Masculinity - Strength

 

^"38 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’^[a] 39 But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. ⁴⁰ And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well." Matthew 5:38 - 40

Okay, so when, exactly, is it manly to fight? When I was a kid, I was on the receiving end and I was on the giving end. My neighbor, a professional boxer, once heard I backed down from a fight and said, "You need to come fight at my gym." So for about a year, I went to workout at the local boxing gym where he and others trained.

It didn't change my perspective on who I was, or what my capabilities were when it came to "street fighting," but rumors persisted at school that now that I boxed, I thought I was a tough kid, so they said. So it did increase my opportunities to fight. To that end, I guess it worked, giving me opportunities to use the skills I learned to fight more, or to learn to back down from a fight in a more dignified way so the boxer wouldn't hear I "chickened out."

As we look at masculinity, strength and toughness come to mind, and in our culture, which ultimately defines masculinity, we gauge the strength of an individual in many ways - mostly by feats of strength or exhibition of toughness. Christ, however, has a final word on it as delivered in the "Sermon on the Mount."

Turn the other cheek is almost as foreign to our concept of being a man now as it was then, in spite of much of what you may read or hear. I'm almost certain King David, our warrior king who faced Goliath, may have turned to Christ and said, "Are you kidding me?" in the same way a West Texan teaching his boy the ways of manhood might. If I  turn the other cheek, my enemy (or enemies) will smell weakness and that is all they need to come after me and take me down.

I have to admit that as a principal at a school, there were times after a boy got in a fight that my impulse thought was, "If you keep acting like this, every boy in school will be in line waiting to beat your tail after school." I might have even uttered that a time or two. I know for a fact that after a school failed to intervene in a boy's continued bullying, I told the dad that sometimes suspension is worth it as long as he gets the first punch in (and make sure you land it firmly), but don't go starting a fight just to get the opportunity. His son did and the bullying ended. That's another devotion or series of devotions entirely though.

So where does Christ draw the line? The footnotes draw upon the Old Testament language and explanation that said that God intended on preventing evil from among His people. That authorities were the arbiter and dispenser of punishment (government, soldiers, etc). It notes that individuals should resist taking on punishment themselves as they see fit.

That makes sense because. our sin-filled eyes have such poor eyesight when it comes to God's righteousness that we confuse what is evil and worth righteous judgement with our own. So, Christ is telling us not to return evil with evil (an unjust act with unjust anger). Christ is telling us to strive to take the high road, and we know that our own actions, even if we believe we are righteous in our response, will face judgement. But God, who is faithful and just, forgives our sins as we confess from 1 John 1 because His Son suffered and died for our lack of ability to see the world in any way other than through the lens of sin.

A real man doesn't have to be a fighter to be masculine, A real man doesn't have to seek ways to exhibit strength to be strong. Christ was a sheep led to slaughter on our behalf and is ultimately our strongest advocate with God for our forgiveness and redemption.