Turn the Other Cheek

A man took several blows to the eye from a stranger during a road rage confrontation.  This young man's wife and small child were in the car.  What would be the natural reaction to this ridiculous unwarranted attack?  Many a provoked man would strike back, but this man did not return a punch and announced "We're done," and got back in his car to remove his family from the situation.

My friend was telling our mission trip group this true story about a friend during our last meeting.  I announced, half-serious and half-way hoping that I was joking, that you never know what would happen this week--when we might have a "turn the other cheek" moment.  Well, I kind of had mine today.

In Matthew 5:39, Jesus says, "But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also."

I wasn't socked in the eye nor struck on the cheek, but I was confronted by a neighbor.  I had pretended to be a gardener, apartment style, and transferred my zinnias to a smaller pot.  In the process I managed to get potting soil all over my balcony.  I swept the dirt off my second story balcony thinking the wind would carry the dirt off breaking it up and away to the river.  Thirty minutes later, I had a startling knock at my door.

My downstairs neighbor, whom I had never met, confronted me, told me that the dirt had covered his chairs, and asked that I not do that again.  He was bold and assertive in his manner but not rude.  After the fact, I thought about what my human nature wanted to say to him, fuel ignited by assumptions about character previously to this encounter. 

However, in the moment, I responded apologetically and with kindness.  I offered to clean it up which he declined.  I also offered him some extra potting soil which he also declined.  I think the kind response caught him off-guard.  I can only explain my response by the Holy Spirit guiding me to do not what is natural, but what is unnatural.  I feel that is the way Jesus responded, the supernatural.  Perhaps that is what He meant by turning the other cheek.

I certainly have not responded the way I should have more times than I can count, but here is one time I actually did respond in a way that is unnatural, and that is why I wanted to share it.