March 24th, 2026
Tuesday, March 24
You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you that you must not oppose those who want to hurt you. If people slap you on your right cheek, you must turn the left cheek to them as well. When they wish to haul you to court and take your shirt, let them have your coat too. When they force you to go one mile, go with them two. Give to those who ask, and don’t refuse those who wish to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?
~Matthew 5:38-46
You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you that you must not oppose those who want to hurt you. If people slap you on your right cheek, you must turn the left cheek to them as well. When they wish to haul you to court and take your shirt, let them have your coat too. When they force you to go one mile, go with them two. Give to those who ask, and don’t refuse those who wish to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, You must love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who harass you so that you will be acting as children of your Father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on both the evil and the good and sends rain on both the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love only those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same?
~Matthew 5:38-46
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Sometimes life can feel trapped. We’re born into a world not of our own making. We’re “thrown” into an existence full of “you have heard it was said…” ways of living. This is how we do things here.
“Is this all there is?” we might wonder. Or maybe we concede to how things are and play along because we can’t imagine otherwise. Or we feel like our hands are tied, and we can’t do differently even if we wanted to.
Wendell Berry counsels to “think little.” Maybe change is not up to the influential people with “big ideas,” but to those whose daily lives are oriented around something else. And maybe through the little things of daily outlooks and habits a collective power rises up through the crust of the earth and shifts the tectonic plates. Earthquakes happen and the landscape changes.
This is the nature of the prophetic witness of God’s people. Lent reminds us of God’s call to repent, to change course, and to (re)align with Jesus’s witness to the kingdom of heaven among us.
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus instructs his followers to a unique way of living that probably would have caught people by surprise. Turn the other cheek…give them your coat too…walk two miles instead of one. In doing this, Jesus’ followers live in a way that breaks out of the conventional expectations; their lives are not trapped by the expected responses or norms.
Yet, Christians normally try to fit Jesus' words into the already existing systems. We try really hard to do this. How to turn the other cheek without being a wimp. We try to make Jesus' words fit our American ideals of "strength" and "masculinity." Or we try to explain how turning the other cheek is *actually* the strong thing to do.
Jesus doesn't do this. We should probably take notice. Jesus was clear that what he said was weird, strange, and not really awesome from the perspective of the Roman world. There was no making it look "strong," or whatever. It was just completely different and foolish. Period. Just how Jesus wanted it to be. If it were otherwise, it would not be the prophetic witness it is intended to be.
In a letter to a Roman named “Diognetus,” an anonymous early Christian writer describes Christians: “while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one’s lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own (divine) citizenship…They obey the established laws; indeed in their own lives they transcend the laws.”
The prophetic witness of Christians is a different type of resistance. Their prophetic witness doesn’t retaliate or defy what’s asked. It is the witness of actions and ways of living that create something new and unexpected. And suddenly the world around sees an alternative. You can imagine the response: “That’s not normal around here.”
It all comes down to “thinking little” – actions that embody a different imagination for how to live in the world, a world not of our own making, taken over by humans.
And yet, the prophetic imagination insists the human takeover is not all there is:
This is my father’s world, O let me not forget;
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet;
This is my father’s world, why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King, let the heavens ring!
God reigns, let the earth be glad!
The prophetic witness of Christians never loses its imagination to take Jesus’ lead, to surprise the world with life, to live as fossils in reverse. Instead of evidence of what was in the distant past, we live as evidence of what will one day be.
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For reflection:
Prayer: God of surprises, we live in a world where we are often expected to act or respond in certain ways. Often these ways just make sense in our world. Inspire us to live as your people of surprise, as witnesses to the world of your kingdom that is among us. Amen.
Sometimes life can feel trapped. We’re born into a world not of our own making. We’re “thrown” into an existence full of “you have heard it was said…” ways of living. This is how we do things here.
“Is this all there is?” we might wonder. Or maybe we concede to how things are and play along because we can’t imagine otherwise. Or we feel like our hands are tied, and we can’t do differently even if we wanted to.
Wendell Berry counsels to “think little.” Maybe change is not up to the influential people with “big ideas,” but to those whose daily lives are oriented around something else. And maybe through the little things of daily outlooks and habits a collective power rises up through the crust of the earth and shifts the tectonic plates. Earthquakes happen and the landscape changes.
This is the nature of the prophetic witness of God’s people. Lent reminds us of God’s call to repent, to change course, and to (re)align with Jesus’s witness to the kingdom of heaven among us.
In the sermon on the mount, Jesus instructs his followers to a unique way of living that probably would have caught people by surprise. Turn the other cheek…give them your coat too…walk two miles instead of one. In doing this, Jesus’ followers live in a way that breaks out of the conventional expectations; their lives are not trapped by the expected responses or norms.
Yet, Christians normally try to fit Jesus' words into the already existing systems. We try really hard to do this. How to turn the other cheek without being a wimp. We try to make Jesus' words fit our American ideals of "strength" and "masculinity." Or we try to explain how turning the other cheek is *actually* the strong thing to do.
Jesus doesn't do this. We should probably take notice. Jesus was clear that what he said was weird, strange, and not really awesome from the perspective of the Roman world. There was no making it look "strong," or whatever. It was just completely different and foolish. Period. Just how Jesus wanted it to be. If it were otherwise, it would not be the prophetic witness it is intended to be.
In a letter to a Roman named “Diognetus,” an anonymous early Christian writer describes Christians: “while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one’s lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own (divine) citizenship…They obey the established laws; indeed in their own lives they transcend the laws.”
The prophetic witness of Christians is a different type of resistance. Their prophetic witness doesn’t retaliate or defy what’s asked. It is the witness of actions and ways of living that create something new and unexpected. And suddenly the world around sees an alternative. You can imagine the response: “That’s not normal around here.”
It all comes down to “thinking little” – actions that embody a different imagination for how to live in the world, a world not of our own making, taken over by humans.
And yet, the prophetic imagination insists the human takeover is not all there is:
This is my father’s world, O let me not forget;
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet;
This is my father’s world, why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King, let the heavens ring!
God reigns, let the earth be glad!
The prophetic witness of Christians never loses its imagination to take Jesus’ lead, to surprise the world with life, to live as fossils in reverse. Instead of evidence of what was in the distant past, we live as evidence of what will one day be.
______________________________________
For reflection:
- Read Jesus’ sermon on the mount, especially Matthew 5:1-48. How is Jesus’ teaching different than what’s “normal”? What if Christians took Jesus’ words more seriously? What kind of witness would that be to the world?
- For those with kids: Talk about times when you felt like you were expected to behave a certain way, but you knew there was a better way that God probably would call “good.” Why is it difficult to not do what the world expects you to do?
Prayer: God of surprises, we live in a world where we are often expected to act or respond in certain ways. Often these ways just make sense in our world. Inspire us to live as your people of surprise, as witnesses to the world of your kingdom that is among us. Amen.
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