The second mile

Under Roman occupation, a soldier could legally force a civilian to carry his pack for one mile. Imagine the humiliation: dropped tools, lost time, neighbors watching. One mile, and not a step more, was the law.

Jesus told his listeners what to do about it:

If anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.

Matthew 5:41

And around that command, a whole cluster like it: if someone strikes your cheek, turn the other. If someone sues you for your shirt, hand over your coat as well. Give to the one who begs from you.

This is not weakness, and it is not becoming a doormat. Look at what actually happens in the second mile. For the first mile, the soldier is in charge. At mile two, everything flips. You are no longer a victim following orders; you are a free person making a staggering choice. You have taken the script of domination and retaliation and torn it up. Evil knows how to answer resistance and how to answer groveling. It has no answer for unexpected, unearned good.

Here is the question that turns this teaching loose in ordinary life. If Jesus asks this much grace toward an occupying soldier, toward a tormentor, then what does he ask toward the people in our own homes? The spouse who is short with us, the kid who needs us at the worst time, the coworker who dumps work on our desk. If the second mile is for enemies, how much more for the people we love when we simply do not feel like it.

Tomorrow: the summit of the whole sermon. Love your enemies.