Jesus said, “Further,
if someone press-gangs you into doing one mile, go with them and do two.”
—
Matthew 5:41
(USC)
Conscription has changed many lives in the manner with which it has been enforced.
Where there is no say in the matter, and we are compelled to do a thing against
our will, what are we to do? The choice is implied in such a way to indicate
there doesn’t seem to be a choice. And this is an important differentiation we
need to keep in mind in discussing the above verse.
Choice is the
strangest thing. We are so apt to resist certain things because of the
erroneous perception that we don’t have a choice.
Even when there
appears to be no choice, there is still a choice – a decision – to be made.
Viktor Frankl, and his experience in Nazi concentration camps during the Second
World War, taught us that. Whenever we are disempowered we have agreed to become disempowered. And
because we still have the power to make a choice we may go willingly or
unwillingly. Why would we go unwillingly when we could go willingly, having
made the choice, having retained our sense of empowerment?
A “press-gang” is a
group of soldiers commissioned by an authority to seize us for war – to fight
in a war we do not choose to fight
in. Being press-ganged, therefore, has nuances of being forced against our
volitional will.
Having been
press-ganged into going one mile, Jesus says we ought to go two. Why? It’s
simple. We have made the choice – the choice to serve.
We have given those
who thought they forced us the opposite of what they expected. They thought, at
best, they might get begrudging compliance.
But we gave them not
only compliance, but willing service!
We have doubled the
requirement. In that, we have communicated something about the kingdom of God:
that it is totally of a different world, and that nothing and no one can
overcome this Kingdom.
Never do we ever go
double the distance against our will. We always ‘impress’ others because we meant to impress them.
So this is not
merely the matter of going further than what’s considered reasonable. It’s
about choosing to be at joy with whatever is asked of us.
If we are asked to
help a friend because they are moving house, and it’s a hot day, there is much
heavy lifting to do, and we’ll miss out on an event we could otherwise be at,
if we choose to help them move, we throw ourselves into making it the best
move. We are encouraging and we lift more than our share of the weight.
Additionally, when others are falling away after the first load has been done,
we will be on the truck back to the old place to pack the second load!
***
QUESTIONS in REVIEW:
1. Think of a time when you really
did go the extra mile. What was your motive in that case?
2. How are you best converting ambivalence
into enthusiasm to go the extra mile?
© 2015 S. J. Wickham.
Note: USC version is Under the Southern Cross, The New Testament in Australian English
(2014). This translation was painstakingly developed by Dr. Richard Moore, a NT
Greek scholar, over nearly thirty years.
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