One of the
styles of group Bible study I learned when I was in college, especially when
dealing with stories, is to roleplay. Everyone would read a particular story together,
and the facilitator would ask the question: “If you were in the story, who
among the characters would you be?” This approach is both interesting and
fruitful, because members will realize the perspective of the different
characters of the story. By putting one’s self in someone else’s shoes, we
begin to understand what people think, feel, and do. We will try to do this in
the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-35).
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among
robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now
by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed
by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and
saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed,
came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to
him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him
on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next
day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying,
‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come
back’.”
From this
parable, let us deal with three sets of characters with three different
reflections on love and keeping alive.
The
Robbers, Levite and Priest:
Love of
Ourselves Keeps Us Alive
The first
set of characters includes the robbers who beat the man and left him half-dead
on the road, along with the priest and the Levite who passed by the other side
when they saw the needy man. These three characters in the parable model the
first paradigm of love and life: “my love of myself keeps me alive.” The
robbers did what they did maybe because they were also destitute. Maybe they
were doing what they were doing because society does not give them
opportunities to work honest livelihood. Maybe they were the uneducated and the
skill-less, who can only scavenge for food by taking them from others. As human
beings, they needed to eat. They may have had spouses and children waiting at
home for them to bring back food. It was because they love themselves and their
loved ones that they were willing to do whatever it takes to keep themselves alive.
Both the
priest and the Levite did not help the man because they also wanted to protect
their own lives. In particular, they were afraid of violating the law of God
stipulated in Numbers 19:11-13, “Whoever touches the dead body of any person
shall be unclean seven days… Whoever touches a
dead person, the body of anyone who has died, and does not cleanse
himself, defiles the tabernacle of the Lord, and that person
shall be cut off from Israel; because the water for impurity was not thrown on
him, he shall be unclean. His uncleanness is still on him.” This command is
especially scary for those who serve in the Temple, like the priest and the
Levite. Essentially, if they touched the man on the road—which may already have
died—they would be cut off from the temple and their responsibilities as holy
men for a week. In a sense, not touching someone who is bleeding and not moving
on the road is the wisest and the most logical thing to do! They love
themselves and their ministries at the temple, so they wanted to keep
themselves clean. The robbers pursued their love interests, while the
Levite and priest protected their love interests.
Loving
ourselves is not essentially evil. We need an appropriate self-love and
self-concern. We need to take care of ourselves, eat, shower, and sleep.
Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1152) stated that the highest and fourth degree of
love is love of self for the sake of God. What is wrong is love of self for the
sake of self. When we love ourselves because we want to honor God with our
lives and continued service, then love of self is godly. What is wrong is love
of ourselves at the expense of the lives of others. Love of ourselves becomes
wrong if for the sake of keeping ourselves alive, we take advantage of and hurt
others, and if for the sake of keeping ourselves alive, we willfully disregard
the needs of others.
The
Samaritan:
Our Love
Keeps Others Alive
The second
character is the Samaritan. He models the second category of the relationship
between love and survival: our love keeps others alive. It was the
Samaritan’s active and intentional reaching out to the half-dead man that saved
the man. Without someone capable of loving, the man would have died.
The fact is
this: there is always someone relying on our love for their continued
existence: the parent who sacrifices his or her career in order to take care of
their children; the parent who works double shifts or two employments just to
support his or her children’s education or special needs; the parent patiently
enduring back pain in order to care for the kids, and whose rewards are none
other than sweet smiles; the family bread winner who works hard in order to
bring food to the table; the son who continues to support and care for his weakening
parents; or the daughter who puts off romantic relations to support her family.
What
enables people to do these things? The answer is simple: love.
Love was
why Schindler saved the Jews, why Mother Theresa helped the poor, why Bruce
Willis chose to remain and detonate the nuclear warhead on the asteroid, and
why Jack saved his beloved Rose from sinking. Whether we like it or not, and
realize it or not, the lives of others are dependent on our ability to love and
extend love to them. In I Wanna Know What Love Is, we discussed the fact that
the world is full of unloved people; here, we must realize that the world is
full of dying people. It is our capability to love that will enable them to
live. It is when we are compassionate and merciful to others that we can help
others to remain alive. The Dalai Lama once said, “Our prime purpose in this
life is to help others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.”
The
Half-Dead Man:
Others’
Love Keeps Us Alive
The final
character in the parable is the half-dead man. He was a hopeless man, lying on
the road, and was totally at the mercy of others. His survival depended
entirely on the love that others might show him. He was a man with several
counted breaths left, and only someone’s attention and help can prolong the
function of his respiratory system. He was a man in deep need of pity and
compassion. It was only someone capable of loving the unlovable who can save
him from his coming demise. I can imagine that when he recovered from his
near-death experience, his thoughts were simple: it was through the love of
another that he was alive.
We are all
recipients of love. One of the primary reasons we are alive right now is
because we have been recipients of many people’s love, attention, and care. We
are recipient of God’s love: “You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me
together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and steadfast love,
and your care has preserved my spirit” (Job 10:11-12). God’s love keeps us
alive, even when we deserve death. But more than just physical life, God grants
us eternal life: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his
only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal
life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the
world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved
through him” (John 3:16-17).
We are
recipients of our parents’ love. We are alive today because our parents had
sleepless nights when we were newborns. We are alive today because of their
endurance and sacrifices. We are alive today because of their patience and
understanding. We are alive today because they did not give up on us. We are
alive today because they loved us so much. The parable of the prodigal son
illustrates very well that even though children do hurtful things and break
their parents’ hearts, they are still loved: “While he was still a long way
off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him
and kissed him” (Luke 15:10).
We are
recipients of others’ love. It is because of the love of others for us that we
are alive. We are all recipients of somebody’s love, and we are alive today
because of them. But we must also remember to love back. Our lives are
dependent on others, but others’ lives are also dependent on us. In this world,
we are not only meant to be loved; we are also meant to love. We
are not mere recipients of love, we are also givers of love. There comes a
point in our lives when we are just flickering lights, ready to be snuffed out
at any moment, and it is at the mercy of others that we our fires are still
burning today. But there are times when we see someone—a coal separated from
the batch of burning coals—and what remains in him is but a tiny ray of light,
just sufficient to catch anyone’s attention. This coal needs someone to stretch
their hands to bring them back to the group to be rekindled to life.
This is the third entry for the Love series. The first is The One that You Love, followed by I Wanna Know What Love Is.
No comments:
Post a Comment