Are you a Samaritan?

“How do you read what is in the law?” That is my own paraphrase. Indeed, how do we read what we read? Not everyone gets the same thing out of reading the same thing – even though the words are all there before us in black and white. They are the same for us as they are for others – exactly the same. So why don't we get the same thing?

This parable comes to us from Luke 10:26-37. Some of us read from strength; some of us read from weakness. Some of us read from freedom while others read through bars and chains. We get different things, not because the law, or the words are different, but because we are different.

So, we sit in conversation, and compare our different takes on what we think we know. Sometimes a consensus affords a greater understanding to all involved. At other times, one knows more, and teaches the rest of us. Christ was the teacher in this parable. He taught the lawyer what we may only suppose the lawyer should have already known.

The lawyer merely recites the law as it was given. No lawyer was required for that, as any one who attended the Sabbath readings was bound to remember the words. Like so many of us in our age, the lawyer presumed the meaning automatically came with the words. He said, “Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, mind. Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Most of us have little inclination to struggle past the face value, whereas meaning is actually hard won. It is earned through work. But, who really works at definition? We don't ever trouble ourselves with that, because it is in a dictionary somewhere. The sad thing is, we go on using our words as 'meaning-included', yet, we haven't ever consulted the dictionary.

So Jesus tells him, “This do, and thou shalt live.” Exactly here is where one of two things must occur. Either there must be an exchange leading to a consensus, or one must teach while the others learn. It is at this point where the work of definition and meaning must commence.

The original question was “What shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus answered, 'do the law and you will live.' But here's the ticker – the lawyer wasn't asking for information he, or any other, had missed in the Sabbath readings, he was trying to be clever. He was tempting Jesus.

The lawyer recited words as 'meaning-included', but it was Christ who offered definition. This story is recorded for the ages. It remains before us in black and white, but it is only a door that may be opened by those willing to work for it. This is the point where we are given such a privilege.

This yoke is easy, and this burden is light, for we only have to look up the meaning that Christ gave us. We find it in John 17:3, “And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”

We have the meaning of life before us in black and white. The lawyer, continuing his ruse, dismissed the opportunity we just availed ourselves of. He was not truly interested in meaning. He asked, “Who is my neighbor?”

So Christ begins the parable of the good Samaritan. As we know, a parable will achieve two simultaneous results. It will offer meaning and definition to those willing to work for it, and it will deny meaning and definition to those who dismiss the opportunity.

The elements of the parable are these: A man robbed, wounded, and left for dead.

A man ignored and shunned by the privileged. A man helped by a commoner, a working man, a man held in low esteem – a Samaritan.

At the end of the parable, Christ asked the lawyer, 'Who was the neighbor?' Now the lawyer was only there to trip Jesus in a flurry of legalisms, but his word games backfired. It was the lawyer who got tripped. He answered, 'The one that showed mercy.'

Lesson learned. Here is the spiritual approach to truth, definition, and meaning. While we are concerned with who our neighbor is, Christ teaches us to 'Go and be the neighbor.'