Reconciliation Revisited

This week we continued our series called Parables looking at some of the major themes of Jesus’ teachings.  There was so much stuff that I found really neat and cool to share as I was studying that it became too much for the message.  So, I told our community that I would take some time to blog about it and fill everyone who was interested in on the details of what I’d learned.  So here in an introduction like form are some of the things I learned about.  I learned about Sadducees, Levites and Samaritans as well as the importance of the written Torah and the oral Torah in early Palestinian culture and how what you believed had an impact on who your friends were and how they each viewed the sanctity of life.  But, before I get into that a little recap of the message!

Reconciliation
The big idea of the message was this whole concept of reconciliation.  There is definitely a whole theological concept of God’s reconciliation with man but in this message we focused more on man’s reconciliation with man.  We looked at the relationship between the Jews and the Samaritans highlighting the disciples desire to call down fire from heaven to burn up the Samaritans, how Samaritans were just generally hated and then walked through the story of the Good Samaritan.  We looked at the story of the Good Samaritan not as a story about mercy or compassion but as a story of reconciliation.  Ultimately, the question asked of Jesus was not, what does compassion look like, or what does it mean to be merciful, the question asked was, “who is my neighbour?”  The story of the Good Samaritan we said was really a continuation of Jesus’ teaching on loving your enemies.

In the process of  working through this message however, I learned some really cool things about the characters in the story and the context that made it so controversial at its time.

Written Torah and Oral Torah
One of the things that’s really important to understand about 1st Century Palestinian Jewish culture is that there were two differing opinions about what was Torah (law) and what was not.  The Sadducees believed that there was only the written Torah.  That basically the only thing good Jews did was follow exactly, word for word, what the written Torah (Gen-Deuteronomy) said.  The Pharisees also believed in the written Torah but they believed that the written Torah was informed by the Halakhah or the Oral Torah.  That in Leviticus 26:46 when it says “laws”, it’s the plural “Torahs” that were given to Moses, that there was both a written and oral Torah, especially given Moses’ role as mediator between Israel and God.

At the time of Jesus the breakdown was basically between Rabbis who were mostly Pharisees and the Priests and Levites who were mostly Sadducees.  Isn’t this cool stuff???  Man I love learning this.

Torah and the Sanctity of Life
So, how does this all come into play during Jesus’ time?  I mean, so what, who cares if they believe in oral Torah or not, at the end of the day they still believed in the written Torah, they were all still Jewish right?  Yep.  Absolutely correct, but there was one major issue that for the purposes of this message, become extremely important.  You see, one of the major pass times of any Jew is figuring out how to follow all the Laws of Moses.  How to be kosher in what they ate and acceptable in how they lived.  The Pharisees, with access and acceptance of Oral Torah had a wealth of tradition and interpretation to draw on to help them know how many steps on the Sabbath were too many, what you could and could not get your livestock to do, etc., etc. The Sadducees of course, were bound only by what the Written Torah said and would follow it to the letter no matter what.  A majority of the priests and levites (the priestly tribe that carried out temple duties) were Sadducees.  For them as for all Jews one of the most important parts of their religious expression was ritual purity.  To be without sin, having obeyed all the Laws of Moses was critical, especially in their roles as temple priests and assistants.

Leviticus 21:1 is fairly explicit about a priest’s holiness and how they shouldn’t be anywhere near a dead body unless under specific circumstances.  They were not to be ceremonially unclean because they were holy as God is holy.  So, the priests and levites would very commonly avoid being around dead people, ever.  Because to be unclean meant that they couldn’t perform their priestly duties (uncleanness usually had a specific duration, like 1 day or 7 days, depending on what it was).

So in the story of the Good Samaritan when the priest and the levite or temple assistant walk across the road to the other side to avoid being near the half-dead man, it’s because they don’t know how close to death he is or if he was already dead and to touch his body would be to become ceremonially unclean.

For the Pharisees however, and most pagan nations, burial of the dead was a very common and respectful thing to do.  In Rabbinical circles there very often were questions about who exactly should bury a dead body but the question of whether the body should be buried was never in doubt.  It was always right to bury a dead body.  The Pharisees went even further saying that Jewish people should do everything they can, including breaking the sabbath or risking ceremonial uncleanness in order to preserve a life.  Ritual purity was always secondary to the sanctity of life.

So for those people sitting with Jesus, listening to the story of the Good Samaritan, the Priest and the Levite respond exactly as expected, though much to the disgust of any good Pharisee.

Samaritans
The Samaritans, like the Levites and Sadducees, believed in the written Torah only.  Although they weren’t as detail oriented as the Pharisees they did follow the Torah with some different interpretations.  They were however hated by the Jews.  As we discussed on Sunday, it goes all the way back to the Babylonian exile when the land of northern Israel was filled with pagans who inter-married with the remaining Jews.  Samaria was the capital and that inter-mingling became a source of disgust for Jews during exile and after as well.

Samaritans were pro-hellenization of Israel and sided with Alexander the Great and his generals during the inter-testamental period.  This obviously didn’t sit well with the Jews of pure blood and further deepened the divide.  At one point, during the time of Herod the Great, the Samaritans defiled the Temple in Jerusalem during Passover by spreading human bones at the gate.  Talk about an insult.  So for a Samaritan to be the good guy, the one to protect life, had a very dramatic impact on the listeners.  This was a big deal.

They may not have liked the priests and levites but for a Samaritan to show them up, that was a big deal.

So, when you look at the story of the Good Samaritan, you now have a little more context about who the major players are, how they would have been seen by those listening to the parable and how dramatic the parable really is.  Thanks for reading and if you’ve got questions, or comments, I look forward to continuing the conversation!!