More lost in translation?

Did you try it? Did you just randomly pick a moment, look at who was next to you and asked yourself if you can love that person as much as you love yourself (and we all know how much you love yourself)? It's not easy is it. Nah, it's not easy at all. So, obviously, he must have meant something else ... which brings me back to the story:

Well, in all fairness, the guy who asked Jesus the question in the first place wasn't all excited about the answer either, for his immediate response was "Well, just who is this person whoever is the closest to me at the time?" (See how clunky that sounds in English!) In other words: "Could you be just a bit more specific about whom you actually mean by that?"

And now comes my favorite part of the story. It is my favorite because we see right here why he was considered such a troublemaker. Instead of just running of the list (if there even is one), he decided to tell a little story. Most of us know this story under the title of the "Good Samaritan".

On the surface, it's harmless: one guy gets beat up by robbers, another guy happens along, helps the beat-up guy, gets him shelter and medical care and pays for it all out of his own pocket and then, like the Lone Ranger, goes on his way without waiting for a thank-you. Yes, yes, yes, we've heard it a thousand times. Except, most of us have never really heard it at all. To hear what he was saying, we need to know just a little history:

The guy who was beat up and robbed was a Jew; the guy who took care of him was a Samaritan. The Samaritans were to the Jews of the day much like the Soviets were to the West during the Cold War, or the way too many of us think of the Muslims today; and of course the feelings were mutual. Take your pick: choose the nationality, race, creed, religion ... whatever ... that you despise the most and imagine that's who was robbed and you are the one to help. What do you think about the story now?

The robbed guy just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. He might have even been warned not to be there, but went anyway (in other words, it was his own fault that he got beat up and robbed). It doesn't matter. The guy who helped him just happened to be passing by and found him. He wasn't looking for him; he had absolutely nothing to do with him, except he was the "one who was the closest to him at the time".

So, here's my point: the story is the mirror, and we all have to decide how well each of us is meeting these expectations. If you're feeling a little sheepish at the moment, well, then it's not really all that hard to understand why this troublemaker has got to go ... sooner than later.