Fifteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time
LUKE 10:25-37
The gospel reading begins, "A scholar of the law stood up to test Jesus...." A "scholar of the law" is a scribe, a scholar of the Scriptures we call the Old Testament. Such scholars were also known as lawyers because they studied and applied to specific cases the Law of Moses, the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament). It was standard practice for scribes to test other scribes by questions on some point of the Torah. This scribe wants Jesus' opinion, "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" According to custom, the one of whom the question is asked may reply with a counter-question. Jesus replies, "What is written in the Law (the Torah)? How do you read it?"
The scribe quotes the supreme law of every faithful Jew, "You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole being, your whole strength, and with your whole mind, and (you shall) love your neighbor as yourself." The commandment to love God above all is from Deuteronomy 6:5. This commandment of love is proceeded in Deuteronomy 6:4 with a profession of faith, "Hear, 0 Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord...." Together with the commandment of love it is known as the Shema, which is the Hebrew word for "Hear!" To the profession of faith in the oneness of God and the commandment to love God first, the scribe adds from Leviticus 19:18, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus praises the scribe for his answer, and advises, "Do this, and you will live." This reply of Jesus is an addition to a short form of the Shema in Deut. 30:6,19.
Luke, the author of this gospel, is aware that "neighbor" is a vague term which can have various meanings. In the Old Testament "neighbor" can mean an acquaintance, a person living next door to one's own house, or especially a fellow Israelite (Jew). In the context of Leviticus 19:18 quoted above, a neighbor is a fellow-Israelite. Luke is also aware that the teaching of Jesus expanded the meaning of "neighbor" to include any human being, even one's presumed enemy. This is why he adds the parable of the Good Samaritan. Samaritans and Jews were indeed neighbors insofar as they lived in proximity to each other. Socially and in the practice of religion they were enemies. The parable of the Good Samaritan expands the meaning of neighbor to one's presumed enemies.
The challenge of the parable is the fact that the person who recognizes as a neighbor the robbed and beaten man, presumably a fellow-Jew of the scribe, is not even a Jew but a hated Samaritan. That was a pill hard to swallow for this faithful Jewish scribe. We know how difficult it was for the scribe to recognize the challenge Jesus offers by the answer he gives to Jesus' question. Jesus asks which of the three who encountered the robbed and beaten man was actually a neighbor to him. Was it the Jewish priest? The Levite? Both were dedicated to God as servants of the Lord in the temple in Jerusalem. The scribe should normally have answered, "The Samaritan was his neighbor!" He cannot mouth the hated word, but replies, "The one who showed mercy on him." The final advice Jesus gives him is overwhelming, "Go and do likewise." In other words, reach across the ancient boundaries set by long ago historical events, custom, and social pressure.
There is a story about Mahatma Ghandi that has a similar ending. A Hindu man was guilty of participating in a massacre of Muslims in which Muslim children were killed.
He approaches Ghandi, unburdens his conscience, and asks for advice. Ghandi is reported to have said, "Adopt a Muslim orphan and raise him as a devout Muslim." The theme of reaching across social and religious boundaries is not new to Jesus nor to Luke's gospel. Both St. Peter and St. Paul broke through the boundaries that constrained them as Jews and the Church quickly moved to a Gentile majority. In the Old Testament the theme is carried by the Book of Jonah and the Book of Ruth. Jonah, against his every inclination, is compelled by God to preach to the enemies of the Israelites. The devout Ruth, a member of the hated Moabite tribe, faithful to the memory of her Israelite husband, becomes the grandmother of the Israelite superhero. King David.
DEUTERONOMY 30:10<14
The parable of the Good Samaritan demonstrated that the Torah commandment to love one^s neighbor can have a very different than usual meaning. This reading points out that it is not impossible to keep the commandments of God in the Torah. According to the scribes, there were 613 commandments. Deuteronomy claims the Lord's commands are neither mysterious nor far away, that they are very near, "already in your mouths and in your hearts/9 (or should be). "You only have to do them."
COLOSSIANS 1:15-20
This ancient hymn in honor of divine wisdom is adapted by the author of this letter into a hymn of praise to Jesus Christ. The imagery of the hymn originates from the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament, especially from chapter eight of the Book of Proverbs. The author of Colossians takes aim at the divisions between Jew and Gentile in the churches of what is today west central Turkey. Thus he writes, "to reconcile all things..., making peace through the blood of his cross...."
