NOTES for Luk 10:25-42
These two stories must again overturn our ideas of "what is good and what is bad." Both of these stories are about serving people. Jesus tells a parable, and then, in the house of His acquaintances, He Himself ends up at the heart of the parable. For the first listeners of the parable about the wounded man and the Samaritan, perhaps the most shocking point was the person of the Samaritan: in the view of observant Jews, Samaritans were heretics and half-pagans, yet he turned out to be the nearest and most important person for the unfortunate man whom the priest and the Levite did not pity. But if you are used to the thought that all people are equal before God, or at the very least before the law, does the thought not shock you that the person dearest to us turns out to be not the one who helped us, but the one whom we helped?
If you love helping people, then the story of Martha and Mary is for you. Jesus saw more love in listening to Him than in preparing dinner for Him. But do not many others, for whom personal attention is far more important than even the most self-sacrificing service performed somewhere off to the side, think the same way?