11:47 a.m. - 2002-11-14
Parables
It's my Mom's birthday today; it's hard to believe that she's been dead nearly 5 years now. I can't change that, so I try to use a day like today to reflect on whether I'm doing the best I can with my life. Let's face it, no matter what you feel or how hard you try, the only life that is wholly yours, by right, to live is your own; you can attach yourself to someone else either vicariously, as to a public figure, or to an individual by manipulating emotions or mores such as a friend, or you can try to force others to live out your fantasies while you hide behind them whether that be a child, spouse or family member, or you can hang onto someone who is dead or lost to you refusing to go on, but that is a violation of the most sacred agreement you have with the almighty - pitch away their ultimate gift to you and steal someone else's. Maybe one's circumstances aren't to one's liking - I know I haven't been entirely enamored of mine sometimes - but we all have lessons to learn and lessons to teach. Sometimes we are someone else's test (the poor you will have with you always) sometimes they are yours (I was in prison and you visited me). On days like today I try to remember what I learned from the few parables recorded in the first four books of the New Testament. As a child they resonated deeply with what I already knew. The two that have had the most power in my life are:
Mark 12:38 - 44. "And he said unto them in his doctrine, "Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces, and the chief seats in the synagogues and the uppermost rooms at the feasts: Which devour widows' houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation. And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing. And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow has cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance: but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living."
My understanding: all that is expected of you is to give the best you can with what you have at any given moment within the understanding that you have. It is your intentions and the actions arising from that that matter, not whether you meet some arbitrary standards imposed by someone else. That someone else should be looking to the "log in his own eye" Matt:7. You will not be judged or condemned by the standards of anyone else or by the artificial standards of any society. Thank God for that mercy.
Luke 10:29 - 37. "But he said unto Jesus, And who is my brother? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came a certain priest that way: and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever more thou spendest more, when I come again I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was brother unto him that fell among thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise."
When I was little I understood that it was important to show kindness to someone in trouble or who was hurt. But it wasn't until I was older, and had studied the social conditions of that time, that I understood how radical that story was. You see, Tiglath Pileser wasn't happy with the residents of Israel when he was king. They wouldn't do as they were told nor would they negotiate the favorable trade route agreements that he was demanding. So, in typical king fashion of the day, he invaded their country and took them out of their land, making them slaves to bolster his country's economic machine. However, he needed people to take over the farming and services which supplied his caravans passing through that trade route. His solution was to move a group of poor people from among his own citizens, II Kings 17:24, who later were called Samaritans, who had nothing to lose in, to take their place. When his regime and atrocities ended, as all such eventually do, an observation of a much later sage - Mahatma Gandhi, the original residents returned to their homes. Seeing the Samaritans as an extension of their humiliation and degradation at the hands of the Assyrians, the residents treated them cruelly and cast them out. 800 years later, at the time when Jesus was teaching through parables, the Samaritans' status was the same as blacks in the Southern states up until the late '60's or as Jews in Nazi Germany. Anyone caught breaking bread with them or carrying on a conversation was considered contaminated and "unclean" - outcast. Samaritans were pariah.
You know attitudes and behavior haven't changed that much have they. No wonder Jesus was crucified.
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