What Jesus meant by saying, “Hand over your coat”…

⁴⁰And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. Matthew 5:40

Indebtedness was the most serious social problem in 1st century Palestine.  Emperors taxed the rich to fund wars so the rich went our and sought non-liquid investments to secure their wealth.  Land was best but was not sold on the open market.  So the rich pretty much took the land from the Jews who had this land in their families for years.  The made the Jews work their own land and pretty much drove them to poverty.  Jesus said if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt give them your coat as well.  This would leave the person standing  there in the court yard buck naked.  This would leave the person suing them in embarrassment.  Nakedness was taboo in Judaism, and shame fell not on the naked person but on the person viewing or causing one’s nakedness.  The person suing is now left to make a decision, to stand in shame and take the debtors coat or forgive his debt and give him his coat back. The person being sued had no chance of winning the case, the law was entirely against Him.  But the person being sued refused to be humiliated and turns the system upside down.