Brian Hamilton

Walter Wink and Jesus’ (Non)Resistance

The typical way of reading Matthew 5:38–41 since Walter Wink, at least for those inclined towards nonviolence, has been to elaborate the ‘activeness’ of Jesus’ counsels: turn the other cheek, give also your cloak, go the second mile. These aren’t invitations to passive suffering, it is said, but rather acts of nonviolent resistance. ‘Do not resist evil,’ after the exegetical clarification that ‘resist’ connotes something like a military retaliation, only forbids returning physical violence for evil. Without rehearsing the explanation Wink gives for each of these three counsels, it will suffice to say that each one (when properly situated culturally) is a way for the victim to take control of the situation and counteract the violence being attempted. In each case, the victim asserts the equality of his or her personhood, humiliates the one initiating the violence, and for the last two, puts the aggressor in possible trouble with respect to either Jewish or Roman law.*

Wink’s description of the historical context brings some interesting points to the fore that should be reckoned with in any reading of this passage—even if he plays the history bit loosely, switching between Jewish and Roman cultural settings without any clear criterion. But the spirit of his explanation clashes sharply with the spirit of Jesus’ words, which are glimpsed more fully in v. 42 immediately following: ‘Give to everyone who begs from you, and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you.’ Jesus is speaking about giving ourselves, our things, our strength to those who ask—even violently—and not principally about resistance. It’s one thing to note that the word ‘resist’ implies ‘resist violently’; it’s something else entirely to read the rest of the passage as an elaboration on the implied word. It’s not that Jesus is telling people not to resist violently and then explaining other ways of resisting; rather, he’s telling them not to resist (violently) and then explaining in concrete terms what it would look like to instead give freely to those who demand things of us. He’s teaching us to love even our enemies.

* If anyone’s read Wink recently, correct me if I’m misrepresenting his reading. It’s been a few years since I’ve read this text, and I don’t have it on hand.

3 April 2007 |
tags: Gospel of Matthew, Peace