A Christmas Meditation
by Al Tizon
A scripture medley: For God so loved the world that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us so that whoever will believe in him will become the daughters and sons of God who were created to do good works in Christ Jesus which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life. Those inclined to read their bibles gravitate to their favorite passages during the holidays. I like all of them!
I do however usually crescendo my readings at Luke 10, which is not your usual Christmas passage. The chapter contains two stories: Jesus’ encounter with a lawyer that prompted the now famous parable of the good Samaritan (vv. 25-37) and Jesus’ visit with Mary and Martha (vv. 38-42). To me, these encounters have everything to do with Christmas, because Christmas is ultimately a love story.
If the beginning point of our meditation is the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor (in answer to the lawyer’s question about eternal life), then Luke’s arrangement of the stories that follow is brilliant. The good Samaritan story is about loving our neighbor, and Jesus’ visit with Mary and Martha is about loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Loving our Neighbor: The Good Samaritan
The parable of the Good Samaritan, first of all, is about compassion, pure and uncomplicated. To love our neighbor is to care for people, especially those who suffer, period. And I emphasize the period because we don’t show compassion as a gateway to something else. We don’t show compassion so that we can evangelize people; we don’t care for the needy so that we can have a grateful, but captive audience to convert. The Samaritan helped the victim of a mugging solely for the welfare of the victim. Period.
But beyond compassion, this parable is also about justice. “And who is my neighbor?” the lawyer persisted. The lawyer’s question was based on selectivity. How far should we take this neighbor thing, Jesus? Who is my neighbor? This question reverberates through time, because in every age there are people who are at odds. In Christian circles today, I hear the question like this: So, Jesus, are the people in the LGBTQ community, even the ones who fill the streets with annual parades, our neighbors? Or how about those on the other side of that line—the gay bashers and haters; are they our neighbors also? How about those Muslim extremists, aren’t they the Number 1 rival of Christianity in the 21st century; those who blow up buildings and airports and schools—are they our neighbors? How about those ult-right, Confederate flag waving, conspiracy-spewing fundamentalists who stormed the Capitol in January? I mean, really God; are they our neighbors? And how about those America-bashing, bleeding-heart, Birkenstock-clad, vegan socialists; are they our neighbors? I hope I offended everyone; please let me know if I left you out!
Or how about just our literal neighbors—the ones who don’t pick up after their dogs; or the really chatty neighbors who talk and talk and don’t let you get on with your day? Are our annoying neighbors our neighbors? In contemporary terms, this is the parable of the Good Transgender or, for some, the Good Muslim, or the Good Atheist. Feel free to fill in the blank with to whomever we think the word “good” doesn’t apply. The all-encompassing, unconditional love of God for everyone is fundamental to the Christian faith; and doing justice, according to theologian Cornel West, is simply what love looks like in public.
Those attentive to the text will notice that Jesus didn’t really answer the question, “Who is my neighbor?” on the lawyer’s terms—namely, in the terms of the right to select. The lawyer wanted criteria from Jesus in order to choose who his neighbors were. But Jesus didn’t answer his question on those terms; instead, he defined a neighbor in terms of God’s justice, that is, as the one who practices God’s love indiscriminately. Jesus’ answer to the lawyer was essentially, “If you want to be a good neighbor, be like this Samaritan.” And by answering it this way, Jesus basically ignored the selectivity question. We should interpret this as not having the right to select; we don’t get to choose who our neighbors are! We get to love everyone, which is at least the beginning of understanding the practice of justice.
The parable of the Good Samaritan is an amazing story that defines loving our neighbor in pure, simple, doable, uncomplicated compassion and radical justice that is based on the indiscriminate love of God. Folks, this is Christianity 101, the whole law summed up: love your neighbor as you would yourself. We can do that, right—love everyone? Truthfully, we have a hard time loving those we’re supposed to love! It’s hard to love everyone, downright impossible, without the love of God flowing through us. That’s what I love about how Lk. 10 ends with Jesus visiting his friends Mary and Martha.
Loving God: Mary and Martha
We know the story. Martha works hard to make the house clean and get the food ready for Jesus, while Mary sits at Jesus’ feet. And Martha… isn’t happy about that. I wouldn’t be either. All this work needs to be done, and Mary’s just sitting there. Jesus, don’t you care that my lazy sister isn’t helping me?
Jesus’ response? Paraphrased: “Martha, Martha, my well-intentioned, good-hearted, but stressed-out servant, you’re worried and distracted by so many things. Relax. Chill. Let’s talk. That’s the real reason for my visit. Spend time with me; that’s what your sister’s doing, and I’m not going to take that away from her.”
Well-intentioned, we put out a lot of energy in the service of the Lord, trying to be a faithful missionary, faithful leader, faithful practitioner of compassion and justice, but in the process, we forget the why of all our activities. And at that point, the Lord gently exhorts us, “[insert your name here], you are worried and distracted by so many things. Get off the wheel. Return to me. Sit at my feet. And thus, find the source of your life AND your mission.”
. . . like Mary, who sat at Jesus’ feet in v. 39. She was communing with her Lord. She was fulfilling the real purpose of his visit. She was celebrating his presence. This is what the Lord Jesus desires of us—that we sit with him, listen to him, laugh with him. Our God, who loves us with unfathomable depth, wants to spend time with us. That’s why he chose to dwell among us.