Luke 10:13-42
RTNT 2021. HAPPY EASTER!! Hallelujah, He is Risen!! Blessings from our Risen Lord on you and yours!! GLORY!!
A mix of four topics in today’s reading – woes, the 70 returning, the Good Samaritan, and Martha and Mary – just so we could get to the end of the chapter. Not a good reading plan! But pick what you want to comment on.
I was struck by Jesus’ “woes” on the Jewish cities almost immediately followed by His Good Samaritan parable – the contrast between the Jews’ rejection of Jesus and the Samaritan’s behavior toward his “enemy”. I’m sure that I’m guilty of similar behavior, that I confess Jesus as Lord, but so often I turn a blind eye to the world’s hurt and fail to do the right thing. But there’s also a “non-contrast” in tying these two stories together – the consistency in the Jews’ rejection of Jesus together with their priest’s and Levite’s refusal to help their fellow countryman. In telling the Good Samaritan parable, Jesus was replying to a lawyer’s (scribe’s) question, so clearly His parable was targeted to the Jewish leaders. But we should really take a good look and ask ourselves the scribe’s question, “And who is my neighbor?” I’ve said before that I fear for our country’s wealth and prosperity up against our lack of concern for the world’s problems – our “neighbors”, if you will…
See also: July 6 / Luke 10:13-24; July 7 / Luke 10:25-37; July 8 / Luke 10:38-42