For a while, I have continually said that the Bible is not a book of answers, but a book of questions. This point is pronounced in the Lucan community’s
Parable of the Good Samaritan.
In the story, the lawyer begins with a barrage of questions as an attempt to test Jesus’s knowledge of the covenant. Jesus retorts with an inquisition that highlights the cornerstone of the Torah: Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Just when we think the interrogation is complete, the lawyer asks, “Who is my neighbor?” Understanding that the lawyer is looking for a loophole (as lawyers are prone to do), Jesus relates the now-familiar story of a traveling man robbed and left for dead. Two people pass by the dying man while a Samaritan stops and nurses the man back to life. Jesus finishes the parable with the ultimate question, “Which of these people acted like a neighbor?”
The question has become relevant in a different way with a heightened understanding of COVID-19. In a short period, we are finding ourselves limiting activity and practicing “social distancing” to prevent the spread of the virus. FaceTime and Livestream have replaced public gatherings, and coffeeshop chats with friends are now phone calls and text messages. Although these alternatives give us hope, we must acknowledge we are on a new and unknown road that can produce anxiety and isolation. These circumstances have invited us all to contemplate new ways to act like a neighbor:
- Phoning people in at-risk categories and offering a kind word or errand running
- Mailing a hand-written card or letter
- Texting friends beautiful pictures or poems
- Staying home
- Relaying to a friend you are concerned about them
- Washing your hands as a contemplative practice
I am sure many people will have more creative ways to practice being a neighbor that can be shared on the official
Pullen Facebook page
.
Although the actions of the Samaritan highlight compassion, the lawyer answers the penultimate question with, “The one who shows mercy.” The re-framing of the scenario gives us pause because compassion may stir in our hearts while mercy is enfleshed within our whole body. Mercy is used extensively in the Lucan material’s infancy stories where it is a characteristic of God. The lawyer, and vicariously the reader, associates the intentions and actions of the Samaritan with the intentions and actions of God. Thus, the divine is enfleshed and demonstrated through our actions, and if the Samaritan can be God in the world, then, so can the lawyer. At this moment in the story, the inquiries cease and Jesus does not respond to the lawyer’s logic with another question, but with an imperative: “Go, and do likewise."
The current crises with COVID-19 will have us all asking pertinent questions in the future. It will also require us to find new and innovative ways to be divine mercy in our ailing world.
-Brian Crisp
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