pattern is clear. The kingdom of God works by a different standard than the world does.

Jesus is reframing how we respond when we are wronged. The world’s response is to escalate. We take back what was taken. We shame the person who shamed us. We settle the score. Jesus asks us to do something very different. He asks us to interrupt the cycle entirely by refusing to retaliate, by giving beyond what was asked, and by serving beyond what was required. When we respond that way, we break the cycle.

So, when the offense comes, we remember who we belong to, and we respond from our new identity in Christ. We don’t fight for our rights. We don’t try to take back what was taken. We offer kindness where the world would expect anger. And over time, this changes us. It also has the power to change some of the people around us, because they have never been treated this way before.

Jesus is not asking us to become doormats. He is asking us to become the kind of people who do not follow the world’s ways. Jesus Himself was slapped and stripped and compelled to carry His own cross. He had every right to retaliate, and He had more than enough power to fight fire with fire, but He didn’t do that. Instead, He did the Father’s will. He finished His walk on earth with the greater good in mind, and He showed us the way that things are done in God’s kingdom.

So, follow His lead and see the change that comes in you and in others. Every step we take toward the Lord is a step in the right direction. So, keep on walking and talking with God.

— M.T.

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“The views, opinions, and commentary of this publication are those of the author, M.T. Clark, only, and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of any of the photographers, artists, ministries, or other authors of the other works that may be included in this publication, and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of any entities the author may represent.”

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