Changed Perspectives

We have been learning that the Bible, in its substance, is a storybook.  Much of the material in the Hebrew Scriptures (The Old Testament) was first shared in oral form--it was told, received, learned by heart, and passed down from one generation to the next. The stories in the Christian Gospels of the New Testament also began in oral form.

This past Wednesday we discussed how Jesus, in his ministry, used stories to teach the people.  He used them to answer questions as well.  We read from Luke Chapter 10:25-37, which contains "The Parable of the Good Samaritan." Jesus is answering a series of questions from Pharisees, "lawyers," who are testing him. They are not interested in deep explorations or answers that might open our minds and hearts.    They just want to see if he will say things that they already agree with, or not.

The first question Jesus was asked was, "Teacher,what shall I do to inherit eternal life?'  Jesus responded by asking the lawyer what the scriptures has already taught him.  The man responded by reciting two deeply related commandments: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself."  Jesus told him: Do this and you will live.

But the man wanted to now the limits of neighborhood--how narrowly can we define "neighbor?"
Instead, Jesus tells him the story of the man travelling on  the Jerusalem--Jericho Road who is beaten and robbed and left for dead by the side of the road.  And how a Priest and a Levite  (we translated this as a Pastor and an Elder) passed by on the other side, not getting involved or tending to the man's wounds.  But a Samaritan (someone considered a foreigner, unclean, undesirable, other) was the one who came and tended to the injured man, ministered to him, and lodged him at the inn at his own expense. We discussed how shocked the injured man would have been when he awoke and found out that a Samaritan, someone he had always looked down on and wouldn't allow to touch him, had been the one who poured out compassion and saved his life. "It would have changed his perspective," one of our class members said.

Indeed, Jesus'ministry, and the whole of the scriptures, offer us many new perspectives on life, on God and God's will, and, on one another.

Our discussion was very rich. What would you like to add to this description?

"Which one," Jesus asked, "proved to be the neighbor to the beaten man?"  "The one who showed him mercy," the lawyer responded.  "Go and do likewise," said Jesus; live that way. Such mercy and compassion are eternal.

Below is the picture of the "map" of Israel that showed how people from Jesus' region of Galilee in the north, when they traveled  to Jerusalem in the south, would go around Samaria just to avoid the Samaritan people, whom they looked down on.  Thank God the Samaritan in Jesus' story had a different attitude towards those who looked down on him!  Of course, they didn't know him!
We discussed some contemporary attitudes that people hold about "others" that Jesus would definitely give us a new perspective on!!