Let me briefly go over these three things again. Striking the cheek has to do with humiliation. The Chinese understand this; so did the Jews and the Romans at that time. There are many records which show that many of the Roman slaves would rather have been killed by their masters than struck on the cheek. Killing was bearable, but striking the cheek was unbearable. Hence, striking the cheek signifies extreme humiliation; it signifies the greatest shame at that time.
Tunics and cloaks are what man rightfully owns. Among man’s possessions, there is hardly anything more rightfully his than his clothes. Even the poorest person wears a tunic and a cloak. No matter how insistent a man is in rejecting material enjoyment, he still has to wear a tunic and a cloak. This is a very legitimate demand. Here is a person who is not asking for your property or your farm but your tunic. Moreover, if he wants to take your tunic, you must take off your cloak first. Therefore, this matter touches one’s possessions in the deepest way. If striking the cheek has to do with humiliation, taking away the tunic has to do with one’s most essential possessions.
Compelling others to walk is particularly related to the will. I may not intend to take a certain way or go to a certain place, but others compel me to do so. This means I must deny myself to take their way. This is to bend the will.
I would like my brothers and sisters to see that Christian reactions have to do with the left cheek, the cloak, and the second mile. When others strike my right cheek, I turn my left cheek to them as well. When others want my tunic, I give my cloak as well. When others compel me to walk one mile, I walk two miles. This means that the right cheek has not touched me, the tunic has not touched me, and the one-mile journey has not touched me. This is why I call this a transcendent reaction. If my right cheek is struck and I have some feeling about it, I will not turn my left cheek. If after walking for one mile I have reached my limit, I cannot walk the second mile. The issue is the kind of reaction we have under such circumstances.
Christians are those who have been delivered from any feeling of glory and humiliation. They are those who have been delivered from the bondage of material possessions and their own will. When we are delivered from humiliation, possessions, and the will, these things will never touch us again.
We must learn never to reason before God. The first lesson of the cross is to not reason. No one among us should be so low or so fallen as to become a revenger. Hence, there is no need to talk about the option of taking an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth. However, I am afraid that many people reason and insist on their rights, saying, “You should not have struck me.” Whenever a person reasons with others, it means that he is touched by the things that happen to him. The Lord shows us that the proper response to unreasonable evil is unreasonable good. Others can be unreasonably evil to us, but we return unreasonable good to them. The first mile is unreasonable enough, but the second mile is even more unreasonable. Actually, both are unreasonable. Striking the right cheek is unreasonable, but so is turning the left cheek. Taking away one’s tunic is absolutely unreasonable, but so is giving away the cloak. Christians are those who do not reason. They return unreasonable goodness for unreasonable evil.
You should not be trapped in your own reasoning. You should not say whether something is reasonable or unreasonable. You may say that the first mile is unreasonable. But I say that the second mile is even more unreasonable. If the first mile is unreasonable, the second mile is even more unreasonable. If you cannot take the first mile, how can you take the second mile? But thank God! His children do not react by reasoning. None of God’s children should lose their temper. They are not in the realm of arguing between right and wrong. Reasoning is something outside of a believer’s realm. If you fall into reasoning, you have already lost your Christian standing; you are no longer standing on Christian ground.