Our sacred stories and calls to love of neighbor

On the first night of class, October 21, we discussed and shared with each other the Biblical stories that call us to interfaith dialogue and love of neighbor. Of course, the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10) was offered. The parable in Luke begins after Jesus is questioned by an "expert in the law," and, socratically, Jesus responds in questions: "What is in the law?" Jesus asks. "How do you read it?" And the man returns,
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and Love your neighbor as yourself."

"You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live," Jesus says.

But the man is not finished. He needs Jesus to explain further, "Who is my neighbor?"

Then the parable begins. We know it well: a man is enroute from Jerusalem to Jericho, where he is robbed and beaten and left for dead. A priest passes him by, and then so too does a Levite. It is only the third traveler, a Samaritan, who stops to help the man.

An explanation of the 1st-century Jewish relationship to Samaritans is needed. The Samaritan and Jewish communities of the 1st-century CE were at odds over which community had legitimate legacy as the People of Israel following the Babylonian Exile in 587BCE. When the Persians allowed the exiled Jewish people to return to Jerusalem to rebuild their Temple, the Jews found a group -Samaritans - still living there, following what it claimed to be the laws of the Torah. The Samaritans hold themselves to be descendants of the tribe of Joseph through his sons Ephraim and Manasseh, but in the 1st century, they were characterized by the returning Jewish exiles as illegitimate interlopers in the promised land. They followed a divergent form of the Torah that differed from the one held by the returning exiles. Disputes arose between the two groups over the reconstruction of the Temple, and eventually the Samaritan community built a temple of their own on Mt. Gerizim, where they believed Abraham had nearly sacrificed Isaac. The center of Samaritan religion grew to be Mt. Gerizim and their alternate temple.

In the latter centuries of before Christ, and in the 1st century CE, the Samaritans were a despised group, followers of a different religion - not the one true religion of the Torah.

Herein lies the meat of the matter for students of the Abrahamic traditions, and for individuals yearning for mutually respectful interfaith dialogue. In this parable, one of the most famous, Jesus uses a Samaritan - someone not of his ethnic or religious group, someone distrusted, disliked, and thought to be illegitimate by the Jewish people - to teach the "expert in the law," and, by proxy, all of us, who our neighbors are.

Luke 10:36-37
³⁶"Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"

³⁷The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

The parable has been so domesticated that its profound impact is not entirely heard by many Christians. Even when we grasp its importance, we have to return, time and again, to learn Jesus' lesson. Jesus is pushing the "expert in the law" and, likewise all of us, to step outside ourselves, outside of our communities, beliefs, religions, and attitudes, and to love our neighbors. ALL of our neighbors - especially those entirely different from us in terms of identity, religion, language, nationality, behavior, practice.

In his Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus is re-forming and re-telling the same story God had been telling his people for centuries: I love all of my children. Recall Jonah, again a domesticated prophetic story which normally brings to mind a whale or a big fish. Jonah is cranky and cantankerous, refusing to listen to God's call to him to preach to the people of Nineveh so that might repent and turn to the way of the Lord. God reprimands Jonah by having a big fish swallow him. When the fish finally coughs him up on a beach, he complains and whines and says nasty things about the Ninevites again. Finally, he gives in and follows God's will. The people of Nineveh repent of their misdoings, turning to God's will. The important thing to note in this story is that it is not a story of conversion, in the way in which Christians and Muslims may imagine it. It is a story of turning to God, accepting the will of God, and is not exclusive to a faith tradition. The story of Jonah and Nineveh teaches us that God loves all of us his children, and desires all to turn to him and live in relationship with him.

The same ideas are developed in the Qur'an. Note particularly this translation of Surah 2, line 62:

Those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Christians and the Sabians,- any who believe in Allah and the Last Day, and work righteousness, shall have their reward with their Lord; on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.

another translation:
2:62 Lo! those who believe (in the Qur'an), and those who are Jews, and Christians, and Sabaeans whoever believeth in Allah and the Last Day and doeth right surely their reward is with their Lord, and there shall no fear come upon them neither shall they grieve.