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| "SECOND MILES" by Carol Duerksen | |||||||||||||
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YOUTH GROUP LESSON 59
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| CONNECT WITH THE BIBLE STORY: Read Matthew 5:38-41 Share this mini lecture: When Jesus was on earth, he and his fellow citizens lived under the oppressive rule of the Romans. Roman soldiers put high taxes and oppressive laws on the Jews. This oppressive government had been going on since the Babylonians destroyed the temple in 586 BC and carried the Judeans into captivity. Jews in the day of Jesus were sick and tired of living under this kind of bad government. Some of them responded by selling out—working the system to their own advantage whenever they could. Some of them chose to get out of it by withdrawing from the world—the writers of the Dead Sea Scrolls were examples of people who did that. Another group tried to fight back—these were the Zealots. And into this mix, Jesus gives another option: to turn the other cheek. Go the second mile. Serve the ones who hate you. Roman soldiers could legally force Jewish citizens into carrying their load for a mile. They could pull people off the street, out of the fields, or from whatever they were doing to force them to do this. And in such cases, Jesus said that they should do more than requested. Go two miles instead of one. And do it with joy! (Pause.) Is there anybody else here who’s thinking, “Give me a break! You’ve gotta be kidding, Jesus!” (Pause) But Jesus wasn’t kidding. He said what he meant, and he meant what he said. He wants us to be second milers. What does it mean to be a second miler? Here’s an example: Suppose your parents are going to be gone for the day, but you get to stay home. They’ve requested that you clean your room while they are gone. You don’t want to, but you know you’d better. And then a crazy idea comes to mind—what if you surprise your parents and clean the whole house! Can you imagine the look on their faces? And that’s just what you do. You dust, vacuum, clean the bathrooms, organize the DVDs—you even bake some brownies to welcome the family home. And when it’s all done—how do you feel? Great! You’ve gone the second mile and it feels great! Continued... |
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