How literal?
Love your neighbors ... who is my neighbor? We've been having some discussion at my school over Jesus answer. Jesus champions a Samaritan. Samaritans were despised by Jews. Some of us have taken this passage and (with the thought of "who is despised") contextualized it and made the case that homosexuals are our neighbors. Others feel that we have taken it too far. Jesus was talking about a neighboring country - so maybe he just meant that the idea of "neighbor" goes farther, geographically, than we already think. How literaly should we interpret the Bible when applying it to daily life. How literal?
The Essenes knew that they weren't to work on the Sabbath. They decided that defecating was considered work. They all wore white robes on the Sabbath to "prove" that they hadn't worked in any way. Pharisees weren't allowed to spit on the ground because it might "plow the field" in one very small way. How literal?
When David Lake was a relatively new pastor, in the late 80s, he took his youth group on a mission trip. The college interns did a skit. They did a modern retelling of the good samaritan.
The good samaritan was replaced by a good comunist. A man in the crowd stood up and started screaming "These kids need good American role models. How dare you take the side of those commies. (etc.)" David told the college interns to do the same skit the next night. That was the whole point of the story. Despised.
This wasn't just an answer. Jesus could have said "even the evil samaritans are your neighbor and you should treat them with love" (which would have been radical) but, he chose to go all out and paint a picture of a Samaritan hero. When the leaders of the Jewish faith fail miserably there is a Samaritan there to pick up where they failed. In a time when the Jews needed good Jewish men and women as heroes this homeless Rabbi is teaching that a Samaritan saves the day?
Is it a stretch to put a homosexual in the place of the Samaritan. Not at all. They are, by and large, despised by the Christian community. In interpreting any text I think it is important to understand that Jesus spoke the language of the people. If Jesus were here today he would be telling stories using the internet and fixed rate mortages to explain the Gospel of the Kingdom. We're not making a stretch hear - we're getting to the words that Jesus would have us to understand. Jesus doesn't want us to understand the fact that in Biblical times Samaritans were disliked - Jesus wants us to understand that any person you despise is immediately your neighbor.
Scripture interprets scripture. We can't just look for prooftexts to support what we believe. We've become too concerned with interpreting every word just right - and we end up missing the point. We follow a homeless carpenter who loved all people enough to challenge them and die for them. We forget that. We institutionalize that. We build walls around that.
We have a pasty white Jesus who wants us to love Canadians (our neighbors to the North) and Mexicans (our neighbors to the South) because geographically they are our neighbor. We don't see a Savio, revolutionary, or lover. We see another idol to add to our shelves.
I'm not too concerned with people having a less than literal translation of a text. If they take it to every extreme - and believe that everyone is their neighbor ... well, maybe that was the point all along. I'm not an Essene - I'm taking off my white robe. I don't need anyone to think I'm sinless.
The Essenes knew that they weren't to work on the Sabbath. They decided that defecating was considered work. They all wore white robes on the Sabbath to "prove" that they hadn't worked in any way. Pharisees weren't allowed to spit on the ground because it might "plow the field" in one very small way. How literal?
When David Lake was a relatively new pastor, in the late 80s, he took his youth group on a mission trip. The college interns did a skit. They did a modern retelling of the good samaritan.
The good samaritan was replaced by a good comunist. A man in the crowd stood up and started screaming "These kids need good American role models. How dare you take the side of those commies. (etc.)" David told the college interns to do the same skit the next night. That was the whole point of the story. Despised.
This wasn't just an answer. Jesus could have said "even the evil samaritans are your neighbor and you should treat them with love" (which would have been radical) but, he chose to go all out and paint a picture of a Samaritan hero. When the leaders of the Jewish faith fail miserably there is a Samaritan there to pick up where they failed. In a time when the Jews needed good Jewish men and women as heroes this homeless Rabbi is teaching that a Samaritan saves the day?
Is it a stretch to put a homosexual in the place of the Samaritan. Not at all. They are, by and large, despised by the Christian community. In interpreting any text I think it is important to understand that Jesus spoke the language of the people. If Jesus were here today he would be telling stories using the internet and fixed rate mortages to explain the Gospel of the Kingdom. We're not making a stretch hear - we're getting to the words that Jesus would have us to understand. Jesus doesn't want us to understand the fact that in Biblical times Samaritans were disliked - Jesus wants us to understand that any person you despise is immediately your neighbor.
Scripture interprets scripture. We can't just look for prooftexts to support what we believe. We've become too concerned with interpreting every word just right - and we end up missing the point. We follow a homeless carpenter who loved all people enough to challenge them and die for them. We forget that. We institutionalize that. We build walls around that.
We have a pasty white Jesus who wants us to love Canadians (our neighbors to the North) and Mexicans (our neighbors to the South) because geographically they are our neighbor. We don't see a Savio, revolutionary, or lover. We see another idol to add to our shelves.
I'm not too concerned with people having a less than literal translation of a text. If they take it to every extreme - and believe that everyone is their neighbor ... well, maybe that was the point all along. I'm not an Essene - I'm taking off my white robe. I don't need anyone to think I'm sinless.
posted by Michael Airgood at 12:22 AM
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