Luke 10:25-37
07/12/07 , by Posted by: admin
I always find Jesus’ stories (and parables) very very fascinating, especially when it is read with their historical context in mind. I see this week reading is the famous story of the Good Samaritan! Jesus answering a question by a lawyer about who is regarded as ones’ neighbour. Jesus turned the question back on him: in this story, who turned out to be neighbour to the man in the ditch? Like so many of Jesus’ brilliant stories, it operates at several levels. At the simplest level, of course, it is a spectacular invitation to a life of self-giving love, love in action, love that’s prepared to roll up its sleeves and help no matter what it takes. But at the next level down, it’s a story designed to split open the worldview of its hearers and let in a shaft of new and unexpected light. Instead of the closed world of Jesus’ hearers, in which only their own kith and kin were properly to be counted as neighbours, Jesus demands that they recognise that even the hated and feared Samaritan is to be seen as a neighbour. But lets look around before we come back and focus in on something to take with us as we read and re-read this popular passage. It is said in various setting that the world has, on one half, the commercial development of industries and entrepreneurship which somehow create a climate where the individuals is what matters. You look out for whatever best for yourself and human flourishing and fulfilment come from looking after Number One. We even read the Bible this way - just take what’s relevant for me personally! In that sort of world, you only stop to help the ragged, pathetic figure in the ditch if you recognise them as an extension of yourself; a friend, or family member; or if you think that by doing so you will gain some advantage, make some useful friends, cut a fine figure, or develop a good reputation for being a nice person. Ultimately, it’s still all about Me. On the other hand, is religion! Religion has become more and more about escaping this wicked, troubled world and going to a place called ‘heaven’. Going there when we die but also going there now by just prayer and meditation. Some call this - escapist spirituality in the present, which is kind of turning your back on the theme which makes sense of the Bible. Such religion, may feel some sympathy for the battered and bedraggled figure in the ditch, but its message to him will always be that though we can help him a bit, ultimately it doesn’t matter because the main thing is to escape this wicked world altogether. And that represents a tragic diminishing and distortion of what Christian faith is all about. The Christian God, the God we hang our hope on, is the creator of the universe; promises us he will put the world to rights. Interestingly enough, the last Book of the Bible ends with not being taken up into the sky, but with the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven to earth. It is from this interpretation I am encouraged to look and find my vocation and what I am called to do on my way to Jerusalem, to Zion, to the place where the living God dwells. I suspect we know in our bones that looking after Number One isn’t what following Jesus is about. In Jesus Christ we are called not to save ourselves from the world but to bring salvation to the world. We are Christians because we are committed to the pilgrim way, the way that leads to God’s new Jerusalem, and because we know that on that road there is healing: then shall the eyes of the blind be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy. It is my hope we encourage each other to discover that it is more blessed to give than to receive, that a life of service has the fingerprints of Jesus all over it. The idea of what we are trying to do (as you read through this web-site), is to implement what Jesus has done. The call is to not be good bible-believing theologians who pass by those in the ditch. We know what is written, we are credentialed as priests and Levites, and yet our behaviour is a scandal to what we profess. May the Good Samaritan remind us that we gather in church to closer to God. But how do we like proximity to a God who loves enough not to pass by but lingers long enough among us to judge us, to hold a higher standard of judgment against us than that by which we measure ourselves?
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