Faith First Media

The following is an excerpt from the book A Theology of Peace by Matthew Elton, copyright 2009 Matthew Elton.

Going the Extra Mile

If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles.

--Matthew 5:41

In first century Judea, the poor were oppressed under a practice called angareia – the involuntary drafting of peasants to carry the gear of Roman soldiers. Angareia is seen in the Bible when Simon of Cyrene was forced by Roman soldiers to carry the cross of Jesus. He was only forced to carry the cross part of the way, however, since the Roman government had ruled that the maximum distance a man could be forced to carry gear under angareia was one mile.

One mile might not sound very far, but Roman soldiers often carried at least seventy pounds of gear with them. If a man was asked to carry this gear for a mile and he resisted, he would be beaten, arrested, and imprisoned. If he surrendered to the Roman soldier’s demand, he would have to carry the gear for an entire mile. After one mile, the Roman soldier would tell him to stop, since carrying it further than one mile was a crime under Roman law.

The Jews hated angareia with a burning passion – it was a horrible injustice. But rather than attempting to resist it through violence, Jesus offers another creative form of nonviolent resistance. If a man was forced by a Roman soldier to carry gear for one mile, what would happen if he continued to carry the gear for more than one mile? The soldier would be placed in a very awkward position. If a peasant was drafted under angareia, Roman law dictated that the solider had to stop him after one mile. If anyone found out that the peasant had continued for two miles, the soldier could himself could be arrested and beaten!

Once again Jesus offers a creative method of nonviolent resistance that would repay the soldier for his oppression without resorting to violence on the part of the peasant. If enough peasants heeded Christ’s command, hundreds of Roman soldiers would be beaten by other Roman soldiers of higher rank. The “enemy” would thus destroy itself, with no need for violence on the part of the peasants. The entire system of oppression that existed under angareia would be comprised. Roman soldiers beaten for breaking the law would be much less likely to draft peasants under angareia again in the future. Once again we see that we can overcome evil not by repaying it with more evil, but by repaying it with good. By carrying the gear for an extra mile – an act of compassion rather than violence – the Roman system of oppression would be horribly compromised.