“. . . whosoever smiteth thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”

Sometime ago, the History Channel ran a documentary on the legendary family feud between the Hatfields and McCoys. The Hatfields were farmers in West Virginia; the McCoys were landowners in Kentucky. Both families had 13 children. The only thing separating them was a fork in the Big Sandy River - - and the Civil War. Each family had chosen a different side during the conflict, in which a Hatfield had killed a McCoy.

After the war, tensions boiled to the surface in a dispute over the ownership of a pig. Shots were fired and one man lay dead. A jury acquitted the killer on the grounds of self-defense and the Hatfields decided to take the law into their own hands. The feud, which lasted 21 years, claimed dozens of lives and did not end until one of the Hatfield leaders was hung in 1896.

It is a classic story of revenge: “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.” That concept of justice dates back 1,800 years to before the birth of Christ when Hammurabi, the king of Babylon, issued his Lex Tailionis. In most cases, the law was not interpreted literally. It simply meant the punishment should fit the crime. It was intended to place some restraints on the desire for retaliation. You can't kill someone just because they stole your pig. Our system of torts is based on the same idea of proportionality.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ gives us a radical view of justice. He says, “love your enemies;” “turn the other cheek;” “pray for those who persecute you.”

Yet, Jesus was not a pacifist in today's sense of the word. He was a firebrand, who defended Himself when challenged by the establishment. He called his persecutors hypocrites, snakes and a brood of vipers. At one point, Luke tells us, He so infuriated people they took Him from the synagogue, drove Him out of town and tried to throw Christ off a cliff.

Given Jesus' behavior, it would be easy to pass off His sermon as a figure of speech, except for one thing - - Christ lived the message. He not only prayed for His persecutors, He died for them. In Christ, we have a perfect example of how the scales of justice must balance righteousness and mercy.

Sooner or later we all encounter a Hatfield or a McCoy, someone who stirs things up, rattles our nerves, attacks us verbally or physically. In those situations, the natural tendency is to strike back, to seek revenge with an inevitable escalation in the fighting.

This sorry state of affairs led a Chinese sage to say:

"If you would seek revenge, first dig two graves: one for your enemy and one for yourself."

In today’s reading, Jesus warns us against taking the law into our own hands. Of course, we have a right to defend ourselves - - just as Christ did when He walked away from that unruly mob. But, after a cooling off period, someone has to make the first move toward reconciliation. Someone has to risk being struck on the other cheek and rejected once again - - just as Jesus was.

We may fail in the attempt at reconciliation, but the Prince of Peace doesn’t call us to be successful. He calls us to be merciful and righteous. That’s what justice is all about. Turning the other cheek isn’t easy. That’s why the first step toward reconciliation has to be taken by the one who is more spiritually mature.