Sunday Scripture Readings

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fifteenth sunday

in ordinary time,

july 15

Deuteronomy 30:10-14; Psalm 69; Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 10:25-37 OUR GOOD NEWS: If a Samaritan could love an enemy, how much the more should we? "Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" In today's Gospel, a recognized religious authority tested Jesus, an unofficial teacher. His question went to the heart of Jewish religion. What sort of human cooperation is necessary to receive God's free gift of eternal salvation? "Jesus said to him, 'What is written in the law? How do you recite it?'" Jesus immediately reversed roles so that his questioner's knowledge, rather than his own, was being tested. Further, Jesus hinted at the response expected: "How do you recite it?" Jesus directed the specialist in Mosaic law to that part of the law recited in daily prayer, the "Shema" ("Hear"!). The questioner had known the answer from childhood: absolute, undivided loyalty to God: "with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." The scholar of the law's smug sense of superiority had been quickly and rudely shattered. Jesus had quizzed him like an ignorant schoolboy, prompted how to answer, and then given an "A" for reciting a text every Jew memorized as a child. But the scholar's follow-up question, "And who is my neighbor?," to regain control and save face, could not be dismissed so lightly, for Jesus must take a stand on a much-debated issue. "Neighbor" ("one who is near") means a person with whom one has something to do. Hard-line Pharisees lived up to their name - "separated ones" - by shunning all but those carefully observant of the law's 613 regulations. Others limited the term to fellow Jews, excluding pagans and especially heretical Samaritans. This time Jesus chose to respond by telling a brief story with a clear and obvious point. After being severely mugged by highwaymen, a "man," doubtless Jewish, lay helpless in a lonely, deserted area, looking "half-dead. A priest happened to be going down that road, but when he saw him, he passed by on the opposite side." The apparent motive was to avoid ritual impurity from contact with a possible corpse. Play it safe! More compassionate behavior might be expected from the "Levite," a subordinate temple minister something like our deacon. But both agreed the victim was no "neighbor" with whom they had anything to do. If compassion wasn't forthcoming from the clergy, the "Samaritan" would clearly be exempted from feelings of neighborliness toward a hated Jew. And yet, "he was moved to pity at the sight"! After administering first aid, the Samaritan gave up his comfortable seat and led him to the nearest inn. His "two silver coins" purchased first-class service for several days, a down payment for however longer the victim chose to remain. The Samaritan's theology may have been imperfect, but his credit was good! Once again Jesus had taken control, and once again he posed a question for which there was only one obvious answer. The scholar tried to salvage some self-respect by his vague answer ("the one who . . . ") that avoided praising a despised Samaritan. But even here he couldn't get off. Jesus sent him away with instructions to obey the law of Moses by imitating a hated heretic!