Luke 10:25-37
25 Just then a lawyer stood up to test Jesus.* ‘Teacher,’ he said, ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ 26He said to him, ‘What is written in the law? What do you read there?’ 27He answered, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbour as yourself.’ 28And he said to him, ‘You have given the right answer; do this, and you will live.’
29 But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’ 30Jesus replied, ‘A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead. 31Now by chance a priest was going down that road; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with pity. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, having poured oil and wine on them. Then he put him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two denarii,* gave them to the innkeeper, and said, “Take care of him; and when I come back, I will repay you whatever more you spend.” 36Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?’ 37He said, ‘The one who showed him mercy.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go and do likewise.’
The gospel brought a couple of ideas together for me. First, I had been thinking about Descartes and his dividing the material world from the inner world of reflection. His conclusion, "I think, therefore I am," has led us to believe that certainty lies in our mind and we are thinking beings. Descartes then believes real knowledge is achieved through reason and the science or material world, he leaves to someone else. Thus a divide between the inner private world and the public world. This is where religious people seem to live as well.
So the young religious lawyer (I assume he is young but maybe not), thought to use his mind to test Jesus about the religious law. Jesus' responses to the lawyer's questions point out that the problem is not in how the man thinks, he knows the right answer. The problem is in his engagement with the public world. While the religious leaders are worried, I am presuming, about keeping their religious law, the Samaritan, and by extension Jesus is engaging the real world. I wonder if we have become a religion of fanciful thinkers but our heart is far from the public good. Maybe we need to bring these things together somehow, someway.
