Did Jesus say…

A quick look at the Good Samaritan parable

In the time of Jesus, the road from Jerusalem to Jericho was notorious for its danger and difficulty, and was known as the “Way of Blood” because “of the blood which is often shed there by robbers.”
Wikipedia.com

Picking up the story after the man had been set upon by the robbers…

Luke 10

³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. ³² So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. ³³ But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. ³⁴ He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him.

Jesus asked – “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

Jesus agreed with the expert on the law that the Samaritan was the neighbor to the injured man… BUT did He say that the others, the ones who passed him by on the other side of the road were bad, wrong, uncaring?

No. The point he was making to do with neighbors.

A word in favor of the priest and the Levite.

Numbers 19: 11 He who touches the dead body of any man shall be unclean seven days NASB

 

Leviticus 21: 11 adds a bit more detail

nor shall he approach any dead person, nor defile himself even for his father or his mother NASB

According to the account, the Samaritan was going from Jerusalem to Jericho, but it does not say whether the priest or the Levite were going to, or coming from, Jerusalem.

Whichever it was, does not really matter. Had this naked, or nearly naked, man been dead – and either the priest or the Levite touched the unfortunate victim, the priest or Levite  would have been unclean for seven days.

So, to answer the question posed in the title – No, Jesus did not say… that those two were bad, wrong or uncaring.

Jesus’ point was ‘who was the neighbor’ to the injured man.

Perhaps another ‘barb’ to the expert in the law who had questioned Jesus – Jews hated Samaritans. The town of Shechem, where Jesus spoke to the woman was nicknamed Sychar.

“Sychar is only another name for Shechem (“Sychem”). It is suggested, e.g., that it is a nickname applied in contempt by the Jews, being either shikkor, “drunken,” or sheqer, “falsehood.”  http://www.biblestudytools.com/dictionary/sychar/

This post has been a short look from a different angle at the parable of the Good Samaritan. At the same time, these are the kinds of attitudes I have had to research and be aware of when writing the Christian, historical fiction series – The Apostle John series.

And that is where I have been since the last post here… preparing book 4 in the series, Keep the Flame, for release.

 

Release date is 4th October, although it is available for pre-order on Smashwords.

Check it out here – https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/663318

There will be one more book in the series.

Hold the Faith recently received a ‘Finalist’ Award in Readers’ Favorite Book Awards.

I look at the images above and am awed and humbled. That is God, I have been blessed to be the tool for writing this ‘fiction based on fact’ series.

Susan

Sometimes We Forget

When we read of people like Moses, Abraham, David – and many other ‘heroes’ of the Bible – they didn’t have the Bible.

They were writing it!

So too, with the writers of the New Testament… Peter, James, John, Paul and the others. They didn’t have the New Testament. They spread the gospel by teaching from the Old Testament. They had the words written by the people in the Old Testament.

They were writing what would become the New Testament.

As regular readers know, I have spent a lot of time in the 1st century AD in the last few years. No, I am not delusaional and think I can time travel *smile* – but I have done a great deal of research in order to make the series I have been, and still am writing, as true to the time as possible.

What I discovered led me off on tangents, and I looked at the lives of men and women that are considered ‘faithful’.

Why were they faithful?

Was it easier for them to be faithful and obedient than for us with all the pressures we have?

I don’t think so.

They walked everywhere, they had no phones, no Internet, not even snail mail. (They either walked and delivered the message themselves, or sent a messenger.)

Their obedience was remarkable – well, considering the world we live in now it seems bred into people to disobey, to refuse and object. (Road rage; violent protests, and mass murders.)

Abraham, (Abram at the time) whom most commentators suggest was a rich man in a prosperous city, obeyed…

“The LORD had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”
Genesis 12:1

Obedience costs.

(And that was just the beginning!)

This was reiterated in Acts 7: 3 when Stephen addressed the Sanhedrin.

This resulted in Stephen being stoned. (Rocks were thrown at him till he died.)

What about Moses? Brought up in Pharaoh’s court, possible successor to Pharaoh, and after some complications which resulted in him living as a shepherd, brought back to challenge the current Pharaoh – and lead the tribes of Israel through the wilderness. That task was a lot more difficult that looking after sheep!

I haven’t mentioned Jesus yet. He came into the world to be our Passover Lamb. No matter how difficult the lives of any of those before or after Him – or our lives seem, nothing could compare with what He went through. We often gloss over His life, thinking – well, He was the Son of God, He had the Holy Spirit in full measure.  But I think He must have had far more temptation than we have ever had to endure, more loneliness, and more opportunities to be offended… but He remained faithful and completed His task.

After Him, many of the Christians in the 1st century AD were put to death, cruelly, for their faith.

How could they do it? Pay the cost.

They had a relationship with God.

They lived what they believed every day, and that was not easy.

The featured image for this post is the Ten Commandments – because I was thinking of Moses.

How many of us know the ‘10’. And if you are one of the many people who believe that Jesus did away with them, and gave us the ‘2’. Those two summarize the ten.

How much obedience is in our lives? Where do we fail? (And we all do to some degree.)

The Christians of the 1st century AD didn’t call themselves Christian.

They called themselves followers of the Way. (No doubt because it was a way of life, not a religion.)

Followers of the Way – “and [Saul who became Paul] asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem,” Acts 9:2
http://carm.org/early-christians-called

Also…

“Kenneth Samuel Wuest holds that all three original New Testament verses’ usages reflect a derisive element in the term Christian to refer to followers of Christ who did not acknowledge the emperor of Rome. The city of Antioch, where someone gave them the name Christians, had a reputation for coming up with such nicknames.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian

 

Even today, Christian people pay for their beliefs with their lives. Is the reward worth it?

Millions of believers have paid, and are paying, the cost because they believe it is!

To quote the book of Joshua…

And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Joshua 24: 15
(Emphasis mine.)

Just thinking again

Susan

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Dear Reader,

I am experimenting with my Reader’s Circle Newsletter. This list is open to a few readers and fans. I invite you to sign up for the monthly newsletter. It contains interesting research tidbits I found while researching Hold the Faith and other books in the series. There are links in the newsletters to download the free PDFs.

The link to the sign-up is below. It would be great if you joined me.

Susan’s Reader’s Circle News

Why do Christians have ‘trials’ ?

I watched a video clip on the site of someone who followed my other blog. It was an interesting song. ‘Before the morning’ – I will link to the clip at the end.

It begins with questions about why ‘you’ are suffering if there is a loving God Who cares. Questions like this are quite common.

Remember the old song “I never promised you a rose garden’? Well God does not promise us a life without pain and trials if we accept the sacrifice His Son made for us.

In book three of the Apostle John series, I have been writing about the trials of a background character who has moved to the foreground.

Then someone who left in book two, Grow in Grace, is making a re-entry.

In this third book, The Light of Truth, things are moving toward another arrest of the Apostle John. It looks as if at least one more book will be needed.

So why am I talking about these books? Why mention the song? Because, although my book series is fiction, my primary resource book has been the Bible, and in writing this series I have learnt a great deal about why things happen.

Take for example Jesus’ words…

These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33

Many people are told that because Jesus said “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world’, that He has done it all for us. Not so.

Look at the lives of those first disciples… only John survived into old age. The others, according to legend, all martyred. Also, according to legend, John was put in boiling oil. That does not sound like ‘Jesus did it all’ to me.

And what about these…

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
James 1:2

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials
1Peter 1:6

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.
Romans 12:12

 

These writers, who were Apostles, make it clear that we will have trials, and as we plod through them, our faith and trust in Him grows.

 

Have you read this one?

Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
James 1: 3, 4

The trust in His Father that Jesus had to exercise must have been enormous, and another scripture says that He learned obedience through the things He suffered. Heb 5: 8

I think Ronny Graham puts it well in his essay, published on my other blog. In the introduction, he points out that Jesus was schemed against all throughout His ministry.

You can read the full post here… https://religioushistoricalfiction.wordpress.com/2015/03/30/jesus-suffering-on-passover/

Although it makes what we go through seem ‘mild’ by comparison, our trials are horrendous to us. Sometimes all we can do is ask God for help.

You might enjoy this song if you are going through a painful trial…

https://sharetheloveofgod.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/before-the-morning/

Thinking, and believing His word…

Susan

What is the second commandment?

As part of the many ways in which I research early Christianity for the novels I write, I subscribe to many email newsletters on Biblical subjects.

Sometimes they give the starting point to chase out some information that was previously hard to find. I opened one such newsletter a few days ago, and did not even manage to read it. My eye was drawn to the image amongst the text, a mosaic of Jesus.

I found myself saying, to myself. ‘What part of you shall not make for yourself any graven image is hard to understand?’

There were no cameras in Jesus day. (Or before then.)

Any ‘pictures’, paintings, statues, or images are from the imagination of the creator (with a small ‘c’)

No one living beyond the time of the ‘greats’ of the Old Testament knows what they looked like. (Yes, many of us of a certain age picture Moses like Charlton Heston.)

There are paintings of Exekiel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and other ancient prophets – ancient kings like David or Solomon, even Hezekiah or Josiah. They were not painted in those times and preserved thoughout the centuries.What the creator might have done is read about the person he chose to depict- in the Bible and formed his opinion on how he looked from the words written there.

What about us? Do we read those stories and form pictures in our minds? Are the ‘stories’ just that, interesting stories? Is it not possible that we should take warning from what is recorded in so many pages of the Bible.

As for images of Jesus, nowhere in the pages of my Bibles have I seen a description of His looks. Instead there are instructions to live as He lived. For example…

“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.”
1 Corinthians 11:1 KJV

So said the Apostle Paul, believed to be the writer of a great deal of the New Testament.

Do we push that challenge away, saying “Oh but He was the Son of God”.

My personal belief is that Jesus never asked His followers to do anything beyond their ability… although they might have thought it was, as we probably do. Maybe they didn’t read the next bit about providing a way out.

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.
1 Corinthians 10:13

From experience that sometimes has seemed hard to trust. When sixteen and a half year old Pete died, my husband and I thought that too hard to bear. But, like many others in that ‘club’ with the horrendous price, God did bring us through.

When my husband died, well… there are many widows who have struggled this same path. (And yes, I must have been able to bear it, because I am still here.) I would be lying if I said that I enjoy life without him, but I am continuing on.

God is with us, and I do not need a picture of someone’s ‘interpretation’, or a statue. I need His words. And they are in the Bible.

God has given us His words, and His promises. They are not in ‘images’ of any sort. They are in the Bible.

 

It is not His fault if we don’t read them.

 

·

 

Thinking

Susan

 

Seeking the faith once delivered

Before I  started writing the Apostle John series, I did a huge amount of research and study. Although the book was ‘fiction’, it went through the Gospel of John starting at chapter one.

What has this to do with ‘seeking the faith once delivered’?

Please bear with me, I am seeking the source first.

Look at this version of John 1: 1 – 3

In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He existed in the beginning with God.  God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him.
New Living Translation 

Perhaps it takes more than one reading to see the significance. Please let me share a short excerpt from Hold the Faith…

(The Apostle John was speaking)

“Benjamin, if I explain it this way… ‘In the beginning Logos’. That states that the Logos, Christ, was in the beginning with God. ‘Through Him all things were made…’ You wrote that didn’t you?”

Benjamin nodded, wondering where his great-grandfather was going with this.

“Many of the false teachers say that the world was created by an evil angel, you heard that yourself. But those words you have written say that Logos created the world.

This means that He who became Jesus, was the God of the ‘Old Testament’

For most of us, this is (or was when we first heard it) hard to comprehend. The general belief is often that the God of the Old Testament is harsh, whereas Jesus brought grace and mercy.

‘Cutting to the chase’… if Jesus was the God of the Old Testament, then Who better to look to for the ‘faith once delivered’?

He would have been the One who gave the Ten Commandments.

Many people I have met say that the Old Testament is done away. That leaves me with a question – what were the scriptures that Jesus expounded from?

·

And beginning from Moses and from all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. Luke 24:27  (American Standard Version)

What we call the New Testament today was only being written. The gospels were accounts of Jesus’ life as a Man. The epistles were letters written to churches/ministers to encourage, to teach, uplift and exhort. The scriptures they taught from had to have been from the Old Testament.

So, the faith once delivered?

It’s in the Bible. The whole Bible.

I can see no place in any of my Bibles where it says Jesus did away with what He had originally given. Quite the opposite…

For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
Matthew 5: 18 English Standard Version

As yet, all is not accomplished.

However, Jesus put a higher standard on the commandments…

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
Matthew 5: 28  English Standard Version.

Sharing some thoughts,

Susan

Historical Jesus?

I am a bit puzzled.

One of those newsletters I receive is trying to sell me a DVD set on an archaeological search for Jesus. But as the newsletter itself says, the gospels are full of accounts of His life and deeds.

In what way would retracing the places He travelled, taught, and worked miracles, help me find the ‘historical’ Jesus?

Just thinking.

Jesus was crucified in 30 or 31 AD, depending on what ‘school’ of reasoning you follow. The temple where He taught… and confronted the Pharisees, scribes, and Sadducees, was destroyed by the Roman emperor commonly known as Titus. That was in 70 AD

How much is left of that first century world in which Jesus lived? Not much I would think. The church (followers of Christ) fled before the fall of Jerusalem. The Apostle James, brother of John, was martyred in 44 AD. The other Apostles fulfilled their commission and took the gospel of the Kingdom of God ‘into all the world’. Legend has it that all, except the apostle John, were martyred.

(I have several gigabytes of research in folders on my computer.)

 

·

So what remains of the country that Jesus grew up in, travelled and taught about the Kingdom of God?

In the two centuries since He walked the land, how many wars have there been? (Rhetorical <smile>).

·

All that remains of the temple has gone. All, that is, except the Western – or Wailing – wall. Some believe that it is a remnant of ‘Herod’s Temple’, while others say it was part of the Roman fortress.

Whichever it was – is- it bears no relation to the Temple Christ knew.

He prophesied it would be destroyed, recorded in Mark 13…

After his teachings in the previous chapter, all set in the Temple courts, Jesus finishes his teaching in the Temple for the day and leaves. On his way out of the Temple an unnamed disciple remarks how great the Temple (Herod’s Temple) is. The buildings might have reached up to 150 feet (45.72 m) in height and they were adorned with gold, silver and other precious items.

“‘Do you see all these great buildings?’ replied Jesus. ’Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_13

Well, I am sure the DVDs will be interesting. But all I need to know about Jesus is in the Word of God. I will rely on that.

In Hold the Faith, and Grow in Grace, when Jesus is quoted, it is taken from the Bible.

In answer to my opening statement… I will remain puzzled about how man can ‘find’ the historical Jesus, two centuries and many changes later. But I do have a question… is it not more important to know the risen Jesus, the Saviour, than ‘fossick’ around in the past?

Just some thoughts

Susan

The heavens declare…

The heavens declare the glory of God Psalm 19: 1a

So starts one of my favourite psalms.

In our metropolitan areas, it is almost impossible to fully take in the expanse of the heavens, and the awesome majesty of the stars. City lights obscure the view. If you live in a country area, then you are blessed indeed.

Not long after coming to live in Australia, I had the opportunity to make a car trip across the Nullarbor Plain from Perth to Adelaide. The first time I saw this vast Australian sky at night was an awe-inspiring experience. In fact I could use all the superlative words I know, and still not come close to describing the experience.

In those days, the road was not so busy, and because of the long  time needed to travel, sometimes we drove at night. The little image at the top of this post could not possibly compare to what we saw in that vast expanse of the heavens.

The other day I was remembering that experience and thinking that would have been what the Apostle John and his great-grandson Benjamin as they slept outdoors.(In Hold the Faith, the novel that is.)

They would have seen the skies, undiluted by street lights, city traffic… and in peace.

(I am thinking of the time in the book that the pair travelled around all the fellowship groups in the Roman province of Asia Minor.)

Before that…

Jesus would have slept under those skies.

I wonder what He thought when He looked up at His creation.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. John 1: 1 – 3

Have you ever noticed sunrise or sunset skies?

When it was safe to walk early in the morning where I live in Western Australia, I used to go out for a walk a little before dawn. The awesome colours of those sunrise skies greeted me each morning. But it seemed to me that no two were exactly the same.

Before the sun rose, and the first colours pushed the darkness aside, I would smile, and wonder what sunrise gift God would bless me with that day.

The background of this blog is one of those sunrise skies. I chose it because it toned in beautifully with the cover my special friend gave me for the cover of Hold the Faith, the novel. I also love the photo of the sunrise sky 🙂

Talking about my ‘lovely Lena’, here is a picture she took recently of the aurora in Tasmania.

Courtesy Lena’s Lens Photography

Who would believe such colours existed in our skies. .. and it is not Photo-shopped.

Another night the colours were different…

Courtesy Lena’s Lens Photography

Strange as it might be to believe, these are un-retouched and accurate photos.

God’s glory, and variety is awesome

Lena  really is a most gifted and humble photographer, and I thank God for our meeting and continuing friendship.

Enjoy her photographs… and enjoy our God’s wonderful creation.

I wish you peace, blessings , awe and wonder.

Shalom

Susan

Links:

Lena’s Lens Photography

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lenas-Lens-Photography/130094623737287?fref=ts

Reviews of Hold the Faith

http://www.amazon.com/Hold-Faith-Apostle-Series-ebook/product-reviews/B009636HSG/ref=sr_cr_hist_all?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

P.S. A  note from Lena….

The blog stated the pics are untouched but in post process all that is done is saturation bought up to highlight the colours.

The camera brings out what the naked eye cannot see. That which God provides can’t always be seen but it  is there.

It is the only editing done with these pics on a 30 sec exposure that captures what naked eye can’t see.

 

Thanks Lena, I do not understand it, but I guess other photographers will. I am happy to add your comment to the post 🙂

Grace, Truth and Difficult People

This time I could not miss the opportunity to share Mark McIntyre’s excellent blog on Grace, Truth and Difficult People.

Anyone who has read even part of Hold the Faith will have noticed that difficult people abounded then, as they do  now. I would hope I have portrayed them handling those difficult people in the way Mark outlines below.

Over to Mark…

It may not be a universal experience, but most of us are forced to interact with a difficult person in either our personal or professional life.

There are a variety of sources for the difficulty.

• Some are difficult because they don’t perceive feedback about how they impact others. This is the person who continues the story when all the people in the room give indication of being bored or hostile. This is the guy who thinks he’s doing well in the presentation when all the attendees are checking their smart phones, chatting or sleeping.
• Some are difficult because they are so worried about offending others that they are amorphous, it is hard to discern the real person inside them. These are so tuned in to feedback that they often overreact to it. They are hard to interact with because anything you say might prove overwhelming to them.
• Some are difficult because they are self-absorbed; it is indeed all about them. The self-absorbed take every difficulty that arises as a personal attack. If a friend is distracted for an unrelated reason, the self-absorbed will take that as evidence of rejection. The self-absorbed will latch on to any sympathetic ear and fill it with a catalogue of injustices done to him.
• Some are difficult because they are unabashedly selfish. These are similar to the self-absorbed, but this self-absorption is intentional. These will do whatever they think they can get away with to get what they want.

I’m sure there are other categories of difficult people but these four come immediately to mind.

Jesus tells in Matthew 5:44 that we are to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. John 13:35 tells us that love is to be the mark that identifies us as Christians. In Ephesians 4:15, Paul tells us we are to speak the truth in love.

Nowhere in my Bible does it give me any indication that this is easy to do, nor does it give any indication that love is optional. I am called to love difficult people, people who often do not want, or struggle to receive that love.

How do we go about this then? I think that the evangelist gives us a clue when he describes Jesus as “full of grace and truth” in John 1:14. In his dealings with mankind, the difficult and the loving, Jesus was both gracious and truthful. He always told the truth but the truth was softened with grace and acceptance.

In our imperfection and based on our personality, we will tend to err on one side or the other. Some of you are more likely to err on the side of truth. “He had it coming to him” may be your motto after imparting a dose of truth to someone who you thought desperately needed it. Others, like me, will try to avoid the difficulty, erring on the side of grace.

Grace without truth leaves the difficult person in his difficulty with no-one to guide him out. Truth without grace often makes the truth-giver feel a little bit better but the lack of grace can impede reception of the truth.

The two combined, grace AND truth, as we see it modelled by Jesus can be used by God to positively impact the difficult person. We love best when it is done with both grace and truth.

Thank you Mark.

Hopefully, this thoughtful post will make us all examine ourselves and see if we are handling the difficult people in our lives with grace and truth.

 

Mark’s original article can be found here…

Grace, Truth and Difficult People

Shalom

Susan