Depending on how one counts, Jesus told somewhere between thirty and forty parables. These short stories and fables were an incredibly effective way of describing the nature of the Kingdom of God to his audience of fishermen, farmers, two thousand years ago, and continue to be effective today. The most famous of Jesus’ parables, The Good Samaritan, is even well known outside the church. Its story of a Samaritan going out of his way to help a waylaid traveler is the inspiration for “Good Samaritan” laws, laws that protect doctors and others from lawsuits when they help a stranger in need.
Unlike many other parables, Luke’s account in chapter 10 of his gospel goes into considerable detail describing the circumstances under which the parable was told and the person to whom the parable was directed. The man, described as a “lawyer,” (an expert in the Mosaic Law of the Old Testament, not someone who argues a case in court) asks Jesus a theological question- “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus turns the question back on the lawyer, who gives the standard Jewish answer - “You shall the 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 answer was the standard, accepted, Jewish response. Loving God with all one’s heart and loving one’s neighbor would, it was believed, lead someone to fulfill all the requirements of the law. But this lawyer was more honest than most of his colleagues. He knew that obeying these two commandments perfectly was not possible, and that the second commandment, loving one’s neighbor was the most challenging of the two. One could fake loving God by following the ceremonial aspects of worship, (going to church, giving ten percent of one’s income, learning the scriptures, etc.) but loving one’s neighbor was different. Loving one’s neighbor required people to do things that disrupted their lives.
Luke alludes to this type of thinking in his brief description of the motivation behind the lawyer’s follow-up question. “Desiring to justify himself.”
The question, which is key to interpreting the parable, accurately describes the motivation for most religious behavior. In religious parlance, “being justified,” means to be found just, or righteous, in the eyes of God. To put it another way, “being justified,” means to be “good enough.” Knowing that no one could truly love his neighbor perfectly, the man wanted to lower the bar to a level he could clear.
Such thinking was wrong two thousand years ago, and it is wrong today. Try as we might, we will never be good enough. No amount of personal sacrifice, selfless giving, or exceptional kindness can get us over the bar. Right standing in the eyes of perfect God requires perfection from us.
But we can’t be perfect! What do we do?
The parable gives us the answer. In the parable Jesus describes religious men who are so concerned with keeping themselves ceremonially clean under the terms of Jewish law (touching a dead body would render them unclean), that they go to great lengths to avoid helping a potentially dying man. In the parable it is a Samaritan (someone considered damned by the Jews) who is free from the pursuit of earned righteousness and thus able to love his neighbor without worrying about becoming unclean.
It is a powerful lesson, and incredibly freeing. I can never be good enough, but that doesn’t matter. Jesus was good enough, and he paid the price for my failings. Because he did, I don’t have to worry about how good I am or how good anyone else is. I don’t have to worry about being judged by others or myself, and I don’t have to waste time judging others. I am free to love and serve others, which is the message of the parable.
- Bart
It is been a long time since I have blogged with any regularity, but I have been writing. The novel I began working on 5 years ago is finally finished. It was actually so long that I decided to divided into two books, The King’s Hand Book 1: Reunion and The King’s Hand Book 2: Restoration. I am currently in the process of submitting it to agents and publishers. (say a few prayers, because very few books actually get published!)
For those of you are new to the blog, I do not always write about faith. I write on whatever topic comes to mind. My goal is to publish at least once a week.
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Bart