Love and Obedience

I am currently reading The Jesus Creed, By Scott McKnight. I was struck by the following excerpt as someone who is not only Christian by as a "spiritual leader". It is easy to get caught up following the law (even the law of love) but miss the point (actually loving). The following excerpt is from Pages 52-53.

"GETTING CAUGHT BY JESUS

Jesus tells parables that catch his readers in the web of a moral dilemma so they can learn. A good example of this is the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

An "expert in the Torah" asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life. Jesus says, "What does the Torah say?" The expert answers, probably because he has heard the Jesus Creed from others: "Love your God... and love your neighbor as yourself." Jesus says, "A+!"

Riding a little wave of Jesus´approval, he gets a little chesty like a first-year theology student: "Well then, who is my neighbor?" What the scribe is really asking is not just "who is my neighbor?" but "who is pure and who is not?" He´s asking about the classification system. The "who is pure" question is also a "who is better loved?" question. Knowing that the question masks a larger concern, Jesus tells storyto catch this expert in the web of a moral dilemma so we can all learn.

On a trip from Jerusalem to Jericho a man is attacked by a gang of robbers, leaving him nearly dead. A priest and a temple assistant (a Levite) come upon him seperately, but fearing impurity from contact with a corpse, the skirt to the other side of the road. They are following the Torah, mind you. One of Moses´books spells it out: Dead bodies spread impurity. In another of his books, priests are told not to contract corpse impurity unless from the body of a "close relative." If close enough to a corpse to cast one´s shadow over the corpse, the person casting the shadow becomes impure. So, they suffle to the other side of the road. This is not heartlessness so much as it is obedience. Therein lies the learning.

There is not a Jew who hears Jesus´parable who thinks the priest (or the Levite) is doing anything but what the Torah regulates. The irony of this little plot is that in "obeying" the Torah the priest and Levite are disobeying what is at the bottom of the Torah: loving others. Ironically, it is a stereotyped character that does what is right: a Samaritan. Samaritan in this parable stands for social hostility and religious heresy. The priest and the Levite get caught while the Samaritan gets the teacher´s thumbs up.

If we are to love God and love others, Jesus is asking his audience, what happens when love-of-God-as-obeying-Torah (the Shema of Judaism) comes into conflict love-of-God-as-following-Jesus (the Shema of Jesus)? That´s a tough one, for all of us. But for Jesus the answer is clear: Loving God properly always means we will tend to those in need.

A plot within a plot. Jesus catches anyone who attends to the Torah (like avoiding impurity) but fails to attend the person in need."