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If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly
The Messiah at Festivals

So what does the Messiah of Israel do at festivals and feasts? How does the Messiah lead followers to worship the Lord our God, our Father in heaven?

It was the Feast of Hanukkah at Yerushalayim.
John 10:22 Hebrew Names Version

Yeshua mashiyach

Just a reminder to Christians of this 21st century, Jesus was Jewish.

Yeshua, from Ἰησοῦς in Greek, Iēsous from יְהוֹשׁוּעַ Hebrew meaning Yĕhowshuwa` (Joshua or Jehoshua = “Jehovah is salvation”) in English: Jesus. (The One born to a Jewish mother, a virgin betrothed to a faithful Jew, Joseph son of Jacob {Matthew 1:16}.)

The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
Gospel of Matthew 1:1 KJV

Although we have been following Jesus through the Gospel of John, for our understanding of the Messiah and His jewish upbringing as the Son of Man, we have just left some predictions of the Prophet Amos.
Amos – Not immune from judgment
For those who turn justice into wormwood
Amos the Seer: “I told you so (5x) – GOD showed me
Who better to ask about the Lord God in heaven than the one who came down from heaven, sent by God the Father?

This is where we left off in the Good News from the Apostle John.

Jesus healed a man born blind, which has prompted much discussion and considerable controversy in Jerusalem.

The Gatekeeper & the Shepherds – the Door

John 9:35 Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”

Is this Man a Gate and the Door to heaven?
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44:1  וַיָּשֶׁב אֹתִי דֶּרֶךְ שַׁעַר הַמִּקְדָּשׁ הַֽחִיצֹון הַפֹּנֶה קָדִים וְהוּא סָגֽוּר׃
44:2  וַיֹּאמֶר אֵלַי יְהוָה הַשַּׁעַר הַזֶּה סָגוּר יִהְיֶה לֹא יִפָּתֵחַ וְאִישׁ לֹא־יָבֹא בֹו כִּי יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵל בָּא בֹו וְהָיָה סָגֽוּר׃
 {Masoretic TextShow Cantilliation Marks OffShow Vowel Points OnMasoretic Text} http://blb.sc/00AONj
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Then He brought me back by the way of the outer gate of the sanctuary, which faces the east; and it was shut. The LORD said to me, “This gate shall be shut; it shall not be opened, and no one shall enter by it, for the LORD God of Israel has entered by it; therefore it shall be shut.
Ezekiel 44:1-2 NASB

“The priest shall take some of the blood from the sin offering and put it on the door posts of the house, on the four corners of the ledge of the altar and on the posts of the gate of the inner court.
Ezekiel 45:19 NASB

John 10:

2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.

7 Yeshua emphasized, “I can guarantee this truth: I am the gate for the sheep.
John 10:7 NOG

Later Jesus will tell the Apostles to also be wary of these religious hired hands determined to devour all opposition.

John tells us how Jerusalem’s religious leaders opposed the Messiah after Jesus healed a man blind from birth. But Jesus tells the crowds a parable against them.

12 A hired hand isn’t a shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep. When he sees a wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and quickly runs away.
John 10:11 NKJV

19 Again the Jews were divided because of these words…

After this, a most popular Messiah Jesus enters Jerusalem for a festival.

Jewish festivals

22 Then the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem, and it was winter.

A brief overview:

The Hebrew Civil Year began with Tishri [October]. At the Exodus the Ecclesiastical Year was made to begin with Abib [April], which, after the Captivity, was called also Nisan.- Hitchcock’s Topical Commentary

“Three times in a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God in the place which He chooses, at the Feast of Unleavened Bread and at the Feast of Weeks and at the Feast of Booths, and they shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed.
Deuteronomy 16:16 NASB

But this minor feast (we now call the festival of lights) held importance to a Jerusalem which presumed to have purified and rededicated the Temple. In commemoration of the cleansing and re-dedication of the Temple after its pollution by Antiochus Epiphanes. –H.

The Story Behind the Feast of Dedication

Prior to the year 165 BC, the Jewish people in Judea were living under the rule of the Greek kings of Damascus. During this time Seleucid King Antiochus Epiphanes, the Greco-Syrian king, took control of the Temple in Jerusalem and forced the Jewish people to abandon their worship of God, their holy customs, and reading of the Torah. He made them bow down to the Greek gods. According to ancient records, King Antiochus IV defiled the Temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar and spilling its blood on the holy scrolls of Scripture.

Source:

Jerusalem’s crowed festival

23 Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon’s Colonnade. The Jews surrounded him and asked,

“How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

25 “I did tell you and you don’t believe,” Jesus answered them.

Do you believe His signs?

Even in this day some will believe and come to faith through the Messiah, He IS the gate to salvation and the door to heaven. Others remain blind to truth.

Jesus has already given several signs, proofs in various places of miracles only God could do. The most recent of these, of course, was giving a blind man sight right there in Jerusalem.

“The works that I do in my Father’s name testify about me. But you don’t believe because you are not of my sheep.

Who do you follow?

Some preacher, a rabbi or teacher?

None are the Son of God, the Shepherd of the chosen ones of God our Father.

The Way to heaven

27 My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me.

28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.

Why would you doubt the authoritative gentle voice of the Shepherd at the door?

If you believe in God Almighty our God and Father, do you not see His power and compassion in the Only Son, Shepherd of the chosen to enter into His Glory?

Is Jesus your Lord and Shepherd?

For His love and anointing must be clear to those who are no longer blind.

Would you humbly turn from your sin to hear His gentle voice?

“Follow Me.” “I am the way the truth and the life.” *

29 My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.

A decision of life or death

How many times can you recall that the LORD strikes down the one who sins?

More times in scripture than we can recall.

The LORD GOD IS ALMIGHTY! Fear only him, the LORD, the Existing One.
- John the Baptist had testified of the Holy Spirit of God descending upon Jesus.
- The Lord Jesus raised the dead, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind. A Man of God thought to be from Nazareth asked men and women to follow Him.
- Jesus, Son of Man as He referred to himself, showed signs and wonders to many.
What is left for the Messiah to tell us?

If we must follow Jesus, is He God in Person? – a “Son of Man” the very human Image of God (as a Son of His Father born to a woman)?

For the LORD God is One and our decision to obey the LORD is a matter of eternal life or judgment and punishment of our soul in death.

“I and My Father are one.”
John 10:30 KJV

Truth? or Blasphemy?
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31 Again the Jews picked up rocks to stone him.

 32 Jesus replied, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these works are you stoning me?”

 33 “We aren’t stoning you for a good work,” the Jews answered, “but for blasphemy, because you—being a man—make yourself God.”

 34 Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, I said, you are gods? If he called those whom the word of God came to ‘gods’—and the Scripture cannot be broken— do you say, ‘You are blaspheming’ to the one the Father set apart and sent into the world, because I said: I am the Son of God?
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Jesus, Son of Man filled with the Holy Spirit of Almighty God! Once again the Lord confronts the hired hands of Herod, wolves luring the faithful away from the Shepherd, with Scripture and Truth.

How can they refute what everyone has seen with their own eyes?

37 “If I am not doing my Father’s works, don’t believe me…”

You too have seen many signs and miracles. Those in addition to Jesus’ compassion and love for the lost who have sinned.

A few repent seeking return to the safety of the Shepherd.

38 “… But if I am doing them and you don’t believe me, believe the works. This way you will know and understand that the Father is in me and I in the Father.”

Jesus and God the Father are One! Jesus and the Holy Spirit of God are One!

What was it Jesus told the Pharisee Nicodemus?

“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
John 3:21 NASB

Jesus IS Spirit; Jesus IS Flesh!

But those who will not bow down to the LORD God accuse the Son of Man of blasphemy. (Let the casual 21st c. reader understand the significance of blasphemy – a sin against God requiring death of the offender.)

39 Then they were trying again to seize him, but he eluded their grasp.

A return to the wilderness

40 He went back across the Jordan River and stayed in the place where John first baptized people.

41 Many people went to Yeshua. They said, “John didn’t perform any miracles, but everything John said about this man is true.” 42 Many people there believed in Yeshua.

Truth

The Apostle John has already revealed the Good News of the Messiah proven by many signs in many places.
- And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.
- For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.
- “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”
- “But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers.
- “You have sent to John [the baptist], and he has testified to the truth.
- “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”
- “Which one of you convicts Me of sin? If I speak truth, why do you not believe Me?
The One Truth & nothing but The Truth

“I and the Father are One!”
John 10:30 – Strong’s: b) metaphorically, “union” and “concord,” e.g., Jhn 10:30; 11:52; 17:11, 21, 22; Rom 12:4, 5; Phl 1:27

The Apostle John concludes his Gospel as follows:

21:24 Οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ μαθητὴς ὁ μαρτυρῶν περὶ τούτων καὶ γράψας ταῦτα καὶ οἴδαμεν ὅτι ἀληθὴς ἐστίν ἡ μαρτυρία αὐτοῦ

This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.

And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.

What other sign do you need to open your eyes to what Jesus plainly has said?

I and the Father are One!
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NEXT: The Resurrection of Lazarus ... God-willing...
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March 25, 2020
Before Abraham was, I AM
“I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.
Exodus 3:6 KJV

13 And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?

14 And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

Who sent Jesus to us?

Moses relates one of the most remarkable encounters with the LORD which results in his leading God’s chosen from slavery to the promised land. Exodus records for us not only the genealogy of Israel, Isaac and Abraham, here we learn the Lord’s own Name:

הָיָה הָיָה

I AM that I AM – that is: the LORD IS the Existing One!

As we learned previously in Who May Judge Sin?, Jesus answers questions of the religious leaders of the Temple. They asked Him to judge a woman accused of adultery, but relented from stoning her when Jesus showed her mercy and challenged their motives.

They question Jesus legitimacy as the Messiah of God. Do you?

Essentially they want to prove that Jesus is not sent from God, even though this Son of Man has given many signs of His power and Authority from God.

These rabbis will go to any length and make any false argument against the legitimacy and authority of Jesus.

So what does the Messiah Jesus claim?

Jesus spoke to them again: “I am the light of the world.
John 8:12a CSB

What does this mean? It depends if you have ears to hear.

Who sent Jesus to the world twenty-one centuries ago is a matter of faith – also our question of who to believe.

So Jesus now speaks to two groups of Jews:
1. Followers of Jesus – those called by faith, which includes some Jews who believe their Messiah; and also
2. Those who judge Jesus, refusing to believe the very Word of God! These include some but not all of the Pharisees from the Court of the Jews.
Let’s dissect Jesus’ words as heard by each group, both then and now.

John 8:

1. Followers of Jesus

Anyone who follows me will never walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.”
The promise of Jesus – John 8:12b CSB

14 … “My testimony is true, because I know where I came from and where I’m going.

I judge no one. 16 And if I do judge, my judgment is true, because it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me.

29 The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, because I always do what pleases him.”

30 As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you continue in my word, you really are my disciples. 32 You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

36 So if the Son sets you free, you really will be free.

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, because I came from God and I am here. For I didn’t come on my own, but he sent me.

49 “I do not have a demon,” Jesus answered. “On the contrary, I honor my Father … 50 I do not seek my own glory; there is one who seeks it and judges. 51 Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

Then the teachers of the Jews will follow with a question, the answer which divides the faithful from the deceitful.

But first let’s go back to the beginning of this testimony of the Gospel to stand beside Jerusalem’s religious elite who question the Messiah of God, determined to kill Him and preserve their own temporal glory among men.

2. Court of the Pharisees

Hear this same Messiah of Israel through ears refusing to listen to truth. These Pharisees feed the crowds of Jews they teach with their own dismissive words and questions of resentful doubt.

13 So the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying about yourself. Your testimony is not valid.”

Jesus replied, “… But you don’t know where I come from or where I’m going. 15 You judge by human standards.

17 Even in your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. 18 I am the one who testifies about myself, and the Father who sent me testifies about me.”

19 Then they asked him, “Where is your Father?”

“You know neither me nor my Father,” Jesus answered.

21 Then he said to them again, “I’m going away; you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I’m going, you cannot come.”

22 So the Jews said again, “He won’t kill himself, will he, since he says, ‘Where I’m going, you cannot come’?”

23 “You are from below,” he told them, “I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 Therefore I told you that you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.”

Who are you?

25 “Who are you?” they questioned.

28 So Jesus said to them, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own. But just as the Father taught me, I say these things.

33 “We are descendants of Abraham,” they answered him, “and we have never been enslaved to anyone. How can you say, ‘You will become free’?”

34 Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin. 35 A slave does not remain in the household forever, but a son does remain forever.

Jesus, speaking to the Jews to whom He was sent, warns in the same manner He told many parables. The Father, His Father in heaven sent the Son to redeem them of their sins. He will become the Sacrifice God provides, just like the substitute for Isaac the Lord sent to Abraham.

A sinful man must sacrifice to the Lord because of man’s sin.

The Son remains in the Father’s house because He will inherit all that the Father owns. But a slave, even a chosen slave freed from Pharaoh, only lives freely if his sin does not shackle him to death once more.

Abraham believed God; but unbelief binds one to die as sacrifice only for yourself, a sentence of death for your own sin.

Descendents of Abraham

37 I know you are descendants of Abraham, but you are trying to kill me because my word has no place among you.

… so then, you do what you have heard from your father.”

39 “Our father is Abraham,” they replied.

“If you were Abraham’s children,” Jesus told them, “you would do what Abraham did. 40 But now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do this.

41 You’re doing what your father does.”

“We weren’t born of sexual immorality,” they said. “We have one Father—God.”

Your father, the Devil

43 Why don’t you understand what I say? Because you cannot listen to my word.

44 You are of your father the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he tells a lie, he speaks from his own nature, because he is a liar and the father of lies. 45 Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.

47 The one who is from God listens to God’s words. This is why you don’t listen, because you are not from God.”

48 The Jews responded to him, “Aren’t we right in saying that you’re a Samaritan and have a demon?”

Demons and Samaritans

Do not dismiss quickly their accusation of demons. Many will accuse Jesus of having a demon or evil spirit, even though the Messiah has done no evil.

And later, confirming the signs of the Messiah some Jews ask, “Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? ”

The Pharisees knowing from scripture that the Messiah will come from Bethlehem only know the Son of Man as ‘Jesus of Nazareth,’ and we know their contempt as Judeans for Samaritans (and Galileans as well).

49 “I do not have a demon,” Jesus answered.

51 Truly I tell you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.”

[How can that be, anyone must wonder. Never see death?]

52 Then the Jews said, “Now we know you have a demon. Abraham died and so did the prophets. You say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’

A Convicting Question

53 Are you greater than our father Abraham who died? And the prophets died. Who do you claim to be?”

Who could be greater than David, King of Israel a thousand years before Jesus?

In the new traditions of the Pharisees of a rebuilt temple certainly Moses, who was given the Law and brought them out of Egypt, would be revered most.

Some prophets like Elijah might be seen as great because of great signs they performed, along with Jacob and Abraham as first fathers of the promise of the Lord to the Hebrew people.

So the question of the Pharisees to Jesus comparing Him to Abraham and the prophets is meant to convict.

Who do you claim to be?

Note that they do not ask, “who are you,” but “who do you claim to be.” Jesus’ unequivocal answer will claim His very deity!

Jesus’ Glorious Answer

Even before Mosheh (Moses)

Returning to Scripture as these rabbis would well know as background:

וַיִּשְׁכֹּ֤ן כְּבֹוד־יְהוָה֙ עַל־הַ֣ר סִינַ֔י וַיְכַסֵּ֥הוּ הֶעָנָ֖ן שֵׁ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֑ים וַיִּקְרָ֧א אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֛ה בַּיֹּ֥ום הַשְּׁבִיעִ֖י מִתֹּ֥וךְ הֶעָנָֽן׃
The glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; and on the seventh day He called to Moses from the midst of the cloud.
Exodus 24:16 WLC; NASB

The context of the hearers, fellow Jews like Jesus, connects their question to Jesus’ answer. (You must know scripture (Old Testament) as they knew scripture. The Torah of Moses includes the Lord’s promise to Abraham’s descendants.

And to the eyes of the sons of Israel the appearance of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the mountain top. Moses entered the midst of the cloud as he went up to the mountain; and Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights.
Exodus 24:17-18 NASB

Their Hebrew forefathers witnessed the glory of the LORD more than once.

John 8:

Now, returning to the Gospel, Jesus gives witness to a glory which preceded Moses who received the Law directly from the LORD.

54 “If I glorify myself,” Jesus answered, “my glory is nothing. My Father—about whom you say, ‘He is our God’—he is the one who glorifies me. 55 You do not know him, but I know him…”

And now the Son of Man, who must say only truth, does so even though the depth of Jesus’ words do not immediately sink in.

“… If I were to say I don’t know him, I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word…”

Jesus the Son knows the Father unlike ANY son of man, even the Prophets, any of the fathers of Israel or Moses.

“… Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day; he saw it and was glad.”
The Messiah Jesus to Rabbis of Judah – John 8:56 CSB

Think of the context of Jesus’ witness of Abraham in the timeline of centuries before the Son of God – the Word – coming to a manger in Bethlehem of Judea.

57 The Jews replied, “You aren’t fifty years old yet, and you’ve seen Abraham?”

Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”
Witness of the Messiah – John 8:58 CSB

“before Abraham was, I am

59 Then they took up stones to throw at Him; but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple, going[b] through the midst of them, and so passed by.

Other places in the Gospel add explanation to this.

Why did religious officials determined to kill this man claiming to be God not successfully seize the Lord Jesus and stone Him to death?

For his time had not come.
- So then they tried to seize Jesus, but no one laid a hand on him, because his time had not yet come. – John 7:20 NET
- (Jesus spoke these words near the offering box while he was teaching in the temple courts. No one seized him because his time had not yet come.) – John 8:20 – a small detail of the Gospel we have just read
When, then, would the time for Sacrifice of the Messiah for sin occur?

Do you see the significance of the substitution of the acceptable sacrifice to the Father?

For the LORD provided a sacrifice in the place of Isaac for Abraham, an early sign of what must take place to fulfill God’s plan of redemption of sinful man.

No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.
I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.
John 6:44,51 KJV
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NEXT: More Signs  
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February 17, 2020
A Priest, a Rabbi & a Stranger …
A 21st Century Parable

You know the old story (actually, several variations on a theme). Three men (but today you might have to include other designations) encounter the same situation and the third one gets the punch line.

That’s not quite what happened to me recently as I witnessed the following story (which also includes a woman I don’t mention and a well-dressed black man I include).

My story’s ending may be unexpected but to the best of my knowledge none of the three strangers were a priest, rabbi or a pastor. You may see some humor in it. Picture these strangers I encountered today.

Which neighbor of the three might you have been?

Stranded at our Neighborhood Kroger

It was no emergency and I was prepared. Yet I was unprepared for what would follow when my car wouldn’t start.

Yes, I had jumper cables in the trunk so I raised my hood and looked for some help.

Stranger number one

A man approached from the grocery store with just a few things in his bag. He headed for his car parked in the row just behind my stranded car with the hood up. I approached him as he entered his car.

“Could you help me jump my car?”

He rather reluctantly looked down and away from my glancing appeal from outside his door. “Sorry, but I can’t.”

Okay, I thought. He’s dressed up and could be in a hurry. Someone else will help. So I walked to a car on the other side of the same row where my car sat helplessly with its hood up.

Stranger number two

Another kind-looking man had just entered his car with a soft-knit cross hanging from the mirror. My spirit lifted with hope that here was a brother who would help. So I asked.

“Could you help me jump my car? I have battery cables.”

He nodded his head gently saying, “My battery is really low. I don’t think it would help.”

My heart dropped as I walked back to my car thinking of his cross on the mirror.

Later I thought, “Gee, I should have asked him if he was a priest or Levite?” (Of course I would never do that and neither would you, but we all think those things.)

So I called for road service, which could reach me in my local neighborhood grocery parking lot in something like forty minutes. It was then that Jesus’ Parable of the Good Samaritan came to mind. Even most non-believers know that one, but no good Samaritan here today, I thought. No big deal. I’ll just wait.

Stranger number three

As I sat in my car with the hood up for a bit more time in thought a man walked up to me and asked if I had help on the way.

“Yes, I called a tow truck, but all I need is for someone to help jump my car.” He agreed to try and pulled his car up in front of mine.

After connecting my jumper cables to both cars I got in my car and turned the key. Nothing.

The man then said, “Let me get in my car and give it a little gas.”

I reconnected the cables making certain to have the best contact possible then we both got in our cars and I tried again. This time, success!

I thanked him, disconnected it all, drove home, unloaded groceries from my idling vehicle and drove to a neighborhood repair shop for a new battery.

Just like one helped by a fictional hero of my youth, ‘I didn’t even ask this man his name.’ He was The ‘Lone Stranger’ helping someone in need.

God knows the name of each good Samaritan and some praise their witness to a world steeped in self-righteousness, unlike a neighbor loved by the LORD.

A Not so Funny ending

Unlike the man in Jesus parable of the Good Samaritan, I was not on a distant highway, hurt and hopeless due to such a severe attack by robbers.

Ok, you might laugh that I’m not exactly your helpless victim in peril here. And you may laugh just a bit more at the great irony of the man with the cross in the window not helping a brother in Christ. (It’s really kind of typical of our witness, isn’t it?)

Yes, maybe there’s a lesson here too.

So in our 21st century story I guess it’s the second guy who gets the punch line and the third guy’s no joke. In fact he’s just the kind of neighbor we all wish we had.

The Good Samaritan

Jesus’ parable could have begun with ‘a priest, a rabbi and a pastor’ scenario because in this same way His characters were just as familiar to the parable’s hearers.

Three characters who could have helped

A priest happened to be going down that road. When he saw him, he passed by on the other side.
Luke 10:31 CSB

To our many dear Jewish friends I might mention that the Messiah Jesus was considered a ‘lesser’ Jew from Galilee in the eyes of those proper Judean Jews who leaned on their status and the Law. After all, His parable was told to answer a question from the crowd mostly of Jews.

This Priest is a Jewish Priest, a very pure and proper sort of guy. (We would not have much difficulty envisioning a Roman Catholic Priest or Orthodox Priest with all the robes, incense and the like.) The Priest of the LORD is a long-forgotten intermediary of Jewish worship.

In the same way, a Levite, when he arrived at the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.
Luke 10:32 CSB

The Levites were a Priestly class of Jews better than everyone else by their nearness to religious duties. (Of course nobody in charge of ‘christian’ churches would ever feel like that.)

We get it (and so did the Messiah’s crowds). A second man also could have helped, but didn’t. (The crowd awaits the Rabbi’s punch line.)

So everyone knows that the next one will help. (Perhaps they will be of a different religious school of thought.)

A Samaritan Stranger

Samaria, on the other hand, had a bad rap in Judah due to long-established cultural prejudices.

Those who followed the best religious practices expected a Jew to be the hero (just like we might expect a ‘good christian’ to do the right thing). Nobody expected a “Samaritan” to be ‘the good guy.’

But a Samaritan on his journey came up to him, and when he saw the man, he had compassion… He went over to him… and took care of him… [paid an innkeeper] and said, ‘Take care of him. When I come back I’ll reimburse you for whatever extra you spend.’
Luke 10: excerpt from Jesus’ parable of The Good Samaritan

Questions from Lawyers

Those who know a little more about the parable where two ‘religious’ guys (yes, Jews) didn’t help a man in need may know what prompted the Messiah’s parable.

Jesus was answering another question from a lawyer. (You probably know his question.)

But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Luke 10:29 NASB

Don’t falsely assume that the Samaritan was not a religious man with good and godly principles (just as Jesus points out that we cannot conclude that everyone who claims obedience to the Law will do what is right).

Prior to this question, most of us know Jesus confirmed the lawyer’s restated validity of the Law of Moses, which even Samaritans likely followed.

But then the lawyer went a step further by asking, ‘How does this apply in this contemporary case?’ (Who is my neighbor?)

A Contemporary Contention

By now most of us tire of endless questioning by contentious legal minds. They demand the right of their differences.

Who did right and how should we judge the failures of others?

They play to the crowds who expect more from religious and political leaders than the ordinary people they represent.

Careful, though. I tend toward this ‘phariseeism;’ and likely, beloved Christian brother, faithful Jew and misled Muslim, so do you.

Jesus said, “You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.
And yet if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone, but I am with the Father who sent Me.
John 8:15-16 NKJV

Ordinary powerless Jews and gentiles loved Jesus’ leading because He has an answer to the endless questioning of others by self-righteous men. It is God’s answer to an all-important question.

The Questioning before the Law

So the lawyer in the crowd standing in the spotlight of the crowds surrounding Jesus restates the Law. (Moses had reiterated it so many times.)

Deuteronomy – Devarim, “the words [of Moses]”.
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וּמָ֨ל יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ אֶת־לְבָבְךָ֖ וְאֶת־לְבַ֣ב זַרְעֶ֑ךָ לְאַהֲבָ֞ה אֶת־יְהוָ֧ה אֱלֹהֶ֛יךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ לְמַ֥עַן חַיֶּֽיךָ׃
source:
30:12  לֹא בַשָּׁמַיִם הִוא לֵאמֹר מִי יַעֲלֶה־לָּנוּ הַשָּׁמַיְמָה וְיִקָּחֶהָ לָּנוּ וְיַשְׁמִעֵנוּ אֹתָהּ וְנַעֲשֶֽׂנָּה׃

5:20 ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

15:2 “And this is the form of the release: Every creditor who has lent anything to his neighbor shall release it; he shall not require it of his neighbor or his brother, because it is called the LORD's release.

27:24 ‘Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly.' “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!'
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Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.
Leviticus 19:18 KJV

Do ‘christians’ know the question Jesus answered with this parable?

ANSWER: The lawyer had asked Jesus this leading question:

“… what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

The Good News of Luke 10:

Recall that Doctor Luke is a gentile disciple of the first century church, who would have been an outsider to ‘God’s chosen.’

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

²⁵Then an expert in the law stood up to test him, saying, “Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

²⁶“What is written in the law?” he asked him. “How do you read it?”

²⁷He answered, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,” and “your neighbor as yourself.”

²⁸“You’ve answered correctly,” he told him. “Do this and you will live.”

Do you as well have yet another question?

“Do this and you will live,” the Messiah Jesus tells us.

What must I do to receive eternal life? …

This is the question Jesus answered with the parable of The Good Samaritan.

Do you have a ‘Jesus’ bumper sticker on your car? (Didn’t you just cut me off in traffic? And you were on your cell, right?)

You don’t really want to know more than what the LORD has commanded us, do you?

Who’s right?

So Jesus seems to pick on the Jews (rather than pick the Jews).

Can a stranger actually inherit eternal life?

Christians often treat Jews and Muslims who worship the One God as Samaritans, even though some follow custom and righteousness without grieving the Holy Spirit of the LORD.

We all see and judge those Catholic Crosses and Protestant Jesus symbols. Yet what do these witness to others?

Can anyone but the Lord God judge a man’s heart or draw one to repentance and eternal life?

Some who do not fully believe that Jesus IS the only way to eternal life may be destined to see the Light of Truth on the path of righteousness.

Even some secretive believers must hide their faith in the Living Messiah of the Lord God. Christians traveling the road between this temporary earthly home and the Jerusalem of true worship must go into all the world with Good News (and not false witness).

Do you have a question for Jesus?

You can take the LORD at His Word. Or ask a brother or sister truly following Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, “What must I do?”

Beloved wounded man of flesh, fallen into the pit of sin along the dust of this dry and temporal life in failing flesh, I pray for your restoration to life, a recharging of your soul into the beginning of a true witness for the Messiah Jesus, One with the Father and Holy Spirit of the Most High God.

Along this busy quick highway of life, before its end what must you do?

Jesus told him, “Go and do the same.”
January 31, 2020