Barmherzigkeit 2 - German file
Devotional Thoughts about Luke 10:25-37
Pharisees and scribes were often in the audience when Jesus spoke. Rather than attending out of genuine interest, however, they often listened intently for some statement that might get Him in trouble with Jewish or Roman authorities if repeated to the right ears.
If nothing of the sort was forthcoming, they did their best to steer the discussion in a direction more likely to produce an indictable answer from Jesus. Luke tips us off to this man’s duplicitous question (10:25). It’s hard to tell just what response he expected from Jesus, who then referred him back to his own area of expertise: the Mosaic Law.
This man quoted two famous passages (Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18) about loving God with all one is and has and loving one’s neighbor as oneself. Jesus said, “You’re right. Do it, and you’ll have eternal life.”
The scribe could have saved face by stopping right there, but—like many of us—he just couldn’t resist the opportunity of putting himself in a good light. When he asked Jesus to clarify the scope of the term “neighbor”, he may have been ready to illustrate His answer by recounting an anecdote of his own charitable work.
But Jesus launched into a story of His own, and in it the person who clearly embodied the term “neighbor” happened to be a Samaritan! Considering the aggression between the two peoples, it must have been hard for the Jewish scribe to admit that a Samaritan had showed mercy and thus been a truer neighbor in the sense of the law.
Lord, help me to notice people in need around me, and give me the courage to help them.
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