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| Essential 100 -- Who BECAME a neighbour? | | Date Created: Mar 31, 2005, 08:54 AM |
59 — Thursday March 31 — Luke 10:25-37
I've spent a long time on this passage for one of my books, Jesus Asked. Reading it this morning in the TNIV, I wondered if I make too much of the possibility that Jesus means for the Expert in the Law to consider the possibility that he might someday be looking for neighbours not as a potential giver but as a potential recipient. The TNIV, like the NIV before it, doesn't play up Jesus' question in 10:36. "Which of these three do you think was a neighbour" where I'd translate it more literally "Which of these three do think became a neighbour...". The ESV and NASV take it further "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbour...". LT Johnson, in his Luke commentary, threads the needle with "Which of these three do you think turned out to be a neighbour...", which is lovely.
The point of all of this is that the "was" is too simple. I'm convinced that there's meant to be a contrast between, on the one hand, the Expert's attitude, which is all about defining ahead of time, making a list of who I need to love and who I don't so that I'm clear about my duty and its limits before I have to face it. Jesus' attitude, on the other, is all about gift and what happens rather than prior definitions. If it turns out that there's a foreigner in need, it could turn out that you're that person's neighbour. Function, not ontology, as one of my esteemed colleagues would say.
But here's what really caught my eye this morning: I don't know about you but I've been challenged a lot lately by people talking about the difference between giving time and giving money. Westerners think they can get away with donating money and avoiding getting their hands dirty. It's striking that Jesus' Samaritan here does both. He certainly takes the time and energy to rescue the guy himself, but then he hands the victim off with money to the care of another while the Samaritan goes off and continues his journey. He doesn't stop the rest of his life until he's seen to it that the victim is fully recovered.
What an unnecessary detail for Jesus to have put in the parable and for the gospel-writers to include; the parable would make perfect sense if you just omitted verse 35 -- many people I've read trying to convict me of my duty in the world would probably prefer the passage without verse 35. What an amazing element to include in the story! |
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