At first glance the parable of the Good Samaritan and the story of Martha and Mary appear to have nothing at all in common. But then when you start to dwell in the two accounts you realize they are two sides of the same coin. This is one of those times when two stories are intended to interpret each other.
We start where Luke starts us. Luke presents us with an unnamed lawyer who wants to test Jesus. Luke gives us mixed feelings about this guy. As commentator Joel Green points out, he stands before Jesus; a sign of esteem, and addresses Jesus respectfully as “teacher”. On the other hand, he is a lawyer. Luke doesn’t generally portray them well. And his question is a test of Jesus’ orthodoxy, not necessarily a genuine question of discipleship. He also uses legal terms focused on himself. “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” He appears to be trying to earn God’s favor with his behavior. “Inherit” is a legal term. He appears to want to do the right thing for God and have God reward him in turn for doing the right thing.
So overall this guy is a mixed bag. In many ways he’s just like Jesus’ twelve disciples!
As Luke introduces this guy, and then Jesus tells a parable, Luke creates a parallel between the parable and the guy’s request. We’re not going to get into it but I want us to recognize the level of literary craftmanship Luke is using.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan is one of Jesus’ most famous and it is also ludicrous. The road from Jerusalem to Jericho is a 2300’ descent. Travel in those days was dangerous and this road was particularly known to be. Imagine walking down Joseph Ave. in Rochester all by yourself in the middle of the night. …not your safest decision in life!
The traveler is left completely anonymous. We don’t know his background, his faith, or his ethnicity. He’s just a man – any man. He is attacked, stripped, robbed, and left for dead. A priest walks by. Later a Levite. These are two people of high holy status in the Jewish faith by their birthright. Jesus says they are going down the road. Down means away from Jerusalem. Thus, these two did not ignore the man because they were on their way to perform temple service and didn’t want to defile themselves. No, as Joel Green points out, “Within their world their association with the temple commends them as persons of exemplary piety whose actions would be regarded as self-evidently righteous. They are accustomed to being evaluated on the basis of their ancestry, not on the basis of their performance. Accordingly, their failure to assist the anonymous man would have been laudable in the eyes of many.” (New International Commentary on the New Testament, Luke, Pg. 431)
Though it may seem ridiculous to us, the core question was what created righteousness before God? Actions or ancestry?
Next we meet a person of the wrong ancestry – a Samaritan. Who knows why Jews and Samaritans disliked (or even hated) each other as much as they did? Some of it was ancestry and religion, much of it is forever unknown. What we do know is that a Samaritan was someone Jews liked to despise. And so when Jesus makes the Samaritan the model of righteousness he is making his hearers’ skin crawl.
But Jesus doesn’t just have the Samaritan offer help when the Jewish characters did not. The Samaritan goes to the extreme. He stops on this dangerous road – putting himself in danger as well. He tends to the man’s wounds. Then the takes the injured man to an inn where he continues to take care of him.
If you know the book or the musical Les Misérables, you have a good sense of what innkeepers were like in those days. Remember the innkeepers song in the musical? The song is not appropriate for a “family” sermon, but here’s an excerpt:
Food beyond compare. Food beyond belief
Mix it in a mincer and pretend it's beef
Kidney of a horse, liver of a cat
Filling up the sausages with this and that
Residents are more than welcome
Bridal suite is occupied
Reasonable charges
Plus some little extras on the side!
Charge 'em for the lice, extra for the mice
Two percent for looking in the mirror twice
Here a little slice, there a little cut
Three percent for sleeping with the window shut
When it comes to fixing prices
There are a lot of tricks I know
How it all increases, all them bits and pieces
Jesus! It's amazing how it grows!
Yes, that seems to sum up an innkeeper of Jesus’ day. Jesus is certainly playing on that when the Samaritan says to the innkeeper, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” There’s no doubting that’ll be a high bill!
And so Jesus wraps up the parable with the question to the lawyer, “Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of he robbers?” Notice the lawyer’s response. He does not say, “The Samaritan,” with embarrassment. No, he can’t even get those words out. He ducks around the issue with, “The one who showed him mercy.”
So does that mean we need to be extreme in our acts of service? Do we have to empty our agendas and our savings accounts helping anonymous people who are unfairly treated? Enter the Mary and Martha story.
Martha is certainly busy. Mary appears lazy sitting passively and listening to Jesus. But this passage is also shocking. Who does Mary think she is to have the nerve to ignore the expectations of hospitality to an honored guest and place herself among the male disciples of a rabbi? Women had their place. Men had their place. Mary should know her place, the role of her gender, and the service expectations that go with it.
At play here is more than just Martha having a good work ethic and Mary being lazy. At the center here is where does a woman of that day find her value, her self-worth? Society would say that a woman’s value comes pretty much entirely by serving men and by bearing children. We know nothing about this Mary’s motherhood status, but she is clearly not serving.
Before we condemn Martha too quickly, let’s understand that Jesus’ reply shakes her world to its core. She knows who she is. She knows where her value comes. She knows right from wrong, just like the lawyer we met earlier. She is going to do her role to completion.
So what then happens to her source of self-worth, when her value, does not revolve around fulfilling the societal expectations of womanhood? These are frightening prospects for her.
Perhaps Mary was lazy. We don’t know. But she is certainly bold here. She is not only breaking all gender expectations, she is putting her self-worth in being a disciple of Jesus. From many perspectives that is risky business! Remember a couple weeks ago when Jesus said, “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” and, “Let the dead bury their own dead,” and, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God”?
None of these things are things that are within a person’s control.
I think there is a lot of Martha and the lawyer in all of us. We want to have a great deal of say over that which makes us feel worthwhile. We want to know what we know; and to succeed by knowing it. We want our center of ourselves to be within our own grasp.
That is where we find security. That is where we feel safe. That is where we feel like we have belonging.
So, what do you expect of us Jesus? Give us one good reason to follow. Give us reasons to break social and racial and gender norms. Where is the ‘good news’ in all of this?
Look at what the disciples did. When they saw where truly following Jesus was really taking them – to a pain-filled shameful death – they did what any smart person would do. They fled!!!
Fortunately for us, God knows our deepest fears and failings. The good news is that God loves us despite our failings.
Following Jesus will not give us all the answers. It will not make everything in life work out well. It will not be a rock solid and secure source of value for every day of our lives. There will always be tension and uncertainty.
And yet we know the truth, and the freedom. Look at what happened on that Pentecost day. Look at what happened to the disciples who had been fearful before. God’s Spirit, breaking all conventions and expectations and limits and boundaries came to them.
We are more than what our role in society tells us. And we are not bound by conventions and norms. We are fully who God made us to be. Nothing and no one should define us otherwise. Many in society do not like that. They do not like – or they are threatened by – the true freedom God give us. And so they will push back. They will make life hard. But God is stronger. God is with us. And God will inspire our courage as it needs to happen. That is true discipleship!
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