Sermon on the Mount ਨਮੂਨਾ

Way back in 2008, there was a college softball player named Sara. She had never hit a home run before—in college or high school—but in a game against Central Washington, she finally hit a home run. Unfortunately, as she was rounding the bases, she injured her leg very badly. She was in a ton of pain. The umpire ruled that unless Sara could touch all the bases and make it to home plate, her home run wouldn’t count. It would be like it never happened. But her teammates weren’t allowed to touch her, and she couldn’t walk. It didn’t look good. Then, something amazing happened. Two players on the opposing team offered to step in. They picked Sara up and carried her around the bases, stopping at each one so she could touch it with her foot. Her home run counted, and the other team lost. But their act of sportsmanship touched people’s hearts all over the country. They even won an ESPY!

Why was what these athletes did such a big deal? In sports, you’re not really supposed to help the other team. It could cost you the game. While we don’t like to see athletes being super mean to each other, we aren’t used to seeing them care about someone else more than their own team or their own game. What the softball players who helped Sara did went above and beyond what anyone expected. They went the extra mile.

That saying—“going the extra mile”—actually comes from the Sermon on the Mount, a famous sermon that Jesus gave that is recorded in Matthew 5-7. The idea of “going the extra mile” comes in the middle of a section of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus is teaching the crowd that they should go above and beyond in doing good to other people. They should smash all the expectations.

In the time and place where Jesus was speaking, it was common for a Roman soldier to stop a random citizen and make them carry their gear for up to a mile. People just had to go along with this law, even though they hated it. But Jesus suggested that instead of following the law and carrying the soldier’s gear one mile, His followers should offer to go two miles!

This would have been unbelievable to Jesus’ listeners. It was completely upside-down to the way they were used to thinking. But Jesus didn’t stop there! He said other unbelievable things like: if you hate someone in your heart, it’s just as bad as murdering them; and don’t seek revenge but turn the other cheek. Jesus even said we should love our enemies and pray for people who treat us badly! This didn’t come naturally to Jesus’ first listeners, and it doesn’t come naturally to us today.

Earlier in His sermon, Jesus talked about how He wants us to stand out and shine brightly, like a city on a hill (Matthew 5:14-16). Well, this is how we do it. This is how we shine brightly. By living in a way that often looks upside-down to the world around us. Like the softball players who carried Sara around the bases, we can go the extra mile. When we do that, people notice.

Reflect: Why do you think Jesus challenged His listeners to change their perspectives and their actions in such a radical way? Why should we love our enemies?

Read: Matthew 5:38-48