Jesus & the Law – on strangers & foreigners … (11/17/18)
Intriguingly, while on one hand the ancient Law of Israel expressly demanded that Jews be kind to all strangers in speech and deed (see Exodus 22:20-21 & Deuteronomy 10:19 et al) and forbade Jews from insulting or gossiping about their fellow Israelites (see Leviticus 19:14-16 & Leviticus 25:17 et al), that same Law went out of its way to engender and entrench a deep-seated prejudice (if not an outright bigotry) against all non-Israelites – forbidding Jews from intermarrying with Gentiles (see Deuteronomy 7:3), demanding the expulsion of all non-Jews (including all “idolaters”) from the land of Israel (see Exodus 23:33 & Deuteronomy 7:2), forbidding Jews from making pacts or covenants with any citizen from a Canaanite nation (see Exodus 23:32), and demanding that Jews lend to aliens at interest (see Deuteronomy 23:21) while non-leniently exacting any & all debts owed therefrom (see Deuteronomy 15:3). Almost needless to say, Jesus was in no way a supporter of such blatantly unkind hypocrisies. Consider …
.*Whereas the Law demanded Jews to exude an open enmity towards all Canaanites (see Genesis 9:20-27 & Deuteronomy 20:16-18), Jesus went out of his way to be openly kind towards the same (see Matthew 15:22-28 & Mark 7:24-30).
.*Whereas the Law (along with contemporary cultural convention1) encouraged an acute distrust – if not an open enmity – between Jews & Samaritans (as alluded to in Matthew 10:5, Luke 9:51-54, John 4:9b, & John 8:48), Jesus was publicly gentle towards the same (see Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:15, Luke 9:55, & John 4:1-24), making a Samaritan the hero of his only parable that defined what it meant to be a truly salvational “neighbor” (a la his second Great Commandment: “Love your neighbor as yourself” in Matthew 22:35-40, Mark 12:28-31, & Luke 10:25-28 – see also John 13:31-35) – the only time in the Gospels he provided such an explanation (see Luke 10:29-37)2, and even making a Samaritan leper seem similarly heroic in his own subsequent encounter with the same (see Luke 17:11-19).
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1 This was a convention founded in hundreds of years of intense religious disagreement; primarily centered around a discrepancy of belief related to the location of the Jewish holy center, with Jews believing it to be located in Jerusalem and Samaritans proclaiming the same to be found on Mount Gerizim (see 2 Kings 17:24-41 & Ezra 4:7-16 et al).
2 It is worth noting that the Samaritan in this tale qualifies as being a Jesusian “neighbor” because he is the one who “shows mercy” – something that can only be given to one who has trespassed against us; something that only be given to an enemy, which the Samaritans & the Jews were to each other at the time. NOTE as well 2 Kings 6:15-23, a passage which provides a strikingly merciful backdrop to Jesus’ parable – with Elisha rebuking a king’s desire to murder his blinded Aramean enemies in Samaria, and commanding food & water be brought to them instead; an act of mercy which inspired a festive banquet to be thrown and the enmity between the Jews and the Arameans to subside.
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