Part 2 of 3 on the Golden Rule
In the Gospel of Luke, when the expert in the law asks Jesus how one might gain eternal life, Jesus answers with a question: “What does the law say?” The lawyer answers out of a lifetime of committed study of the ancient texts. He answers off the top of his head because that’s how well he knows scripture. He says, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
Jesus gives a response that looks something like this.
One more question
But the lawyer has one more question. “Okay, so when you say neighbor. . . could you be more precise?” And Jesus could have flung himself onto the ground pounding his fists and kicking his feet. He didn’t though.
Instead, Jesus tells him a story, the Parable of the Good Samaritan. Through this parable, Jesus conveys the truth that those who show mercy act as godly neighbors; those who do not, fail to follow the intent of God’s law.
Reviewing this text, Andrew Prior, former pastor in the Uniting Churches of Australia, says
Rev. Dr. Andrew Prior says
The lawyer knows exactly who his neighbour is! It is his people, his family, his town. He doesn’t need to ask this question of Jesus. . . . He is defensive not because he does not understand Jesus, or see what Jesus’ gospel is about; he is defensive because he understands too well. In the conversation under the surface, he is essentially saying, “I know I must love my neighbour as myself… but how can anyone do that!?” This is because loving the Lord “with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might” implies much more than the ‘neighbourliness’ of Leviticus 19. The lawyer will hear Jesus’ parable because, even if he has not been able to articulate it, the law has being prodding him to see that even Samaritans are neighbours.1
An unconventional response
Though the lawyer may have asked the question with an answer already in mind, Jesus’ response tosses conventional wisdom aside. He offers a story about a nondescript traveler who is brutally attacked by robbers, then left alongside the road to die. Traveling the same road, first a priest then a Levite pass without helping. In good stories, as parables so often are, the third in the sequence breaks form with the previous examples to provide clues to the message the story wants to teach. Here, into this pivotal moment, the Samaritan appears. The Samaritan, the Assyrian-Jew half-breed. No self-respecting Israelite would even glance in the general direction of the Samaritan. I mean—a Samaritan? Eww.
But Jesus chose the Samaritan to be the hero of the story. To understand better what this meant to the original listeners, picture the person you find most difficult. A neighbor, a family member, a co-worker, a fan of THAT team. Think of the things that annoy you most—tardiness, bad driving, rule-breaking, rule-following, interrupting, whatever—and pour all those characteristics into one human. Got it? That’s your Samaritan. Now listen to New Testament theologian Alan Culpepper explain further:
Rev. Dr. Alan Culpepper says
By depicting a Samaritan as the hero of the story, therefore, Jesus, demolished all boundary expectations. Social position—race, religion, or region—count for nothing. The man in the ditch, from whose perspective the story is told, will not discriminate among potential helpers. Anyone who has compassion and stops to help is his neighbor. The question is thereby turned when viewed from the perspective of the one in desperate need. The alteration of the expected sequence by naming the third character as a Samaritan not only challenges the hearer to examine the stereotype regarding Samaritans, but it also invalidates all stereotypes. Community can no longer be defined or limited by such terms. The three on the road are each identified by social class, but the man in the ditch is not identified by such labels.2
Gut wrenching compassion
Upon seeing this unclassified man in need, two passersby ignore his needs; a third, a Samaritan, is “moved by pity” for him. The word translated by the NRSV “moved by pity” is ἐσπλαγχνίσθη (esplanchnisthē). Found only twelve times and only in the synoptics, esplanchnisthē always relates to the feelings of Jesus, or to those of one of the characters in his parables. It is derived from the word σπλάγχνα (splagchnon) which means “inward parts” or “bowels.” In biblical times, the bowels were considered the core of emotion; 21st century Americans typically view the heart as the emotional center. Esplanchnisthē suggests a feeling that stirs the gut or moves the heart.
Andrew Prior acknowledges that ‘[t]o be compassionate when we are afraid, and when we want to distance ourselves from people, is heart-wrenchingly difficult. But when we are able to come near them[,] when our fear has been lessened, then our heart goes out to them.”3 He goes on to say of the Samaritan, “He does not choose to be compassionate; the Samaritan’s heart goes out from him of its own accord. This is because he has the heart of Christ.”4
- Andrew Prior, “On the Same Page as Jesus,” One Man’s Web, https://www.onemansweb.org /theology/the-year-of-luke-2019/on-the-same-page-as-jesus-luke-1025-37.html, NP.
- Alan Culpepper, NIB 9:NP.
- Prior, “On the Same Page.”
- Ibid.
