Turning the other cheek

There once was a big sergeant from the Highland regiment that had been serving in Egypt. Someone ask him about why he had become a Christian and what was his circumstances of his conversion. 

The sergeant told the story of a private in his company that the other soldiers harassed and many times the other soldiers made fun of him because of his religious faith. 

He told how the private had one night came into his barracks quite late. It was a very rainy night. Before getting into his bunk, the private knelt down and prayed just like he always did before he went to bed. 

The sergeant said that he picked up one of his wet, muddy boot and threw it across the room and he hit the private in the side of his head. 

The private said nothing. He just wiped the mud off the side of his face and crawled into bed. 

The next morning however, when the sergeant woke up, he found his muddy boots cleaned and polished and sitting by his bedside. The sergeant said, “It just broke my heart.”

Turning the other cheek is not easy. Our first inclination is to get even. But the route that Jesus urges us to take is also practiced by Jesus himself. 

Jesus said, “I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whoso shall smite thee on your right cheek, turn to him the other also,” (Matthew 5:39)

Larry Jackson-Minister