Luke 10:21-37

     Following the return of the seventy, with all of their success stories, Jesus gave a prayer of great joy, that God had not used the wise and intelligent, but revealed truth to infants.
     In today’s world we laud the wise and intelligent; in Jesus’ time, it would have been no different. It is natural to look for, hope for, and honor those who may have a greater ability or wisdom to deal with the difficult issues that complicate our lives or the times in general. But Jesus is lauding the fact that Jesus didn’t work through these, but those who stood outside the group of those considered to be learned and able. As far as we can tell, the initial followers of Jesus were working men and women. True, the average man in Israel had a better chance of being able to read than in the pagan population, but these followers were not wealthy; they didn’t have the time or resources to devote to extensive study.
     We could wonder, why didn’t God use the scholars, the wise intelligent people who would have been respected for their opinions? And there were surely some of these who believed in Jesus—there are hints here and there that some did believe. But the real power of the movement first came from people who didn’t have those credentials.
     But do the wise depend first upon the foolish truths of God, or upon their abilities? It may depend upon how you define the word. The truly wise will look to God, whether it makes sense to their scholarly minds or not.
     After saying his prayer, Jesus turned to the disciples and said they were blessed because of what they had seen. There had been kings and prophets who had desired it but hadn’t seen what they were seeing, and hadn’t heard what they were hearing. By these words, it would seem that Jesus might not be cutting out anyone in the class of those considered socially more advanced or even learned. Many had hoped for it. The fact that they had hoped for it honors their desire, perhaps even an ability to appreciate it.
       We can speculate widely. We could ask whether God wanted truth to be kept in scholarly circles or to be made accessible to everyone. We could ask whether God wanted a faith of the heart or of the mind only. In the end, we can’t argue with results. The good news came powerfully to people who didn’t filter it through their logic or their scholarly information; it came to people who embraced it and offered the good news to the world.
     Jesus was emphasizing that the moment was at hand. What others in the past had longed for was actually happening.
       But one of the “learned” people in the crowd had to put in his two cents worth. The lawyer stood up to “test” Jesus and ask what he must do to achieve eternal life. Jesus asked in essence for his scholarly mind to bear on the subject. What does the law say?
       The lawyer shared what was central in Jewish religious law. This is the Shema, to love God and to love neighbor. Jesus affirmed the answer and said to do it—this was all that was necessary.
     But the lawyer could not resist arguing the matter. Wanting to “justify” himself, he asked who his neighbor was. This is more than a matter of semantics, although that is an argument often pursued by scholars. On the definition of “neighbor” rests a whole lot of the law. If our neighbor is just the people we like, who look like us or approve of us, the law becomes easy to follow. If our “neighbor” includes people who annoy us, are annoyed by us, or who otherwise don’t like or treat us well, then the ‘golden rule’ is much harder to follow.
      Jesus answered by telling a story. It is one of his best known stories. Even those who don’t know the story have heard and likely used the phrase, “a good Samaritan.” In the end, Jesus asked the lawyer who proved to be a good neighbor to the proper Jewish individual, and the lawyer had to admit it was the despised Samaritan rather than the good and proper priest and Levite. Jesus showed more interest in how neighborly a person was than in narrowly defining to whom we should act neighborly.

Does your logic or learning ever clash with your faith?
How do you see the place of logic and scholarship in the world of faith today?