And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength. [Deuteronomy 6:5 (NLT)]
Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against a fellow Israelite, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. [Leviticus 19:18 (NLT)]
When a nomikós (Scripture lawyer, an expert in religious law) tested Jesus by asking what he must do to inherit eternal life, the Lord countered with his own question, “What does the law say?” When the man responds with the words of Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, Jesus says he’s answered correctly. Wanting clarification, he then asks, “Who is my neighbor?” His query tells us the nomikós is more interested in the letter of the law than its spirit. Apparently, he wouldn’t want to waste any love on someone who wasn’t his neighbor or miss loving someone who was! Jesus answers the man’s question with one of his best-known stories—the Parable of the Good Samaritan.
Since this expert in the law was testing Jesus, he probably wasn’t alone. His question was another attempt by the religious leaders to trap the troublesome rabbi into saying something that would get Him into trouble with the authorities or show His ignorance of Scripture and expose him as a Messianic pretender. They never seemed to understand that you can’t outsmart the one who wrote the Law!
Because we’re not 1st century Judeans, we fail to appreciate how shocking this story was to Jesus’ audience. Divided by racial, ethnic, and religious barriers, the Samaritans and Jews had a long history of enmity going back 900 years to the kingdom’s division. When the Samaritans’ offer to help rebuild the Temple was refused, they built their own temple on Mt. Gerizim which the Jews destroyed in 128 BC. In retaliation, Samaritans defiled Jerusalem’s Temple by throwing bones into it on Passover. The feud grew and, by the time of Christ, the Jews hated the Samaritans so much they crossed the Jordan river rather than travel through Samaria. The two groups fed their mutual hatred with insult and injury.
Even though Jesus’ audience would have been offended by the priest’s and Levite’s failure to help the dying man in the parable, they still expected the third man to be a Jew. Can you imagine the gasps when Jesus deliberately chose a Samaritan as the hero of His story? To a Jew, the Samaritans were a “herd” not a nation and, because of their mixed Jewish-Gentile blood, they were racial “half-breeds.” The worst insult a Jew could use was to call someone a Samaritan. A common saying in Judah was, “A piece of bread given by a Samaritan is more unclean than swine’s flesh!” Yet, in Jesus’ parable, it was a Samaritan who showed compassion for the nearly dead Jew when his own countrymen ignored his need. When Jesus asked the lawyer which man was a neighbor to the injured man, unwilling to say it was a Samaritan, he answered, “The one who showed him mercy.”
To the parable’s priest, the injured man was nothing but an inconvenience and, to the “rubbernecking” Levite, he was a curiosity. Their failure to help the injured man wasn’t because they didn’t know he was their neighbor; it was because they lacked compassion! To the Samaritan, however, the wounded man was neither Jew nor Samaritan. He was a person in desperate need of help and the Samaritan only did what a good neighbor does—he responded with love.
People today continue to be divided by racial, ethnic, religious, and political barriers. If Jesus were telling this parable today, He’d have no difficulty finding people who define “neighbor” by skin color, language, rituals, values, ancestry, history, customs, or politics. The lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor?” The question we should ask ourselves is, “Am I a good neighbor to everyone?”
After pointing out Jesus as the “Lamb of God,” some of John the Baptizer’s disciples left John to follow Jesus. Later, John’s remaining disciples reported that Jesus was baptizing (it actually was His disciples) and wanted to know whose purification ritual of baptism was valid. With many turning from John to Jesus, the Baptizer’s disciples were confused, concerned, and probably a little envious. Apparently, they forgot that John’s original mission was that of forerunner—the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah and point the way to the Lamb of God. Knowing that he wasn’t the bridegroom but only His friend, the Baptizer humbly affirmed his position by telling his disciples that Jesus must become more prominent while he became less and less important. J.C. Ryle likened the Baptizer’s role to that of a star growing paler and paler as the sun rises until the star completely disappears in the light of the sun. John clearly understood that he was to fade in the light of the Son.
Spiritual gifts build God’s Kingdom in a variety of ways including teaching, outreach, speaking, counseling, discipleship, serving, practical assistance, visitation, and prayer. Our gifts were given for the common good of Christ’s church and we need one another’s gifts for the body of Christ to function. Within the church, some gifts, like shepherding, evangelism, or leadership, are easily noticed while others, such as mercy, giving, intercession, and faith may be less obvious. While those gifted in service (the ability to see undone tasks in God’s work and get them done) often work behind the scene, the people gifted in hospitality (the ability to warmly welcome all people into home or church) are front and center Sunday mornings as they greet people by name and extend the hand of friendship to visitors.
When writing about giving God the glory and how we are but instruments of God’s grace in the world, I recalled a quote by Mother Teresa having to do with being God’s pencil. Wanting to quote it correctly, I Googled it. Along with the quote, I came across several versions of a parable about a pencil. Of unknown origin, it has been around for more than twenty years. Nevertheless, the parable was new to me and this is my version of “The Parable of the Pencil.”
At first, it seems that the “Parable of the Unforgiving Servant” should be called the “Parable of the Forgiven Servant.” After all, the king forgave his servant’s debt of 10,000 talents—the equivalent of billions of dollars. While the first part of the parable illustrates the value and extravagance of God’s forgiveness, it takes a dark turn in the second part when illustrating the reciprocal nature of His forgiveness—something the servant learned the hard way!
Like their parents, my youngest grands like to race and recently did this year’s 5K “Hot Chocolate” run. When Paul referred to running, he wasn’t referring to fun runs like theirs or a marathon like the one their parents ran nor were his boxing and wrestling references to the sports we know today. His allusions were to the Panhellenic games and Olympics which were well known throughout the Roman Empire in his day.
Devotions of the Heart 