It Is Not All The Laws And Rules That Count!

               Part one of two

 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." 

The lawyer stood arrogant before the “unauthorized teacher.”  This man was well educated in Old Testament Law.  He was authorized to judge what, and who, was right or wrong in God’s sight. His question was asked to put Jesus in his place.  To belittle him in front of his followers. However, he had a short-sighted understanding of the situation!  What he didn’t know was that this presumably “unauthorized teacher” is the God who is the Law. 

I always find myself wondering, when I read this story, why didn’t Jesus just tell the lawyer:  All you need faith! Faith in what you so passionately defend!  What you say you have faith in!

Why did he tell him a parable?

Could it be that simply believing is really not enough?  

Or, Could it be that belief and faith had, for much too long, been distorted by the idea of privilege?  That is, a belief distorted by an attitude of unfounded status???  Being God’s “chosen?”  Thus somehow superior, above doing?

Could it be that the parable was told in order to make clear that eternal life was not a “given.”  Not a given, that is, for those who had for years been living in God’s grace.  Testing God’s patience and continually experiencing God’s forgiving mercy?

Maybe the parable was told to help the lawyer, and those like him, to realize that following all the laws, and rules, and cultural rituals and traditions was not going to be enough to “Inherit Eternal life.”

Quite possibly it was Jesus’ way of taking all the Jewish rules, and rituals, one step further!  To the law of love as the number one priority!  

Because, you see, the Hebrew people kept missing that one crucial point!  That is, turning to God with all their heart and with all their soul and with all their mind. 

The Commandment of the LORD, from beginning to end, is so absolutely clear!  

“It is very near you; it is in your mouth and it is written on you heart for you to observe.(Deut. 30:14)

Always has been!  Always will be!   

The command is to “care for!”  Take care of all that is created by the hand of God.  That is, lead lives that demonstrate God’s love, mercy, kindness, compassion and yes, God’s gracious acceptance.

Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

And Jesus tells a parable!

He uses the parable because he saw right through the Lawyer’s question!

The story goes this way!  A man, was walking along, a deserted road, between Jerusalem and Jericho. The man had been robbed, beaten and left to die. 

Jesus cleverly puts the lawyer into the story; by talking about how two of his, would be, colleagues responded to the injured man.  One was a Jewish Priest.  The other, considered a holy man, who worked in the temple.  They came upon the injured man at different times.  However their reaction to the man was the same.  In order to avoid him the “crossed to the other side” of the road.  Leaving him to die!

Then Jesus brings into the story a most despicable, most hated character.  A Samaritan, of all people!  A man who, according to the lawyers religion, is virtually considered a non-person!  A person who in-no-way should be even traveling on this road.  Right smack in the middle of the lawyer’s holy turf.  Yet, Jesus makes him the hero of the story.  The one who took care of the injured man.  And found him a place to stay until he could heal.  

At this point, Jesus says to the all-too-sure lawyer: “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor?”  

“The one who showed him mercy.”  The lawyer replied.

The facts are, the Samaritans and the Jew’s did not play nice on the playground of life!  

They in no way considered the other “a neighbor!”  

This is, an extremely pointed, story about something much more then being neighbors!  This story hits the proverbial nail right smack on the head!  On dead center!  It is what Jesus taught all the way through his three years of ministry. And he was driving the nail in as deep as it could go! As he ended his contest with the lawyer of the Law.  When he said, “Go and do likewise!”  Go and do as your enemy did!

This little parable tells us what it truly means, to know what it is like, to be loved the way Jesus loved. Jesus loves!  That is, when we love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  The injured man got that kind of love from his supposed enemy.

You see, if the injured man was a Jew (We are not really clear about that fact) then he was receiving from someone he consider despicable!  An enemy, by all cultural rules.  The kind of love that his two Jewish brothers did not offer.

The Samaritan treated his enemy the way he hoped that he would be treated if he would have been the one dying on that deserted road.

That is the meat and meaning of this not so simple parable!

The lawyer knew!  He knew that Jesus was not talking about any law, or ritual, or cultural norm here.  His Jewish laws didn’t cover this kind of love.  Nor, did it cover, his limited imagination of what Jesus meant by “neighbor.”

25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he said, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 He said to him, "What is written in the law? What do you read there?" 27 He answered, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself." 28 And he said to him, "You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live." 29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 30 Jesus replied, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan while traveling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said, "Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.' 36 Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?" 37 He said, "The one who showed him mercy." Jesus said to him, "Go and do likewise.”(Luke 10)