Go and do likewise. Luke 10:37 (NIV)
Will We Be Able? – Part 6
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Jesus.
What an incredible teacher. He could have got all up in that lawyers face when he asked “Who is my neighbour” and reprimanded him, demanding that he love all and that he should have known better. “Get your act together lawyer! Don’t you know that the Kingdom of God is at hand?!”
But he makes it more personal than that. More kind and generous. He tells a story. A story that gets under the skin and pokes into the deep, dark recesses of our hearts, where we can identify with most characters on any given day. A story that stays with us and messes up our worldview.
A few days ago we shared a quote from Martin Luther Kings Jnr’s final speech. He said of the Preist and the Levite in the story of the Good Samaritan,
“It’s possible that those men were afraid. You see, the Jericho Road is a dangerous road… In the days of Jesus, it came to be known as the ‘Bloody Pass’… And so the first question that the priest asked, the first question that the Levite asked was, ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’“
“But then the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'”
The Lawyer asked, “what can I DO to get to inherit internal life for myself? Who is MY neighbour?”
This parable puts flesh and blood on scriptures like Matt 5:44-45 (PT) which says, “However, I say to you, love your enemy, bless the one who curses you, do something wonderful for the one who hates you, be and respond to the very ones who persecute you by praying for them.”
And Luke 6:29-32, “To those who despise you, continue to serve them and minister to them. If someone takes away your coat, give him as a gift your shirt as well. When someone comes to beg from you, give to that person what you have. When things are wrongly taken from you, do not demand they be given back. However you wish to be treated by others is how you should treat everyone else. Are you really showing true love by only loving those who love you back?”
More violence will not end this deplorable cycle of violence that is spinning out of control in our world. It will take men like that Samaritan who will cross borders, build bridges not walls, and reach out. It will take you and I believing the best in others and showing them the best of ourselves. It will take people beaten and left for dead to show forgiveness and acceptance for whoever will come along and show them kindness.
The parable of the Good Samaritan tells us that this cycle of violence, of labels and segregation and judgement, can be broken.
“Can we finally agree that it is better to acknowledge the humanity and the potential to do good in the enemy, rather than to choose death? Will we be able to care for our enemies, who are also our neighbors? Will we be able to bind up their wounds rather than blow up their cities? And can we imagine that they might do the same for us? Can we put into practice that inauguration promise of not leaving the wounded traveler on the road? The biblical text — and concern for humanity’s future — tell us we must.” Amy-Jill Levine.
Jesus looked at the Lawyer who was struggling with the concepts of this provocative tale and asked, “who was more neighbourly?” Out of hatred, revulsion, or maybe out of self-realisation and shame, the lawyer couldn’t even respond with uttering the Samaritans identity.
“Go and do likewise.” Jesus said.
And still says.
It starts with us.
Deut 30:19 says, “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!”
That ‘today' is every day. So whether you are the man beaten half to death, the Priest or the Levite, or perhaps even the Lawyer, choose life.
Go to Part 7 – Pharisee and the Tax Collector
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