Walter Wink Transcipt about Jesus's cheeky acts
... it’s like telling a joke twice. If it didn’t work the first time, it won’t work the second time either. The left cheek now offers a perfect target for a blow of the fist. But only equals fought with fists as we know from Jewish sources. And the last thing the master wishes to do is to establish this underling’s equality. This act of defiance renders the master incapable of asserting his dominance in this relationship. He can have this little slave beaten, but he can intimidate him no longer.
By turning the cheek then, the inferior party is saying “I’m not inferior to you. I’m a human being. I refuse to be humiliated any longer. I am your equal. I’m a child of God. I won’t take it anymore.”
Such defiance is no way to avoid trouble. Meek acquiescence is what the master wants. Such cheeky behavior. [Lots of laughter.] Such cheeky behavior could result in a flogging or worse, even killing, but the point has been made. The powers that be have lost their power to make people submit. And when large numbers begin behaving thus, Jesus was already depicted as addressing a crowd, you have a social revolution on your hands.
In that world of honor and shaming the superior has been rendered impotent to instill shame in a subordinate. He’s been stripped of his power to dehumanize the other. As Gandhi taught, the first principle of non-violent action is that of non-compliance with everything humility.
