For the past year, we have been tracing the gospel story of Jesus week by week as it happened 1997 years ago. It is midwinter in 27 AD, the 45th week of Jesus’ 70-week ministry. Our passage for today comes from Luke 10,
Luke 10:38-42 Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”
This is a familiar story, Martha is busy preparing and serving food while Mary sits with the others, talking to Jesus. You’ve probably heard several sermons about this passage. But do you know the context of this passage? Do you know the setting? It is important.
The Gospel of John tells us Jesus is in Jerusalem to celebrate the festival of Hanukkah. Hanukkah celebrates the deliverance of the Jews in 165 BC. Just over 150 years before Jesus’ birth, the Jews were under the rule of the Seleucid Empire, which had tried to eliminate Jewish culture and insisted they worship the emperor and Zeus. They burned their Bible scrolls; they refused to let them go to their synagogues or even say God’s name out loud. They tortured and killed tens of thousands of Jews. But the Jews refused to bow down to idols and revolted. Against unbelievable odds, the Jews prevailed and restored true worship. Every year, they celebrate their deliverance from this evil kingdom, much like we celebrate July 4th. So Jesus is in Jerusalem to celebrate the 8-day holiday of Hanukkah. During the day, Jesus taught in the Temple courtyard using the themes of Hanukkah. He explained how he is the Good Shepherd and the Light of the World. In the evenings, since he has no home, he stays with friends in the nearby town of Bethany.
So this passage is very timely for us. It is a scene we will all recreate in the next 24 hours. Friends and family have gathered in the winter for a big holiday dinner. So welcome to Hanukkah dinner at the house of Lazarus.
Holiday dinners are special. Like our holiday dinners, the meals on Jewish holidays are often elaborate. A Jewish friend of mine joked that almost all Jewish celebrations, whether Passover, Purim, or Hanukkah, follow the same 3-part description. “These people tried to wipe the Jews from the face of the earth. God delivered us. Let’s eat!” You probably have certain food traditions for your Christmas Eve or Christmas meals. At Hanukkah, the classic food today is potato latkes (fried potato cakes) and fried doughnuts (typically jelly filled.) Lots of fried food, in keeping with the Hanukkah theme of the miracle of the oil. The first night of Hanukkah is tomorrow night, by the way. Light a candle, fry some potatoes and doughnuts, and take a moment to thank God for rescuing our Jewish ancestors and Jesus’ great-great-great-great grandparents from another holocaust.
Holiday dinners can be stressful. You want everything just right. After all, the holiday only comes once a year, and getting the whole family together seems harder and harder. Just imagine how stressful it would be to host a holiday dinner and find out Jesus is on the guest list. Now you have some idea what Martha felt in this story in Luke. Martha wants everything to be perfect. She wants to be the perfect hostess with the perfect meal in the perfect home.
I am reminded of the story of the family who had invited the new pastor over for dinner. Of course, they wanted to make a good impression and wanted everything to be just right. So they work hard to clean the house and prepare the perfect meal. But everything goes wrong. The plumbing backs up, and the house smells awful. The vacuum cleaner explodes, sending dust all over everything. In their rush to clean that up, the rolls burn to a crisp. Then the doorbell rings. They finally sit down for dinner with the pastor, and the mother asks little Johnny to say the blessing. He looks panicked like he has never prayed before. She quickly says, “Just pray like you have heard Daddy and Mommy pray.” So little Johnny closes his eyes, bows his head, and says, “Dear Lord, why in Heaven did we ever invite these people over for dinner?”
Martha’s sister Mary is sitting listening to Jesus teach and enjoying the fellowship of Jesus and the disciples while Martha does a lot of work. However, Mary is not chided for her laziness; in fact, Jesus says Mary has chosen the good portion. What is the good portion Mary chose? What was Mary doing that Jesus said was more important than helping Martha?
Martha is anxious and troubled over many things, but one thing is necessary. What were the many things that caused Martha distress? The passage tells us that Martha was distracted by “much serving.” Now, don’t get the idea that the Bible speaks against hospitality. On the contrary, hospitality in the Bible is a form of righteousness. If anything, we underestimate the importance of hospitality in scripture. Martha is serving; she is doing a good thing, But she is distracted. The Greek word we translate as ‘distracted’ comes from two root words that literally mean ‘pulled’ ‘in every direction.’ Have you ever felt that way in the holidays? Martha is anxious and troubled, pulled in many directions, but one thing is necessary.
What is the one thing? Mary is sitting down with her family and friends, listening to Jesus’ teaching. Picture the story in your mind. She is at the table, in her home, with friends and family, talking about scripture and the teaching of God. She is fulfilling what Jesus said was the greatest commandment, Deuteronomy 6:4 and following — the Schema.
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
I’m afraid we remember the first sentence of that passage but not the rest. Jesus only quoted the first verse to the rich young ruler because he knew that any Jewish child could quote the whole passage. We know that this is the first scripture Jesus and any other Jewish child would memorize, the scripture Jesus and every other Jew would have quoted at least twice every day in prayer to His Father.
But we stop with the first verse and ignore the rest. “And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.” We should memorize them and take them to heart. “You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.” I am afraid we have become distracted by many things and neglected this one thing that is necessary. I fear the conversation of God is not frequently heard in our homes, at our tables, or in the education of our children.
But Martha was pulled in many directions, handling all the details of the perfect meal and doing many things but not the “one thing.” She didn’t notice that the important thing was not what was on the table but who was around the table. The “one thing” is following the greatest commandment and spending time with Jesus, discussing His word in your home with your family and friends, teaching it to your children.
Have you noticed who is not mentioned in this story? It is Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus. John 11:5 says, “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.” We know something about this dinner that Martha didn’t know. In just over 2 months, Lazarus will be dead. In just over 4 months, Jesus will be crucified. If Martha had known this, would it have changed how she behaved that day? You never know if this is your last holiday dinner with a friend or family member.
The holidays are here. We will all recreate this scene in our homes in the coming days. Will we find time to do the one thing Jesus said was the best portion? The first and greatest commandment — the one thing. Love God with all that is within you and gather people in your home to teach the Word; discuss them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Oh, Martha, you are doing many good things, but one thing is necessary.
Today we celebrate that over 2000 years ago, Jesus left the splendor of Heaven to be born into a poor family in a borrowed cave. He came to show us how to live, and he came to show us how to die, giving up his very life for our salvation. Our love for God should be so central to who we are that our conversations in our homes are centered on the word of God. As we gather in our homes in the next few days and the days to come, let’s ensure we don’t leave out the one thing.
The days are getting shorter. Have you noticed it? There is less daylight every day. Today, there will be 4.5 fewer hours of sunlight than in June. Does anyone like that? It could be worse. The further north you live, the less daylight there is. This has to do with the tilt of the Earth’s axis and its position relative to the sun. This photo traces the sun’s path during the day from a very northern latitude, Greenwich, England.
In mid-summer, the sun takes this highest arc. On the winter solstice, it takes the lower path. During the three years we lived in Boston, we really missed the hours of sunlight we have here. They lose 6 hours of daylight in winter. I didn’t understand how much this affected us until we moved there, and it seemed like the sunshine abandoned us for months of gray skies with no light. Seasonal affective disorder is a real medical diagnosis. As the hours of sunlight decrease, your brain chemistry changes. You produce more melatonin and less serotonin. Most people have at least some chemically induced depression. We need the light. The first thing God created was light.
I don’t know how people in northern Alaska survive. The last day they saw any sunlight was November 18th. They will not see the sun again until January 22. It is no wonder people in Arctic communities have higher rates of depression, substance abuse, and suicide. Too much darkness is a very bad thing. If you hate the shorter days, I have some good news for you. It will soon get better. There is an end to the shortening of our days this week. After Saturday, December 21, the days begin to have more and more light.
Some days are darker than others; some days, this world seems filled with darkness. As we continue to follow Jesus in his 70-week ministry, he is in the temple teaching during the celebration of Hanukkah. To understand what Jesus is teaching, we need to know the context of Hanukkah. So, we need to talk about a very dark time in history.
We go back to 336 BC. Alexander the III of Macedonia succeeded his father on the throne at the young age of 20. He went on to conquer most of the world before his death at 32. When Alexander died, his kingdom was divided among four of his generals, who then fought each other for control. The Selucids and the Ptolomys governed the largest two territories. The Seleucid Empire stretched as far east as India. Israel was between the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires and was fought over for more than a hundred years before it came under the control of the Seleucid ruler, Antiochus IV, in 175 BC.
He was a brutal dictator who insisted on being called ‘Antiochus Epiphanes.’ Epiphanes is the Greek word for ‘god manifest’ or ‘god in the flesh.’ This evil emperor claimed to be a god in the flesh. He tried to exterminate the Jewish religion. He made it illegal to pronounce God’s name, Yehovah. Thus began the Jewish practice of not saying God’s name aloud. He outlawed Sabbath worship and circumcision. He burned the scriptures. He placed a statue of Zeus in the Jewish temple (that looked remarkably like himself) and sacrificed pigs on the altar. Josephus, a historian in Jesus’ day, describes the punishment for those Jews who refused to worship Antiochus and continued to practice their faith:
“…they were whipped with rods, and their bodies torn to pieces, and were crucified, while they were still alive, and breathed. . . . And if there were any sacred book, or the law found, it was destroyed: and those with whom they were found miserably perished also.”1
Can you imagine if your country was conquered and ruled by such a dictator who made your religion illegal and killed or tortured anyone who worshipped? These were very dark days for the Jews. Tens of thousands of Jews were killed.
But a rebellion arose led by a priest and his son Judah, nicknamed ‘Maccabee’ (the hammer). Against almost unbelievable odds, the Jewish people drove back the army of the Seleucids and freed the country. You can read all about this in the books of 1st and 2nd Maccabees. You won’t find them in your Bible, as they are part of the Apocrypha. They are ancient books that are not the words of God, not scripture, but have helpful historical information.
The Jews drove the Seleucids out, but their temple was a mess. The statue of Antiochus had to be removed, and the altar and the Menorah in the holy place were profaned with the blood of the pig sacrifices. They had to be replaced and rededicated to God before worship could resume. The Menorah, the golden candle stand in the holy place that burns constantly, representing the presence of God, was relit, and the altar was rebuilt. They had missed the 8-day feast of Tabernacles that fall as it had been outlawed, so they celebrated it in the winter. They then decided to keep this 8-day festival to celebrate their deliverance from the oppressive rule of the Antiochus and the Selucids. They called this festival ‘Hanukkah’ and celebrated it as the festival of dedication. They also called it the ‘Festival of Lights,’ as Josephus noted, because the light of God had penetrated the dark days they had under the oppressive rules of the Selucids.
The relighting of the menorah in the temple was celebrated as people lit candles in their homes. Later, a legend developed of how there was only enough sacred oil to burn in the lamp for a single day, but it took 7 days to purify more oil, and the single day’s worth of oil lasted 8 days. Each night of the 8-day Hanukkah festival today, a candle is lit on a 9-branch candle stand. Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Jews over their oppressors, the dedication of the people who faced death by refusing to worship idols, the rededication of the temple, and the victory of light over darkness. It is the festival of lights.
And it comes in winter, the time of year when darkness seems to prevail. That brings us to another time when the forces of darkness are gaining ground. It is this very week, mid-December, 1997 years ago. It is the winter of 27 AD, and Jesus is preaching and teaching in Jerusalem. But the religious leaders of the day, the elite, those who are wealthy and powerful, are seeking to kill Jesus; the forces of darkness are attempting to extinguish the Light of the World.
The image of light is very important in John’s gospel. This is how it begins:
John 1:1-9 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
Early in his ministry, Jesus meets with a Pharisee at night and tries to explain. Jesus tells Nicodemus, the Pharisee:
John 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
The Bible consistently emphasizes God’s truth as the light shining in the darkness. In his prophecy of the coming Messiah, the suffering servant of Isaiah, we read:
Isaiah 49:6 For He has said: “It is too little that you should be My servant In that I raise up the tribes of Jacob And restore the survivors of Israel: I will also make you a light of nations, That My salvation may reach the ends of the earth.”
If only the Jewish leaders of Jesus’ day had understood this. It would be too small of a mission for the Messiah to bring deliverance only to Israel, so he will also be a light in the darkness for all the nations, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.
The Gospel of John tells us that it is this celebration, this Festival of Lights, that brings Jesus to Jerusalem despite the danger of contact with the religious elite that is conspiring to kill him.
John 10:22-23 At that time, the Festival of Hanukkah took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon.
During this festival, Jesus chooses to teach using the themes of Hanukkah, just as many pastors will preach this season using the themes of Christmas. Everything in John 8:12 to 10:39 and Luke 10:38-42 happens during the Festival of Hanukkah. The passage begins:
John 8:12 Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
This is when people are lighting candles in their homes each night. As they light the candles, they remember how, after the defeat of the enemy in 165 BC, they had the relighting of the Temple menorah, which represented the return of worship and God’s presence. Jesus claims to be the Light of the world that Isaiah predicted, the Messiah that would bring the light of God’s presence to all the world. He is the light, God’s presence among them. As they remember back to the evil ruler Antiochus, who tried to convince them that he was God in the flesh, Jesus now tells them that he is the true God incarnate, God in the flesh. But he has come not to punish them or destroy them; he has come to bring salvation.
Jesus spends chapters 8 and 9 trying to tell them that he is the Messiah, came from his Father’s throne, and was the light that Isaiah prophesied would come into the world. But the religious leaders could not see it, so in John 10:24 they ask,
“How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”
John 9:39-41 Jesus said, “For justice, I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.” Some of the Pharisees near him heard these things, and said to him, “Are we also blind?” Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
He had been telling them plainly, but they were blind. And they claimed to be the religious elite, the only ones who understood the scriptures.
My friend Becca lost her vision several years ago. She lives in total darkness. Can you imagine that? ……..There is no light in her day, only darkness, 24/7.
Now, during Hanukkah, Jesus, in this passage in John 9, gives sight to a man who was blind from birth. Before he heals the man, he says:
John 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
I don’t think we understand the importance of this miracle of healing a man born blind. It is a clear statement that he is the coming Messiah.
John 9:34 Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind.
People who had once seen and lost their vision had it restored, but never had anyone born blind been healed and given vision. None of the prophets, no miracle workers, had ever done this. That was something only the Messiah would be able to do. That was something only the Messiah would be able to do. This would prove Jesus was the Messiah. And he did it right before them, and still, they refused to believe it. Read John 9. The Pharisees are really torn up about this. They questioned the man, who was blind, several times. They called the man’s parents in to be asked, “Are you sure this is your son who was blind?” They keep interviewing the man. They still refuse to believe and throw the man out.
This man who knew nothing but constant darkness meets the Light of the World, and light enters his world for the first time during this festival of Lights. And Jesus claims to be the Messiah, the light of the world. But there are many who can’t see.
What did Jesus tell Nicodemus?
John 3:19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
We today live in a world that seems to get darker and darker. We see the enemy seem to get bolder and bolder in promoting sin. What was completely unacceptable in public just years ago is now accepted as normal. Look at how the world has changed. What would have been unthinkable to have on public television 20 years ago is now not just visible but actively promoted as good. Society’s values and morals are eroding at a quickening pace.
And while we know the date that the days here will stop getting shorter and start getting longer (the winter solstice, December 21), we don’t know when our solstice of worldly darkness will come. How much darker will it become? When will the day come when the darkness of this world stops getting worse?
You may be at a time in your life when darkness seems to prevail. Some times are darker than others. This may have been a difficult year or season for you. I know it has for my family. Some of you have walked through some dark valleys this past year. You have faced the death of a loved one, chronic illness with continual pain or loss of energy. For some this has been a dark, dark time. You may want to cry out to God as the Psalmist did…
Psalm 13:1 How long, Yehovah? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I take counsel in my soul and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
This is the psalmist being honest with God. We should pray to God with such honesty and emotion. If you are upset, frustrated, or disappointed, pray it. God can handle your honesty. Only after we are honest with God can He help us work through our emotions, as He does with this psalmist.vvHow does the psalm end?
Psalm 13:5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to Yehovah, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
God does intervene for the psalmist, and He will for you. No matter how dark the days are, how bad the prognosis is, or how hopeless the situation is, for those who put their trust in Yehovah, there will come a time when your heart will again rejoice. There is coming a day when God will bring deliverance again.
Another psalm says it well.
Psalm 30:5 Weeping my last for the night, but joy comes in the morning.
In the third week of Advent, we light the candle of Joy and think of the joy that comes to the world with the coming of Jesus. No matter how dark the night, the morning will come. When Jesus died on the cross, the world went dark. But joy came on that Sunday morning as he was resurrected. No matter how dark the world seems, God has a plan to bring joy. No matter how dark the valley that you are walking through, God has a plan to restore your joy. I do not know how long the darkness will last. But I know God has promised you joy in the morning.
Remember what Jesus said before he healed the blind man.
John 9:5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
“As long as I am in the world…” What about when Jesus departed the world? What did he tell his disciples?
Mathew. 5:14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
We carry the light in this dark world. It is up to us to be the light. How are we that light? People see our good works and give glory to the Father. The way we live each day should be a light in the darkness for those around us. In a dark world, our actions should be a light. In a time when politeness has vanished, we should shine with courtesy. In a time when people all think only of themselves, our generosity should be a beacon pointing to our generous father. In a day when many people are depressed, our joy, despite our circumstances, should reveal our faith. In a world where many are forgotten, the way we reach out to the poor, neglected, or lonely should be a light. Paul said to the Ephesians:
Ephesians 5:8 For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
It is our job to shine light into this dark world. And I think back to that time long ago when Yehovah took his friend, Abraham, out to see the stars.
Genesis 15:5-6 And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” And he believed Yehovah, and he counted it to him as righteousness.
On a clear night without light pollution, astronomers tell us we can see about 6000 stars. If you count two stars a second, that’s 5 hours of counting. God’s point is that there are more stars than you can count. And that is just the stars that Abraham could see. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, has over 100 billion stars, and there are over 100 billion galaxies. Abraham could see that if he had access to our best equipment now. So that is over 3.1 billion, billion years to count what we can see now (that’s 3 with 18 zeros after it).
God told Abraham — so shall your offspring be. And Paul told us,
Galatians 3:29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
That is why the songwriter Rich Mullins said, “When I think of Abraham, how one star he saw had been lit for me…”1 This comes to my mind every time I look up at the stars. God said, “Abraham, I know you are old and think you are past the age to have children, but look at what I will do… I will give you a family of faith you can’t number.” And one of those stars had my name on it. And one was lit for you.
So it is our responsibility to shine like stars.
Philippians 2:14 Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life.
In a dark world, we are the light of Christ. Why do we light advent candles? We light the candles for the same reason the Menorah was lit in the temple. We light our candles to remind us that God’s presence, his light, has come to conquer the darkness. Next week, many of us will meet on the eve of Christmas and light the Christ candle. The following evening, our Jewish friends will light the central candle on their Hanukkah menorahs. They call it the Shamash – the servant candle that lights all the others. Isaiah’s suffering servant has come into the world, the light of the world. He has given us light in the darkness; now, we carry that light to the world.
This week, I ask you to shine like stars. Why does Paul say don’t grumble or argue? You grumble when you focus on the darkness, and then you become part of the darkness. Like the psalmist, rejoice that God ended darkness through Jesus, the light of the world. Show your joy! Smile! Sing to the Lord! Do good deeds! Be a light shining in this dark world so that our Father in heaven may be glorified and people will want to come to the light.
Flavius, Josephus. Antiquities of the Jews (XII.5.4).
Mullins, Rich. From “Sometimes by Step” in the album, “The World as Best as I Remember it” 1991.
Week 42 ——— The Hope of Christmas- Justice Matthew 12:14-41
Jesus’ disciples will return from their two-month mission next week, and we will resume our chronological study. As this is the first week of Advent, and the theme is the hope of the coming Messiah and prophecies, let me begin with an Isaiah prophecy.
Isaiah 42:1-4 Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.
This is one of Isaiah’s servant poems, predicting the coming Messiah, who will come as a suffering servant. Matthew quotes it in chapter 12 of his gospel. Today, we will examine the setting of this passage in Matthew and then see Jesus give his own prophecy.
In Matthew, this is quoted after Jesus heals the man with the withered hand. Remember, the Pharisees were upset because Jesus healed this man on the Sabbath. This poor man had been reduced to being a beggar since he could not work, and Jesus healed him, giving him his life back. Rather than see the joy of the miracle, the Pharisees could only see fault in Jesus for breaking their laws they added to God’s law.
Matthew 12:14 But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him, how to destroy him.
They did not care at all for the man who was healed. These intensely religious men. who saw themselves as keepers of the faith determined that it was their responsibility to murder this Jesus because he was threatening their religious system. Rather than confront them now, Jesus withdraws and tells people not to talk about him publicly. It was not the time for this confrontation. That time will come soon. Then Matthew quotes Isaiah.
Matthew 12:18-21 “Behold, my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased. I will put my Spirit upon him, and he will proclaim justice to the Gentiles. He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets; a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, until he brings justice to victory; and in his name the Gentiles will hope.”
Look at the first two sentences. What does this remind you of? When was Jesus chosen and the words spoken, “my beloved whom my soul is well pleased”? When did the Spirit descend on Jesus like a dove? At his baptism. And what will this servant of the Most High do? Proclaim Justice to the Gentiles. Though Jesus made it clear his mission was first to the Jews, he spent a lot of time doing something that no other Rabbi in his day would ever in a million years consider doing – ministering to the Gentiles. Jesus went to the Decapolis; he went to the region of Tyre and Sidon, and he went to the Samaritans, whom the Jews considered part of the Gentiles.
This was God’s plan from the beginning. The Jews were to be the nation of priests who would take the message of the love and mercy of God to all the world. But they kept God all to themselves, and instead of promoting the kingdom of God, they promoted their own little kingdom with their own rules. Gentiles didn’t fit in their little kingdom. The Pharisees had told the people Gentiles were unclean, so they should not eat or talk with them. So God sent Jesus to the world to be the Jew who would finally fulfill the plan to spread the kingdom of God to everyone. And Jesus came and spent most of his time with the people that the religious leaders of the day considered unclean – both Jew and Gentile. And how did Isaiah prophesy that the Messiah would do this? He will proclaim Justice.
Isaiah uses the Hebrew word ‘mishpat’ for ‘justice.’ This Hebrew word can be translated as either ‘justice’ or ‘judgment.’ So it could be said in Isaiah, “He will bring forth judgment to the nations.” Which is it? It makes a big difference. For thousands of years, the Rabbis taught it should be read: “He will bring forth judgment to the nations.” Oh, is it about time those other nations got judged. They need to be judged. They are not righteous like us.
But does that reading fit the context of Isaiah’s prophecy? Look at the last line of Isaiah’s poem quoted in Matthew: “And in his name, the Gentiles will hope.” This ‘justice’ that the servant will bring to the nations (the Gentiles) does not inspire fear but hope! You don’t hope for judgment; you hope for justice. This is not about God punishing the nations but about God bringing his system of justice to the nation. This is not bad news but good news for the nations.
We see ‘justice’ as part of a legal system, but in the Bible, justice (mishpat) is the way of righteousness. It is the way we live, the way we treat each other, the way we respect and love each other. It is the way God designed us to live. It is a life of righteousness. It is the abundant life Jesus came to give us. This scripture is about God restoring the world to how he created it. No one is mean or offensive; all are treated fairly, and there is no discrimination. Justice is the way of love. This is heaven on earth. This is God’s justice, not a legal system, but life in the garden. And this is the story of the Bible, God restoring the world to living as he intended. When everyone follows the rules of the king, then life in the Kingdom is good.
This is what Jesus came to bring. This is our hope. Hope that this broken world can be made whole again. Heaven on earth.
However, the Pharisees had already classified Jesus as a threat to their power structure and way of life. They have already decided to kill him. If he is the Messiah, then he is the Messiah they don’t want. You see, they are doing just fine right now. They have great jobs, are the most respected people in the country, and are wealthy. They don’t need some Messiah coming in and messing up their world. But that is precisely what the Messiah came to do. It’s good news to the poor, to the oppressed, to the captives, and the blind. But not good news to the Pharisees. What do you do when Jesus is not the Messiah you expected him to be? You can reject him, or you can change your expectations.
Back to Matthew 12. Jesus healed the man with the withered hand, and then Matthew quotes this passage in Isaiah. Then Jesus heals a man who was blind and mute, and the Pharisees claim he is casting out demons using the power of demons. Everyone knows the Pharisees are out to get him and are speaking evil against him. But the Pharisees come to Jesus and say
“Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.”
Oh, you say you’re the Messiah. We are not so sure. We need you to prove it. All this healing and preaching you have done — that is not enough. Just do one more thing. Give us a sign.
And Jesus answers: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign.” If calling them evil adulterers seems harsh, then perhaps you have forgotten that these are the guys everyone knows want to kill him.
Let’s put ourselves in Jesus’ sandals. How many of you woke up in the morning knowing someone was trying to kill you? Well, imagine there are some powerful, influential people in your state, and they are hatching plans to kill you, and everyone knows it, and then you run into them at church, and they smile and say, “Hi, how are you today?”
These are people that Jesus knows want him dead, and they have the power to do it, and they come to him in public and say, ‘Hey teacher….we’ve heard you preach, can you show us a sign?’ So Jesus responds: An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign,
You could read this verse out of context, and you might get the idea that it is evil to ask for a sign (context matters). It is the people who are plotting to kill an innocent man who happens to be the Messiah who are evil.
Why does Jesus call them Adulterers? The Old Testament pictures those who worship idols as committing adultery. Those who forsook their promise to Yehovah and went off to worship idols were called adulterers. Jesus says they are worshipping idols. Now, this is important. Have you ever read this passage and asked yourself, “What idol are the Pharisees worshipping?” They aren’t bowing down to some golden calf or wooden statue they made with their own hands. But Jesus says the Pharisees are rejecting Him and following an idol of their own making.
Jesus wasn’t behaving the way they thought the Messiah should act. Over hundreds of years, they had developed this concept of the Messiah that would come and pat them on the back for being so good. ”Hey, Pharisees, good job! Wow, I am impressed. Now excuse me while I go bring some much-deserved judgment on all these other people.” This was the way they read the Scriptures. This was their tradition. Over hundreds of years, their tradition had remade God in their own image, and that was their idol.
The Pharisees thought they were worshipping the god of the Bible, but they had remade the god of the Bible into the god they wanted Him to be. The god they worshipped cared more about laws than people. The god they worshipped wanted good rituals more than goodness of heart. The god they worshipped cared more about tithing spices than caring for the poor. They used the right scripture but worshipped the wrong god! If you worship the wrong god, a god that doesn’t exist — that is idolatry. How could this have happened?
Jesus tells them in Matthew 22:29. They didn’t understand the scriptures. They read them from the lens of their tradition. They made them say what they wanted them to say and ignored the parts that didn’t fit their agenda.
Do you see how dangerous this is? They think they are worshipping the true God; they read the Bible. But Jesus says they are idolaters. The Pharisees’ image of the Messiah was built on hundreds of years of tradition by the best religious minds. And they studied the sayings of their fathers of religion, discussed them, and rigorously practiced them. But they were so wrong. As church leaders, they led all the people down the wrong road. Jesus tells them they are in error because they haven’t studied the scriptures. And these are the experts on the scripture! If our picture of God is built on tradition and the hundreds of years of theological teaching and not on our personal study of the scriptures, then we may be the blind guides, those who are evil and adulterous. This is why Paul said reading the Bible for yourself is so important.
Does this same thing happen today? Is there anyone out there who follows a tradition of religion just because it works well for them or because it fits their agenda? Of course, there is. There are thousands of people promoting religious systems that they think are worshipping Yehovah, the God of the Bible, but they are just worshipping an idol of their own making. And like the Pharisees, they are leading people astray. People flock to a religious system that works well for them, makes economic sense for them, and gives them their god’s approval. “Hey, you are doing great; now let me go judge those other guys.”
How can this happen? How can it continue to happen? Because people don’t really understand the scriptures. They just listen to someone tickle their ears with a message that fits what they want to hear, and they never go home and study the Scriptures for themselves.
What if Jesus is not who you think he is?
You are trying to follow Jesus, but the way that Jesus works in your life is not how you want him to. You don’t like how Jesus is behaving in your life. You have a friend with cancer, and you pray earnestly for God to heal them – and he doesn’t. And you don’t get that job, or your health fails you. And we think God’s #1 priority is to heal all our family and friends and work things out. (Doesn’t he work it all out for our good? Isn’t that what it says in Romans 8.28?)
If you worship a God who is more interested in your bank account balance than the beggar on the street, then you aren’t worshiping the God of the Bible. If you worship a god who is more interested in your happiness than your holiness, then you are worshipping an idol. If you worship a god who will make sure you never suffer or have hard times, then you aren’t worshipping the god Jesus worshipped in the garden before he was tortured and crucified.
Back to our passage: Matthew 12:39-40 But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.”
Jesus says, “You want a sign… You really don’t want one. And you don’t get a sign, no, wait a minute, I’ll give you a sign all right. Here is your sign: As Jonah was 3 days and 3 nights in a great fish, so will the Son of Man be 3 days and 3 nights in the ground.”
So Jesus gives them a sign, a prophecy. He uses the familiar story of the prophet Jonah, which is a very interesting choice. Let’s review that story and how it relates to what is happening in Matthew.
God calls Jonah to go preach destruction (judgment) on Nineveh (Assyria). So what does Jonah do? He goes in the other direction. He hops on a boat headed as far away from Nineveh as possible. Why was Jonah so determined not to go preach to the Assyrians? We skip ahead to the end of the story and read:
Jonah 4:2 And he prayed to Yehovah and said, “Yehovah, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster.”
He didn’t want the Assyrians to have God’s grace. Jonah, God’s representative on earth, the religious leader and prophet, refused to think the Assyrians deserved God’s mercy and grace. He wanted to see them suffer. He wanted God to rain down judgment on them.
Look back at the context in Matthew. The Pharisees got upset at Jesus because he was healing people—the man with the withered hand, the man who was blind and couldn’t speak. The bottom line is they are like Jonah. They were more interested in maintaining their power structure and didn’t think the man with the withered hand nor the blind, mute man deserved God’s grace and mercy. They were lowlifes, the dregs of society. They didn’t even keep the purity laws; they didn’t contribute money to their coffers. They were not worthy of God’s grace; they deserved his judgment (not his justice.)
So, back to the story of Jonah. You know it. The boat Jonah boards ends up in a vicious storm, and Jonah is finally thrown overboard. So Jonah is going to die in the ocean. He sinks down, but God provides a great fish. Jonah prays in the belly of the fish, quoting a psalm of grace — see the irony. This Jonah, who didn’t want grace and forgiveness for the people of Nineveh, is all about grace for himself.
God again says to go to Nineveh, and Jonah decides it is probably best. He then preaches what we would call not the best sermon. Imagine if your preacher stood up on Sunday morning, walked up to the pulpit, and said, “40 days and this city will be destroyed.” Then he just walked off. No explanation. No Invitation Hymn. There is no call for repentance. ‘Wow, Jonah, how much time did you spend in sermon preparation last week? This message is five whole words in Hebrew. But then, to everyone’s amazement, Nineveh repents. Proof that you don’t need a good preacher, even the jerk of a prophet, Jonah can be a conduit for God’s Word. God works despite us sometimes.
Ninevah repents, and how does Jonah respond? He is angry. “I knew it.” God didn’t behave the way Jonah wanted him to act. He wanted God to come and give them judgment, but God gave them grace (justice). If you want to read about two characters who are miserable failures at following God, read about Jonah and Sampson and then try to wrap your head around the idea that despite their horrible disobedience and selfishness, God keeps forgiving them and giving them another chance. And God uses these losers in a mighty way.
But Jesus isn’t comparing himself to Jonah; he is just keying in on one section: the odd ‘death’ Jonah experiences and God’s grace in delivering him from death. This is the Bible school story of the fish—three days and three nights immortalized in crayon pictures forever.
It is easy to see that Jesus is not comparing himself to Jonah. Who in his day are the religious leaders who can’t find mercy for the people? Who thinks they are so much better than others and that the others do not deserve God’s grace? It is the Pharisees. But the key is the sign.
They want Jesus to give them a sign. These people, who everyone knows, want to kill him. So Jesus gives them a sign, alright.
Matthew 12:40 For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.
For people who see what is going on, Jesus says, “Look, let’s not play games. We all know you are plotting to kill me. So here is your sign, but it is not the one you want. Congratulations, I’m going to let you kill me. But you will do the absolute worst job of killing someone in the history of killing people. You want to do away with me permanently, but you do the most temporary killing ever. You will only kill me for three days, and then I will be unkilled. I will be alive again. I will defeat the death you deal me and, in doing so, defeat death for everyone. So there.
(3 days and 3 nights… that is pretty specific. We’ll come back to that in April.)
And then Jesus tells them:
Matthew 12:41 The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.
I don’t have to condemn you, Pharisees. Everyone else will condemn you. The people of Nineveh who repented will rise at judgment and condemn you. They better understood God’s mercy and grace from a selfish jerk of a prophet Jonah’s five-word sermon than you do, and you had the scriptures, the prophets, and God himself walking among you. You had God among you, but you were so wrapped up in your vision of how you think God should behave that you hated God when he was right in your face, and you killed him. I came to you, but you wanted a different god.
What will the people of Nineveh say about us? We have more than the Pharisees had. We all have multiple personal copies of the scriptures and the Holy Spirit within us. If we ignore our study of the Scriptures and the Holy Spirit, the people of Nineveh will rise at judgment and condemn us.
Let’s be honest with ourselves. There has been a time in our lives when Jesus didn’t do what we wanted him to do. The problem he didn’t fix, the friend or family member he didn’t heal, the trouble that comes. And it ticks us off when he doesn’t behave like we want him to. And we want him to do that one thing, just to let my friend live or heal my family member— do this one sign for me, Jesus— but in our frustration over this, we neglect the sign Jesus has already given. So Jesus says, hey, the sign of Jonah. Remember, I let these guys torture and kill me- and I did it because I love you. And I want you to have forgiveness and have a right relationship with God. And I died, and after 3 days and 3 nights, I came back to life. And I did that for you. And yet you want more. So what we are saying when we want Jesus to do that one other thing, to prove his love for us, is that what he did on the cross just wasn’t enough.
You may have signed up for a version of Christianity where Jesus solves all your problems, where Jesus fixes your bank account, where you never suffer, and where you are never sick. That is not the religion of Jesus. That is a different god of your own making.
That is not the hope that the prophets predicted.
The hope that we celebrate on this first Sunday of Advent is the hope of justice. Of a righteous way of living. Of an abundant life ruled by the prince of peace. A hope for justice for the poor and the forgotten, a hope for mercy and grace for everyone. A hope of life lived as God intended it from the beginning in the Garden. This is the hope of the world — that Jesus is bringing justice to victory. This is the hope of Christmas.
Week 41 ——— Good Samaritan, Bad Questions Luke 10:25-37
Jesus’ disciples will be on their two-month mission for a few more weeks. So, we continue to examine some of his teachings. Today, we discuss his most well-known parable, The Good Samaritan.
We talked about parables back in August when we discussed the parable of the four soils. To review, remember, that was a parable about parables. As you read the gospels, one-third of Jesus’s teaching is in parables. “Why parables, Jesus? Why don’t you just say what you mean?”
A parable is an ordinary life story told to make a point or teach a lesson. One definition says a parable is “an allusive narrative which is told for an ulterior motive. The well-known situation in the story disarms the listener, who is then hit with the lesson. Soren Kierkegaard (a Danish theologian) said it this way: Parables are a form of indirect communication intended to deceive the hearer into the truth.
It is a way to tell a truth to someone who otherwise might not listen. We see this in the parable of Nathan in 2 Samuel 12. David has committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband. But David is king and accountable to no one but God. So Nathan tells David the story of a poor man with only one lamb. Then, a wealthy man with many herds of sheep takes the poor man’s lamb from him, leaving him with nothing. The king then becomes angry and says this wealthy man deserves to die. Nathan responds, “You are that man!” Nathan told a story with an ulterior motive, and it worked.
So when you read a parable, you have to be on the lookout for what truth Jesus’ is trying to convey that someone may not want to hear. And usually, there is a reason Jesus tells a parable. There is a background story. So, let’s start with the background story for the parable of the Good Samaritan.
Luke 10:25-29 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And 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.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
It is a lawyer who comes to Jesus. This is an expert not in civil law but in Scripture, in the Mosiac Law. They are typically priests who are not currently functioning in the temple. He asks Jesus a question,
“Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
How would you answer that question? Here is the standard answer I get:
Confess that you are a sinner
Repent of your sins.
Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior
Don’t forget that this is not how Jesus answered the question. Jesus frequently answers with a question (actually, two questions).
What is written in the Law, and how do you follow it?
What is in the law? (He is asking the expert in the law.)
How do you read it? How do you understand it? There is a difference between reading and understanding. My son, Andrew, has a degree in Math and a PhD in Economics. Now, I can read papers he has written, but understanding them is another thing. But there is an even more significant difference here. In Hebrew, understanding is not just a mental process. To understand is to do.
And 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.”
Now, we have heard this answer before. In the week Jesus will be crucified, scribes come and ask Jesus what the greatest commandment is, and Jesus gives this answer. He is quoting Deuteronomy 6:4 and Leviticus 19:18.
And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
And Jesus says, “Great answer!” So it seems the lawyer and Jesus agree, but then we get to verse 29.
Luke 10:29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Why does he need to justify himself? Didn’t they just agree with each other? As we read, we see they are not on the same page. The lawyer has the correct answer, but he has the wrong question. Why are they not in agreement? The answer is in the tense of the Greek verb, to do. The Lawyer asks, ‘What shall I do?’ That verb tense suggests a single limited action — What one thing can I do once and be done?
Amy Jill Levine, in her book Short Stories by Jesus: “The lawyer is thinking of something to check off his to-do list: recite a prayer, offer a sacrifice, drop off a box of macaroni for a food drive, put a 20 in the collection plate. If he is efficient, he can inherit eternal life before lunch.”1
The lawyer asks, “What one thing can I do right now to ensure I have eternal life?
The lawyer’s question seeks a “one and done” answer. It is a bad question, so Jesus changed it for him. Jesus says, “Do this, and you will live.” That “do” Jesus uses is a different tense in Greek. Whereas the Lawyer’s question is what is the one thing I can do, Jesus’s comment is, ‘Keep doing these things.’ Continually do these things. Jesus’ imperative “do” focuses not on a single action but on a continuing relationship.
Whereas the lawyer asked about “eternal life,” Jesus reframes what is at stake by urging, “Do this and live.” The lawyer wants to make sure he will be there in Jesus’ kingdom to come. But Jesus says if you keep doing those two commandments, you will experience the fullness of life starting right now. Abundant life with Jesus is forever, but it is not just the length of life but the quality of life you live.
So, there is a big difference in what the lawyer and Jesus are saying.
We make the same mistake. Again, if someone goes to any seminary campus and stops a preacher student on the sidewalk and asks, What is the one thing I can do today to have eternal life? He gets the answer: Confess your sins and Repent. Accept Jesus as your lord and savior. Get baptized. Check the box. You are done. You have punched your ticket. You have your “Get out of Hell Free” card.
But Jesus tells him there is no one-and-done answer. The key to living an abundant life is living the way God wants us to live. It is continually following God step by step. It is about a relationship.
The lawyer realizes that Jesus changed his question on two crucial points. So, his follow-up question is an attempt to clarify. “Who is my neighbor?” But if you ask, “Who is my neighbor?” you ask, “Who is not my neighbor?” If you ask, “Who am I supposed to love?” you are also asking, “Who do I not have to love? Who is undeserving of my love? Who can I mark off my list?”
So when Jesus hears that the expert doesn’t understand, he says, “I’m going to need to tell a story.”
Luke 10:30-37 Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.
And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
First, see how Jesus described the man who falls victim to the robbers. He is “A man” (generic, no identifier). There were two ways to identify someone in Jesus’ day: by how they dressed and by their speech (their language or accent.) In the story, Jesus removes both. So this could be anybody in need. It could be a Jew, it could be a Roman. There is no way to tell. There is no way to see if this man fits into a category of people that you would consider helping. And this is very important.
Then, a priest and a Levite pass by. Priests and Levites were both groups of people descended from Levi. Priests made the sacrifices in the temple at the altar and the incense altar. Levites also worked in the temple, but they were guards, craftsmen, singers, or performed some other supporting function.
They pass by on “the other side.” Now, Jesus’ audience knew something you don’t know. They knew the path from Jerusalem to Jericho. It is a journey you don’t take alone, as thieves and bandits hide on the trail. You have heard it called the ‘Jericho Road,’ but it is nothing like a road. I have seen it. It is a path, and there is no “other side.” They probably snickered when Jesus said, “the other side.”
Why were the priest and the Levite not willing to help? I have heard people talk about their worries about uncleanness, but this was not a problem with uncleanness. A statute in the Mishna says, “A priest may contract uncleanness because of a neglected corpse.”
The Talmud states, “As long as there are no other people to look after the burial of a corpse, the duty is incumbent on the first Jew that passes by, without exception, to perform the burial” (Nazir 43b; Jerusalem Talmud, Nazir 56a). Judaism still takes this mandate seriously. That is why Jews stood vigil at Ground Zero until every corpse was recovered. Burying the dead is one of the most important commandments in Judaism, for it is one of the few acts that cannot be repaid by the person who benefits from it.
Similarly, there is the law of Pikuach Nefesh — saving a life. You can break almost any command in the Scripture to save a life (laws of ritual purity, Sabbath rest rules, or food rules.) Saving a life overrules most other commandments. They can’t tell if he is dead or alive, but either way, God’s law commands them to help him. But they pass by, struggling to climb over rocks off the trail to avoid helping him.
Let me reference another story from Amy Jill Levine’s book Short Stories by Jesus. This book is an excellent resource for understanding Jesus’ parables.
The best explanation she said she had heard for the refusal of the priest and the Levite to come to the aid of the man in the ditch comes from Martin Luther King Jr. The last sermon he preached on the Sunday before he was assassinated was about the Good Samaritan. “I’m going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It’s possible these men were afraid. . . . And so the first question that the priest [and] the Levite asked was, ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ . . . But then the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’” In that sermon, King announced that he was going to Memphis to support the sanitation workers who were being treated as less than human by the city of Memphis. King said, “I can not ask, “What will happen to me if I go to Memphis?’ I have to ask, “If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?” King then went to Memphis, where on Wednesday, he gave his “I Have a Dream speech,” and the following day, he was assassinated. There are bandits on the road. But our decisions in this life must not be made out of fear, but out of love.2
Jesus continues, “But a Samaritan….” Suddenly, his listeners are shocked! It was like saying a dirty word.
We discussed the Samaritans when we talked about Jesus meeting the woman at the well in Samaria. Simply put, the Samaritans were the people from the Northern Kingdom of Israel who were rejected by the Jews in Judea. They were not allowed to participate in rebuilding the temple, so they built their own temple on Mt Gerazim. There were conflicts between the Samaritans and the Jews to the point that in Jesus’ day, they were bitter enemies. Jesus chooses an enemy to be the hero of his story. And this makes his point. Neighbor means all, even enemies.
Luke 10:35-37 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”
The lawyer can’t even bring himself to say the word ‘Samaritan’ (a curse word). He did not have a category for a ‘good’ Samaritan. It would be like a modern-day Israelite saying ‘the good Hamas member’ or you saying ‘the good Taliban’ or ‘the good Nazi.’ Jesus’ point is, ‘If we can’t love those we disagree with, then we don’t have a clue what it means to follow me.’
This brings us back to another of Jesus’ messages from the Sermon on the Mount.
Matthew 5:43-45 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
We have discussed several of these “you have heard it said” statements in the past two weeks. Jesus takes an Old Testament teaching and explains God’s wisdom and heart behind it. While it is natural to hate your enemy, Jesus asks us to be like our heavenly Father, who loves all, regardless of their attitude toward him or his laws.
And Jesus concludes with the lawyer, “You go, and do likewise.” This is the same tense of “do” Jesus used before. You go and continually do what this Samaritan did. Day after day, keep doing this, following the path God laid before you. Again, it is not a one-and-done but a lifetime of being the kind of person God wants us to be.
Jesus didn’t make up this story out of thin air. Last week, we discussed how Jesus’ story about making an offering when you are fighting with a brother came from Genesis 4, the Bible story of Cain and Abel. This parable of the Good Samaritan is also straight out of the Old Testament. Jesus knew the Scriptures. He knew they contained the wisdom of the Father. So, he retells these stories in parable form. Let’s look at the Old Testament real-life story of loving your enemy that inspired the parable of the good Samaritan.
First, the background: Solomon died in 931 BC, and the kingdom was divided into the northern section, called “Israel,” and the southern section, called “Judah.” Jerusalem is the capital of the south, and Samaria is the capital of the north. At times, they were allies; at times, they were enemies. In 2 Chronicles 28, they were enemies.
2 Chronicles 28:1-4 Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of Yehovah, as his father David had done, but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made metal images for the Baals, and he made offerings in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominations of the nations whom Yehovah drove out before the people of Israel. And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.
In other words, this king of Judah, Ahaz, was evil.
2 Chronicles 28:5-7 Therefore Yehovah his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria, who defeated him and took captive a great number of his people and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force. For Pekah the son of Remaliah [king of Syria] killed 120,000 from Judah in one day, all of them men of valor, because they had forsaken Yehovah, the God of their fathers.
Because the king of Judah was so wicked, God let the Syrian army attack and took many of them as slaves back to Syria. After Syria wipes out Judah, while they are defenseless, Pekah, the king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, decides it is a good time to attack Judah also. They killed over 120 thousand in one day and took 200 thousand captive to become slaves.
2 Chronicles 28:8-11 The men of Israel took captive 200,000 of their relatives, women, sons, and daughters. They also took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria. But a prophet of Yehovah was there, whose name was Oded, and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria and said to them, “Behold, because Yehovah, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand, but you have killed them in a rage that has reached up to heaven. And now you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, as your slaves. Have you not sins of your own against Yehovah your God? Now hear me, and send back the captives from your relatives whom you have taken, for the fierce wrath of Yehovah is upon you.”
The prophet Oded calls out the men of the Northern kingdom for their cruelty against their brothers from the South. The prophet said God is about to pour his wrath on you for the way you treated your neighbors to the South. So look at how they reacted:
2 Chronicles 28:15 And the men who have been mentioned by name rose and took the captives, and with the spoil they clothed all who were naked among them. They clothed them, gave them sandals, provided them with food and drink, and anointed them, and carrying all the feeble among them on donkeys, they brought them to their kinsfolk at Jericho, the city of palm trees. Then they returned to Samaria.
Look at the story’s details and notice they are the exact details of Jesus’s story. The Samaritan clothed the man who was naked. The Samaritan anointed him with oil and wine as a healing balm. The good Samaritan puts the man on his own donkey. He took him to Jericho. The people in 2 Chronicles were from Samaria, what will be the territory of the Samaritans. This has all happened before. Jesus takes an event from the Old Testament Scripture, an unusual story where the people at war choose to love their enemies. Jesus sees the wisdom of God in this story and then uses it to teach a lesson from the law to the expert in the law.
So the Lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor?” But Jesus turned his question around again. His parable doesn’t answer the question of what people fall into the neighbor category because Jesus says there is no category. All people are neighbors. All people are worthy of your love and help. Even enemies should be shown love and care.
.The critical question in this passage is not, “Who is my neighbor?” but “Am I a neighbor?” Am I treating everyone I pass by as worthy of love and care? That person on the side of the road who needs help, do I look at them and consider whether they are worthy of you stopping to help them? Do I categorize people as worthy or unworthy of my help? It is not about who they are but about who I am. Am I like my heavenly father who shows love to all?
Levine, Amy-Jill. Short Stories by Jesus (p. 84). HarperOne. Kindle Edition.
Swallow No Camels 