cliquez ici<\/a>!<\/p>\n
\nThe Parable of the Samaritan – (Luke. 10:25-37)<\/h2>\n
This parable was brought about by a question a lawyer \u2014an expert in the Law of Moses\u2014 asked Jesus: \u201cTeacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?\u201d Jesus did not answer the question, but instead sent the man back to the Law, to find the answer to his question: \u201cWhat is written in the Law? How do you read it?\u201d And the man recited verbatim: \u201cLove the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, \u201cLove your neighbor as yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jesus told him, \u201cYou have answered correctly. Do this and you will live.\u201d A clear and simple answer, a direct and precise one\u2026 And a command apparently easy to obey. However, Jesus\u2019 answer left the lawyer deeply disturbed. Verse 29 says \u201che wanted to justify himself.\u201d Who was accusing him? No one. But his conscience bore witness against him that he had not truly loved his neighbor. He wanted to justify himself\u2026 In other words, he was looking for a way-out. So he asked Jesus another question, this time, to lock him up into an endless discussion: \u201cAnd who is my neighbor?\u201d he asked Jesus.<\/p>\n
Jesus did not take the bait, avoiding what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. called \u201cthe paralysis of analysis.\u201d So, instead of giving to the lawyer a definition of the neighbor, he painted for him a concrete and existential situation in this parable called the Parable of the Samaritan.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cA man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho\u2026\u201d The road to Jericho meandered through a rocky region infested with robbers who used the many caves of that region as hideouts. For that reason, it was a dangerous road. Our poor traveler was attacked by robbers who stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. This man saw a glimmer of hope when a priest came to be going down the road; but the priest passed by on the other side. Then came a Levite who also avoided him, passing by on the other side. Only a Samaritan, when he saw the wounded man, came close to him, took care of him, put him on his donkey, paid his own money to the innkeeper, and promised to come back and pay the bill if the man\u2019s condition demands extra healthcare.<\/p>\n
Jesus is teaching us in this parable that the religion that pleases God is the one that takes into account the two dimensions of the Christian love: the vertical and the horizontal. Loving God and loving one\u2019s neighbor are the touchstone of true Christianity, of the \u201cpure and undefiled religion before God our Father\u201d \u2014this religion that doesn\u2019t consist only in \u201ckeeping oneself from being polluted by the world\u201d (something the priest and the Levite were good at), but also by \u201clooking after the orphan and the widow in their distress.\u201d (James 1: 27)<\/p>\n
The problem with the priest and the Levite was that their religion was terribly lacking with regard to the horizontal dimension of love. The religion of these men was confined to the Temple in Jerusalem. They were traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho. These dear religious men had left God in the Temple. They did not know that God can be also be met in the neighbor. \u201cTruly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.\u201d (Mat. 25: 40)<\/p>\n
Jesus took the Samaritan as an example, because we discover in him the characteristics of true love, namely universality, altruism, and concreteness.<\/p>\n
True love is universal. As Dr. Martin Luther Jr. put it, \u201cthe Samaritan perceived with acuity what lies beyond the perpetual accidents of race, religion, and nationality.\u201d He did not reduce the concern for the neighbor to a class, a tribe, a nation, or a race. When somebody says, \u201cI love my neighbor as myself,\u201d that could mean: \u201cI love my white neighbor as myself\u201d (let the blacks go to hell!) This is also true for the black person who excludes the white person from the definition of the neighbor they ought to love.
\nTrue love is altruist \u2014 the kind of love that leads us to self-sacrifice for the sake of others. The Samaritan put his life on the line to help the wounded stranger. He could have hesitated and passed by on the other side for fear of being attacked also by the robbers. He didn\u2019t say, \u201cWhat will happen to me, if I don\u2019t help the poor man?\u201d, but \u201cWhat will happen to him, if I leave him on the road?\u201d
\nTrue love is concrete. The Samaritan understood that he had in front of him a man in flesh and blood, not a disembodied spirit. He did not stand idly by and pray. A concrete action was in order. There are times when prayer or a pious speech can be an escape route from our responsibility toward the wounded we come across on a daily basis on the numerous roads to Jericho of this life. \u201cSuppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, \u201cGo in peace; keep warm and well fed,\u201d but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?\u201d (James 2:15-16)
\nThus, the love of the Samaritan becomes the model, the norm, the sample against which we must measure our love for our neighbor. Jesus left it to the expert in the Law to draw the conclusion: \u201cWhich of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?\u201d The expert in the law replied, \u201cThe one who had mercy on him.\u201d This is the love Christ commands us to imitate: \u201cGo and do likewise.\u201d<\/p>\n
The example of the Samaritan challenges us, humbles us, and often condemns us. How often do we act like the priest and the Levite! Let\u2019s ask God to open our hearts, so that we may come to love with the same love as the Samaritan.<\/p>\n
Hubermann Larose
\nAssociate Pastor<\/p>\n
\nSi vous voulez lire ce texte en fran\u00e7ais cliquez ici<\/a>!<\/p>\n
\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\nFood For Your Soul
\nby Reverend Hubermann Larose<\/p>\n
Si vous voulez lire ce texte en fran\u00e7ais cliquez ici!<\/p>\n
The Parable of the Samaritan – (Luke. 10:25-37)
\nThis parable was brought about by a question a lawyer \u2014an <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":23209,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-27133","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27133"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27133\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27145,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/27133\/revisions\/27145"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/myredemption.org\/redemption\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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