Just to tie up any loose ends now rather than answer questions later, no those are not their real names. I am using those names for two reasons. One, because they are my friends and I can call them what I want. Two, because the names remind me of them for a variety of reasons.
Anyway, these two friends are having a problem that goes back a few months. The story goes a little like this.....
There once was a computer named Acer. Acer was a great computer that lived in a happy home owned by the Prince. Acer was never lonely because there was always someone to play games, study for school, or even send an email or two on him.
One day Acer was hanging out with Monroe, the cousin of the owner of the Prince, and a few others. They were hanging out checking out things on facebook when all of a sudden Acer became very tired and went to sleep.
When Acer awoke he found himself with Nikola. Nikola was a good man but he couldn't take care of Acer like the Prince, but he was good. Nikola soon found out that Acer was sick and needed some medicine so he sought out the Prince.
When Nikola arrived at the Prince's house, the Prince was enraged. He accused Nikola of kidnapping Acer and he immediately called for the constable to take Nikola into custody. While the constable was on his way, Nikola told his story of how someone in the village brought Acer to his house.
After a short time, the constable arrived and the villager was sought. When found, the villager told a startling tale.
The villager told of how Monroe arrived in the village several days before with Acer, who was sleeping, tied to the back of his ass. Monroe scoured the village asking for someone to buy Acer so he could work as a slave. After seeking a buyer for nearly half the day, the villager agreed to buy Acer from Monroe, but when he brought Acer home he immediately found him to be ill. The villager gave Acer to Nikola whom he knew would nurse Acer back to health.
After hearing this incredible tale, the entire village went to the house of Monroe to hear him answer these accusations.
Although it was time for the men to be in the fields reaping the harvest when the arrived, they found Monroe at home. Monroe admitted to being with Acer before he fell asleep, but denied any further contact. While he could not provide an alibi, he blamed the kidnapping on the villager who neither knew the prince, had access to the Prince's home, nor had ever met Acer.
The entire village was turning on Monroe. They said he was one of the few that had the knowledge and means to kidnap Acer, and to make matters worse there were a string of failed, and some less than legal, business left in Monroe's wake.
When all seemed lost for Monroe, a noble elder from the village arrived named Tower. Tower was a wise man, respected and trusted by all. He was not only a good friend of Monroe, but also of all the villagers. Tower spoke of the many years he had known Monroe, how Monroe had never taken advantage of their friendship nor had Tower even seen him even steal a candy from the local village market.
After several hours of continued questioning, it was decided to leave the matter at rest. While it seemed likely that Monroe had been involved in this heinous crime, it was impossible to ascertain the truth, and in order to keep the innocent from being punished they returned Acer to his home, and never again spoke of the matter.
However, a rift had been born between the house of the Prince and the house of Monroe that may never be closed.
Soon after, Tower found himself in possession of a small bag of gold with no where to place it where it would be protected. He spoke to Monroe who just so happened to have a strong box in his house. Monroe said he would care for the Gold for Tower until he needed to make a purchase.
After several days passed, Tower and Monroe were walking in the market, and Monroe happened to have the bag that contained Tower's gold on his belt. Tower walked by the tannery and saw a beautiful leather satchel that he wanted to buy and asked Monroe for the bag. Monroe reluctantly handed Tower the bag that was full of stones to give the appearance that it was full.
Monroe acted surprised and said that his mother must have used the gold to buy a pig for the family. Monroe said the pig was necessary to keep the family through the winter his mother must have removed the gold from the strong box because the house of Monroe had fallen on to tough times.
Monroe promised to repay Tower, but alas, once more a relationship had been destroyed.
The End
Tower is a really good guy, a tad naive, but a super guy. I guess you might say that I am his mentor. We talked about the stolen computer when it happened and he told me that Monroe could never do anything like that and that because Tower was a follower of Christ he needed to forgive and forget. I told him to be careful, but...he got burned.
I think most Christians glom on to the idea of turning the other cheek. I think they truly believe that in order to follow Christ we need to let people walk all over them.
That is, after all, was grace and forgiveness are, right?
The turn the other cheek doctrine is spoken of in both the books of Matthew and Luke in the bible with little differences between the two. Jesus is speaking on how we should confront the evil among us. He tells us to give willingly to those who are stealing from us and turn the other cheek when struck. He even begins this passage telling us to love our enemies.
If we follow this passage without looking into it a little deeper I think we get the wrong idea. First off, nowhere in the passage is there an implication that Jesus is asking us to return to those situations. Nowhere does it say, go back to those who want to do you harm and have them do it again.
The entire passage is Jesus telling us that we need to live differently than those around us. Different as in we are not going to fight tooth and nail for things that just don't matter (ie clothes), as in we are more concerned about relationships than possessions, as in we love ALL those around us even those completely unlovable chaps that want to hurt us.
The world will not change for us, WE are the ones that need to live different.
Furthermore, can we not assume that if we are turning the other cheek to offer it up to our attackers, we need to know where and how we are being attacked. Jesus is not calling us to blindly allow ourselves to be hurt. He is saying that we should confront these situations with full knowledge of the situation.
The writer of Romans kind of touches on this topic as well. He says that it is OUR responsibility to live at peace with EVERYONE. Sometimes, as in the case of being along side someone that wants to hurt us, that peace may only be accomplished by being apart from that person, or in the case of Tower and Monroe, not allowing someone that has problems with financial integrity or even theft be in charge our finances.
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