There is so much we can learn about dealing with troublesome people if only we pay attention to our Lord’s interactions with those who routinely confronted him.
In today’s Gospel, St. Luke records that “A certain lawyer stood up and tested Him…” The word ‘tested’ here in the original Greek is ekpeirazo, which translates perhaps better to the word ‘tempted’. We connect the word ‘temptation’ to our Lord when we think of His 40 days fast in the desert, and the encounter with Satan at the end. But certainly as we read the Gospels, temptation (as we’d define it for any human being) continued throughout the Lord’s recorded ministry. It was there in every encounter with the Pharisees, with people who pressed Him for healings, and truth be told, even with the Apostles. So today’s event with the lawyer is not unusual.
As this temptation is levied toward the Lord, see how He turns it from being directed AT Him to being a test for the one who began by attempting to test Jesus. “What is written in the law? How do YOU read it?”
In the ensuing response, the lawyer indeed replies properly. Jesus responds to the man’s reply with the Greek word orthos, meaning ‘right’, and being the word that serves as the root of the name we take for ourselves—Orthodox, ‘right belief’!
But the man’s response, while praised by Jesus as technically correct lacks foundational understanding. He makes this clear by asking, “Who is my neighbor?”
Please don’t lose sight of the fact that this ‘temptation’ from the lawyer is continuing here! And note carefully how our Lord responds to the temptation.
He does not chide. He does not accuse. He does not ridicule. He does not even ignore. He teaches. He does this lovingly!
And in the process, Jesus not only addresses the temptation, He turns it into a lesson intended to truly change the lawyer’s understanding, even to the extent of gifting to him the ability through acceptance of the teaching to change his very life, both present AND eternal! And at the same time, His teaching reaches beyond the lawyer, and provides a lesson to all of humanity for all times.
The Parable of the Good Samaritan looks at the human condition, admits the fallenness of us as a people (sin exists in the world and it affects all people), teaches that there come times when we as individuals are the victim, and there are times when we are blessed to have the ability and the resources to help the victim. In so teaching US, the parable shows that there is no shame in accepting help when we are in need, and there is no glory in withholding help when we have the ability to give it.
The people whose history (the priest and the Levite) should have had them conditioned to be merciful "passed by" and withheld that mercy. The foreigner who had no benefit of prophets or forefather’s history to instruct in the benefit and necessity of being merciful, he is the one who is moved to help his fellow man.
God, give us the grace to to be merciful with all who are in need, as was the Samaritan. Lord, give us also the humility to accept help when we are the ones who are in need!
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