Pride and Prejudice

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There seems to be two attitudes hidden the heart of every man. Pride and prejudice. No attitude seems to be worse to accept in others than pride. Pride, and specifically spiritual pride, is a stench in the nostrils of every individual when present. Second to that, and often a counterpart to spiritual pride, is prejudice. Jesus must have known this when using the parable found in Luke 10:25-37. This parable, often refered to as The Parable of the Good Samaritan, seems to address both of these issues head on.

Let’s look first at the cast of characters in this incident. We find Jesus having a conversation with an unnamed lawyer. In this conversation Jesus introduces four fictitious characters to weave a story in which to make a point. These four characters are as opposite of one another as any four individuals you could choose. First Jesus introduces a ‘certain man’. Joe Average Citizen. This man was given no description, no features, no defining details and no name. Secondly He introduces a priest. Priests were the ones responsible for the sacrifices in the temple. No doubt everyone revered these men as ‘men of God’. Thirdly Jesus introduces a Levite. The Levites and the priests worked closely with one another in temple work. While the priests were responsible for the sacrificial duties, the Levites were the oil that made the whole machine of Jewish worship run. The Levites were responsible to see that all the little details were attended to, including, but not limited to, making sure the right vessels were at the right places with the right contents at the right time, and on, and on, and on.

Next, however, Jesus introduces someone quite different than a nameless, faceless (presumably Jewish) citizen, or a priest, or a Levite. A Samaritan. You can almost hear the hiss in the term. Derogatory and demeaning hardly describe the tone and manner in which the Samaritans were referred to. You can imagine the young boys calling each other ‘Samaritans’ as they had their petty disagreements. Tossing the term around with the assumption that Samaritans weren’t worth anything. No, it wasn’t assumption, they knew the Samaritans weren’t worth anything. Half-breeds at best, the Samaritans were ½ Jew, ½ Gentile, ½ idolatrous, ½ orthodox. No one knew for sure what they were, and quite frankly, no one cared.

Why would Jesus use such a motley cast of characters? What lesson needed such contrast to be articulated?

Let’s remember back the first person we were introduced to, the lawyer. Verse 25 tells us that the lawyer asked Jesus what needed to be done to inherit eternal life, simply to test him. Jesus knew this; he had dealt with these tactics before. Being a lawyer, obviously this man knew the written Mosaic Law; therefore Jesus simply asked the question back at him, ‘What does the Law say?’ Like a simple game of pass with a lob one direction and a return pitch, nothing seems amiss. Possibly realizing that his ‘trap’ didn’t spring as desired he was left with no choice but answer. ‘Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind and love your neighbor as yourself.’

Possibly this lawyer was in the crowd when Jesus was asked ‘what is the greatest command’ (Mark 12:28-31) and he answered in the same manner. ‘Right’, Jesus answers, ‘do this and you will live.’ But wishing to justify himself…… the lawyer was still intent on trapping Jesus. ‘Who is my neighbor?’ he asked. Jesus experienced the same thing again in Luke 16:14-15, Now the Pharisees…were listening to all these things and we scoffing at Him. And He said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts…’ Some people simply don’t know when it’s time to quit pushing the issue. How often are each of us exactly like this? Each time we are Jesus responds in the same way as he responded this time………directly.

Jesus replied and said, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.’

With no less than 12,000 priests and Levites living in Jericho, and with the temple being in Jerusalem, it’s not a hard to imagine a priest or a Levite being on this particular road. Remember who Jesus is talking to? A Jewish lawyer. To this man the most shocking event in Jesus’ little story was the fact that a Samaritan ‘felt compassion’, while we are appalled that the priest and Levite lacked compassion. No doubt this man knew Numbers 19:11 said the one who touches the corpse of any person shall be unclean for seven days. He also knew Deuteronomy 21:1-9 said If a slain person is found lying in the open country…and it is not known who has struck him, then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one. It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man…shall take a heifer of the herd…and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water…and shall break the heifers neck there in the valley. Then the priests…shall come near…and all the elders of that city…shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. Forgive your people…and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel.’ And the blood guiltiness shall be forgiven them. So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the Lord.

Quite possibly this lawyer would have been thinking that there was nothing strange at all with the behavior of the priest and Levite. Being ‘men of God’ it would have been unwise for them to have intentionally made themselves unclean for this stranger. Not just unwise, it would have been simply irresponsible. Likewise, he may have thought it equally irresponsible that the Samaritan showed mercy to the presumably dead man, and further evidence of Samaritans ignorance to the things of God. How could the elders measure to the city so that the blood guiltiness of innocent blood could be properly removed if this Samaritan moved the corpse? Obviously this Samaritan lacked proper religious etiquette and manners. Many, many times in our lives as well, official religiousness kills common humanity. Spiritual pride, coupled with our preferred prejudice, kills God’s work of mercy and compassion for our fellow man.

Another scripture which shows this is 2 Timothy 3:1-5 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be loves of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power… We have heard this scripture often to explain and define the current times. Somehow, though, I’ve always missed the point that this isn’t talking about the heathen, unbelieving people around us, but rather it’s obviously talking about professed Christians. In the last days men will have all these wicked attitudes while professing the name of Jesus. They will be so wrapped up in their official religiousness that they miss the call of God to a life of transformation and power.

While there could have been any number of excuses for the priests and Levites neglect of the beaten, unfortunate man, Jesus didn’t consider any of them worth mentioning. What he did consider worth mentioning was the fact that a Samaritan, of all people, who was simply travelling through, was willing to come to this mans assistance. The lawyer probably turned his head away in disgust when Jesus mentioned the idea of a Samaritan. Being ½ Jewish, ½ Gentile, ½ involved in pagan idolatry and ½ orthodox the Samaritans were indeed a despised race. The idea of Samaritans having any qualities worth imitating was unthinkable; preposterous; insane! Anyone who would have even suggested such a ridiculous idea would have been considered almost equally despised.

Yet, somehow this didn’t bother Jesus. He continued on with his story, explaining how the Samaritan was willing to interrupt his scheduled travel for a day or so; willing to further risk his reputation by being involved with this man; willing to reach into his own funds in order to support a stranger; willing to commit to further repayment over and above the initial investment. Jesus was actively arresting this lawyer’s pride and his prejudice and he’s willing to address our similar attitudes when they present themselves.

Proverbs 11:17 says that the merciful man does himself good, but the cruel man does himself harm. While it may stretch our minds a little to consider religion cruel, it is nothing less if that religion keeps us from common human kindness. When we become so entangled with our own religious ideas of what God wants that we can’t see past our official service to him to see the needs of humanity around us we are exhibiting both pride and prejudice.

Jesus said in Matthew 25:34-46 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of my Father…For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited me in; naked, and you clothed me; I was sick, and you visited me; I was in prison, and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see you…? The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them, you did it to me.’ Then he will also say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, accursed ones, into eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry…I was thirsty…I was a stranger…naked…and in prison and you did [nothing for me]. Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you…? Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’

Blessed are the merciful, Jesus says, for they shall receive mercy.

Jesus, willing to further challenge the lawyers prideful position of prejudice then asks, ‘Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?’, trying to force the him into admitting and affirming the Samaritans mercy. However, the lawyers pride wasn’t going to fall that easy. His prejudice was too deep to be given up the quickly. His religious position required them both. ‘The one who showed mercy toward him’, he answered, unable to even breath the word ‘Samaritan’. Jesus, willing to give one last challenge, but characteristically unwilling to force him into any acknowledgement simply said, ‘Go and do the same.’

The conversations over. We know nothing more of the lawyer. Did he give up his pride? Did he overcome his prejudice? Did he go and extend mercy to his fellow humans? We’ll never know, but we do know this, the message is the same to us as it was to him.

Will we give up our spiritual pride? Will we overcome our religious prejudices? Will we become more concerned with common human compassion and less concerned with official religiousness?
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