Midweek Musing- 2/26/25

Last Sunday in my sermon I previewed with you that I would be writing my Midweek Musing on Jesus’s command in Luke 6:29b-30.

If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.

Now one interpretation of this statement to give away not only one’s coat (outer garment) but also one’s cloak (undergarment) is that this is a radical expression of generosity.

However, when we dig deep in the text and look at it in the context it was written we discover it also carries a deeper social and political resistance against systems of injustice.

To understand this, it is important to understand Jewish clothing and wardrobe attire of the day and the laws and customs around clothing.

So, in first-century Jewish society, most people had only two garments:

The Coat (Himation) – A heavy outer garment, like a robe or shawl.

The Cloak (Chitōn) – A tunic worn next to the skin, essentially an undergarment.

Now according to Jewish Law found in Exodus 22:26-27, the coat (outer garment) was so essential that it could not be permanently taken as collateral for a debt; it had to be returned by evening so the poor could sleep in it.

Knowing this we can begin to understand that Jesus’s statement, refers to a situation of economic exploitation, where a person is being sued for their coat (typically due to an unpaid debt). The creditor would hold the coat for the day and then return it in the evening and the cycle would repeat the next day and so on.

It is important to know many peasants and workers in Jesus’ time were trapped in cycles of debt due to Roman taxation and economic exploitation by local elites. Wealthy landowners and lenders used the legal system to extract as much as possible from the poor, often leaving them destitute.

Thus, each day the debtor would be dragged into court and have the outer garment taken. This both shamed them and kept them from a full day’s wages thus making it often impossible to pay off the debt.

Jesus sees the injustice in this system and creates a plan for social resistance by having the debtor give away both garments. You see by giving not only the coat but also the cloak, Jesus is proposing an act of nonviolent resistance that would expose the injustice of the situation in a way that subverted the social norms.

Jesus uses shame to call out the unscrupulous creditor thereby bringing to the front and center this economic exploitation.

Now it is important to know that in Jewish culture, public nakedness was seen as shameful. And in this case, the shame would not be primarily for the person unclothed, but instead for those who caused the nakedness. Thus, by having the one in debt strip down to what my grandmother would have called their birthday suit, the debtor is forcing the creditor and this system to bear the shame of their exploitation.

The action proposed by Jesus here parallels the prophetic street theater often found in the Old Testament, where prophets used shocking acts to expose injustice. For example, a direct parallel is Isaiah 20:2-4, where Isaiah walked naked to symbolize Egypt’s humiliation.

The nonviolent defiance against oppressive economic practices Jesus offers calls out the inequity without resulting to violence. By giving away both garments, the debtor resists by stripping the system of its power—rather than leaving humiliated, they expose the absurdity of taking everything from the poor.

This example Jesus proposes to fight evil echoes all of Jesus’s teaching on justice. The example of the coat and cloak aligns with Jesus’ broader message that God’s kingdom overturns social hierarchies and challenges exploitative systems.

Unlike what is often taught or what we might read using our frame of refence Jesus is not instructing passivity and simply giving in; rather, he is teaching how to resist oppression creatively and nonviolently.

This practice of using nonviolent practices to reveal injustice has been seen in movements throughout history and it directly mirrors even the modern nonviolent resistance tools often utilized.

For example, in 1930 Gandhi and his followers walked to the sea and made salt in defiance of British law, exposing the injustice of colonial rule. This became known as Gandhi’s Salt March, and it has been studied as a model by nonviolent resistor for nearly a century now.

During America’s Civil Rights Movement of the1960s sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in the U.S. South highlighted the absurdity of racial discrimination and African American preachers often referred to Jesus’s call to non-violent resistance to help motivate both sit-ins and other acts like it.

Additionally, the anti-apartheid movement led by Nelson Mandela included the refusal of Black South Africans to participate in apartheids unjust system which ultimately led to its collapse.

In each of these cases, as well as many others, oppressed people did not retaliate with violence, but they directly and creatively exposed the system’s cruelty in ways that forced the oppressors to confront their own injustice.

As I began to think of how we might apply this today I decided it would not be a good idea for any of us to walk the street in our birthday suits. However, we can seek to expose unjust systems by speaking truth to power and highlighting economic or social injustices in ways that make them visible.

In our own personal lives, we can seek to break the cycle of retaliation that we are encouraged to live in. Instead of responding with hate, we can look for ways to expose and dismantle injustice without engaging in violence. Additionally, we can encourage others to do so as well.

Finally, we can embody generosity which in this culture is an act of resistance. Radical generosity challenges the worlds lie of scarcity. And generosity in time, talents, and resources subverts social norms of consumerism, greed, and hoarding of wealth and even more it tells of what life will be like in the promised day of the kingdom of God.

Friends, Jesus’s instruction to give both the coat and the cloak is not just about being extra generous—it is a powerful act of nonviolent resistance. It is a way to expose injustice without resorting to violence, using shame and radical generosity as tools to dismantle systemic exploitation. Rather than submitting to oppression, Jesus calls his followers to transform injustice through love, truth, and bold action.

May we seek to build pieces of the kingdom of God on earth even as it is heaven.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Alleluia Amen.