The Courage Not to Swing Back

On August 28, 1945, Jackie Robinson sat across from Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey in a office at 215 Montague Street in Brooklyn. Robinson, a twenty-six-year-old shortstop for the Kansas City Monarchs, expected a conversation about baseball. What he got was a three-hour test of his soul.

Rickey leaned forward and told Robinson he wanted to sign him to break baseball's color barrier. Then came the condition. "I'm looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back," Rickey said. For the next hours, Rickey role-played every nightmare Robinson would face — a racist hotel clerk refusing him a room, an opposing player driving cleats into his shin, fans hurling slurs from the stands. Each time, Rickey pressed: What would you do?

Robinson, a former Army lieutenant and a man of fierce pride, asked the obvious question: "Are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?" Rickey's answer changed history: "I'm looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back." He handed Robinson a copy of Giovanni Papini's Life of Christ and pointed him to the Sermon on the Mount.

Jesus told His followers, "If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also" (Matthew 5:39). That command has never been about weakness. It takes more strength to absorb a blow than to throw one. Robinson proved it every time he stepped onto a diamond and answered hatred with excellence. The courage Christ calls us to is not passive — it is the most demanding bravery there is.