Don: In the story of the Good Samaritan, Jesus contrasted the action of the Samaritan with the inaction of the priest and the Levite. All priests are Levites, but not all Levites are priests. The priests were direct descendants of Moses’ brother Aaron and were given specific duties in administering sanctuary services. Levites who were not descended from Aaron had more menial duties in the tabernacle and temple, including handling the sacrifices, keeping the temple clean (no easy task given the amount of sacrificial slaughter), keeping the oil lamps trimmed and burning, and (in the Israelites’ long sojourn in the wilderness) setting up, dismantling, and transporting the tabernacle,
But all Levites held a special place in Jewish society and that place is a key to understanding the story of the Good Samaritan and understanding the role of obedience in Christian life. Here is how the role was given:
So the Lord said to Aaron, “You and your sons and your father’s household with you shall bear the guilt in connection with the sanctuary, and you and your sons with you shall bear the guilt in connection with your priesthood. [“Bear the guilt” means that they will be responsible for any harm to the sanctuary by failing to protect and care for it.] … Then the Lord spoke to Aaron, “Now behold, I Myself have given you charge of My offerings, even all the holy gifts of the sons of Israel I have given them to you as a portion and to your sons as a perpetual allotment. This shall be yours from the most holy gifts reserved from the fire; every offering of theirs, even every grain offering and every sin offering and every guilt offering, which they shall render to Me, shall be most holy for you and for your sons. … “To the sons of Levi, behold, I have given all the tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service which they perform, the service of the tent of meeting. The sons of Israel shall not come near the tent of meeting again, or they will bear sin and die. Only the Levites shall perform the service of the tent of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a perpetual statute throughout your generations, and among the sons of Israel they shall have no inheritance. For the tithe of the sons of Israel, which they offer as an offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites for an inheritance; therefore I have said concerning them, ‘They shall have no inheritance among the sons of Israel.’” (Numbers 18:1,8-9,21-24)
Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan opposite Jericho, saying, “Command the sons of Israel that they give to the Levites from the inheritance of their possession cities to live in; and you shall give to the Levites pasture lands around the cities. The cities shall be theirs to live in; and their pasture lands shall be for their cattle and for their herds and for all their beasts.
“The pasture lands of the cities which you shall give to the Levites shall extend from the wall of the city outward a thousand cubits around.” (Numbers 35:1-4)
The Levites were forbidden from owning land but they were given good land for their flocks and the right to the tithes that the other Israelites paid. Working for God thus gave them a secure income and made them a living example of God’s grace in that he took total care of their livelihood for them. This promise of grace on life was confirmed by Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:
“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But
“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:25-34)
Thus, the Levites were a living diorama of God’s grace, which is why I think the contrast between the actions of the Samaritan and the inaction of the priest and the Levites must have shocked Jesus’ audience as they listened to him tell the story. The most fundamental principle of the kingdom of heaven is that grace cannot be hoarded or it will turn toxic. Jesus hammered this home in story after story. Forgiveness is nothing more than passing on the grace of forgiveness given to us by God. Unforgiveness is the unpardonable sin:
For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions. (Matthew 6:14-15)
It is a sin against the holy spirit, which convicts us of our faults, forgives us with grace, and asks us to pass on that same consideration to others. The obedience asked of all citizens of the kingdom of heaven is nothing more nor less than the passing on of the grace that has been given to us. It is the answer to the question: “If we are saved by grace, what is the role of obedience?” The role of obedience is the passing of grace. Jesus emphasized this key concept in the stories of the Prodigal Son, the Talents, the Good Samaritan, and many others. It is encapsulated above all in the two great commandments to “Love God with all your heart”—that is, “Accept God’s grace…”; and “Love your neighbor as yourself”—“…then pass it on!” The difference between the sheep and goats of Matthew 5 is willingness to pass on grace.
Grace must be seen in the broadest terms. It may be spiritual grace—the acceptance that we are sinners in need of God’s mercy and to pass on that acceptance to others; or it may be material grace—financial resources, emotional resources, and a variety of gifts of the Spirit:
Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. (1 Corinthians 12:4-10)
The obedience of the converted soul, then, is rooted not in personal piety as we have always believed, but in the passing on of grace. An overemphasis on bible study, prayer, and righteousness endangers one to the idol of self-worship. Jesus points us outward, away from ourselves and our needs and instead towards others and their needs using the immeasurable resources of God’s grace and love that he has given to us to be conduits for. When we serve to others we enter into a deeper relationship with God.
So the answer to the question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” is: “Accept and pass on the gifts of God’s grace.” But that answer means different things to different people because of the variety of gifts we receive. For the Rich Young Ruler, the gift he was given was wealth; for the Samaritan it was some time, some risk to his safety, his comfort, some money, and some future considerations.
How much to pass on is a matter between God and the individual, but it has to be enough to make us metaphorically small and depleted enough to pass through the eye of the needle.
David: I wish the Bible said it with such simplicity and clarity. I agree that this is what the Bible says, but I don’t understand why scripture was made so easy to misinterpret. There is no doubt that we all have different capabilities—different “gifts”—and differing abilities and disabilities. It just would not be fair if the same were expected of everyone.
Jay: The principles we look for in this class are not bound by time, geography, culture, and so on. The qualification for eternal life is one such principle. It is not a fixed, finite principle; it seems to depend on the individual. But that is disconcerting. It suggests that some may have do less (or more) than me in order to qualify. Some might call that a slippery slope; something too vague to catechize effectively—something anarchical.
David: Marxism in general and Chairman Mao in particular made an article of faith out of the concept: “From each according to his ability; to each according to her needs.” The only difference between him and Jesus (in this instance!) was that Mao sought to impose it whereas Jesus wants us to accept it of our own free will.
Don: The notion that obedience is the passing on of God’s grace came to me as I was considering the Levite, who had been given so much—everything they needed in life, in fact. To have been unwilling to pass on this grace to the injured stranger in need seemed to me to be a strong statement of the level of obedience that is expected, as was the demand made of the Rich Young Ruler to pass on all the wealth that had been given to him.
David: Could not the Levite justifiably argue that he was indeed strictly obedient to the strictures placed upon him regarding his duties to the temple; that he always fulfilled his part of the bargain to the letter? Passing on his reward was not part of the contract! Why should he help the stranger in need? It wasn’t his job!
Jay: It was the purpose of the ministry of Jesus to correct such belief—indeed, to shift the entire paradigm. Some may see the Old Testament as irrelevant for that very reason. I would not go that far, but there is no question that Jesus was challenging the old law. Before the Fall everyone was equal, but after it we developed different classes of people and different laws pertaining to them. Jesus came to challenge that paradigm put us all back on an equal footing, and the challenge is ongoing today. The obedience Jesus wants applies more than to just one individual or group: It is universal.
Don: It seems to me Jesus wants us to exchange the Contract of the Old Testament for the Covenant of the New. A covenant has contractual elements to it but implies much more than that: It implies a non-arm’s-length relationship.
Jason: Obedience to God is more important than how you structure your worship. Samuel condemned Saul for disobedience to God despite Saul’s offer of worship and sacrifices to God (1 Samuel 15). Samuel was saying, in effect, “You don’t know how to worship. The correct way to worship God is to obey him—to let God’s will be done.”
David: The very last “chapter” (#81) of the Daoist “bible” (the Dao De Jing) has been translated:
The Sage does not take to hoarding. The more he lives for others, the fuller is his life. The more he gives, the more he abounds.
The Way of Heaven is to benefit, not to harm. The Way of the Sage is to do his duty, not to strive with anyone.
This seems to encompass the lessons we are discussing.
Rimon: It’s harder to operate on the basis of grace than on the basis of following rules—of law. To be truly obedient we must be pure in heart, and that is a very hard state to achieve, let alone to maintain.
David: And the older one grows, the harder it gets (hence the importance of being child-like, as emphasized both in the Bible and the Dao De Jing — “He who has in himself abundantly the attributes (of the Dao) is like an infant.” (Ch. 55)) But is an infant capable of “obedience” without understanding the concept? It takes time to develop the concept of obedience.
Rimon: Obedience implies conforming without pleasure; whereas gracefulness suggests conforming with pleasure. Jesus helped others because he loved to do so, not because he felt obliged to do so. Grace comes from the heart; it is not imposed on one.
David: Obedience is not mentioned in the Beatitudes. There is no “Blessed are the obedient.” The blessed are not blessed with grace as a result not of their obedience. It is a gift.
Rimon: But acceptance of grace is a form of obedience.
Jay: It can be argued that those blessed in the Beatitudes are obedient in sharing the grace they accepted.
Rimon: Especially the pure of heart.
Don: Next week we will consider the Beatitudes further, along with the stories of the Publican and the Pharisee (Luke 18:9-14) and of Zacchaeus (Luke 19), to try to answer the question: How much grace do we need to pass on?
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