Matt 5:38,39 “You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.  But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also.”

Was Jesus correcting the Old Testament law when he spoke these words?  Perhaps Jesus was “enhancing” the Old Testament law, known as the law of retaliation, in Latin, “the Lex Talionis.”

This is one of the most misunderstood passages in the Bible.  Like today, people through the ages have used this Mosaic law to justify personal retaliation.  God established this law to prevent personal retaliation.  How’s that?  If you lived at a time with very little government and your neighbor wronged you or attacked one of your family members.  What do you do?  Do you attack them back?  Perhaps you take the life of one of your neighbors kids and in your anger set his fields on fire.  Then your neighbor decides that this was not fair and decides to retaliate back.

The law “set the record straight” and prevented further retaliation.  The problem of Jesus’ day was that the religious leaders were mis-interpreting “the Lex Talionis” sort of speak.  The law that was supposed to prevent retaliation was being used to justify it.  People were taking a law that was reserved for the courts, the law of the land, or the government and mis-applying it at a personal level.  This is what Jesus was addressing.  “So you want to apply “the Lex Talionis” at a personal level, well let me get personal about it then.”

Notice also that Jesus talks about crimes of personal inconvenience.  They are not crimes of murder, death and maiming that “the Lex Talionis” was really focused on.

Slapping on the cheek.  Stealing of a tunic.  Carrying a Roman soldiers pack 1 mile.

One more observation: Jesus instructs us to action.  He doesn’t say, “when you get slapped on the right cheek, do nothing.  No, turn and offer the other cheek.  Give the person your cloak as well and go the extra mile.

Look for opportunities to do good, even in your personal trials and injustices.

For an indepth study of this topic, I found this article to be very detailed.