Jesus: Samaritan lives matter
Monday, January 17, 2022
Charles Tarlton
We live in trying times when it comes to race relations. Though it seems as if, as a country, we always have. I hesitate to put words and thoughts in the mind of our Lord and Savior with respect to what he would say or think about these times. In reality, I feel that I do not need to. I believe Scripture is filled with Jesus’ words and actions that provide a glimpse of how he would feel about the issues of today.
We know that Jesus was Jewish, through and through. Scripture teaches us, sometimes in harsh terms (think Matthew 15:21-28), that Jesus’ initial message was strictly for the Jews. Yet, as his ministry progresses, we soon realize that Jesus’ message of love for his Father and love for neighbor included everyone — in particular all those who were looked down upon by the Jewish culture.
Why do you think Jesus used minorities and the economically impoverished as the protagonists in so many of his teachings? In Matthew 15:21-28, he uses a Canaanite woman. In Luke 10:25-37, the story of the Good Samaritan, and John 4:1-42, the woman at the well parable, he uses Samaritans. In Mark 21:41-44, Jesus uses a poor widow to make His point.
For Jesus, yes, “all lives” mattered. But at multiple times during his ministry, the focus would have been on “Samaritan lives matter” or “Gentile lives matter,” not at the expense of Jewish lives or even all other lives. During New Testament times, these groups were the minorities of the day. They were not seen as equals in the eyes of the Jews. Yet Jesus loved and healed them all, equally. After Jesus set the example for how to love (with all your heart, soul, and mind) and who to love (God the Father, and your neighbor), he commanded us in John 13:34 to “... love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.”
It would have been difficult for Jesus to have said, “All lives matter” without tending to the needs of the Samaritan, of the despised tax collector, of the Roman centurion, of the poor widow and orphan, and of course of his Jewish brothers and sisters.
The “All Lives Matter” saying is often used to mute the mantra of “Black Lives Matter.” However, in comparison to the example set by Jesus, how can we say all lives matter when we have such a huge disparity in economic, educational, health care, housing, and nutritional resources in the Black, Native American, and Latino communities? Saying all lives matter, when we have such a disparity in access to these basic needs, is actually a distraction from Jesus’ teachings of inclusivity and participation in human society. These communities today are the Samaritans and Canaanites of Jesus’ time.
All lives can’t matter until we begin to love our disparate neighbors the way Jesus loved his.
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