Build a Wall?

What's the "takeaway" of the parable of the Good Samaritan? It's the call to compassion. This is the motivation that Jesus attributes to his character's actions. As the author of the parable, he chose his words carefully. 

The telling of the story grew out of a discussion concerning what's often called "the summation of the law": "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself" (Luke 10:27). The man engaged with him, one who was skilled in rabbinic law, sought to limit his obligation by asking, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus' masterstroke was to offer a story that put the focus back on the commandment, which says to love the neighbor "as yourself." Jesus wanted his inquisitor to put himself in the situation of the man who had been beaten and left half-dead. What would he want from someone who happened upon him, the actions of the priest and Levite who avoided the problem? Would it not be for a fellow human being (the inclusion of a Samaritan as hero was particularly loaded) to have mercy on him and help him? Would it not be compassion? If that's what you would want, Jesus infers, then "go and do likewise."

This is an important lesson for us, particularly now. Some self-described evangelicals are aligning themselves with politicians who promise them security and prosperity by staying on the other side of the road, the side that keeps them from having to embrace the messy process of compassion. But what if it was they who had to flee the devastation of war? What if was they who left a homeland of intractable economic woes, political unrest, and vicious gang violence? What if it was they who were seeking to create a safer, prosperous future for themselves and their families? It's challenging to see ourselves in the other, but isn't that what Jesus is asking of us -- to do for them what we would have done for us? (cf., Luke 6:31)

Do I sound like a "liberal"? Do I sound like a woosy? I hope I sound like Jesus. 

The issue of illegal immigration (to name just one of a myriad of issues) is complicated. But we must not lose sight of the fact that we are Christians first, Americans second. As citizens of the heavenly kingdom, compassion, the etymology of which is "suffer with," trumps nationalism. We must embrace the governing ethic of our King, "Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:37).

Not a Sacrifice

If there was a fire in your apartment building forcing you to leave quickly, what would you grab on the way out? What would you want to save? If you have children . . . I suppose that goes without saying. Or a pet, likewise, I assume you’d be sure to take the dog or cat. But what else? Passport? Photos? Computer? A painting? What if you could only take one or two things? What would you choose? Whatever you ended up choosing would say something about what you think is most valuable (and not necessarily monetarily) among all of your possessions.

For the men in two of Jesus’ parables, one who discovered an unprecedented pearl, the other a buried treasure, the realization of what was most valuable didn’t come at the expense of a tragedy. Just the opposite was true. Theirs was a discovery that brought joy. How could it not? They knew that what they had come upon was more desirable than everything they owned and quickly gave it all up. The loss that these men experienced to possess the prize turned out to not be loss at all. In truth, they had exponentially gained. 

Jesus likens their response to the discovery that the kingdom of heaven is opened to sinners such as you and me. When the reality of what it means to be included in the kingdom is understood, all that might have to be left behind to be part of it shouldn’t feel like a sacrifice. Too often, however, we behave as though it were a tragedy, like being left with a couple of precious items as we watch our building burn to the ground. 

Why is it so difficult for some of us to receive the kingdom with joy? I suspect it’s because we don’t really grasp that damnation awaited us. The parable of the net, which immediately follows those alluded to above, teaches that at the end of this age there will be a judgment that only the “good” will survive. All who are “evil” will be sent away to an eternal existence too terrifying to imagine. 

The hard truth is that unless God acts none will be judged to be good on that day. But the gift of God is a Savior who was good, perfectly good, and our faith in his finished work opens the door to the kingdom. The apostle Paul understood this better than any other, as he was the “foremost” of sinners. This is why he wrote, “Through him we have . . . obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.” Like the men in the parables, he joyfully “suffered the loss of all things” and counted them “as rubbish, in order that [he might] gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of [his] own” but a righteousness that “comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” An exponential gain to be sure!