Play and power: the Jesus way

I've long felt that Walter Wink's take on this was broadly correct: it makes sense of a strong current in Jesus' and even Paul's teaching and examples. However, seeing Wink's article here was helpful in making a connection to the Play Ethic and all that stuff.How turning the other cheek defies oppression | Ekklesia: "This unmasking is not simply punitive, however; it offers the creditor a chance to see, perhaps for the first time in his life, what his practices cause-and to repent.
Jesus in effect is sponsoring clowning. In so doing he shows himself to be thoroughly Jewish. A later saying of the Talmud runs, 'If your neighbour calls you an ass, put a saddle on your back.'
The Powers That Be literally stand on their dignity. Nothing takes away their potency faster than deft lampooning. By refusing to be awed by their power, the powerless are emboldened to seize the initiative, even where structural change is not possible. This message, far from being a counsel of perfection unattainable in this life, is a practical, strategic measure for empowering the oppressed. It provides a hint of how to take on the entire system in a way that unmasks its essential cruelty and to burlesque its pretensions to justice, law, and order."
I seem to recall Harvey Cox's Feast of Fools makes a similar point somewhere ...

Anyway, the creativity in protest is definitely a Christian way by this, and to exercise moral imagination that seeks third ways, surprise and redefinings of situations seems encouraged. It certainly helps me to see something of the spirit of Christ in some of the actions and lifestyles of some of the 'alternative' people I have had the privilege to share time, space and good conversation with. Sometimes we need to take account of Christ's words "You are not far from the Kingdom of God" -though sometimes recognise that because we, the church, have not been/embodied Good News, to say so might not be heard as an encouragement!