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Thursday, September 29, 2005
The Story
It all happened so fast.
My mom and a friend of hers were off to dinner one night. Me and the other lady's kid were in the back seat. I have no idea why it was just the moms and us, but that was the deal this night. I guess I was about five.
They parked the car on the street downtown and got us out of the car and we walked to the door of the restaurant which was about 50 yards away.
And my mom's purse got snatched.
Stolen! Right off her arm on a busy sidewalk. And the guys who took it were young and fast.
My mom yelled something like "stop those guys they stole my purse!"
I froze.
Lots of onlookers diverted their eyes and kept walking...women, men, teenagers. Like I said, it was a busy sidewalk downtown at dinner time.
But two guys took off like a shot after the theives...who had a 30 second head-start. We just stood there in shock, I guess.
About five minutes later they came back with the purse. Sweating, they showed up about five minutes later with the purse. Apparently the guys who stole it got the cash out of it, realized some dudes were after them and ditched the purse in an alley. The two guys seemed apologetic that they didn't get to it sooner, but seemed genuinely concerned about my mom. They made sure she was okay, even if shaken, before they headed off to do whatever it was that had them downtown on a Friday night. The car keys, the checkbook, the credit cards, the pictures, and all the other stuff was in there...just no cash. So, we headed off to dinner and life went on from there.
I remember that evening vividly, even though I was little. It was the first time I encountered real, live crime, and I saw what a panic it caused. Looking back, I can see what it revealed about the human nature of the bystanders, of whom there were probably 50 or 60...and takes us to where we left off yesterday...
The story of Luke 10 progresses...
A lawyer wants to take a poll from the carpenter/religious guru who has hit town. Asks him a basic question to determine his theological/doctrinal purity:
"What to I have to do to be saved?"
The carpenter responds to the wealthy, advantaged lawyer:
"What did you learn your first year in seminary? How do you interpret those verses?"
The puzzled lawyer fires off an answer as simple to him as the ABC's are to a first grader: Love God with all possible passion and love your neighbor as yourself.
The carpenter informs the wealthy, advantaged lawyer that he indeed answered the question correctly...now, just go and do it.
Realizing pretty quickly that this particular Scripture quotation pokes a hole in the ability of humans to fully get to heaven, he has to limit the scope of the answer in order to "do it." So, the lawyer's next question does that very thing: "And, who is my neighbor?"
The carpenter then goes into story mode...one we all know since our Sunday School days seemed pretty intent on covering it yearly. If you're not familiar with it, check out Luke 10: 25--35.
The basics of the story are these:
A man is traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho and gets robbed & beaten and left for dead.
Three people have a chance to help.
The first is a priest, who crosses over to the other side of the road.
The second is a Levite, who passes by the hurt man, too.
The one that stops to help is a Samaritan, who goes above and beyond the call to help the injured man.
So, Jesus tells a story of a common occurrance: Someone travels down the Jericho road, a 17-mile stretch of bad road known for danger of being mugged...and it happened. The robbers stripped him...likely since the clothes he was wearing were probably the most valuable things on his person, and, to take care of the only witness, they beat him and leave him to die.
The priest should've stopped. Of all people, the priest would stop, right? He knows the Law! He loves people and has compassion on them since he works with and for God every single day of his life? Nope. Looks the other way and keeps moving.
The Levite should've stopped. Hey, he might not be a priest, but he comes from the lineage of priests. He is as immersed in the Law as any Jewish person of the time since his "tribe" were the caretakers of the Temple. He may not be a professional leader, but he certainly would stop to help a fellow countryman, right? Wrong. Looks the other way and keeps moving.
So a Samaritan stops. The racially mixed person. The spiritually mixed person. They took the Jewish religion and mixed it up with all sorts of practices that you could hardly find Judaism in it anymore. They were the wrong people from the wrong side of the tracks.
But he stops.
Not only does he stop, but he provides basic first-aid. He takes the injured man to the hotel to recover. He pays the initial bill, tells the innkeeper to look after the injured man, and makes arrangements to pay any other expenses the injured man incurred.
He went over and above the normal cause of service and looks out for the best interests of the injured man.
And the story forces us to make an examination of who we are and what we're about, so let's do that...
So, for today, which tends to be our reaction when an injustice occurs? How does our initial response to injustice affect our thoughts & emotions? How have you seen the Christian community do well and how have you seen it be like the two selfish people?
Brent 4:36 AM
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