As the conversation between Jesus and the expert in the Law
continues, the lawyer and Jesus have agreed that the heart and soul of the Law
is loving God with everything and loving our neighbor as ourselves. At this point, the original question, “what
must I do to inherit eternal life?” has been answered in that what is required
by the Law has been clearly summed up.
The next part of the conversation should be a discussion of how we
reconcile the Law’s demand with humanity’s failure to fully keep it, i.e. a
discussion of repentance and forgiveness, of mercy and grace. The lawyer, however, in an effort to justify
himself turns the discussion in a new direction by asking Jesus, “and who is my
neighbor?” The lawyer’s question is
focusing on the object of the Law,
who it applies to, in the hopes that a narrow definition will make it easier to
keep. As Jesus typically does, he doesn’t
answer the question he is asked but instead chooses to focus upon the subject of the Law, that is, us, by
explaining what it means to be a good neighbor.
The
Parable of the Good Samaritan is one of the most commented upon sections of the
Bible, it has fascinated Christians down through the centuries with its
powerful message. In the story, the
unnamed man who is robbed, beaten, and left for dead while journeying from
Jerusalem to Jericho is only treated as a neighbor by one of the three people
who pass by that way. The first two that
come along, both of whom are professional servants of God and thus in theory
ideal representatives of the requirements of the Law to love your neighbor, yet
they both walk by without even stopping to assess the situation. Both of these men of God commit sins of
omission by not helping a fellow human being in distress. The lawyer who asked the question of Jesus
about defining the term neighbor was hoping that the definition would end up
being, “only people like us, our fellow Jews are your neighbors”. Even by that narrow definition, the priest
and Levite are in violation of the Law. The
broad definition of neighbor advocated by Jesus, everyone you meet is your
neighbor, is embodied by the Samaritan who comes along next, takes pity on the
wounded man, and goes far beyond the minimum to take care of his needs.
The
twist of the story is of course that a hated Samaritan is the good guy and two
respected religious leaders are the bad guys, that alone is a powerful enough
message about prejudice and judging people based on outward appearances, but
the parable also teaches us to not put limits on who we consider to be our
neighbors. The demand from God that we
love our neighbors as ourselves has no boundary, there is no “us” and “them”. Anytime that people start dividing the world
up into groups of “us” and “them”, the process begins which allows racism,
sexism, indifference, callousness, greed, and hatred to grow. Why?
Because when we look at another human being as a “them” we allow
ourselves to begin to minimize their suffering and treat it as somehow less
than our own. How was Hitler able to
murder millions of innocent Jews, Gypsies, and other “undesirables”? He had millions of willing men and women
throughout Europe that also believed that those lives were less valuable,
because it was “them” and not “us”, unspeakable horrors were unleashed.
What is
the call of God for his people? To love
all, and treat all equally, to see everyone as your neighbor and imitate the
love of God by loving them in turn. The
conversation between Jesus and the lawyer ends when the lawyer is forced to
concede that the one who acted as a neighbor to the man in distress was “the
one who had mercy on him”, it does not matter who he was, his actions spoke for
him. In response Jesus said, “Go and do
likewise”.
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