GOING THE EXTRA MILE
By Coach Dave Daubenmire
November 17, 2011
NewsWithViews.com
“And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.” -Mathew 5:41
Wasn’t this the greatest fumble in the history of Penn State? If things continue the way they are heading right now there are a whole bunch of folk who are going to find themselves working in the State Pen rather than for Penn State.
Never in my life have the kingdom of man and the Kingdom of God been so starkly exposed. In today’s culture, with the elimination of Jesus and His moral law, our allegiance to man made laws reigns supreme. As we survey the culture we come to the realization that we have falsely substituted “legal” for “moral.” What is legally right is not always morally right.
But it is the mixing of the two that has made right and wrong so fuzzy in this who-are-you-to-judge-culture.
All across America those two kingdoms are in conflict. Abortion is morally wrong, but legal. Fornication is legal but is clearly a morally-vacuous activity. Even something as seemingly benign as divorce receives the blessings of man-made courts, but those who have been affected by it can testify to the destructive nature of this “legalized” sin.
So, what Joe Pa did was LEGALLY right, but MORALLY wrong. Sadly, he confused legality and morality.
Jesus made us aware of this conflict in his exhortation to “go the second mile.” Please permit me a little history.
In the times of Jesus, Roman soldiers carried very heavy equipment everywhere they went. One of the customs of the day was that any soldier could compel any citizen to carry his equipment for him. The standard distance the equipment was to be carried was a mile. In the example that Jesus shares He explains to us that, as Christians, we should always be willing to do more than what is required of us…to go the extra mile.
Just as we can be “compelled,” forced by law, to do certain things, a follower of Jesus will go “above and beyond” what the law requires. Christians are expected to follow the laws of man, but, as Jesus pointed out, we follow a higher set of values…a set of rules that often requires that we go beyond what is expected of the average citizen.
For Coach Paterno, at God-denying Penn State, duty to obey the law was all that was required of him. But a higher moral law, the law of God, required him to do more than the minimum. Joe Pa declined to “go the extra mile” to ensure that no other children were victimized. “Are you your brother’s keeper, Joe Pa? What if it had been your grandchild?”
The Rest…HERE
