Eye for eye

Dear brethren,

Today's readings
Matthew 5-7; Psalm 2

Mat 5:39 — Mat 5:40 (KJV)
But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.

One of the things that we need to realise in Jesus' oft-called "Sermon on the mount" is the idea of contrasts and hyperboles (an exaggerated statement not to be taken literally but as a vivid illustration). We certainly see a lot of "hard sayings" that seem to be very challenging even "unwise" and "impractical" from a worldly standpoint.
Thus it is here where Jesus is not so much saying to actually do it but more of even to the extent. The more important take away is Jesus' teaching against the commonly held (which was an erroneous view of the OT law - Ex 21:24,25, of which the original intent was really about being just in our dealings) belief as mentioned in v. 38.
And as Christians, we have to look beyond that. Beyond merely getting a fair dealing.

All in all, we realise that Jesus is addressing a group of people who have been so far removed from the Old Law, in part through unscrupulous spiritual leaders (c.f. Mat 23:23), that the precepts of God's law have become mere unfeeling rules of transcation.
If that was not the original intention of the OT law, what more the Law of Christ, which was made available through His Sacrifice!

Interestingly, the concluding thoughts of the recipients, God bless their humble hearts(!), aptly framed the entire thrust of the the Sermon -
And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine:
For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. (Mat 7:28, 29)
It was the "aha!" moment for them. That all along, they had been fed untruths by their leaders. The sudden realisation of what God's Word truly meant and what we need to do to be pleasing unto God.

And thus it remains vital to continually seek after God's authority and not after our own desires and lusts, nor the doctrine of man; that we remain humble and teachable, to readily accept the truth presented AS IS, so that we may truly follow after what He had commanded us to do and be acceptable in His sight.