Go the Extra Mile
Jeremy MacDonald · Tidal Church Moncton · April 26, 2026 · The Chosen series
Jeremy MacDonald explores Jesus' teaching in Matthew 5 on turning the other cheek and going the extra mile. He shows that these are not signs of weakness, but a way to break the cycle of keeping score by giving with the compassion God has shown us.
More from Jeremy MacDonald · The The Chosen series
Topics: Forgiveness, Money & Generosity, Discipleship
Transcript
[0:00] My name's Jeremy. As she mentioned, I'm our teaching pastor here at Tidal Church, and we are in the midst of a series that we've called "The Chosen," because it's where we get a chance to show some clips from the popular show that you can see online on the life of Jesus called "The Chosen." Now, I'm only partway through Season 4, and so if you see me in the lobby, no spoiler alerts. I do want to just see where it goes and be surprised along the way. But that's a joke, because it's based on the life of Jesus. There are no spoilers. Okay. Stick with me here. How many people have started watching "The Chosen" over the last few weeks to catch it? Oh, I love that. That's amazing. Yeah, it's been so fascinating because it does bring to life, although not every scene is based on an exact scripture, it brings to life what life would have looked like 2,000 years ago, and I've been blessed by it, and perhaps you have been, too. Now, for this morning's message, we're going to get a chance to walk through a very common saying of Jesus, one that perhaps even if you didn't know it was from Him, you've heard it before.
[1:05] The idea of going the extra mile or turning the other cheek. These two things that have been obviously, clearly attributed to Him. And what I've been fascinated by over the last little while is how wrong I think I've gotten this on a personal level. So this is just me being honest here, a little openness in the morning. But I've thought I'm really good at going the extra mile. If you see me at the grocery store, you butt in front, like, "No problem. Easy going." Like, "You go right ahead." I'll bless you and that. That's great. And especially, I thought that I exhibited this so well when I went to Costco earlier this month. It was me and my three kids, and normally we would do Costco and do the shopping first and then get the hot dogs.
[1:50] But this time, we decided we'll do hot dogs first. So we ended up waiting, and if you've ever been at Costco at a mealtime trying to find a table, that'll test your Christianity and faith in the Lord legitimately. And so I've got three cute kids, and we're holding hot dogs. And they're not... They're here, and so I've got to be careful. They were here in first service, but they can't walk and eat, and so we've got to sit down somewhere. So I'm like, "Okay, well, we're going to stay and we're going to watch for an open table, and then we'll take the open table." And surely, I've got three cute kids, and people are kind of waiting and watching, and so a table comes available, and I send my cutest kid, I won't say which one, and like, "Okay, go grab the table quick." And immediately, this giant ogre of a human comes over and takes it over.
[2:35] And I don't know if they were an ogre, but in that moment, I'm like, "Did you not see my kid?" And so this goes on for a good 13, 14, 15 minutes, and so here we are just waiting for... And I thought, "Oh, here we are turning the other cheek. Isn't this the kindest thing? Surely we're living into all that Jesus commands us." And then realizing, though, I think I've missed it, because going the extra mile and turning the other cheek, as Jesus invites people to it, actually has some pretty specific guidelines, has some specific examples. It's a very specific example. And what I was loving about "The Chosen" is how it brought to life a reality for first-century people in a way that I don't think I fully understood.
[3:21] We don't know for sure if Jesus had to ever walk that mile. We know for sure that He and His audience understood what that meant. It was an act of legal ability for the Roman soldiers to ask for that, but it was an act that felt dehumanizing, that felt like it lowered your autonomy, and it felt like they were perhaps taking advantage of you. Now, interestingly, as we get into this, what we discover is that Jesus is going to explain not just what to do in those kinds of moments, but why we think that would be important. We get this text all the way from Jesus's Sermon on the Mount. Now, two summers ago, we got a chance here at Tidal Church to actually do a full 10 weeks walking through the Sermon on the Mount.
[4:11] This fascinating collection of Jesus's, really, in some ways, His greatest hits. He walks through all sorts of different components of what it means to follow after Him and to live as He would have His people to live. So Jesus is not just a good teacher, but He's actually inaugurating and starting this new way of being, this new kingdom on this earth, and to be a part of His kingdom means that we, or you, that you would decide to live in a different kind of way than perhaps the world around you. And so interestingly enough, when we gather in this kind of way, for some of us, it's like, yeah, you've chosen to show up at church on a Sunday. That's got to count for something. Congratulations. Good job. Yeah, that's great. You believe in God? Awesome. There's something about that.
[4:57] That's not a wrong thing. But when we gather in this kind of way, we open up the scriptures to discover the way that Jesus is calling us to live, because ultimately, the request here is not simply to go to church, or not simply to believe in God, but actually to do the things that Jesus has called us to do. And in this instance, He gives some pretty specific notes. Now, we're going to get into it, but I just want to be cautious here. I want to add a caveat because I recognize that in a room like this, there's lots of different understandings and different beliefs, and there's also different situations. And so where you see an example of injustice, where you see an example of somebody taking advantage of somebody else, what we have to be cautious of is what it means to live under that kind of oppression or under that kind of expression. Because for sure, we have to be careful to not impose this example into perhaps a situation of something like abuse. And I'll try to help walk us through this even towards the end, but what this text is not going to say, just so you're aware, is that if you're experiencing the kind of abuse or the kind of breach of authority that requires some level of justice, you should still seek out that justice.
[6:13] You should still seek out safety. That's understandable. That's a part of what life looks like, for sure, as terrible as that would be. But what Jesus is inviting us into is a different perspective that I don't want to lose the oomph to it. And so let's go to His words in Matthew chapter 5. This is, again, Sermon on the Mount, and where He sets up this section, and Jesus says, "You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." And this example is Him quoting the Levitical law, but it's also quoting and kind of capturing the essence of many different laws. In fact, if you look at the history of the world, certainly, there was an expression of law that looked different than this, but there were lots of governments that were trying to build some type of reasonable amount of revenge, let's say, or retribution, that the punishment actually matches the crime.
[7:11] And so, while for our 21st-century kind of eyes, the idea of, "Hey, you lost a tooth, you take the other person's tooth," feels a little bit barbaric, although, let's be careful. If you grew up with your siblings, you kind of have lived this out, right? Like, "You punch me, I'm punching you back." Maybe that was not just my household, but like, "You take from me, and I'm going to take your toy back. You broke my toy, I'm going to break yours back." We know the idea of keeping score and trying to level out so that everything's even. Like, "Let's be fair about this. You got that amount of screen time. I get this amount of screen time." Maybe I'm projecting from my own household. Like, let's keep it even, and let's make sure that nobody's getting more or less than others. And it's that inside of us, that desire for fairness that was actually, in some ways, helpful back in those days.
[8:03] In fact, put this way, the original eye for an eye law that we're kind of reading about here, it wasn't actually designed to encourage revenge, although that's sometimes how we experience it these days. In those days, it was designed to actually limit it, that we wanted to limit the retribution. So if somebody stole your pig, you don't get to go and burn down their house. Instead, the punishment should match what the experienced crime was. That's the concept. There was some life to it and some helpfulness to it. But Jesus says that isn't what His kingdom is all about. In fact, His kingdom people are going to not be about just trying to level the playing field. They're going to be about something different.
[8:48] And so He says to this, "You've heard it said, 'Eye for an eye.' But I say," Jesus speaking, "Do not resist an evil person." Now, this word resist kind of lends itself to wonder, does Jesus mean that we're meant to be meek and mild? And you're like, well, I mean, maybe. Are we meant to be cautious and not stand up for things that are true? And the answer to that is definitely not, because we actually see in the New Testament, the idea of resisting actually showing up in all sorts of scenarios. In fact, it was in Galatians where Paul talks about this idea of resisting. He said, "When Peter came to Antioch, I," Paul speaking, the Apostle Paul, "had to oppose," and this oppose word is the same as the resist word in the original Greek, "I had to oppose him to his face for what he did was very wrong." And the interesting story is that what Peter was doing was actually, he was obviously following Jesus, but he was also living this kind of hypocritical expression.
[9:48] He was actually gathered with Gentiles, Gentile Christians, and then when the Jewish Christians showed up, he was like, "Well, I'm not going to hang out with them. I don't want to be seen with them because then people might think I'm doing the wrong thing." And so Paul's like, "No, you can't be hypocritical in that way." And so Paul actually resists, opposes Peter to stand up for the truth of what it meant to actually follow Jesus. So we do that. Jesus is not saying that you don't ever oppose or stand up. What Jesus is reframing is what happens when you experience an evil person doing an evil deed to you. And He's going to give three examples of what the response should look like, and each of them kind of clarify or showcase perhaps an idea of when somebody says, "Don't oppose an evil person," you're like, "Yeah, but what about this scenario?" And Jesus kind of encapsulates it all.
[10:39] So they're first-century examples, so it's a little bit hard to totally import it, but let's take a look. Jesus says, "For example, if someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also." And then there's an idea here that it's not necessarily that the slap is like an abuse kind of thing. It's more of like a way to lower somebody's dignity or to embarrass them. And again, we're not 100% sure, and so you kind of import again the first-century idea, but perhaps the slap is more like a backhanded thing. And so again, it's meant to demean you, and Jesus says if somebody does that, you respond differently. Now, on this note, it's kind of interesting because if you can just imagine somebody takes and slaps you on your right cheek, what does it take to show them and offer the other cheek?
[11:28] Well, it actually means that you have to look up and look them back into the eyes and stand there full of dignity and autonomy and invite the second slap. And I think that is an interesting understanding of what Jesus is inviting us into, that perhaps the offering here is actually reclaiming dignity and reclaiming autonomy in a situation that might otherwise feel dehumanizing. Here's the second example: "If you're sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat too." And this is harder because again, in our day and age, it's like, just give them... I got a closet full of clothes that don't fit anymore.
[12:14] Like, "Come on, take it all if you want. It's the best that 2005 had to offer." And so it's hard for us to understand what's going on here. In those days, you wouldn't have a lot of options for clothes. And on top of that, your coat, your shirt, some of these things are also keeping you warm at night, giving you the warmth of a blanket and something to wrap around you. And so what you're experiencing here is the injustice of somebody taking something so personal, and then being willing to even offer more back to that person. Second example. Third one, and this is the one that we saw from the video. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, which was his legal right in that first century, carry it for two miles.
[13:00] So here's three examples Jesus gives, trying to flesh this idea out. The cheek, the coat, and the second mile. And as you hear these three things, I think what we have to catch is that Jesus isn't trying to explain or to tell His disciples that this is all about simply just surrendering. That's not what this is. This isn't Him saying like, "You just give up everything and just give over everything for the sake of keeping the peace." That's not it. And it's not even so much about trying to just become kind of weak. This isn't a weakness play at all. Like, "Oh, you don't want to rock the boat too much." Like, "You guys don't have what it takes, and so let's just play this out." I don't think it's about weakness either.
[13:47] I think what's happening here and what perhaps connects to our lives is that in each of these instances, and you can even see it kind of in the clip, there's this expectation. The Romans can of course ask us to do this, but we're taking note of it, or we know that this is how far we can go. And there's almost that sense of, even from an eye for an eye perspective, like, "I'm going to keep the score on this. I'm going to make sure that I know how I've been wronged so that I know what the other person technically owes me, even if they're not willing to acknowledge it." And for some of us and some of you, you've been carrying it. It wouldn't take long for you to rhyme off the client or rhyme off the family member or rhyme off the employer.
[14:34] And you remember exactly like, "Yeah, they owe me. They took advantage of me in this way, and although I didn't have the strength or the power or the ability to get what really was owed to me, I know exactly what the score is." I think what Jesus says with the cheek and the coat and the second mile is that His people, in His kingdom, living in a world that is still dysfunctional and still full of evil, that His people don't actually keep score. And that for you today, you could actually walk out of here and break a cycle that perhaps has existed in your heart and in your mind for even years, and maybe even it's the kind of thing that in your family has even lasted for generations.
[15:28] It's this cycle of retaliation, of keeping track and keeping score so that you know for sure what you're owed and what somebody has really done to you, and that you at least can make it clear. And if we sit down for coffee, let's be clear, I'm on your side. Understanding what you've gone through, it would be easy for me to say, "Yeah, absolutely, she's crazy." Like, "You're in the right here. Of course, you cut it off." Like, "I'm on your side, let's just be clear." But what I'm wondering is, is when you hear about the cheek and the coat and the second mile, what about that would actually be about breaking this cycle of retaliation? What about this thing that has maybe gripped you for so long, wanting it to be fair and wanting them to really understand why they have done you wrong, and why the injustice is just so frustrating, and why can't we just tell this story so that people will know how bad they are and how much I've had to put up with? And what if Jesus is actually saying, "Hey, I've got a way for you to walk a path to freedom."
[16:43] You see, the cycle that lives in your life and in your heart and in your mind, the retaliation and the keeping score, that keeps that cycle alive. And what Jesus invites you and invites me to do is into a specific action that will break it. And that action is not easy, but it's very clear. He's inviting you and He's inviting me to express generosity. Because generosity will actually break the cycle that you've been experiencing and living. Put it this way. One of the commentators would write about this particular passage in the scriptures. So Michael Wilkins is his name, NIV Application Commentary. If you want to learn more about scriptures, the commentaries kind of explain the nuance of the differences from here to 2,000 years ago. And so writing about this, he says this, that I think is helpful in framing it. He says, "The disciples' first responsibility is to reverse the dynamic of the situation from taking to giving.
[17:51] The evil person has attempted to take, but Jesus's disciples are to give to the offender." And this is the life that you've experienced. That person just seems to keep taking from you. They don't understand or appreciate what you've done. They don't recognize that you let them in the line. They don't understand and recognize that every time they've chased after and taken that thing from you, that it's cost you something. But what Jesus says is you reverse that dynamic so that it's no longer about taking, but instead, His disciples, His people, are about giving, even when it doesn't... It's not deserved. Giving, even when that person has already taken from you. And this is what Jesus says. He uses those three examples, and then He says this, this is just crazy, "Give to those who ask, and don't turn away from those who want to borrow." And you're like, "But Jesus, You don't understand their motivation. They don't deserve to get this."
[18:51] And I think that's the point. Michael Wilkins, he says, "With these sayings, Jesus removes the obligation of judging the merit of the request for the charity or the loan. His disciples are free to live generously without question." And to kind of capture this, sometimes we get invitations from the Scriptures, and if you've chosen to follow Jesus, the expectation is you just have to do what Jesus says. You're all in, no matter if there's upsides or downsides or you feel like you understand it or not. If you're here and you don't have faith, you haven't signed up for this. I'm not laying claim to what you should or shouldn't do. I'm just saying, this is what the Scripture said and what Jesus says. I think you should take a shot at it.
[19:36] But interestingly enough, sometimes we get a command from Scripture and then a big explanation of why you should do these things. And so Jesus, in this example, actually, because this is like His greatest hits, it's recorded in other parts of the New Testament. So Matthew records it, we just read that, but Luke actually records a piece of this as well. Luke, getting probably his information from Peter and is writing this detailed note of the Gospel of Luke and then Acts, was in those early days speaking to the eyewitnesses of what Jesus says. And so he quotes Jesus as saying this in Luke 6, "Love your enemies, do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid." And then this is the fun part. This is the helpful part. This is the explanation. Why would I bother with that?
[20:24] That doesn't seem to make sense. That doesn't get me ahead. It doesn't get me anywhere. But He says, Jesus says, "Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High." Because for Jesus, the invitation is not just to follow after Him, but it's to become the people that He wants you to be, the people that you were created to be, the person that you were created to be. To shape and change your heart in such a way that you can actually live into all that Jesus commands. And so this is the way, and He explains the reason for it. Says this, "For He is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked, and you must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate."
[21:25] It's one thing to be able to give people what they deserve. It's another thing when God says, "Do you know how compassionate I've been to you? Why don't you be compassionate in that way to other people?" It's like, oof. The Lord's like, "Do you know how many second chances I've given you?" I'm like, "I can kind of count a little bit. I know how often I've messed up." He's like, "I want you to give that kind of compassion to the people around you. Do you know how many times you've been the one to really rub it in My face and to walk away from Me, and you knew My commands, but you gave up on it anyways? Do you know what I did for you in the midst of all of that?
[22:13] I still loved you. I still died for you." And so that level of compassion is the kind of compassion that the Jesus followers then give to the people around them, that we're not the people that have to judge the merit of the person coming with a request or the person asking for the mile. Instead, the Jesus people are the kinds of people that freely give, that even when somebody is taking, we change the nature of the relationship and change the situation by being the people that say, "I know you've taken. Watch this. I'm going to give to you, even though you don't deserve it. Even though you took from me, I'm going to now give you more than you took so that you have to look me in the eye and realize that by my own volition, I've changed the nature of this relationship.
[23:12] And that all of a sudden, what you're experiencing is the compassionate goodness of God through me, even though you don't deserve it, but guess what? I didn't deserve it either, and I get it." Here's the crazy thing. When you do that, when you experience that, it changes so much. And let me offer the caveat again. I get it. Your situation is complicated. It's easy for me to say this from here without being in the trenches of what you've gone through. But let me tell you that when you're wrestling through what does this mean in light of the complications of my story, you should bring it in prayer to our prayer team, to your small group.
[24:02] You should bring it for discernment, because for sure, there's situations, like I said, abuse. Situations where the authorities should be involved, or you should chase for justice. Absolutely. The point is that so often what's at stake is different than that. And it's easy to write it off without recognizing that what Jesus is asking you and me to do is difficult. But will transform everything. What I want to show you is this clip. It's an artist's rendering of what it might have looked like to go the extra mile.
[24:50] Even when somebody took something from you, to offer instead the generosity that changes the relationship and breaks the cycle and makes it not about who took something from you, but instead what you're able to give to them. And I want you to watch how the generosity of Jesus transforms everybody in this scene. I want you to watch their faces. I want you to watch them as it dawns on folks what's actually happening. And I want you to imagine what it would mean for these words to be true in even your situation. See, I wonder if you and I have been thinking that it's a battle between making things right and making things fair, and Jesus is like, "Nah."
[25:39] This is about the human heart, and it's much more significant than just what's right and what's fair. It's about changing the nature of the relationships. It's about changing the future of your family. It's about changing the interactions that you have with the people around you. And Jesus says it's not about weakness or surrender. It's about actually being able to look somebody in the eye and adjusting and changing the nature of that relationship from somebody that might take from you, instead be the person that gives to them, that they would experience a piece, a small image of this compassion that the Lord's given to you and He's given to me. And this is a hard teaching. And listen, again, I don't know what it's like in your shoes and the situation that you've experienced and the brokenness of the people around you and what they've done to you.
[26:33] And so for that reason, what I want us to do here in just a moment is simply to pray for the Spirit of God to give you wisdom to understand and know what it would look like to go the extra mile. And if it's complicated, honestly, the best thing that you can do, you can come for prayer with our prayer team. If you have a small group, we have small groups that meet throughout the week. And that's the place to do that work of prayer and discernment, to open up about the experiences that you've had and say, "Hey, is this the kind of time? Is this what it's supposed to be, turn the other cheek? Is this what it actually looks like to walk that extra mile?" And let that community be the place that actually allows wisdom to come forth. And then you're going to have to have the courage to pull it off.
[27:20] But in these moments, what I hope is that the thing that you've been holding onto, that cycle that's stayed alive in your heart, that I wonder if they're above or below me at this point, I wonder if you might be able to release and let that go and see what the Lord is actually saying to you and to me about giving the same compassion that He's given to us. And in the first century, that compassion was crazy. It's as crazy now, sure. But if you go back then, what they were offering to the people around them is a wild sense of forgiveness and compassion for all sorts of crazy atrocities. And so all that I'm saying is, if Jesus was willing to say that to His followers 2,000 years ago, I wonder what He might be saying in your life, in your heart, in your situations.
[28:14] So would you stand with us? In a moment, we're going to be able to sing as a response. And in order to sing about the victory that the Lord will bring to us, we have to recognize it and have the wisdom to know that the battles we fight are different than what we might have expected, that the victory He offers is different than being able to get above and ahead of the next person. It's not a victory that means that the difficulties go away and people stop taking from you and evil just kind of dissipates from your relationships. It's like that might still be there. And in the midst of all of that, the victory of being a kingdom person living Jesus' kingdom values, that's the victory. That's the strength and the compassion that He wants us to live into. And so let me pray for all of us for the wisdom to know what that might look like, so that when it comes time to ask for the courage, we know exactly what we're asking for.
[29:11] Heavenly Father, thanks for preserving these texts for this long. Thank you that these, although are not easy words to hear, they're at least so often so clear. And so, Lord, as we think about the cycle of keeping score and retribution and how far ahead we are and who's taking from us and how can we fight through it all, Lord, I pray that You would give us Your wisdom to know how we can completely turn the tables and be the kinds of people that would offer compassion even when it's not deserved because You offered that to us first. And so, Lord, even in these moments, would we have a picture of what that might look like. And where it's concerning or challenging or we're not sure, Lord, prompt us to find the community and the discernment amongst our friends here that can pray for us and can come to the front here. And Lord, that we can be given the kind of community that would help guide us through in these kinds of ways.
[30:12] But Lord, let us know what Your Spirit is inviting us into so that we know how to ask for the courage to pull it off. And ultimately, Lord, we're grateful that You were compassionate first so that we could be the kinds of people that turn around and offer that compassion to others. Thank You that we do get the victory. But Lord, thank You that the victory is so much better than we could possibly imagine and that we're not fighting a battle against our coworker or our family member. We're not fighting a battle against our neighbors. We're not fighting a battle against the generations of challenges and difficulties in our family. But Lord, that the battle that we're fighting, that You are inviting us to experience the kind of victories in our heart, and You're shaping us, and You're guiding us.
[30:57] And Lord, today could be the day that generosity could break through it all. And so speak, because Your servants are listening, Lord. In Your name we pray. Amen.