Post by eternal on Apr 18, 2006 15:04:26 GMT -5
I will be preaching on this this Sunday (in correlation to the Ressurection appearance on the road to Emmaus---a great after Easter message IMO) and it has me thinking.
I see the brilliance of Jesus' answer in Luke 10:25ff. He was asked "who is my neighbor." Instead of telling the lawyer who his neighbor was, or defining "neighbor" for the lawyer, He told a story and changed the question all together. After sharing the Good Samaritan story, Jesus asks, "who PROVED neighbor."
Of course Jesus is not concerned with intellectual theology. Rather Jesus is intrested in practical theology and all that comes from it (which is what I likewise see in the Emmaus story as well). Intellecual assent is not the realm of Christ based theology. Jesus says we must BE a neighbor, and not wait for people to enter our path who are in need, but to actively place ourselves in the paths of those who are in need.
We do not wait for someone to come to us in need, and say "here is my neighbor, I must love her." Rather we must pursue those who are in need and be a neighbor to others. This is how we keep the second greatest commandment, which is "like the first."
Now, in the original story the religious folks didn't want to help the hurt man because it would make them unclean to do so. So they walked by for their reputations sake, or for their cleanliness codes they saw as more important to maintain.
I think in today's world this story wouldn't be as effective because most of us would stop anything we were doing if we saw a hurt person laying on the street. Bullet wounds, robbed...most of us would put our church meeting on hold to help this individual. I don't doubt that.
So I think if Jesus were to retell this story, He'd have to change it. I know the republican congress is trying to make it illegal to give aid to an undocumented worker which could potentialy fall into this story. But I am trying to think broader here.
I know I have heard stories that people are unwilling to preach on strip club property out of fear of being seen or temptations, etc. That could be a potential cross over here. That these exterior motivations would prevent us from helping another individual, or that we value these exterior motivations more than we do the person in need.
Anybody have any ideas here? How would Jesus alter this story to enter our world today? What would have to be the situation? That Jesus would encourage us to "prove neighbor" and be neighborly rather than just waiting for a neighbor to show up and try to love them if they fit into the deffinition we have crafted out?
Hope you all understand what I'm trying to get at here...
I see the brilliance of Jesus' answer in Luke 10:25ff. He was asked "who is my neighbor." Instead of telling the lawyer who his neighbor was, or defining "neighbor" for the lawyer, He told a story and changed the question all together. After sharing the Good Samaritan story, Jesus asks, "who PROVED neighbor."
Of course Jesus is not concerned with intellectual theology. Rather Jesus is intrested in practical theology and all that comes from it (which is what I likewise see in the Emmaus story as well). Intellecual assent is not the realm of Christ based theology. Jesus says we must BE a neighbor, and not wait for people to enter our path who are in need, but to actively place ourselves in the paths of those who are in need.
We do not wait for someone to come to us in need, and say "here is my neighbor, I must love her." Rather we must pursue those who are in need and be a neighbor to others. This is how we keep the second greatest commandment, which is "like the first."
Now, in the original story the religious folks didn't want to help the hurt man because it would make them unclean to do so. So they walked by for their reputations sake, or for their cleanliness codes they saw as more important to maintain.
I think in today's world this story wouldn't be as effective because most of us would stop anything we were doing if we saw a hurt person laying on the street. Bullet wounds, robbed...most of us would put our church meeting on hold to help this individual. I don't doubt that.
So I think if Jesus were to retell this story, He'd have to change it. I know the republican congress is trying to make it illegal to give aid to an undocumented worker which could potentialy fall into this story. But I am trying to think broader here.
I know I have heard stories that people are unwilling to preach on strip club property out of fear of being seen or temptations, etc. That could be a potential cross over here. That these exterior motivations would prevent us from helping another individual, or that we value these exterior motivations more than we do the person in need.
Anybody have any ideas here? How would Jesus alter this story to enter our world today? What would have to be the situation? That Jesus would encourage us to "prove neighbor" and be neighborly rather than just waiting for a neighbor to show up and try to love them if they fit into the deffinition we have crafted out?
Hope you all understand what I'm trying to get at here...
