Cheek

The Carpenter taught his followers to "turn the other cheek", a statement which has resounded throughout the years for discussion as to it's meaning. Many have erroneously assumed it means the carpenters followers are weak and cowardly, refusing to stand up against evil. Yet Jesus has actually taught, not passive acceptance, or even violent resistance, he teaches "assertive non-violent resistance."

The answer lies in understanding the culture of the day, 

"The key to understanding the argument is rigorous attention to the social customs of the Jewish homeland in the first century and what these sayings would have meant in that context.

To illustrate with the saying about turning the other cheek: it specifies that the person has been struck on the right cheek. How can you be struck on the right cheek? You have to act this out in order to get the point: you can be struck on the right cheek only by an overhand blow with the left hand, or with a backhand blow from the right hand. (Try it).

But in that world, people did not use the left hand to strike people. It was reserved for "unseemly" uses. Thus, being struck on the right cheek meant that one had been backhanded with the right hand. Given the social customs of the day, a backhand blow was the way a superior hit an inferior, whereas one fought social equals with fists.

This means the saying presupposes a setting in which a superior is beating a peasant. What should the peasant do? "Turn the other cheek." What would be the effect? The only way the superior could continue the beating would be with an overhand blow with the fist--which would have meant treating the peasant as an equal.

Perhaps the beating would not have been stopped by this. But for the superior, it would at the very least have been disconcerting: he could continue the beating only by treating the peasant as a social peer. The peasant was in effect saying, "I am your equal. I refuse to be humiliated anymore." "-* 

Far from suggesting that the followers of the carpenter are punching bags, Jesus re-frames the situation, and tells us to do the same.

He uses a simple action to show that the oppressor is not superior to the oppressed.  The Christ follower may have lost the physical battle, but has won the spiritual one.

In the same way, our lives must reframe the worlds standards to cause those who are trapped by them to question the status quo, we must become agents of change.

 *(thanks to Dharmagates for a crisp explanation of Walter Wink's arguments.)