a sample from The Son of Man volume 2
Work progresses nicely. At this rate I hope to be done with the middle volume by the end of August. I just finished writing about Jesus’ lesson about the Good Samaritan. I especially enjoyed finding a western allegory to help the story resonate more with modern audiences. Here’s a sample…
The Lord’s story ends and he poses the question: “Which of the three acted like a neighbor to the wounded man?” The Lawyer was forced to conclude that it was “he that showed mercy.” He didn’t mention the Samaritan by race, but he identified him all the same. Jesus’ response is given in the form of an imperative: “Go and do likewise.”
In other words: Go be like that Samaritan. Now we probably can’t fully appreciate what that statement conveys from our western vantage point. So let’s put it like this…
Once upon a time, in 1968, there was a white, southern racist, taking a journey from Birmingham to Nashville. Along the way he was attacked by thieves, robbed and shot, and left for dead. While he lay in the ditch bleeding, a fellow-white southern gentleman saw him but, not wanting to get his white gloves dirty, avoided him. Later, the local preacher saw him, but he too thought better of lingering around such a dangerous area.
Soon after, a black man walked by and saw the man dying. Feeling sorry for him, he helped him up, bandaged his wounds, loaded him in his car, and drove him to the hospital, going so far as to pay the man’s co-pay, promising when he returned to cover the rest of the bill, whatever that may be.
Now imagine Jesus telling that story to a bunch of white racists in the middle of the south in the 1960s. That’s what it was like for him to tell the Lawyer to go be like the Samaritan. Imagine telling David Duke “the moral of the story is you need to be more like that heroic black dude.” It’s remarkable! It’s audacious! It’s radical! It’s a command that challenges you to strip away everything that defines you by the world’s estimation, until you are something unrecognizable to the world, something new and malleable by a Master Carpenter.
That’s what Jesus wants His people to be.