Parable of the Good Samaritan

some of you may be interested to know that there is a jewish law which states that if you find a dead body and there is nobody there to bury him but yourself (as bodies must be buried before nightfall) then you must do it, even if you are a priest or a levite. such a body is known as a met mitzvah - ie it is a commandment to deal with it, even if you have to contract midras (corpse uncleanness) to do so for someone who is not your relative in the correct degree. the priest and the levite were clearly both in breach of this law, so jesus's criticism of them and his praise of a man who did the correct thing (even though he was a samaritan) is thus entirely jewishly based. samaritans were not well thought of by the jews at that time (or indeed later on, including nowadays) due to their habit of switching sides, engaging in political backstabbing to prevent jewish independence and not least their supercession theology. this is a group that tried to prevent the building of the second Temple by knocking the walls down every night. thus it is, to this audience, a serious criticism, to say the least, that a samaritan should be seen to behave more correctly than members of the priestly establishment.

b'shalom

bananabrain
 
bananabrain said:
some of you may be interested to know that there is a jewish law which states that if you find a dead body and there is nobody there to bury him but yourself (as bodies must be buried before nightfall) then you must do it, even if you are a priest or a levite. such a body is known as a met mitzvah - ie it is a commandment to deal with it, even if you have to contract midras (corpse uncleanness) to do so for someone who is not your relative in the correct degree. the priest and the levite were clearly both in breach of this law, so jesus's criticism of them and his praise of a man who did the correct thing (even though he was a samaritan) is thus entirely jewishly based. samaritans were not well thought of by the jews at that time (or indeed later on, including nowadays) due to their habit of switching sides, engaging in political backstabbing to prevent jewish independence and not least their supercession theology. this is a group that tried to prevent the building of the second Temple by knocking the walls down every night. thus it is, to this audience, a serious criticism, to say the least, that a samaritan should be seen to behave more correctly than members of the priestly establishment.

b'shalom

bananabrain
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This may sound freaking stupid... But, Jews believe they need to be burried before nightfall? What if, what if... A Jew is murdered? Or a suspiscious(sp) death... They have to go to autopsy... they won't be burried before nightfall ;\
 
juantoo3 said:
This lesson shows the value of not being judgemental. We see, by the actions of the Priest and the Levite, the inordinate focus on "the letter of the law" at the expense of the spirit of the law. It wasn't necessarily a matter of conscience, at least for the priest, it was a matter of legal decorum. They could not be defiled with "unclean" things. Now, it could be argued, depending, that the Levite could have defiled himself and paid whatever ransom and washed and gone before the priest and been "adjudicated" as clean again. Of course, that is such a hassle.

The Samaritan, a despised low life dog in the eyes of the others, was not concerned with the formalities...he was concerned with the welfare of a fellow human being. This lesson was given to Jews, to a Jew, to whom a Samaritan was a waste of life and breath. The Greeks of the time were thought more highly of. Yet, though all of this stigma, G-d worked a good work, a Holy Spiritual work, through someone deemed unworthy.

It tells me that no one, no matter how unworthy I might think or believe they are, no one is truly unworthy in the eyes of G-d. There may be those who resist G-d and deny G-d and refuse G-d, but none are unworthy. At least, if such as an unworthy exists, it is not my place to cast judgement.

A Samaritan, a person uniformly judged by fellow humans as unworthy, was used as an instrument of the Holy Spirit. Think of someone who in your mind seems unworthy...and see if it is in them yet to do good, to do what G-d would want us to do.

Be careful in judgement...if your (collective, not addressed to anyone in particular) criteria is perfection, no one will pass muster. No one will pass muster including yourself. So yes, there may be those who do things you may not bear to bring yourself to do, perhaps even rightly so. But if that person who has a fault does good for G-d's sake, and you don't...I really hesitate to try to make that call. Not after Jesus gave us the parable of the Good Samaritan.
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I submit that it is NOT judgement or judging that you are speaking of, but it is condemning. Huge difference. The priest and the Levite turned a blind eye thinking they were not responsible if they did not get involved. It is not for judgement they were wrong, but for their lack of judgement. It is not for using their mind that they were wrong, but for NOT using their mind. They condemned the man and yet believed that a person is innocent for NOT judging. I see that apathy in the world today and a large portion of the cause is from calling for NO judgement... as if a person is condemned for judging and NOT responsible for what he does NOT get involved in... or that a person is GOOD to NOT judge. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, were the sheep that were sent to heaven the ones that did NOT do something, and the goats that went to hell the ones that DID something? I submit that it is the other way around. Did the Levite and Priest even open their mouth to ask what happened? Did they walk by and even provide the man with a judgement and advice on how to avoid being robbed? No... they gathered no information to even judge. They did not want to be responsible. Furthermore, what good is judgement to a person who is half dead? If the soul of a person is not judged by the words that he has heard, but rather a person is judged by the words that he authors... and the person laying on the ground was not speaking then there was nothing to judge. I submit that judgement and judging is what Jesus (pbuh) provided the lawyer and anyone he spoke with.

If the rule is to Love God (swt) with all of the heart, soul, and mind... and the neighbor (and enemy) as oneself... then why has society made it politically correct (PC) to remove the mind altogether? Think only for thyself and keep those thoughts to yourself? Is it also PC to not use the heart or the soul except for oneself? It has become PC to not judge because people don't like hearing it. I submit that if people don't want to hear what you think, then those are the people who are blind... for they value darkness instead of light. If a person thinks you are right then why not learn from it? If a person thinks you are wrong then have they no compassion to help you?

If anything the Samaritan would probably get sued today for using judgement... as if he were wrong for not asking the half-dead man what hospital he wanted to go to, or what Inn he preferred, or for not being a fully qualified, registered, bonded, and insured Samaritan. Afterall providing undesired acts of kindness are illegal... just ask the Levite and the Priest.

In the alledged justice system the person who condemns is called the judge and when people use words they sometimes call it condemning... it seems the words 'condemn' and 'judge' are reversed. I submit that in the gospels 'judge' involves thoughts, information, and words whereas 'condemn' involves stones and apathy. I realize those who think a word causes people to hate will disagree with me... or those that think hearing a word rather than speaking a word hurts their soul will also disagree with me.
 
this rule only applies in the case where a religious court would have jurisdiction over the disposal of bodies, which would not apply in a contemporary setting, but would have applied at the time of jesus. in the case of a suspicious death/autopsy, this would also require a delay. actually, just checking my facts, the "before nightfall" rule only really applies to people who have been executed. it's actually "as soon as practicable" as far as burial is concerned, because the body has to be washed, prepared and all possible bits collected together, which would be necessary after an autopsy or as is sadly all too common nowadays, an accident or bombing. when you see on the news beardy guys wandering around after a suicide bombing, they are collecting up body parts and scraps to be buried with the bodies concerned.

b'shalom

bananabrain
 
cyberpi said:
If anything the Samaritan would probably get sued today for using judgement... as if he were wrong for not asking the half-dead man what hospital he wanted to go to, or what Inn he preferred, or for not being a fully qualified, registered, bonded, and insured Samaritan. Afterall providing undesired acts of kindness are illegal... just ask the Levite and the Priest.
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Very sad, but very true.
Fortunately, the Samaritan is not guaranteed to lose the case.
 
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