Reader’s Guide: “The Word for Today” Sunday, February 17, 2013 Read – Luke 10:25-42 To set the stage for his next parable, Luke reaches far ahead in Mark’s gospel to an encounter between Jesus and a scribe. The event in Mark happens during the week of controversy after Jesus had entered Jerusalem and cleansed the Temple (Mark 12:28-34). It is interesting that when Luke is telling the same story about the controversy in Jerusalem he basically follows Mark but he does drop this story out at that point. We have noticed that Luke likes to do this – take a story from Mark and shift its location to serve his purposes. Why might Luke have shifted this story from Mark to this place in his gospel? Luke had just been reflecting on the relationship between Jesus and the Father – he was probing the mystery of God – how do you understand God? And he has come very close to claiming that Jesus is God. The Holy Spirit has even gotten into the mix since Luke tells us Jesus was “rejoicing in the Holy Spirit” (Luke 10:21). Is Luke getting on dangerous ground? Luke’s Jewish theology would have informed him of one of the chief tenets of his faith – God is one! Every good Jew would confess that and Luke means to do that too! The story of the question of the scribe – who Luke identifies as a lawyer which is essentially the same thing – provides Luke with an opportunity to bring his readers to the great passage in Deuteronomy where the confession that God is one is most clear. In Deuteronomy 6:4 it says, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone!” Nothing can be clearer than that. And then it goes on to say, “You shall love the LORD you God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.” In Mark, the scribes question had been what is the greatest commandment? Luke changes that slightly with the lawyer asking what he must do the inherit eternal life. In Mark it is Jesus who provides the answer from the book of Deuteronomy. In Luke the lawyer speaks the words. The outcome is essentially the same. For Mark the story places Jesus squarely in the center of the Jewish faith – Jesus is a faithful Jew! None the less Jesus will be killed by the religious leaders. For Luke the story is more about placing Luke squarely in the center of the Jewish faith! He has just reflected what may have sounded to some to be startling words about the relationship between Jesus and the Father. Luke does not want to be misunderstood – there is something special between Jesus and the Father to be sure, but Luke still wants to remind his readers that God is one and the Jewish confession still holds. And then the story takes a turn. As in Mark the command to love God is connected with the love of one’s neighbor. That command is found in the OT in the book of Leviticus – (Leviticus 19:18). The two commandments had been brought together prior to the time of Jesus and stood well as a summary of the whole Law. The lawyer is not satisfied with Jesus’ answer and presses the issue – who is my neighbor? Only Luke tells us the parable of the Good Samaritan. Was it already in his “Q” source that he shares with Matthew? If it was why would Matthew drop it out? Of course we cannot give a definitive answer to that question – but if I had to guess I’d guess that it was not in “Q”. I mentioned earlier that Luke uses parables in a far different way than Mark did. For Mark parables were more like riddles that conceal instead of reveal. Luke parables reveal! And this parable could not be more revealing. Who is my neighbor? Jesus tells a story – a startling story because the “hero” is an outsider and someone who would have been despised by most of those who heard the parable. Actually all six characters in the parable probably would have been offensive to the lawyer and most Pharisees. The Pharisees and lawyers were no friend of the priests and Levites who belonged to the Sadducee party – a party that collaborated with Rome to maintain power. He would obviously have been no friend to the robbers. And he probably had little sympathy for the man who was robbed since he likely was a travelling merchant and would not have observed the rules so important to Pharisees and their lawyers. Even the innkeeper would have been despises. All good people had kin to stay with when they journeyed – inns were unclean places. And, of course, the Samaritan was the one most “outside” the boundaries. Jesus choice of characters was brilliant! And the parable winds up convicting the lawyer – the question cuts deep, “Who proved to be the neighbor?” The lawyer had no choice – it had to be the Samaritan! And then Jesus drops the clincher – “Go and do likewise!” We don’t know how the lawyer responded to the parable. But we do know how Luke wants his readers to respond. Once again the words of Simeon echo in our ears – Jesus will be cause the rise and fall of many in Israel. And the words of Mary’s song echo in our ears too – “He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:52-53).