Luke 10 begins with Jesus appointing seventy-two disciples and sending them out to begin preaching and serving God. He tells them, “Go: Behold I send you as lambs among the wolves,” and instructs his disciples to extend good will and blessings to all they encounter. If accepted, the blessings will remain with those whom they commune, and if rejected, the blessings shall return back to the ones seeking to give them to another. He says this in, “whatsoever house you enter, first say: Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon him; but if not, it shall return to you.”
In speaking and telling his disciples of a vision, Jesus praises the Holy Spirit saying:
“I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heave and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones. Yea, Father, for so it hath seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered to me by my father; and no one knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and to whom the Son will reveal him…Blessed are the eyes that see the things which you see. For I say to you that many prophets and kings have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them; and to ear the things you hear, and have not heard them.”
Next, a lawyer trying to catch Jesus in a word-trap asks Jesus what he, the lawyer himself, must do to possess eternal life. The lawyer answers, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with the whole soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.”
To this, Jesus agrees with the lawyer’s answer; but the lawyer struggling with technicalities of the last piece—love thy neighbor as thyself—the lawyer questions back, “But he willing to justify himself, said to Jesus: And who is my neighbor?”
From this question, the parable of the Good Samaritan speaks:
“A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, who also stripped him, and having wounded him went away, leaving him half dead. And it chanced, that a certain priest went down the same way: and seeing him, passed by. In like manner also a Levite, when he was near the place and saw him, passed by. But a certain Samaritan being on his journey, came near to him; and seeing him, was moved with compassion. And going up to him, bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine: and setting him upon his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And the next day he took out two pence, and gave to the host, and said: Take care of him; and whatsoever thou shalt spend over and above, I, at my return, will repay thee. Which of these three, in thy opinion, was neighbor to him that fell among the robbers?”
The lawyer answered, “He that showed mercy on him.”
Jesus affirmed, and then commanded, “Go and do thou in like manner.”
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For this chapter, in the beginning, this is where Jesus first calls others to go forth in his name and spirit to fulfill God’s will. He blesses them and calls on them to go forth as “lambs among the wolves.” To those seeking to live and fulfill God’s calling, this can be an unnerving metaphor, but also something that distinguishes Christianity from other historical religions. While methods of evangelization may have changed in later history when powers of the world aligned and prosecuted world ambitions along with professed religious zeal to spread their power in the world, Christianity began with a humility and acceptance of sacrifice without respondent violence that defies world-sense. This calling speaks to Jesus’ own coming example when willingly accepting sacrifice on the Cross and execution to gift mankind with the potential for salvation by belief and living of the example.
When Jesus thanks God and the Holy Spirit for the visions and understanding given to him and his followers—how such wisdom is hidden from world’s wise and prudent but gifted to those with an innocence like the “little ones;” and how kings and prophets have desired to see and hear, but were denied, what Jesus’ disciples have—I believe Jesus speaks to the necessity of humility and openness of spirit to truly receive the blessings and signs of the Spirit. God does not act to man’s will. He does not concede to force of power, will, demand, or effort for man’s purpose alone. God gifts to those in a spirit to receive—and then act in affection to—signs and revelations from God. So often in the Bible’s histories, it is the simple, the dismissed, the rejected and written off by the world who are mankind’s momentary saviors, and who sustain the Spirit and Kingdom of God against the powers of the immanent world. Jesus and his disciples were another example of the same proven method; and in the millennia since, the method continues to be used.
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Last, of the Good Samaritan, this parable tells to me how little God cares about our own worldly justifications to excuse ourselves from doing what God simply asks (simple not being the same as easy). Samaritans, gentiles, were not regarded as equal to the Jews. They were seen, then, as lesser than the Jews; and yet the Son of God uses someone his own society dismisses as the lived example of love for one’s neighbor.
God doesn’t care about world titles. The priest left the man for dead. God doesn’t care what group or identifier claims us, or we claim to belong. The Levite, member of a Tribe of Israel, left him for dead, same as the priest. The neighbor—the one who lived God’s Love and Will—was a common gentile who had nothing to gain but saw one in dire need of help and gave it.
How often in life are we like the lawyer, “and who is my neighbor;” seeing and understanding something as simple, but not liking what simplicity and clearness say, and so we seek false complexity and cleverness to give us an excuse and retreat from the responsibility ownership of understanding then imposes?
Examination, self-assessment of our own created excuses, returns us back to the simple truth, and when we understand it—and what it asks—we should “go and do…in like manner.”
This is what the parable of the Good Samaritan speaks to me. What do you think?