Living the golden rule

Just about everyone I know recognizes “the golden rule” about treating others like you want to be treated.  It’s fundamental to Christianity.  Like all simple ideas, though, there’s more to it.  According to the book of Luke (Luke 10:25-37), there are two basic rules to guarantee eternal life:  love god and love your neighbor as yourself.  Yes, there are other rules in Christianity to follow.  But the text in Luke reports that when Jesus was asked to explain how someone would live eternally, those are the two rules he identified.

The person who asked the question was a religious scholar.  He decided to set a rhetorical trap for Jesus.  He followed his original question about eternal life by asking Jesus to define who would qualify as a neighbor.  The answer gets lost when people glibly cite the golden rule.  Jesus’ response counters the selectivity that some folks seem to have when they consider whom they should love as they love themselves.  In response to the scholar, Jesus offered the parable of the good Samaritan. 

 

Today, the term “Samaritan” gets associated with good deeds and hospitals and charities because of that parable.  The word has lots of good connotations now.  In the times described by the gospel of Luke, however, the Jewish people whom Jesus was addressing generally disliked and distrusted Samaritans.  There was a history of enmity between the two groups that the contemporary listeners would immediately grasp.  Jesus selected the Samaritan as the good person in the parable to make a point.  That “neighbor” who should get treated as well as we’d like to be treated can be someone who’s completely opposite to us – and maybe even someone we dislike or fear.  The good Samaritan was a member of a despised group who took time from his day to help someone else who most likely hated him.  And it’s important to notice that the Samaritan took that action when two different religious people didn’t. 

 

Loving your neighbor as yourself isn’t, according to the text, about loving people like you.  It’s about treating others well despite your differences with them.  That puts a lot into perspective.  Someone who wants me to hate or fear others who are different than me isn’t practicing Christianity.  In case you don’t yet see the connection to our current situation, let me be clear:  Demonizing immigrants is anti-Christian.  Creating a political campaign that purposely lies to further those fears is anti-Christian.  That label applies to the people who create those stories and to the people who support them.  If you intend to follow biblical rules, it’s your role to help people who are different than you – to care for them as you would want to be.  If that doesn’t sound right, don’t take my word for it.  Go read. 

 

The parable and point are easy to understand when you read the parable completely.  If you read the whole context, you can’t miss the point.  Here’s the King James version of Luke 10:25-37:

 

25 And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?

 

26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou?

 

27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

 

28 And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live.

 

29 But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?

 

30 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.

 

31 And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

 

32 And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

 

33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

 

34 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.

 

35 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 thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

36 Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

37 And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

Want to follow the teachings of Jesus?  Go and do thou likewise.