Tells, the familiar good Samaritan
parable. Here we often read it as if Yeshua teaching us to be merciful. It
really says more than that. The question the lawyer posed first started with
him answering Yeshua’s question. “What is written in the law? How readest thou?”
with “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy strength and with all
thy mind and thy neighbour as thyself” He then went on to ask Yeshua “And who is
my neighbour?” Yeshua told the parable and asked in the end “Which now of these
three (the Priest, the Levite and the Samaritan) thinkest thou was neighbour
unto him that fell among the thieves?” Who was the neighbour? The lawyer’s
answer was the Samaritan. He was to love the neighbour, the Samaritan as
himself. What have I learned here?
(a) Samaritan
and Jews were enemies. To love the Samaritan is to love our enemy. This is
consistent with Yeshua’s “Love your enemies” Can we harbour ill against another
and expect forgiveness? Matthew 6:12
(b) It
is loving someone who is “different” from us, different in the world’s eyes
(perhaps different by way of thinking, or in culture or race etc) but who is
like ourselves in the kingdom of God. We are to love the neigbour who is
like ourselves in God’s eyes- all flawed, all need love, all commit sins
perhaps same sin even! The Samaritan, the foreigner, the slaves were also like
the Jews who were different in Egypt and who were slaves.
(c) We
shall do unto others as we shall have them do unto us. Wouldn’t we the one who
gave help not want to be loved?
(d) Part
of loving is also to seek and look for the good in that person who is different
from us. Can we not find in this different person his heart of kindness,
mercifulness and generosity? Look beyond the differences.
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