Journey of the Second Mile

On the 30th of April, my name appeared in a variety of newspapers published from Kolkata -I saw for myself in three -The Statesman, The Times of India, Kolkata edition and the Bengali language Ananda Bazar Patrika and may be others. I didn't do anything heroic, did quite something stupid actually. The previous day around noon. I had come in from Dhaka and after completing the formalities, went up to the pre-paid taxi booth and gave my name and destination and with the taxi allotted, went home and went off to nap.

In the evening, I went out for a walk as the sun set. When I came back, I was stunned. My mother informed me that a man from the airport had come looking for me, a few local Bengali news channels were displaying my name in the news ticker at the bottom of the screen and there had been a couple of calls from the newspapers. What was the matter? It seems some where in the vicinity of the taxi booth a pouch containing my passport and a lot of documents had slipped out unnoticed and had come to attention after I had left. The booth manager could not find any Kolkata address or phone number to contact, finally traced the taxi that had carried me home by matching my name from the passport with his records, recalled the taxi and had come over home with the driver identifying the house from memory. Not finding me, he left his mobile number with my mother, so that I could contact him which I did as soon as I could.

Later, while handing over my documents, he mentioned that he deliberately left the police out of this as he had noticed an air ticket to Delhi for the following day and the paper work involved in retrieving my passport from them might mean that I would miss my flight. But he did say that he had contacted the media hoping that I would watch the TV news and be alerted. I did get some calls but one stands out in particular. It was a young girl from the Ananda Bazar Patrika who came calling at my home. After getting the background, she started probing. What did I have to say on the conduct of the taxi booth official , who having no clue or contact details, traced the taxi through his records, and the driver who recognized the house though he had asked for and been refused a tip.

Was that extraordinary or would I call it routine. Had they gone the second mile to help me out of a. quandary? Did their conduct mean that Kolkata still had a soul, a social conscience that people still cared? As we got talking, she told me that her journalistic mission was to capture in a world full of indifference and sensitivity, examples and instances of those who go the second mile and highlight it so that readers find hope and optimism.

In a world of depravity, she was constantly hitting the streets looking for stories that illustrated that there were still good people around and filing them in her newspaper. Her questions made me uneasy. I remembered the taxi driver in the steaming afternoon heat requesting for a little extra above the listed fare as it was his first fare of the day and my declining saying that I was operating by the rules. The same man, who in a couple of hours, who with no particular motivation or reward at all would point out my house to his boss. One of the responses that I made to the journalist however makes me cringe further. Asked by her if I thought if I would similarly go the second mile. I said I wasn't sure. I would probably go the first mile and do the right thing up to a point but wasn't sure about the second. How many of us exist today any way, I thought smugly who asked to part with their coat, will part with their cloak too. There are a few and I know some, but still not that many perhaps. We have the freedom to choose to bear one another's burdens or the freedom not to and many choose not to.

This is in stark contrast to the times in which Jesus lived. The times in which Jesus lived were anything but free. He lived in a nation that was an occupied country; that had one of the worlds greatest and most powerful and indeed one of the most vicious of all empires running its own land. One of the signs that they were in control was that there was a law that said that if you were a Roman, you could demand of a Jew, or of anyone from the occupied countries, that he carry a bag for you for one mile; that you as a Roman could conscript a Jew and force him to carry your bags for one mile. One of the clearest examples of the Roman tyranny was actually on the day of Christ's crucifixion. We read in one of the gospels that the Romans seconded, or conscripted, a man called Simon of Cyrene to carry the cross for Jesus.

Now, in the light of all of this, Jesus of Nazareth starts to talk about something radical. In the world in which he lived, where people by force of tyranny were forced to go one mile in the service of the Emperor, Jesus came along and he said to them: "When you are demanded to do such things, you must not only go one mile, you must go the second mile ." In other words, when tyranny points its finger at you and determines things from you, rather than simply resist, you should show up the tyrant for what he is and shame the tyrant by going not only the one mile as requested, but also a second mile. When you are brought before the Romans, and when you are beaten, you turn the other cheek, and when it is demanded that you give the shirt off your back, you not only give the shirt, you give the cloak as well. You shame those who in their tyranny point their finger at you because that is the way that I, Jesus of Nazareth, want you to live.

I think that this message of going the second mile is a radical message to the disciples of Jesus Christ. Even in the freedoms that we have, even in the world in which we live, it seems that in all relationships, in every facet of our lives, the word of Jesus encourages us to go the second mile is a clarion call to put our commitment to him first and foremost. But the thing about Jesus of Nazareth is not only that he is a wise teacher with good, kind words saying to you: "Go the second mile. Do that extra good," he is al so someone who actually demonstrated it in his life. And because he demonstrated it in his life, he is saying that the one whom you follow is as important as the deed itself. Indeed, whom you follow is very important. It seems to me, as one who follows Jesus Christ, that our ministry to them, our ministry to the world as individuals and as disciples, is at all times to remember the one that we follow, to go the second mile, to give of ourselves as Jesus the Lord gave of himself.