“A cat among the pigeons, a fox in the henhouse”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Thursday, May 25, 2023

Luke 10:25-37 (Forward, p. 27) CEV p. 1073

We in our isolated, Western, non-Judaean world have no idea just how revolutionary and startling this story from the lips of Jesus would have been to those who heard it—and especially to the legal expert who’d come to Jesus with a question.

As an expert in the Law of Moses his question, ‘what must I do to have or inherit eternal life?’ would have been most pertinent. It was the kind of question that he and his colleagues debated endlessly. And so, he would have been most interested in what Jesus had to say.

However, Jesus, in true rabbinic fashion, turns the tables on him and asks him a question in response: “What is written in the Scriptures? How do you understand them?” In essence, the man himself is now put on the spot. He answers well, answers with what we have come to know as the Summary of the Law: “Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and your neighbour as yourself.”

Jesus then says to him, “You have given the right answer. If you do this, you will have eternal life.” But this was not enough for this man. He wanted to make himself look good, to ‘justify himself’ as some translations put it. and so, he asked Jesus a further question, “Just who is my neighbour?’ In other words, who is the neighbour that I am supposed to love.

My guess is that in true lawyer fashion he wanted to limit his liabilities, to delineate and lay out in precise detail where his responsibilities lay, so that he could be sure to meet them. He was probably hoping that Jesus would define neighbour in a very limited fashion, perhaps only his fellow Jews that lived in his own vicinity. But here he was in for a very big surprise. Jesus tells a now familiar story, the one that we call the Parable of the Good Samaritan, that really set the cat among the pigeons, the fox in the henhouse.

But that is a title, the Good Samaritan, that no self-respecting Jew of Jesus’ day would have ever given it. No Jew would have ever thought of a Samaritan, that lousy half-breed, heretical, despised and corrupt group of people as ‘good’. In fact, they would have told this parable in a few different fashion. Instead of a Samaritan being the hero, the exemplar, they would have cast a Pharisee or a Levite or someone of that sort in that role. So, when Jesus puts the Samaritan in that role it was truly shocking—and, to be honest, more than the legal expert could stomach. In fact, he was loath even to say his nationality when asked by Jesus who it was that acted like a neighbour. All he could mutter was “the man who showed pity/ compassion”.

Now, in some sense, Jesus let him off easy. Instead of rubbing it in and saying, ‘so, seeing that this man, the Samaritan, was the one who truly acted the part of the neighbour to the man who was beaten, he is the neighbour that you are to love’, Jesus merely said, ‘go and do thou likewise.’ Go and do the same. In other words, instead of obsessing over who is the neighbour you are to love, you should now go and act the ‘part’ of the neighbour to those in need. It was truly like setting the cat among the pigeons, the fox in the henhouse, of someone who wanted to limit his responsibilities. Instead, he got even more. And, so it is, with us and God as well. We are called to take responsibility, to care for, all and sundry, to those around us. And, we are given God’s Spirit, God’s help, in order to do so. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Forward notes: “But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’” (verse 29)

“One of my favorite childhood memories is wandering through the woods around my grandparents’ house. If you took one step beyond the edge of my grandpa’s garden, you were surrounded by tall leafy trees. I could get to my cousins’ house by walking through the woods—and a few neighbors’ unfenced yards.

“I was usually nervous to take the shortcut. In the places I lived, yards are fenced, and you don’t walk across neighbors’ lawns. My cousins didn’t think twice about it because their neighborhood was an extension of home. There is something neighborly in this attitude of allowing people access to our resources. Whether that translates into a watchful eye over kids crossing the lawn or sharing our most precious commodity, our time, being a good neighbor means reconsidering the ways we use what is ours. The story of the Good Samaritan reminds us that sharing ourselves generously removes the need for us to justify our actions toward others.”

MOVING FORWARD: “Do you know your neighbors? What might you share with them today? A wave? A story? A meal?”

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