The Bible’s New Testament: The Gospel of Luke I – Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan

Posted on September 30, 2013 by virgowriter

When I moved to the Philadelphia area in 2000 for grad school, I decided to apartment-hunt in Haddonfield.  Some of my fellow students suggested it was cute, quaint, cheaper than Philly and close to the high speed line (which had stops at campus and in Philly). I backpacked through Europe two years earlier and felt confident that, having never been there, I could find my way around on foot easily.

Exiting the Haddonfield train stop, I wandered.  I wandered, but didn’t see much in the way of apartments.  After fifteen minutes, I realized I needed at least a map of the area. For whatever reason, I tried a travel agency.  It was my first option, and they would have one, right? I asked the only woman working there if she had one, and she looked me up and down, asked me where I was from and smiled. No, she didn’t have a map. And clearly, offering a few directions wouldn’t help me. Hold on, she said.

She closed up her shop, directed me to her vintage VW and gave me a tour: the cute downtown area, the 7-11 and PJ Whelihan’s bar, the mid-sized Thriftway grocery store on a nearby corner and the sprawling Haddon hills apartment complex.  They would likely have a few vacancies. “That is definitely where you want to live,” she said, and parked in front of the manager’s office while I inquired..

I spent two years in that apartment. As I sold my car before I left California, I was able to do my grocery shopping and catch the train within a short walk. The corner of the complex had a stop for the bus that went right to the Cherry Hill mall, AMC Theater, and Target. Would I have found this great apartment on my own, without her selfless help?

The idea that a stranger would go out of her way for a person seems strange to some, but as the Gospel of Luke demonstrates, this behavior has been around for a while, as shown in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

A teacher of the law tested Jesus about how to get into heaven (earn eternal life). Aside from telling the man that he needed to love God, be a good person, etc., Jesus emphasized the importance of caring for your neighbor, even if that person was the type of person you might typically avoid. To illustrate his point, he tells this parable:

A man went from Jerusalem to Jericho, where he was mugged, stripped of his clothes, and left for dead. A priest passes him and does nothing. So too does a Levite. A Samaritan (a racial minority despised in Israel), however, took pity on him, cleaned him up and secured him lodging at an inn at his own expense (10:30-35).

The teacher was impressed by the Samaritan’s use of mercy on a stranger.  Jesus concurs and then orders the teacher to go into the world and show the same compassion (10:37).

This is one of those stories that people have probably heard of—being a good Samaritan—and not even known its Biblical origin.  It’s also one of those stories that should (and probably does) transcend any religious belief—that makes it a good thing.

I have no idea what if any religious leanings that woman in Haddonfield had.  All I know is that she was a kind woman who had no reason to extend a hand to a guy fresh from southern California, one who will always be grateful that she did. Her name is Sondra.

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The Bible’s New Testament: The Gospel of Mark III – Jesus Revises What Is Clean and Unclean

Posted on September 27, 2013 by virgowriter

One of the most important documents I give my students is the syllabus.  The diligent students peruse this document carefully, marking important due dates for homework and major assignments. Then they mark specific assigned readings in their master calendar. Like most instructors, I spend a lot of time pre-semester making sure everything is ready to go for the first day.

Occasionally, though, something arises—a snowstorm, for example—and I have to alter this document. The diligent students are the ones that care the most—they’ve been thrown off. They look flustered, as if I did this on purpose, although on some level they are at least glad that I’m on top of things: you’ve told me what to expect. The less diligent ones don’t seem to notice (a few don’t appear to follow the syllabus anyway).

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus has some revising of his own to do, and he passes this important info on to his disciples. The ones most flustered by this are the ones who—at least on the surface—are the ones have been follow the old way diligently. One of these areas involves the concept of what is clean and what is unclean, (originally set down in Leviticus). Those rules included (among other things) avoiding pork and shellfish, in addition to women who were menstruating and people who had touched a dead body. These rules were created based on the sanitation realities of the day.

Teachers of the law use these old laws to confront Jesus and some of his disciples, who they find eating food with unwashed hands (7:2). Patiently, Jesus listens as they lash out at him for breaking these cleanliness traditions. Then he offers his stance, and it’s incredibly interesting and amusing.

“Nothing outside a man can make him unclean by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean” (7:15).

Now, Jesus was making a point about how what goes into your body doesn’t touch your heart—it heads for your stomach; yet, what words and ideas leave your mouth are directly related to the heart (and mind, likely) (7:19). Therefore, what’s really important is the content of a person’s character.  By stating this, all foods were declared “clean”. What these teacher of the law should be concerned about is what comes out of men’s hearts: such as greed, malice, etc. (21-22).

By today’s standards, this philosophy is important (although what we know now about sanitation makes clear that we should wash both our hands and our food before handling it). Like so many other points he’s made to people, Jesus’ idea here is that we shouldn’t be so tied to the rules of the past, placing stock in nonsensical rules that no longer serve a purpose. Rather, we should be more concerned about who we are as people and how what we do and say affects others.

Not only does this proclamation clarify things, it also creates a more useful standard by which people can live their lives. Being good doesn’t mean adhering to some seemingly arbitrary list of do’s and don’ts; rather, people need to pay more attention to the particulars, ones that can’t be predicted by a set of hard and fast rules. Times change and circumstances dictate that we remain flexible—even if we’re following what has been set down in the past. Issues arise that create a need for change and our behavior needs to reflect that.

Up Next: The Gospel of Luke.

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The Bible’s New Testament: The Gospel of Mark II – Jesus Clarifies Divorce

Posted on September 25, 2013 by virgowriter

Among the classes that I teach, Temple’s equivalent of English Comp 102 tends to frustrate students the most.  Temple offers a two course composition sequence, the first of which students can place out of—every student, however, must pass the second comp course.  They tend to dread this course, in part because they find the whole idea of how to approach writing confusing.

Why? For as long as they have been in school (going back to when they first began writing essays in elementary school) they have received direction and advice about how to write an essay: you MUST use five paragraphs; you must NEVER use the first person; and when you begin your conclusion, you MUST use the phrase “in conclusion.”

Then they advance a few years and encounter a number of different writing teachers, all of whom seem to have a slightly different set of rules about writing—some of which are designed to help them pass the essay portion of the SAT.  Then they reach college.

A few weeks into the semester, around the time students begin workshopping their first essay, one or two students will raise a hand: You know I had a teacher who said I could use personal experience in a research paper.  Another will ask: I thought we always had to begin a conclusion with ‘In conclusion.’ And another: Why shouldn’t we begin the body paragraphs with a quote? Then another: I thought MLA citation wasn’t a big deal.

Allow me to clarify…

As the Gospel of Mark shows, by the time Jesus began his work, he had a lot he needed to clarify.  He’d made a lot of headway with the knowledge he imparted and the deeds he performed, though not without some confusion from a number of people: you’re not supposed to hang out with sinners! You’re not supposed to do ANY work on the Sabbath!

Among the many issues he encountered, one was the often shifting ideas related to divorce. Jesus intended to clarify this once and for all, lest people be confused with all the ideas circulated before.

At one point, in response to some Pharisees who ask if it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife, Jesus offers a strict response: when a man and woman get married, they become one flesh. What God has joined, let man not separate (8-9). So obviously it’s implied that if a spouse dies, someone can marry again (God having taken the deceased spouse). However, there is NO mention of this being qualified in ANY way. So there’s no unless-someone-cheats clause, etc.

Having heard the response, and perhaps taken aback at this hard line on marriage, they seem confused: Hadn’t Moses drawn up a divorce certificate? Jesus clarifies that yes, Moses did this, but only because men had hard hearts. This was not always the way (nor, it appears, should it be).  He takes this a step further: “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery” (11-12).  No mention of the adulterers-are-stoned-in-public law still being in effect, but one gets the idea that, since this comes from Jesus, he’s speaking for God.

So there you have it, no divorce for any reason.

This seems a little harsh, but then again, I believe we have evolved to the point that we can appreciate a number of good reasons why people should recant their till-death-do-us-part vows and separate: abuse, infidelity, etc. Then again, I also think we’ve evolved to the point where gay people should marry. The Bible would condemn such a thing, a number of people still say. But do these same people who adhere so closely to the Bible maintain the hard line against ALL divorce? Jesus is so clear on this point that the identical ideas are included in Matthew as well (19: 3-9).  Therefore, if the Bible is your justification for preventing gay marriage, it should also be the justification for not allowing people to get divorced. Jesus is crystal clear about this.

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