Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbor?’ ”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, February 21, 2021
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Right and wrong can be subjective. Jesus challenged his audience to expand their perspectives and think differently about the things of the world.
The laws had become so complex, it was a full-time job to interpret, decree, and enforce them. As Jesus was clearly a learned man, religious leaders often came to him with questions concerning the laws and the mysterious things Jesus spoke about.
Here a lawyer sought to challenge Jesus for his words on eternal life. (Eternal life was a foreign concept, as Judaism taught the end of all things after death.) Jesus turned the challenge back on the lawyer with a question—what does the law say? The lawyer was able to recite the law, but tried again to challenge Jesus with a clarifying question—who is my neighbor?
At this point, Jesus presented an argument (in the form of a parable) that shook the lawyer’s perspective. Until now, the answer to the question of neighbor was those who had earned a title worthy of respect—Pharisees, Levites, law-abiding Jews. But in Jesus’ parable, it was none of these that proved neighborly. It was the outsider, a Samaritan, who demonstrated neighborly qualities. Jesus’ hearers had to open their minds and hearts to this new perspective. No longer was the answer about obeying Jewish laws properly, but in behaving with mercy and compassion. Eternal life would be granted, not to the best Jews, but to the most loving people. It was a shift that would rock their egocentricity and open the door to a vastly different relationship with the outsider.
In a similar move, Jesus praised Mary for her willingness to learn while Martha criticized her for her unwillingness to help. Jesus did not say that Martha’s chores were wrong or unnecessary. But he did challenge what she believed was the “right” way to behave. Like in the parable of the Samaritan, Jesus challenged Martha to open her mind and heart to a different perspective about how to be a good host.
In both of these stories, Jesus challenged his audience to shift their perspective, to consider looking at their situations from a different point of view. If people can learn to open themselves first to the possibility that their perspective may not be the only “right” perspective, and second to learning a new way, then our world might be better served through empathy, compassion, discovery, and acceptance.
By Dr. Kimberly Leetch
