Josh Broward
January 30, 2011
Jujitsu is a Japanese martial art. “Ju” means the “gentle art” or the “yielding technique.” During a surprise attack, one unarmed warrior might do battle with a fully armed attacking warrior. They quickly learned that indirect combat is the best way to defeat a more powerful opponent. Use his own force against him. When the other guy swings his sword, you duck. When he lunges, move to the side and give a little push so that he smashes into the wall. The aggressor will destroy himself with his own violence. This strategy is jujitsu.
In our passage today, Jesus advocates jujitsu love. It is not a surrender to violence. It is a subversion of violence. Listen carefully to how Jesus advocates a subtle defeat of violent actions or attitudes through jujitsu love.
Read Matthew 5:38-48.
Our epistle lesson today gives us a fair summary of this passage: “Do not let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good” (Romans 12:21). Conquer evil with love. Love’s creative power erodes the power of evil. Love converts the enemy into a friend - or at least into a non-aggressor.
But let’s be honest here. When we read this passage, we usually tune it out. It sounds so idealistic. Jesus sounds out of touch with reality. It sounds like Jesus is calling us to just lay down in the road and let people drive their cars over us.
Our first reaction is: “Jesus, this kind of sounds good. I’m glad you did it, I don’t believe I can live like this. I don’t even want to live like this. I don’t want to be a speed bump on someone else’s power trip.”
We give up on this text because of misunderstandings. Our first misunderstanding is Jesus’ saying, “Do not resist an evil person.” It sounds like Jesus is saying, “Just do nothing.” But that’s not it at all.
I got some help with this from Barbara Reid, a Catholic scholar. She says, a better translation is, “Don’t retaliate against an evil person.” Jesus is saying, “Don’t return violence for violence or wrong for wrong. Be more creative than that. Violence and wrong just create vicious cycles of evil. You have to stand outside the cycle to break the cycle.”
Look at Jesus’ examples. First, the most famous: “If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also.” This has become a famous idiom in English: “Turn the other cheek.” To explain this, I need a volunteer. Who wants to get slapped? ...
OK, so right and left are really important here. This is his right cheek. (Write an “R” with a dry-erase marker.) This is my right hand. Like many cultures, Jews of Jesus’ time would never use their left hand in public. If I’m going to hit someone, I’m going to hit him with my right hand. If I hit him in a normal way, which cheek am I going to hit? I’ll hit his left cheek.
But Jesus says, “If someone slaps you on the right cheek.” What’s going on here? Someone is hitting you backhanded - with the back of the hand. This kind of hit is for shame rather than pain. A powerful person is trying to insult or to shame a less powerful person.
Jesus says, “Don’t get violent. But don’t do nothing. Turn the other cheek and show who you really are.” By turning the other cheek, you are saying, “I refuse to be humiliated. I am a human being just like you. You may be big enough to hit me, but I’m big enough to demand that you treat me as your equal because I am your equal.” This is jujitsu love. Love wins.
And look at the second example, “If you are sued in court, and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too.” To understand this, we have to understand their culture. Jews at this time - especially the poor Jews - had only two pieces of clothing, a tunic (like a nightgown) and an overcoat. The tunic was like their underwear and it protected them from the discomfort of rough material in the outer coat.
So if someone is suing you to take away your tunic, that means two things. First, you are really, really poor. You have no money and no property. You’re down to the clothes on your back. Second, the dude suing you is a hardball. He has the resources to take you to court, so he doesn’t need your used tunic. His basic strategy is to make you so itchy that you’ll find a way to fork up the cash to get your undies back.
Jesus says, “If you find yourself completely broke, and someone is still harassing you for your shirt, go ahead and give them everything you’ve got. Strip down naked and walk out. Show everyone what a greedy hard-nose this guy really is.” [I had a hard time finding an ... appropriate image for this one.]
This puts the shame back on the rich guy instead of on the poor guy. Now just imagine what would happen as the poor guy walks back home. Everybody would be talking about the rich lender who stripped the poor man of his last stitch of clothing. There isn’t anything the rich guy can say to stop those rumors. There is nothing he can do to repair his reputation. The damage is done.
Now all of the other rich guys who have made loans to poor guys are going to learn a lesson here. They don’t want to be known as the guy who took someone’s clothes. They have been preemptively shamed into treating the poor with more respect. This is jujitsu love. Love wins.
Jesus’ third example is about “going the second mile”: “If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles.” All around the Roman world, a soldier could grab a civilian and make that guy carry his pack for a while - for exactly one mile (1.5 km). But soldiers were also held to a strict code. A soldier caught abusing a civilian could get into big trouble with his superior officer.
So Jesus says, “The next time a soldier makes you carry his pack, just smile, carry it to the mile marker, and keep going. That soldier won’t know what to do. Should he let you keep going? What if someone sees and he gets in trouble? Should he attack you and make you give his pack back? Again, what if someone sees him attacking an innocent civilian? I guarantee you - he’ll think twice before asking someone to carry his pack again.” Resist evil in a way that cuts the power of evil. Jujutsu love wins again.
Jesus‘ last point in this section is a continuation of the same theme. I’m going to read this one from The Message because this really hits the meaning: “You’re familiar with the old written law, ‘Love your friend,’ and its unwritten companion, ‘Hate your enemy.’ I’m challenging that. I’m telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out your true selves, your God-created selves.”
The goal is reconciliation. The goal is to convert enemies into friends. Love erodes evil. The power of love is greater than the power of evil. The power of love is stronger than the love of power. This is jujitsu love, and love wins.
But how do we do this jujitsu love thing? What does it look like? We’re really getting this love and war thing wrong, and it’s messing up our world. Let’s start global and move to the personal.
First, starting in the broadest possible terms, we have world religions. Sometimes Christians get so eager to love and to defend Christianity that we start attacking other religions. Christians in America tend to attack Islam or Secular Humanism. Christians in Korea tend to attack Buddhism. This is not the way of Christ.
I don’t believe that other religions are our enemies, but even if they are, Jesus says, “Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” My momma used to say, “Honey draws more flies than vinegar.” When we criticize and condemn and slander other religions, that doesn’t really help anyone feel good about Christianity or Christ. At all times, in all ways, in all places, we - as Christians - need to speak about others with respect and gentleness. When we show others respect and kindness, even when they are unkind to us, we are implementing jujitsu love. And love wins.
Second, we need to apply jujitsu love to the realm of international politics. I am not a total pacifist. Maybe I don’t have enough faith, but I think our world is messed up enough to require the use of military and police. You might call my position Almost Pacifism.
The most important point of Almost Pacifism is preemptive peace-making. Preemptive peace-making is built on two heavy academic theories and one common sense idea.
First is Soft Power. This is the idea that positive influence is more effective than force. Think about the old fable of the battle between the wind and the sun. The sun won simply by making the guy comfortable.
Second, the Democratic Peace Theory says that democracies do not go to war against democracies. Instead, they figure out a way to solve their problems because (a) the people who might die have the power, (b) the countries are generally succeeding and don’t want to mess it up, and (c) the leaders have figured out how to deal with conflict peacefully.
And here’s the common sense idea: Friends aren’t enemies. If we help each other, we won’t fight each other.
So how does this work out in practice? What is the jujitsu love here? If our national governments are wise, they will focus on soft power rather than hard power. Military power is not cost effective. Bombs cost way more than water wells or schools. It’s much easier to prevent a war than to fight a war. The best way to have peace is to promote global development. If we want national security, then we should be encouraging our governments to invest heavily in the infrastructure of developing nations. We should take a firm stance that we will spend as much on international aid and development as we do on our militaries. We should confront terrorism and extremism with radical kindness and service.
Use jujitsu love. Serve our enemies, even those who aim to hurt us, and the motivation for terrorism and war will whither and die. Love wins.
Next, let’s bring the focus down to politics within a nation. One of the standing political problems is demonizing the enemy. We want to win, so we try to make the other guys look as bad as possible. As Christians, we need to stand above and beyond that. Christians should be known around the world as respectful citizens, people who are able to disagree with kindness and respect. Jujitsu love puts our opponents off balance and earns their respect. Love wins.
Now, let’s talk about the Church. First of all, Christians need to stop ragging on Christians. We need to stop fighting amongst ourselves. One of the biggest criticisms of Christianity is our own internal division. I don’t know if we’ll ever get the denominations back together, but we can certainly work together and treat each other with mutual respect and kindness because love wins.
Second, people in the Church need to start being nicer to people outside the Church. We’ve got to give up our “us” verses “them” mentality. The sneakiest thing about Jesus command to “love your enemies” is that it means we don’t actually have “enemies” anymore. Jesus is calling us to see our common humanity. We are all children loved by God. We are all sinners in need of grace. We are all people stumbling toward the truth.
One of the worst things we can do as Christians is to go around telling people how they are sinning. Christians need to give up preaching about how bad the world is getting, how sinful our society is. That isn’t going to help anybody. If we want to help people fall in love with Jesus, then we need to show them Jesus’ love through service and friendship and hospitality. God will take care of the rest. Apply jujitsu love because love wins.
OK, now it gets deep and personal. What do we do when someone insults us or mistreats us? First, we can turn the other cheek. When someone throws an insult at you, maybe you’ll say something like, “I’ll think about that. Do you have any other helpful feedback?” That will probably stop them right there, but if not, it shows that you are humble enough to receive feedback but strong enough not to be bullied. Love wins.
But also, we can go out of our way to make peace. I love how our epistle lesson puts this. Paul is quoting from Proverbs: “‘If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.’ Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good” (Romans 12:20-21).
Don’t respond with hate. Don’t defend yourself. Instead, act for their good. Pray for their healing. Remember your own brokenness and humanity, and pray that God will restore you both and reconcile you both to each other and to God.
But how do we gain the strength to live like this? This sounds so amazing, so ideal, so ... difficult, maybe so ... impossible.
Every Wednesday morning, I go to the orphanage, to Sam-Il Children’s Home, and I play with the babies. One little kid, MinYoung, is very possessive of his toys. Every time I go there, he has two or three toys that he tries to keep with him all the time. About a month ago, he had so many toys under his control that he couldn’t even play with them because it takes all his energy just to keep them all safe in his arms.
Finally, he sat down to play and lost track of one of the toys. Then, KyoungMin, another two year old, picked up one of his toys and started to walk away. When he got about halfway across the room, MinYoung saw that KyoungMin had his toy, and KyoungMin saw that MinYoung saw. It was like a linebacker chasing down a fullback. KyoungMin took the widest possible angle, but MinYoung cut him off and tackled him right into the wall. I could see it happening in slow motion, but I couldn’t stop it. We took the toy away and picked them both up. They were both crying and screaming.
Something like this happens every week. The only solution is to hold them and love on them until they fill up with love. We have to just keep loving them until love wins inside their little hearts. Love has to get stronger than greed or revenge. So we just keep holding them and loving them, squeezing them into our chests and patting their backs. Love always wins in the end.
Phineas Bresee is one of the founders of the Church of the Nazarene. I’ve been reading through his Sermons from Matthew’s Gospel. He says, “The ... law of love ... is infinite motherhood pressing us to her bosom. It is the mother’s arms about us, the mother’s touch upon our heads, the mother’s care over our pathway.”
Our only hope for jujitsu love is to be soaked in the love of God. When you want revenge, let God hold you to his chest and show you the way of love. When someone insults you or takes what belongs to you, let God hold you to his chest and show you the way of creative love. When you feel threatened, when you feel like your group is losing and the other group is winning, let God hold you to his chest and show you the way of love. Jujitsu love. Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Let God keep loving you until love wins inside your heart. Love erodes evil. Love wins. Love wins in the end. Love wins.
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